Escape

Chapter 22

"Alright, be ready. Three... Two... One... FIRE!"

A round of shots echoed in the wide shooting arena as we completed our daily routine. It was approaching dusk, as our feet ached from the rigorous sessions, tasks and training. Noah was the last one to complete his round. We stood at the back waiting for him to complete so we could walk together towards our rooms.

"What do you think is Maria's plan?" Michael mumbled. That question loomed all over us for the past twenty-four hours. The conversation of yesterday rotating in our heads, trying to understand the complexity, figure out if we were doing the correct thing of trusting her. Of course, we did not give her full control. The organisation had our back, but it was Maria that we were talking about. It's the only choice we had.

Brian shook his head and exhaled a long breath while he eased down on the bench. His figure tired, losing hope. We all were. We felt lost. We don't know what we were doing, everything appeared unclear. Hazy. Like a maze, we know what we wanted, but we don't know if we took the right path.

"Alright, you can go," Our trainer said to Noah. Handing over the gun, he took off his headphones and placed it on the rack. Picking up a water bottle he started to walk towards us. His eyes sunken, hair tousled. None of us returned back the same after what happened in the hotel. We couldn't sleep last night, we couldn't eat. We were frightened. Scared.

Noah walked towards us and nodded his head, without stopping he started walking towards our rooms building. Brian got up and we started following him.

Each one was quiet, lost in our own thoughts. The cold wind caressed our skin, cooling us down after an exhausting day. I pulled down my hair tie, my scalp ached from the tight pull of my hair. I closed my eyes for a second massaging my neck, feeling the air tickling my face. I sighed and opened my eyes.

"Everything is going to be fine," Brian whispered. I looked at him. And I knew. I knew he did not believe what he just said. Not a word of it.

I looked down at my feet, my heart was heavy with emotions but I held it together. Nodding my head I looked up at him and smiled. He smiled back at me, but his eyes were devoid of emotions.

Reaching the main block that led us to our rooms, we saw what we did not usually saw at this hour. There was some sort of commotion. Everyone was heading out to the contrast of people walking inside.

"What is going on?" Noah said as he was the first one to enter the building.

We all gathered next to him before we started walking in the direction that all of were walking towards.

Our heart started beating faster, as we neared towards the entrance where a large crowd was gathered, looking somewhere outside. The whole area buzzed with people talking about something that was not comprehensible. We started inching towards the centre, scooting between a mass of people trying to make our way.

But we were not prepared what we saw past the mass of people.

Beyond our secured gates, we saw men. Armed men. With none other than Maria in the middle.

We all were shocked and confused. Blood drained from our faces as we saw the scene in front of our eyes. Nothing made sense. We were unarmed, not prepared. Nothing could prepare us for this.

Brian switched in command. His posture changing, quickly recovering. He signalled the guard nearest to us to increase the guards in the area. Quickly heading back he disappeared among the crowd.

"We should get all the people head back to building," I yelled above the chatter of people around us.

Michael and Noah agreed, and we started to send people back. Few other people started helping us to control and send the crowd back to safety.