Autonomy teaser #2

This is subject to change...

I press my body against one of the post and I position myself so I will not fall off and I feel myself sliding into a relaxed position. I know that I am falling asleep, but I am too exhausted to care. I wake with a sudden sense of panic as I hear whispered sentences from all sides of me. My eyes shoot open and I am lying on my back in the middle of the statue with my feet dangling over the edge. I hear the crack of a laugh and I feel my body go ridged as I feel a presence at my side. I snap my head over and see a man smiling down to me. In the midnight sky I cannot manage to make out his eyes but they look like two black gaping holes in his head. He smiles to me and I can tell by the smell of his breath that his teeth are decayed and that his gums probably swell up over his teeth. As quick as I can make my movements I reach up with my left hand reaching over my body grabbing a hold of his stringy, dirty hair and slam his head into the statue I imagine that when his skull slides down the statue there will be a giant crack in it. But there’s not. I see the man lifelessly slide down and crump up onto the ground. I sit up suddenly and notice that I am indeed surrounded, Nomads are on all sides of me and there is not a single escape route. Sure, I could jump and make a run for camp taking a few out on my way, but I know that would do nothing but lead my camp into an ambush... which is most likely what they want. I survey the group surrounding me and know that there has to be at least 40 men… grown men… standing around me.

“You know that I could kill you all” I calmly state. Do not show any sort of fear I tell myself.

“I’m sure that you could take down a few of us… but all. Come on now.” One of the men that I cannot see says to me. “All of us,” And everyone in the circle around me starts to laugh. For the first time in my life I feel like I am out of my league and that I am outnumbered, but I know that my choices are: run to camp killing a few on the way, Fight them all and hope that somehow I manage to win, or give in and let them kill me. I’m not sure why but I know that I cannot go down without a fight. I jump down from the middle of the statue that I had fallen asleep in and land squarely on my feet. The first man in front of me jumps in my direction and I block his punch grabbing hold of his wrist and kicking him in the chest, the first rule to fighting that I learned is not to be the one who throws the first punch, but yet expect what they are going to do and react to that. I kick his chest with all the force in my body to he falls backwards the whole time trying to regain his footing until he falls taking down the two other men that were behind him.

A second man charges at me from my left and I jump backwards out of his way while he knocks out the men to my right. I know that it’s only a matter of time before they overtake me. One man comes up to me from behind and I can sense his presence before I know that he is there. I slouch over just enough to give him running enough momentum to throw him off of my back and onto the ground in front of me. I stomp on his face with all my force breaking his nose. I hope jabbing into his brain. He doesn’t move off of the ground and I hope that I had conquered what I was hoping for.

I feel a hand on my forearm and try to manage to wiggle myself free but I cannot move it. The clamp of the hand is so tight that I can feel the blood cells bursting and forming a bruise from where he is holding me. I take a deep breath trying to remain myself from crying out in pain. I feel my elbow pop out of joint and I cringe in pain as I pull my body around to look at the man. He is just as dirty as all the other Nomads that I have seen. I sigh as I see into his eyes. His eyes are hazed over. I’m not sure what from. I wonder if it is true what they say that if you eat humans it will drive you insane. It takes one look at the man standing in front of me to confirm this theory.

As I try to fight off my attacker I feel my other arm snatched back when I am trying to draw back to hit him. I gasp and look over I am not trapped and I am standing between two men who I have no doubt in my mind want to eat me. I sigh and let my body go limp. I am captured and there is no point in trying to fight them.

“Oh, what no more fight?” one of the men says to me. “I like my dinner with a little kick.” I want to cry out for help but as far away from camp that I am I know it will be no good. I want to cry out for Ryker’s help. I look up to the man and shake my head. No, I don’t have any more fight.  And he roars with laughter. “Well now, let’s go,” He says snatching me by the arm again and I wince with even more pain as he pulls my elbow further from its home. “Larry was really looking forward to you,” he screeches at me, “You will be in his honor.” He tells me again and the crowd around us roars with laughter.

“You’re scum you know that… all of you.” I scream at them, and before I even see one of their hands pull back I feel the pain shooting through my body and my eyes roll into the back of my head.

I wake in a room that is dark. I am guessing that it’s almost dawn because I can see a sliver of light coming through a tiny window in the top of the wall. I pick my head up off of the floor and survey the room. There is a window at the very top of the wall, on the opposite side of the room, not even big enough to put my hand through. The floor is concrete, and the walls are made of brick. For a moment I wonder how they managed to get this place. The door is heavy and seems to be made out of some sort of metal its cold to the touch. I take a deep breath and look to my left where a mattress, a pillow, and a blanket lay.  I wonder if anyone has ever used it before… and how many… and if so, how many lived. I wonder if Abby stayed in this exact same room. I feel my heartbeat in my eye and notice now that I cannot open it all the way. I sigh and let myself drift into a deep sleep. Surely they know by now that I am missing, but I haven’t been with them for long. Will they want to come and find me? I let my hand slide down to my pocket in my jeans and graze over the necklace that sits inside of it. I sigh when I feel its presence. I remove it looking to it, I clasp it into my fist as I raise it to my hand and I say to it… “Please, help me make it out of here.” I’m not really sure but this manages to give me hope.

My ears perk and wake me up when I hear the sound of a key in the metal door, and I scramble to push the necklace back into my pocket. I feel my body tense and I push myself into the corner of the wall.

“Well, you be awake” I hear a snide voice say as he sees me. I do not open my mouth I just stare back at his intense stare. Do not show them any sort of fear I tell myself it’s the first rule that we learn in school about fighting.  He laughs and looks back to me “Where did you learn to fight like that?” he asks sitting down on the bed. Him being so close to me makes me extremely uncomfortable, “You took on three grown men at once and then killed one of our men, broke another one’s hand, and killed another man last night. You can’t be from that little group. None of them are that strong, well except for one of the guys out there. Where are you from?” I sit quietly. I had heard somewhere before that a traitor for the Autonomy was worth more to them than the ones that opposed them. “You were with them,” he says to me. I know by them he means the Autonomy so I continue to hold my glare on him as he roars with laughter. “Well this day just got better,” he says smiling and slamming the door. I exhale and then know that they have figured out that I am from the Autonomy and that when they come for me that they will kill me, but if I’m going to die either way at least this way I will still remain intact and I will not be consumed as food.

I sit in my cell block slowly realizing that I was sitting in a prison. After the man leaves me in my room alone I manage to pull myself up the wall until I am looking out the window. There’s nothing to see except a large open field of grass. I can’t even make anything out past it. Would it matter if I could get out would I be able to find my way back to the camp? Would I be able to get through that field without anyone noticing me?

I sigh deeply letting myself fall back down to the floor and then walk over to the bed and slouch onto it. I look to my side and that’s when I see the carvings. I press my face closer to them as I see twelve little slash marks representing each day; each day that the person was in here. I run my fingers overtop of them as I feel my fingers indent one more time. I look closer as I see the small “A” written on the wall. I knew that Abby sat right where I did and carved these into the wall. I wonder with what? They kept her alive for two weeks and then decided to kill her. It makes me sick to think about it. I wonder why they kept her alive that long.

I lay myself down onto the mattress and try to think of how I am going to get out of here… alive.

Even though I am dreaming I know that I am having the same dream as before. I am standing on top of the central building for the autonomy. I am looking over the city and for the first time in my life I finally feel safe. I see the city sitting under me and I smile to myself. I feel a hand on my shoulder and I know that I will turn around to see those eyes. Those eyes that I have grown to know. I smile as I feel the hand slid up my arm and to my shoulder as I slowly turn around I look for those eyes. I smile to him as I look up into those eyes. Only this time, unlike the rest, when I pull back to look to him I see the rest of his face. “Ryker,” I gasp. “What are we doing out here?”

“Shh, enjoy it. We won’t be able to for much longer” My eyes flutter open and I can only hope to find Ryker sitting next to me or to find myself sitting anywhere besides the prison that I am currently in.

I sit in my cell that day trying to get an idea of what I could do to get out of here. I walk over to the door and shake it… it doesn’t budge. “Shit” I state and kick as hard as I can. Feeling my toes slam into the door I wince and sit back down on the bed. I pull off my boot and toss it over to the other side of the room. I rub my toes to try to dull the pain and it subsides. I lean back onto my elbows and look up at the ceiling and I feel myself excepting the fact that I am most likely going to die in this combine. I sit back up and try to get comfortable by pulling off my other boot. I toss my left boot across the room and lay back onto my back all within one motion. The heavy boot hits the wall and then falls to the ground. I hear a ting as in metal hitting the ground where the boot fell… My eyes flutter open with recognition…. The knife, I put into my boot before the nomads came for the fight. I smack myself in the head and feel anger in myself for forgetting. How could I forget that it was in there when they tried to jump me in the square?

I pull myself up off the bed and hurry across the room pulling for my boots again and pulling them onto my feet quickly so it doesn’t look like I have done anything at all. I snatch the knife up and tuck it into my pants. I need it to be at my reach within a second. I cannot tempt to put it into my boot again. I am lying back down on the bed and hope that they come back soon. I need to get out of here… quickly. Before they get a hold of the Autonomy and have them on their way here to come and find me… and if they have already gone to them claiming that I am here, it isn’t safe for the group to be here anymore.

Hope you like it!! 

Hope everyone has a magical day and do something to make someone else smile!