Heiress in Distress

•Chapter 36•

• Word Count: 1,500

Armin points at the ceiling beams above us, "there,"
He runs towards the stacked crates and begins climbing them, "we hide there until we get some help"

My head spins with the possibility of being gunned down at 19, but I still feel my feet carrying me behind Armin, eyes constantly over our shoulders.

We climb very quietly, sweaty palms make swinging over the poles to the beam a Sisyphean task. By the time the sounds of heavy footsteps bubble down to stealthy steps, Armin and I are above, watching their silent filing into the warehouse.

God there's so many of them and only two of us.

They're pouring under us in unbelievable numbers.

An especially plough man comes forward, taking his sunglasses off, "I want this boy and whoever is helping him brought down, now"

Armin clenches his fist in response.

"Search the whole parameter" the man instructs.

Some of the men disperse and the rest remain nearby, poised, ready to trap and inflict pain on their prey.

I nudge Armin, "what's the plan now?"

"Stay alive"

I blink at him. Stay alive, he says.

I'm done with this boy; I'm calling for help. It won't be long until one of them looks up and sees us.

C'mon Aurick please. You're our only hope now.
I patiently wait for a response from Aurick but I get none. It then hits me that I haven't even told him where we are.

I retrieve my phone again, ready to send him our location, but my sweaty palms fail me and my phone slips from my hand. I quickly reach down for it but it's too late, gravity is a lot faster than me.

We watch the phone plummet down, in an excruciatingly slow motion,

"No!" we whisper in horror.

The phone lands in a series of exactly three loud cracks before going silent. Everything goes silent as the men, in succession, look up at the two of us.

We both freeze, blanching.

Very slowly, one by one, the men aim their weapons at us. I gulp.

Armin sits back, dangling his legs, "You do realize if you kills us, you loose that USB, right?"

My heart pounds more rapidly. Has he lost his mind? Taunting an army of fully armed men won't help us in any way.

The man, Theron, chuckles softly, his shoulders shaking in the process, before he shakes his head.

He tucks his hands in his pants' pockets, "Get down before you two kids hurt yourselves,"

I'm frozen to my spot, crouched on the beam, unable to move a joint.

Armin, on the other hand, pushes himself off, and leaps to the ground, landing in a kneeled position before standing. He dusts his pants first, and then dusts his hands.

He then stands tall and puts both his hands on his waist.

The man scoffs at Armin's show of defiance and then motions with his head for one of the men.

A man lifts his foot and shoves Armin on the back, sending him to the ground, face and palms first.

What happens next is too fast for me to even process; in a second Armin is on his feet, aiming the gun he had towards Theron's head.
The next second someone sneaks on him from behind and disarms him.
The third second, a sound of a gun going off has me flinching, almost falling off the beam.