A Time To Rise

Chapter 10

The bushes behind us break apart and 20 soldiers spring out, attempting to surrounding us from behind. We keep running towards the sound dodging the trees that provide cover for us.

"Jake, this is bad, we are in a small clearing."

I look around. Oh no. This is a bad place to be. Nothing to duck behind if guns are fired. Absolutely nothing. We are doomed. A loud snap rings through the air and I jump out of my skin. Zane touches my arm.

"It's the sound box, " he says in a whisper."

"And how do you kn................" I start but the words stop forming as Zane extends his hand and points to a small grey box. The sound box.

"It has a speaker that can emit sound up to 3km away. Built for diversion and full of pre-recorded sounds for traps. Military equipment 101. Classification: Diversion class 5."

Oh. This is bad. I start to run with Zane close behind me. I can hear the soldiers on our heels, coming closer and closer. I hear heavy breathing on the back of my neck. Catherine. I set her down and we keep running. A whizzing noise fills the air accompanied by a short snap. I glance over my shoulder and see Zane on the ground. Perfect. Another mysterious whizzing sound fills the air and with a loud snap, my legs become bound together and my stomach hits the ground. Ouch. I definitely have to work on that.

"Run Catherine run!!!!" I feel a hard surface collide with my skull and the world rocks before me, churning my stomach and adding intense pain to my head. Through all the haziness, I can think I can make out Catherine. I wince as she falls flat on her face and a soldier flings her over his shoulder on his way back to the clearing. I feel my body being lifted of the ground as my vision darkens for a brief moment. When the world makes it reappearance, I see many soldiers walking in sync from where I am hanging off some random guy's shoulder. With a thud, I am dropped on the ground on my side next to Zane at the same time as Catherine is thrown down.

The pacing that this guy is doing is driving me insane. Back and forth, back and forth. It is like waiting for a death sentence. The guard stops pacing and steps back as who appears to be an admiral walks up to us. He turns to address me.

"You have been charged with treason, murder, vandalism, breaking the law of going out after dark, which may I remind you, is put there for your own protection."

"That's not true! I didn't do any of those things!" I say. Well, I only broke one but that won't do me any good to admit that now.

"You are to be taken to Shurungila, The Captial." The captain turns to Catherine. "You will be taken back to your home."

What is that suppose to mean. Her parents are dead. I look at Catherine. There is no expression betrayed on her face, at all. She opens her mouth.

"I don't belong to you and I most certainly don't have a home anymore."

"You will be taken back to Shurungila."

"No!" Catherine screams at him. "I will never go back." She shifts her weight slightly as if she was going to stand up. I see something out of the corner of me eye. A soldier.

"Catherine, don't do anything stupid," I whisper hoarsely into her ear. Either she didn't her me or she doesn't care as she stands up and whispers something to the Admiral who steps back and kicks her in the stomach, sending her to the ground groaning in pain. He turns his attention to Zane.

"You were one us, how could you betray us like that? After all this government has given y0u, you throw it all away."

"Throw what away, your physical abuse or your death training because I don't miss either. Good luck finding anything to charge me with."

"You are hereby charged of treason and conspiracy and will be sentenced to death right here, right now." Two soldiers pick up Zane and drag him over to a dead tree log lying on the ground at the edge of the clearing. Some other soldiers haul up the tree branch and position the log over the ground.

"Wait. Take him to the center of the clearing. I want this to be a proper execution."

The admiral's puppets drag the log to the center of the clearing and plunge it into the ground with a deafening crash. They throw Zane into the side of the log and and wind a long, thin wire around his wrists and attach the wire to the top of the log, hanging him like a rag doll. Some special op. soldiers line up 15feet from the log and take aim. The admiral walks up to Zane.

"Any last words?"

"Yeah actually, I lost my shoe!" And with that, Zane spits into the admirals face.

I look around for Zane's shoe, curious for where it got to. My eyes fall upon our pile of weapons sitting on the edge off the clearing, unprotected. Oh well, it isn't like I can get there even though I have my hands free. I tear my eyes away from the heavenly pile and continue my sweep for Zane's boot. I can hear the admiral barking out a list of sins Zane had done and I hurry up. This must mean he is close to counting down the last seconds until his death. Finally! I see the shoe just in front of me. Shouldn't be to hard. I'm a dead man. I glance around to see if any soldiers are looking at me. None, all watching the execution. I bend forward and snatch up the boot. I slide my hand into the boot and feel around for a knife or a hidden pocket to something. The image of Zane pulling a knife from his boot fills my mind. I won't hurt if I'm wrong. I feel around for any holes or handles of a knife. A tag brushes against my fingertips and I grab it. The knife slides soundlessly out of it's hiding whole. I quickly hack at the wire binding my legs together, rubbing the knife back and forth. The wire gives in and falls off my legs. I reach over to Catherine who is still holding her stomach and cut the wires around her legs. The metal bit on the end falls on top of another one with a rather loud clank. Around 200 heads immediately stare in our direction. I am definitely a dead man. If I go down, I go down with a fight. I stand up and peg the shoe at the bark holding Zane's wire and yell "ZANE, YOU FORGOT YOUR SHOE!"