Never Again

Chapter 24

Katie's - POV

I had been assigned a new mission and to my surprise Drew had been told that she was going along with me. I didn't even have to ask. It was a real relief. They must have already been planning on sending her with me to try and slow down the mission compared to the 'failure' of last time.

Since that night where I had seen Drew getting abused, she had been more quiet, more reserved and didn't seem at all close to her normal self. She kept reminding me to take my time in the mission so I could get a better feel for how it was out in the field. That definitely couldn't have all been from the beating she got. I knew she was tough and wouldn't be that bothered by it because when comparing her personal saftely and others, she'd always pick the other.

They must have said something about me, how they were going to hurt me if I completed the mission too quickly, or something along those lines. Each time she would bring it up I would make sure to reassure her that I would be fine and that if I ever went running off too far ahead in the mission she'd always be there to stop me.

This always seemed to give her more confidence and it came across like a sense of relief, which only further supported my theory.

When we knew that we were leaving, it made me realise that I had to finally tell Drew that I had been planning to escape on this mission.

It was finally that time.

Surprisingly, I didn't feel nervous at all. In fact, these days I didn't feel too much, apart from contempt towards the people running this torturous 'academy' as they like to call it.

"Drew," I said slowly. "I have something to tell you."

"What is it?" she asked, distracted by the book that she was reading.

"I'm planning on getting out of here and escaping and I want you to come with me." I said it clearly but quietly. You never knew when people were around as everyone moved silently.

Drew froze and looked up at me horrified. She glanced towards the door before quickly rushing over to me.

"Don't say those kind of things," She hissed at me, putting a hand over my mouth. "You do know what kind of trouble you would get into if anyone heard you, right?"

I slowly nodded and then pried her hand off my face, giving her a serious look.

"I know what they can do and I know what they capable of," I said confidently. " And that is the exact reason that I want to leave this god forsaken place and go somewhere else. Maybe even take this place down when we're free in the future."

She stared at me wide eyed, not believing me and how I could have so much confidence. I didn't really understand it either but it was a sudden transformation that happened, firstly after my first mission and was completed after I saw what they did to Drew.

"I've got a lot of it pla-"

"No," Drew said flatly. "No way in hell an I going to allow the only person  that I know in here get hurt or killed."

"Listen!" I said grabbing her by the wrists. "I've been planning this for a few weeks, since I came back from my first mission actually, and I've had a lot of time to decide whether I could pull this off or not and I've come to the conclusion that yes, I can do it. I could do it alone but I know that I'll be much happier and it'll be a lot easier to do together with you."

We sat there staring at each other, neither wanting to be the first one to move. The spell was broken when the sound of the alarm when off, reminding everyone that it was time for lunch.

"We will talk about this afterwards, okay?" I said, making her look at me.

"Okay." She said, seemingly resigned for the talk later that day.

                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lunch was as uneventful as always. After the first few weeks and the first few examples of what happened if they didn't sit quietly and eat, no one tried anything anymore. They all just sat quietly until it was time to go back to their rooms.

I thought that I might have sympathy for leaving these people behind but I really don't care as none of them meant anything to me and I didn't personally know any of them. They all left me alone and never interacted with me either. Well, the nice ones at least did.

People were very hostile to me at lunch time or in the hallways but they never did anything about it. Which is lucky for them because the punishment they'd get for damaging one of their fellow associates would be severe and ruthless.

By the time Drew and I got back to my room I had a clear train of thought on what I wanted to say to her to get her to come with me and escape together.

But before I could start she turned to me and said the words that brought about a massive shock.

"I'll come with you."

My argument died before it left my mouth. I didn't even have to plead my case like I thought I was going to have to. In fact, I didn't even end up having to do any sort of convincing.

"Really?" I asked, still very surprised and curious. "What made you change your mind?"

"I've had enough of it here. Constantly worrying over whether or not you're going to be hurt, if i'm going to be taken out so I can't protect you," She looked determined now. " If you decide to escape in the future without me anyway I would never be able to be there for you again."

I reached towards her and gave her a hug.

"Thank you."

She hugged me back and then we both pulled away. It looked like it was now business time.

"We're only going to have one shot at this because the security that they'll put up after this will stop anyone escaping from here ever again. So the plan has to be perfect." Drew said.

"We've got an amazing opportunity on our next mission," I said, "Is there any sort of tracker that they put on us when we are there?"

"No, they trust that they've beaten all the fight out of the older ones, the ones who have been here longer." As she mentioned this it looked like she was getting more and more confident, convincing herself that we could pull this off. "They let us control the missions fully and do what we please so, although," Drew paused, "We're going to have to find some way to stay off the radar. Go some place that they would never think to look for us."

"I know a place." It had suddenly clicked. A place that they wouldn't check. The last place that they'd assume I would go to. Where it all began. "My home."