Beyond

Raven

By the time the room stopped moving, we were all sitting on the floor trying not to fall and hurt ourselves or others. The cards had fallen off of the table and the chairs had slid around. Theo grabbed a hold of two while Skylar had the other one.

"Is everyone alright?" I asked. "Talk to me people. Annie?"

"Good," Annie answered.

"Skylar and I are good," Theo told me.

"Ace? Olivia?" I asked

"We are all fine," Olivia said.

"Just tossed around." Skylar got to her feet.

"Like salad," Ace added.

"Not the time for you to get mad at us," Annie told him

"Sorry." he apologized. The rest of us started cleaning up what the movement had done to our room.

"Ok, I am not wearing these heels anymore." Olivia peeled them off and set them on the table.

"I second that," Skylar added.

A loud noise came from above. Like something fell on top of the shipping container, loud enough to dent the ceiling. My muscles tightened as I tried to stop myself from shifting out of fright. The noise repeated around us slowly fading away on my right side. As the noise officially stopped the woman came back to the door. She carefully pushed the door, trying to make as little noise as possible.

The woman explained that we were to follow her in a single file line. We were not to talk. We nodded and followed her. As we walked through the maze again, I noticed the setup was different than it was when we came in. Annie mentioned the sea smell again. She said it was stronger now. The woman stopped suddenly.

"Hey Six." a new voice said. "Are these the new shipment?"

"Uh... Yeah, I am just taking them for new clothes," Six explained.

"Yeah, I can not imagine the results created would be accurate in those clothes." The voice said. I still could not see around everyone. We continued. Now in a hallway long and narrow.

"Just through that door." Six told us pointing at the end of the hall.

"Six! Good, I was just needing you. What are you doing with the new shipment?" I heard Ryan say. "You know what would happen if she were to find out? She would have our heads."

"Do not worry I am just taking them for a change of clothes." Six told him.

"Change of clothes? We do not have any clothing on this trip. And even if we did they would be in a cube on deck." Ryan told her.

"Oh really? I would have sworn we had some top-level. You know through those doors and up the stairs." Six told him. We all knew who she was talking to and it was not Ryan. All at once. As if on the count of three. We burst through the door and ran up the nearest staircase. I slammed open the door at the top and stumbled to a stop. All of my senses got thrown off. The salt in the air block my nose, the wind rushes through my hair and ears, not allowing me to hear, it was black dark out but the moon reflected off the water.

"We are on a boat," I exclaim.

"And we are not alone. Look!" Ace pointed down the outer walkway. Multiple men with guns, hopefully, non-lethal, came running at us.

"And this way," Theo said looking the opposite way.

"Back down the stairwell?" Olivia asked.

"No," I tell her, "Forward."

"What," everyone yelled.

"Jump!" I pushed Ace and Annie forward and followed them.

We fell at least two floors before hitting the water. Ace and Annie swam fine and I pointed them towards the land I saw from the bird's view. Olivia nearly fell on me as I went up to check on them. It seemed Theo was scared to jump and Skylar was not able to push him over the railing. The people with the guns caught them. I lowered to help but Theo saw me and shook his head. I returned to the three in the water. (1/29/19)