A Perfect World

Chapter 10

After the brief rundown of our plan from my brothers, we separate into two groups. One group consists of me, Matt, Dan, and Meg, and the other group is made up by the rest of our gang, Claire, Ty, Jack, and Jaydia. The basic plan is to start two fights, one in the cafeteria, and one in the gym, by Claire’s group and my group respectively. Emory will take our group to solitary, likely with a few other guards, and Emma will take Matt’s group, also likely with some help. We’ll stay there until Emory and Emma have smuggled our belongings out and come to get us, then we’ll meet up with a couple escape vehicles while the other guards are off responding to a false alarm on the south-side of the compound, and they’ll get us out of here. After that, we’ll just play it by ear, I guess. Jack never explained that, but I trust him. I think. He can be reckless sometimes, but it’s always with good intentions.

Anyway, I follow Matt down the hall to the gym where we run into Markus.

“Evening, Princess-” He starts before I punch him in the nose, causing him to stumble backward, and instinctively moving his hands up to his face. He moves them away for a second, and I can see that they come away covered in blood.

“Oh, so now you’re putting up a fight. Where were you at 6:30, darling?”

“Get lost, Markus,” I say, a satisfied smirk tugging at my cheeks, and shifting behind Matt a bit more.

“So you’re not so brave, are you?” He says, blood running down his face, “Nico, Ash, Connor, we’ve got a fight now.” He calls to his friends, with a smile.

“Oh, you picked the wrong girl to mess with, Markus,” Matt says, glaring at him and his friends.

“Oh? And who might you be? Her boyfriend?” A boy with sandy-colored hair taunts.

“Oh no, that would be him,” Matt retaliates, pointing at Dan and causing both of us to blush bright red. I can tell it’s a joke, Matt has a reputation for cracking jokes at inappropriate times. He continues, “But either way, you’re probably lucky Claire isn’t here. I’ll let you off easier than she would,” Markus and his gang turn pale at the sound of Claire’s name.

“Oh, so you do know my sister,” I say, coming up with an idea, “Why don’t we have our fight now since I missed it?”

 Markus smiles, his teeth stained red with blood, at my offer, “Just us. Nobody else can touch either one of us.”

“Deal,” I say, shaking his outstretched hand. For a second, it’s almost silent and perfectly still, time slows as I jerk my hand to my chest, setting Markus off balance and knocking his feet out from under him with my foot. His friends immediately rush towards me, but the rest of my group intercepts them, setting our plan up perfectly.

In my moment of distraction, Markus had pulled himself back up and knocked me backward, into a wall, where my head smacks against the cement hard. Spots and start dance in my sight and I can feel his arm tight against my throat, cutting off my airways. For a moment, I panic, unable to think, see, or breath, when suddenly, I stumble forward and feel my hands hit the ground hard. I take a second to regain my abilities, then glance to my right where Markus and Dan are wrestling. I hear Markus mutter something about breaking the rules, and how he’s gonna kill Dan, but I don’t hear the rest of it since I’ve already snatched a partially-open pocket knife off the ground and come between the two boys, a friend on one side, and an enemy on the other.

“This is my fight, leave him out of this,” I say holding the knife in my left hand, the other hand up as a barrier to defend myself. I stand diagonally, facing Markus, but closer to Dan.

“Are you okay?” I say, risking a glance back at him. He nods but doesn’t leave my side.

“I’ll be fine. Go.” I say softly. He hesitates a second longer, before going off to join the main fight.