Salt Pillars

Chapter 23

After they had taken Goofy away, Ryan tried to follow the events by pulling himself up to the window as he had done before, and peering out in short bursts before the endurance in his fingers would give way, and he would have to start again. From what he saw in those limited glimpses, he knew that Goofy was led down the road with the angry mob in toe before they disappeared from his scope of view. However, he could still partially hear the cheers of the crowd, but not clearly enough to discern the words that they spoke.

There was a speech that sounded like a muffled whisper to him. Which was followed by applause and cheering, before something happened and the crowd fell silent. It was an unnerving silence that made Ryan feel ill.

He dropped from the windowsill to sit on the edge of his cot, waiting for some sign from the crowd, but he heard nothing. After a few minutes, the large metal door to his corridor opened once more with the screech of rust.

Ryan readied himself for confrontation — he wasn't just ready, he wanted it. The fight was boiling in his blood, and he paced up and down his cell inviting it to come out.

The person who entered was not one of the guys that he had presumed it to be. It was a younger girl, a freshmen maybe.

"Who are?" Ryan asked.

"I'm Adriana." The girl said, "We don't have much time, they'll be back soon."

"Wait... It's you, isn't it — from the bunker? You're really good with a pair scissors if I remember correctly."

"Ha," Adriana blushed. "I guess so, but seriously we need to find a way for you to get out before they come back."

"So let them come back. I'm ready for them," Ryan said feeling the edge wean from his system. "What's going on out there? What happened to Goofy?" Ryan asked.

"He's dead I think — last I saw they were about to hang him from the courthouse... I used the distraction to sneak in here."

Ryan approached the bars, gripping them with each hand on both sides of his face, he peered through at Adriana, "Adriana, that's your name?" he said and she nodded.

"Adriana, I need you to find Joe Naz... something, I can't remember his last name, but he went on that scouting mission."

"You mean Joe Narzari? Yeah he's not back yet. None of them are."

"What do mean they're not back yet?"

Ryan's mind went to a dark place for moment — a place where only the worst can happen and always does — a place where best friends get stabbed to death and mothers' blistered corpses lay rotting in banks — a place where bullies rape and murder, and classmates hang each other. In this place, he saw Joe lying dead on the side of the road, and Ryan was nowhere in sight when he needed him most.

"They never came back... Joe, Scott, and that girl — Jen."

This last detail sent Ryan over the edge. "Jen was with them! How do you know?"

"I saw her... riding after them. She seemed very determined —"

"Back up a second, what exactly did you see?" He couldn't mask his frustration.

"I saw those two boys ride off together out of town, and not too long after, that girl rode out in their same direction, all inconspicuous like she didn't want anybody to notice, but I noticed. She rode right past me."

"Fuck!" Ryan yelled and hit the bars with his fists. "FUUUCK!" he screamed again in a fit of inconsolable rage. "You've gotta get me out of here now. We have to go find them!"