Faces, Names, and Memories (completed)

Chapter 26 - Escaping

We take our usual seats on Spenzo and Tressa's beds.
Cale looks at me. "Are you okay? You fell pretty hard back there."
"Fine," I reply. "I've done worse."
"Really?" Spenzo asks, looking at me. "You remember getting hurt worse?"
"Yeah, that time I was hanging out with my friends, I took a pretty big spill," I say quietly.
"No wonder you looked so shaken up after that flashback," Deen comments. I nod. We drift into silence for a few seconds, not sure what to talk about, because the only thing on our minds was something the guards couldn't know.
"Do you think Tressa and Zuke are all right?" Tammie asks.
"They're fine," Deen assures her with a look warning her to stop talking.
"I have an idea," Cale says, not-so-quietly. I swallow, this part I liked the least while we were planning and I like it even less now, but we all agreed that this was necessary to keep the guard's focus on us instead of on Zuke and Tressa.
"What's the idea?" Deen wants to know.
"Let's force the guards to tell us about Tressa and Zuke," Cale says, lowering his voice low enough so that only a guard with his ear pressed entirely against the door could make out what he said, unless he had enhanced hearing, which - now that I think about it - isn't unlikely. If their whole physical form is mutated, its reasonable to assume that their senses and mind have mutated as well.
"Are you crazy?" Kinnie cries. "That's a great idea if you're trying to get killed!"
"I'm with Cale on this one, they don't tell us anything," Deen says.
"No," I shake my head.
"Maybe its not such a bad idea. We need the truth about what's going on, not just about Zuke and Tressa. But, about all the early graduating lately. It's mucho weird." Spenzo says.
"Guys, that guard will crush you," Tammie pleads.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Tammie," Deen replies.
"There are three of us," Cale points out.
"I don't think-" I begin.
"Hey, guard!" Spenzo calls out.
"Oh, brother," Kinnie cries as she backs against the headboard. Tammie and I follow suit.
"What do you need?" The guard asks, but his tone indicates that he had heard everything.
"The truth," Deen says.
The door slides open; the guard steps inside; the door slides shut again.
Since the boys had their backs to me, I couldn't see their expressions, but I bet they're having second thoughts now, just as I am.
"What did you say?" The guard takes a large step towards Deen.
"He said that he wants to know the truth about whats going on down here; we all do," Spenzo says.
"And, what are you planning to do about it?" The guard draws his rod menacingly.
"Get him!" Cale shouts. And all three boys tackle the guard. The guard starts flailing and waving his rod trying to knock the boys off of him, but Cale yanks his rod out of his hand. A few punches land and the three struggle to keep him pinned but finally, panting, they keep him on the ground.
"You boys better let me go! Or you're in for it the next time a guard walks past here!" The guard snarls, struggling to get free again. Deen jabs his elbow into the guard's shoulder-blade and he grunts and lies flat.
"Why are people graduating early," Spenzo demands to know.
"I don't know, I guess we're finally fed up with you rotten invalids," The guard snarls.
Deen punches him in the face and he grunts in response.
"You really think I would tell you, even if I did know?" The guard answers.
"Cale, he's not gonna tell us anything, what do we do?" Spenzo says.
"Here's a thought, get off of me and I won't beat you all in spite," The guard threatens.
"Cale?" Deen looks at Cale.
Cale's whole body seems to be trembling with pent up rage. Currently, he kneels on the guards left arm, but he holds the rod with fists so tight they're shaking with strain. His face is red and he looks at the guard with an expression of pure contempt.
"You," Cale hisses.
"Cale?" Tammie calls tentatively.
Cale let's out an incoherent cry of rage and then he violently starts bludgeoning the guard with the rod. Spenzo and Deen quickly scuttle away and Cale - still locked in his fit of fury - continues to hit the guard.
"You...Monster...You...Killed...Stave!" Cale shouts, punctuating each word with a slam of the rod.
"Oh my god," Tammie breathes in a shaky voice. "That's him. That's the guard that-" Tammie breaks down into gaspy sobs.
"He's going to kill him," Kinnie says passively.
Spenzo and Deen sit staring at Cale, seeming completely frozen. I have to do something.
I get off the bed and creep close enough to Cale that he could hear me but far enough so that he couldn't accidentally whack me.
"Cale!" I cry. He obliviously continues to beat the guard. "Cale stop!"
"No! He killed Stave, he needs to die!" Cale shouts hitting the guard harder.
"Cale if you kill him you're just as bad as them!" I shout back. That stops him mid-swing. He holds the rod in the air, hands quaking with the rage, and anger that he's just let out. He looks at the guard that lay groaning on the floor, covered in bruises. The rod falls out of his hands, and he crumples to the floor, body quaking with silent sobs.
I heave a huge sigh of relief, then lean against the wall and look around the room. Spenzo stares at the guard with wide, wet eyes and tears streaming down his face. Kinnie looks at guard with trembling lips pressed together so tightly they're white lines. Tammie is curled into a ball recklessly sobbing. Deen sits head down with his eyes shut. I put my hand to my face and it feels wet. I'm crying and I hadn't even realized it. There's a loud grunt as the guard pushes himself off the floor. I freeze, watching him. He picks up his rod, whacks Spenzo hard on the shoulder, walks over to Deen, whacks him in the side, then kicks Cale in his ribs and whacks him across his back. All the boys let out a pained groan. I stifle a gasp and look at the guard with wide eyes.
"If you ever try anything like that again you'll get way worse," The gaurd snarls, slamming the door shut and locking it. I look at Deen, who's the closest to me.
"Deen you alright?" I ask.
"Don't worry about me," Deen says, still not lifting his head or opening his eyes. "Help Cale."
I walk over to Cale and kneel down next to him.
"Cale?" I call quietly. He pushes himself into a crouch and doesn't say anything. He takes a few deep shaky breaths, and I see tears drip from his face and onto the floor.
"Come on," I say, putting my arms around Cale's shoulders and helping him to his feet. I walk him over to the bed nearest to us, the one where the still crying Tammie is curled up in, and he gets on to the bed in clear mental and physical agony.
I don't know what to say to comfort him, nor if there's anything I could say, so I don't say anything.
I walk over to Deen and offer my hand to help him up. He looks up at me and opens his eyes. I notice they're red and watery, even though he hadn't let any tears fall. He shakes his head at my hand.
"I think I'll just stay here," Deen says quietly. He leans his head back against the bed-frame and shuts his eyes.
I look across the room and I make eye contact with Spenzo, then go over and sit next to him on the ground.
"Are you okay?" I ask. He has his hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah, great," Spenzo replies shortly, removing his hand from his shoulder only to wipe the tears from his face then tenderly placing it back on the area where the guard hit him. The only sounds in the room are Tammie's sniffles for a few seconds. Then Spenzo looks at me in a way that tells me he's about to ask a prying question.
"In that flashback you had where you got hurt, what were you and your friends doing?" Spenzo asks in a low whisper.
"Trust me, you don't want me to tell you," I whisper back.
"I can say the same about the dream I had last night," Spenzo whispers. "Trade?"
I swallow, then I tell him what we had been doing and what happened. He looks at me looking more nervous than he had even when the guard was posed to beat him. "What was your dream about?"
"It probably doesn't mean anything, but the six of us were walking in the woods, then out of nowhere we got ambushed by BZs. I couldn't see who 'cuz we were all getting tied up but two people got knocked out, and I think Kinnie and Zuke were BZs. I woke up right after that." Spenzo whispers. "I didn't know what to make of it."
"I wouldn't read into either too much," I whisper.
"Yeah, yeah you're right. We're probably just nervous that we're going to get caught. That would explain to terrible feeling I have in my gut that everything's going to go wrong," Spenzo whispers.
"Good, its not just me," I whisper back.
"I'm sure we'll be fine," Spenzo whispers, not sounding nearly as confident as someone trying to assure someone else should.
"Okay," I reply with a nod. After a few seconds of silence I stand up and climb onto the bed next to Kinnie.
"Hey," I greet her.
"Hey." She says back drily. I can tell she still has the skirmish with the guard on her mind.
"How you holding up?" I ask anyway.
"I'm not holding up. If anything I'm holding down," Kinnie answers.
I nod, feeling the same. I lean back against the headboard, and lower my voice to just below a whisper. "How much longer?"
"I have no idea, Tressa has the run of the place up there, but Zuke doesn't, they need to be careful. And, if they rush it they could kill us," Kinnie replies dropping her voice a bit lower than mine. I nod.
Before I can attempt to make more conversation, I suddenly feel really dizzy. Everything tips from side to side and my head feels all foggy.
"What's going on?" I try to ask, but I'm not sure what came out was coherent english. English is a really hard language. So, so hard.
"The bunnies jumped out of the hat," Kinnie says with a laugh, and I laugh too, because I really like bunnies.
"Silly bananas," Spenzo says, laughing. Banana is such a silly word. I laugh harder, and everything starts to spin around me and I get really tired. There's a loud knocking.
"The emperor is here!" Deen cries and he starts laughing too.
Black crowds the edges of my vision. Next thing I know, everything fades to black and I've lost consciousness.