Finding A Way Home

Taken Away

Phoenix tried to budge the door, but the girl was right. Neither of them could get out by doing that. She took the pen and started to try picking the lock, but the other girl interrupted. "Don't you think they would have thought of that? I do not know why they wanted you to come here, but they clearly had a thought out plan."

Phoenix was on the edge of her patience, and this girl was making her mad. "Well, then, since you know so much, who is 'they'? And who are you anyway?"

The other girl thought for a minute for responding. "My name is Emma Cooper, and how would I know who kidnapped me? It's not like I can go right up to one of them and ask them! Do you see any of them in this room?"

Suddenly, they heard a loud beep and machinery moving. The door swung inward, and four armed men burst into the room. Phoenix cursed her stupid luck. Emma immediately shrunk back and held her hands behind her back, like they were still handcuffed. But the armed men did not seem to care about the other girl much. They marched over to where Phoenix was standing and two of them grabbed her arms and lifted her to her feet before starting to drag her out of the room. She started to struggle and yell.

"Hey! Let go! Where are you taking me? Hey! Emma!" Emma looked scared enough that Phoenix almost wanted to forgive her. The soldiers stayed steadfast, and did not let go, or say anything at all.

Phoenix's feet dragged along behind her until she managed to stand upright. She tried to pull hands away from the armed men, but their grips were like steel. She had a feeling that if she stopped walking they would just carry her or drag her along the ground, so she marched along with them, tripping frequently in an effort to keep up.

Then, Phoenix heard a loud alarm blaring throughout all the hallways and the men let go of her. Two of them ran down the side hallway and the others sprinted ahead and into a separate hallway. She was completely baffled, but that did not matter as long as she could get away. She started running as fast as she could, in the opposite direction that the guards had been taking her. She started to hear swift footsteps from behind her.

"Oh, no," she thought. "They remembered about me! I can't let them get me again!"

***

Phoenix ran faster than she had ever run before, all the while never looking back. When she came to a fork in the path, she chose the right corridor and managed to get a glimpse of who was behind her. It was Emma! She slowed to a quick jog, waiting for Emma. But as Emma joined her, she did not slow down or stop to talk about how to get out of the facility. 'But that's ok,' Phoenix thought, 'As long as we can get out of here safely and together.'

They ran down the hallway as fast as they could, with Emma always a little ahead of her. A minute later, she started to hear other footsteps. They were rapid and heavy, and they were definitely catching up to her. The guards! She looked over at Emma, and her eyes were frantic and scared. 

 Unexpectedly, she tripped on a hard object that Phoenix could have mistaken for Emma's foot if she had not known better. She went wildly sprawling through the air. She managed to get a foot and a hand underneath her before she hit the ground. Phoenix heard a sickening crack, and she screamed with agony. Her right arm was bent in an impossible way and hurt like it had been poisoned. Phoenix figured that this was the only thing that was broken, because nothing hurt as much and most of the weight was put on her arm. Emma neither stopped nor looked back as she ran even faster than before.

"Emma!!!" Phoenix yelled, using up almost all of the small portion of energy that she had left.

"Emma..." She whispered this, weakened even further by the betrayal of the girl she had just met.

She curled her body into a small ball, her mind fogged with pain, not wanting to believe anything that was happening to her. As the corners of her vision furled into unconsciousness, she heard and saw the armed men's boots' stomping come to a stop at the sight of her small curled body before rushing to pick her up and shouting some orders.