Hostages

My hand was numb from the amount of times I'd punched the invisible dome surrounding Jamie and I. How much longer did we have to wait in starvation? How did we get out?

And why were we here?

-

Monday, 28th of August, 2014

I woke up to the sound of my phone. Not an alarm, but a call from my friend, Jamie.

As I answer, I whisper "4 AM? Seriously? You're lucky you didn't wake up Satan," Satan, of course, being my younger sister.

"Uh, Chrys, do I have to remind you we have to leave for that Science Camp thing in an hour? You didn't answer my snapchat so I decided to call you."

"Ah, crap, I forgot to set my alarm."

"And I'm guessing you stayed up all night on YouTube."

"And you didn't?"

"Ooh, touché."

"Okay, I'm getting up. Goodbye"

"Selamat tinggal."

"Thanks for reminding me about that Indonesian test tomorrow. Okay, bye"

I hung up, and swung my legs over the side of my bed. Cold. Crap.

An hour later, after packing my car-bag, ensuring that I had packed my bag for three nights correctly, and checking my tumblr (hey, tumblr-checking is essential when you're sixteen years old and obsess over books and bands) I jumped in my mum's car (broom broom) and she drove me to my school to be driven to Sydney so that I could attend a science camp for the gifted. My best friends Jamie and George were coming, along with two other students - Harry and Millie, who were both rich, snobby sissies. Anyone who had some dirt, mud, or, God forbid, animal blood on them was not someone they wanted to be associated with.

Anyway, we were going to be driven to Sydney by our teacher, Mr Daxton, to attend a science camp, and don't even ask me how Harry and Millie got in.

When I arrived, Jamie and Millie were out the front of the school with their suitcases, and they had somehow started an argument.

Jamie was telling Millie "it's not even worth you coming! You're not going to do anything the entire time but complain about the dirt on your shoes or the nail that you broke!"

"It's not my fault I was chosen!"

"You could have decided not to come!"

"Guys, just stop," I said as loudly as possible. "We're hardly going to see Millie and Harry during the camp because they're in different categories." Millie tried to start and argument with me but I just held up a hand and her voice faltered.

Jamie and I sat together while we waited for the other three. Harry was the next to arrive and then Mr Daxton, and then we were all left waiting for George.

"I wish George would hurry up," was the only thing Mr Daxton said. He looked as though he were worried, or under pressure, but surely there was no reason for him to feel like that!

Soon after he said that (ten or fifteen minutes later, I couldn't be sure), George arrived. She was tall, had short blonde hair and blue eyes and was rather intimidating if you didn't know her well enough to know better. She was one of my best friends, along with Jamie. Her parents weren't able to take care of her, due to financial problems (most of these problems were because of the excessive amount of drugs they bought) and she was taken away by Bernardos when she was six and was moved here to live with her mother's cousin. Ten years later, she still preferred to do everything for herself.

After our bags (and my guitar) were packed into a trailer, Mr Daxton read all of our names out to check that all of us were here.

"Sir, is this really necessary?" said George, her impatient personality showing "I mean, there's only five of us."

"It's all for school records, Georgia," said Mr Daxton. At the mention of her real name, George huffed and turned away, fiddling with her wallet.

"Okay, then," said Mr Daxton. "Millicent Pulma?"

"Here."

"Jamie Tenford?"

"Yep."

"Chrystin Mandor?"

"Sure," a remark that earned me a death stare that lasted for a split second.

"Harry Lumen?"

"Yes, sir."

"And Georgia Fidelin?"

"Just George, again."

"Okay, okay, now everyone just get in the car, we have a deadline!"

We piled in to the seven-seater, George, Jamie and I taking the seats in the middle and Millie and Harry taking the seats in the very back, leaving the passenger seat next to Mr Daxton empty.

By the time we got out of town, I had dozed off, my head on Jamie's shoulder.

Little did I know, that when we arrived at our destination, it turned out that we hadn't been headed for Sydney.