The Ivory Tower

Chapter 14: Leaping Into Battle

Being marched down another hallway, surrounded by armed guards, with Aubree and Eliza, really made Naomi think about her life.

Why did I do this? Why didn't we just listen to Aiden? Stupid. What are we going to do now? Where are they? What's going on with everyone in Africa? Are they okay? Why did we go and get ourselves stuck in this mess?

"Move," A guard prodded her in the shoulder when she stopped walking. She had to bite her tongue to keep from saying something stupid that would surely get them killed or something.

She wanted to talk to Eliza, but the last time she'd tried that, they'd gotten told to shut up by the people with the guns, and Naomi didn't really feel like getting shot today.

They walked through the many hallways of the giant building. Naomi was really getting tired of walking by now, and hoped that they'd find a way out of this, preferably before Aiden found out they had left despite his orders.

It was forever before they finally stopped at a set of doors to what looked like a conference room or something. "In." A soldier said. This time Naomi had to give Aubree a look so she wouldn't sass him.

The room they were locked in looked almost like a waiting room of sorts. It was lined with those chairs you see in the waiting room in the doctor's office and two TVs were mounted in each corner. Half of the wall opposite of the door was that weird one-way window stuff that they couldn't see through. Naomi sat in one of the chairs and put her head in her hands.

"What are you even doing here?" Eliza asked.

"We could ask the same for you." Aubree said.

"It's not like it even matters why we're here." Naomi said. "What matters is that we screwed up. Aiden's going to kill us when he finds out."

"We can't be in that much trouble," Aubree said. "I've done worse and I'm still here to continue doing stupid things."

"That's very reassuring," Naomi said.

"We need to figure out how to get out." Aubree said. "There's always a flaw in every plan."

"I'm not leaving." Eliza said.

Naomi gaped. "What, why?"

"They have Micah, and I'm not leaving without him."

"How do you know they have him?" Aubree said.

Eliza paused. "They told me."

"Did they show you they had him?"

"...No..."

It was quiet as the truth became clear.

"I just really miss him." Eliza said, starting to cry. "And I-I just want him back. I want to know that he's safe. I want t-to know that he's not dead."

"Shh, shush," Aubree said, walking over to Eliza and comforting her. "It's okay, it's going to be okay. We'll get out of here and we'll look for him with you. You me and Naomi."

"But what if he is really—"

"He's not."

"But—"

"Just shut up, Eliza, Micah's not dead."

"How do you know?"

"I just do."