The List

The Great Escape Part 1

Hi. Well this is the next chapter and I tried to make it as long as possible. Thank you again for waiting patiently. And well here it is…

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“Well what do we do?” I ask him through the phone.

“Just stay calm, you just need to wait. I think I have an idea, you will need to...” A bunch of yelling and static filled my ears.

“No, no, no. Wait… hello? Oh God...” I start whimpering and crying sliding down the wall of the cell.

I sit there for a good minute or so crying and thinking about what I should do next. I stand up, and the door opens.

“James? Wait what, how can you be…weren’t you?” I begin to question, getting very confused.

“No time for questions. Let’s run.” He grabs me by my elbow and shoves me along with him.

We begin running down the dimly light hallways of the so called ‘underground basement’. The sound of us running away fills the silence of us not talking well, yelling really.

“Stop. Stop. I need a rest, what’s going on James, I need to know. “I say breathlessly.

“No, we need to keep going there is a flight of stairs just there, we need to get going now. “ I give him a look.

“Alright quickly.” He begins once noticing my look. “They are after you; we need you to be safe. This isn’t just a game anymore Zoe. This is real life. You have everything they want. So I suggest we move along now.”  He begins to run.

“What about Maddy, my mum, Zack? What happened to them all, do they just want me?” I ask him in a whisper.

“You need to forget about them. C’mon” He put his hand on my back.

“No, what really happened?” I look up at his eyes. It then when I realise there’s no point. He just looks at me with pity, and sadness.

“So, they’re really dead? Even Maddy?” My voice just loud enough to hear. He then stops looks around, listening around for something. Silence fills the empty hallway.

“I’m sorry, your mum and brother didn’t stand a chance. Well, Maddy she’s still here. I had a talk with her and she said that she wants to find her own way out, to save your life. I tried to talk her out of it but, she just wouldn’t take it. She said that it was all for you. To keep you safe.” He then stops and looks up and around.

I didn’t even get a chance to think about what he said, when he pushed me into the wall.

“Shh. Be very, very quiet.” He whispered, and then looked at me. He moved his head then put his mouth to my ear.

“I’m going to try everything to get you out of here. I promise you that. Now stay here and do not move, I’ll be right back.”

I could hear him running off then up the flight of stairs he was talking about earlier. I just stood there and slid down the rocky and bumpy brick wall. I sat there and waited, and waited. Until I couldn’t take it anymore and went to see where he went.

It was to quiet, someone is here. I slowly walked down the hallway trying not to make a sound with my feet. I stood at the bottom of the stairs only just making out the top. I stopped and listened, I swear I could hear people talking.

I put my foot on the first stair and quietly made my way up. Halfway, I heard shuffling of feet. There has to be someone up there for sure.

I continued go up, until I saw James on the floor in a pool of blood. I ran over to him, “James, c’mon, we have to get out of here. You promised, let’s go.” But he wasn’t responding, how could I not have heard him get beaten up?

He didn’t move at all. I checked his pulse. No pulse. I then put his head back down and stood up and looked down at him. Someone is going to pay for this.

I was on the 2nd level of this underground basement. There were 3 doors around me. 1in front of me and 2 on my sides, and a hallway behind me. Did James know where to go?

I knelt back down beside him and searched through his jacket and pockets. I was searching through one of the pockets when I felt some paper. Yes! I brought it out and unfolded it. It was a map of the entire place. This place was huge. Tunnels going in and out of each other, hallways crossing over one another and lots of rooms. I traced my finger over the paper to where I was.

We were near an exit. I stood up and folded the piece of paper back up and put it in my pocket. That’s when I heard the shouting, it was coming closer and closer until it was right near me. Panicked I jumped over James’ body and into the room in front of me. Closing it behind me, I walked backwards into the very dark room not knowing what was going to happen next.

“Well, well, well. It’s Zoe, right? Do you have something of mine?” Someone in my ear said, I guessed it was a male. They were very close to me. If I were to walk backwards one more step I would have rammed into them. Choosing not to do that I turned around to try and find the source of the voice. It was much harder trying to do that in the dark.

“C’mon I’m not going to hurt you. I just want it back.”

“What are you talking about? Who are you?” I began to question them.

“Enough! Just give it up.” I had my hands out in front of me, trying to find the wall. I swear I was going around in circles. Alright I had to stop. I stopped and listened. I could hear heavy breathing and footsteps coming from in front of me. I took a step to the right. They then took a step to the right as well. So I decided what the best thing to do was just to sit down in a ball. I quietly sat down and tucked myself into a ball.

It was silent. Not a sound. Not even the heavy breathing or footsteps. That had to be good right?

So I untucked myself and started to shuffle back against a wall. I then landed on something not right. I stopped breathing.

“Where’s The List? I know you have it” He said into my ear once again.

I panicked, I had it on me, but I couldn’t give it to him. I had absolutely no idea who he was. So instead I said.

‘Xavier has it. He took it from me.”

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