Trapped

chapter 11

Chapter 11

                 I felt me skin warming as the gang filed in through the window. Each one that came in lined up in front of our group so that we were facing each other. Eventually all the gang members were here and were standing across from us. Conveniently there was one gang member for the each of us. I couldn’t help but think that they had planned for it to go this way.

                 “Hey kids!” said the dirty man that was standing across from me with a sickening grin, “We gonna have ourselves a little scuffle?”

                 “Looks like it.” I growled in response.

              “Sounds good to me.” Said the man, flashing me a disgusting smile that showed way too much teeth. Then he lunged at me.

               I dodged the man and he landed in a crouch behind me. I whipped around and faced him wielding my knife. He bared his ugly rotting teeth at me. I surprised myself by snarling right back at him. I glanced around and saw that all of my other friends were engaged in combat themselves, each one fighting their own foe. My opponent took my temporary distraction to his advantage and lunged at me again. This time his body connected with mine and I toppled to the floor with the man on top of me. He smelled like rotting garbage and I had to resist the urge to gag.

               Garbage man pinned me to the floor with his own body weight. I wriggled beneath him but to no avail. He went to wrap his hands around my throat but I slashed at his hands with my knife before he made it that far. He let out a howl as my knife connected with the palm of his hand and blood oozed out. While he was distracted with his minor wound I went to stabbing at his midsection and to my utter astonishment the knife sunk into the man’s stomach with a distinct squishing sound. He toppled off of me with my knife still lodged in his gut, screaming in pain. I walked over to him as he lay helpless on the ground. I had inflicted a life threatening wound. He would bleed out in minutes.

                When I made it over to the man I knelt down next to him and stared him in the eyes as I grasped the bloody handle of my knife and yanked it out of his gut. I watched as his face twisted in pain. I took the knife and held it against his throat as he stared at me with wide pleading eyes. I felt no remorse. “This is for my friends.” I whispered as I slit his throat.

                I stood up with my bloody knife in hand and surveyed the room. A lot of my group had vanquished their foes but I noticed a few familiar faces among the dead. Pain gripped my heart at our losses. I looked again to make sure none of the dead were Sam, Ari or Seth. None were and I heaved a sigh of relief.

               I glanced around at my comrades that were still locked in combat. I noticed Sam first. He was lying on the ground while a man wielding a knife stood over him and time seemed to slow. I had no way of knowing if Sam was dead or alive. Where I expected to feel grief overwhelming anger filled me and I began to shake as the man knelt down next to my powerless friend. Sam couldn’t die. I wouldn’t let him. I felt the now familiar white hot power building inside me and I funneled it to my hands like I had when we were in the city and I blew Crazy man’s head off. I knew this time without a doubt to raise my hands and point them at the man that was about to lay the killing blow on Sam. Just like I knew it would, the white hot power shot from my hands and connected solidly with the man’s body and he flew almost all the way across the room but I wasn’t done with him yet. I willed the flow of energy to slow just enough so the man wouldn’t die quite yet but he would also stay pinned to the floor. I walked over to the man lying pinned to the floor by my beam of light. He stared up at me with wide eyes full of terror and pain. I crouched down let my power flow thick and free into the man’s chest, and I looked into his eyes at the last moment as the light drained out of him and he died.

                  My beam of light slowed to a trickle then eventually extinguished all together. I stood up and shook my head. What the heck? Had I really just done that? But the severity of what I had just done so mercifully slipped my mind when I remembered Sam. I ran over to his still body and felt for a pulse and I was overwhelmed with relief when I felt Sam’s steady pulse beneath the thin layer of skin on his neck.

                  I set my hand gently on his cheek, glad he was alive. After a few seconds his eyes fluttered open. He seemed panicked at first but I smiled at him and he seemed to relax. He started to say something but his face twisted into a mask of horror before he could. His gaze had focused on something over my shoulder. I started to turn to see what he was staring at but before I could even begin to move white hot pain erupted in my back lower back. I looked down and saw the point of a knife sticking out of me. I had been stabbed. That was the last coherent thought that crossed my mind before the pain took over and I fell sideways onto the floor.

                 I heard Sam scream no but he sounded so far away. Pain. That’s all there was. I saw Sam’s pale face hovering above my own and I wanted to say his name but all I could get out was a wet gurgling sound. If it was even possible, Sam’s face went even whiter. I’m dying. I thought distantly. The world swirled above me and I couldn’t seem to focus on anything.

                Pain sliced through me as someone pulled the knife out of me and I screamed. I felt warm hands press into my wound. I wanted to tell them to leave me alone, that it was too late but the world and my pain began to fade. My pain was almost completely gone by the time unconsciousness or death, I couldn’t tell which, claimed me.