The Final Showdown - The Moon Trilogy - Book 3

Chapter seven:

Clarity groaned as she tried to lift herself out of the uncomfortable position that she was smooshed into, but none of her limbs would move as she wanted them to. It took her a long, long moment to realize that something was wrong. Every muscle felt cramped, and the bloom of pain was throbbing at the nape of her neck.

Then she remembered the events of the night. They'd been captured and tied up. Keeping in mind that she was practically in a human cocoon, she squirmed until she was in a less awful position. Most of her extremities were numb, at this point.

As far as she could tell, nothing much had changed since she'd been knocked out. The guard near the door was still awake, which pretty much canceled any escape plans.

She had no way of telling how long she'd been out, because there were no clocks or windows in the little room, but she had to assume that it had been a while.

She had to hand it to the scavengers, they knew how to tie a very good knot. She could barely move a single muscle without hurting herself.

She eventually tried wriggling so that some of the knots loosened, but as soon as she started, the guard perked up, and she thought it best to stop. She didn't want to suffer another blow to the head, or a bullet, for that matter.

Clarity longed to figure out if Johnny was still awake, or if they'd knocked him out too, but she also didn't want to draw any unwanted attention to herself, so she just sat there, waiting.

It felt like forever before the guard left the room, but he was quickly replaced by another guard, so her hopes were crushed just as soon as they were raised.

She waited some more, which seemed like another forever, but this time, nothing happened. So she waited again. And then another forever after that.

The time passed in a warped fashion, so slow that she wasn't at all sure how long she'd actually been waiting, but she was pretty sure that it was at least a day... or maybe it was only a few hours. She sighed as she settled down to wait again.

She hadn't known she'd been drifting off until she started awake from the loud thud just beside her ear. Johnny was standing over the prone form of the guard, presumably searching for signs of consciousness. His head dipped below her field of view for a moment.

Clarity jumped at the opportunity to stretch her numb limbs and teleported out of the chains.

She took a short moment to stretch and regain feeling in her arms and legs before she went to wake Scarlett so that the three of them could get out.

To her horror, Scarlett wasn't there anymore. The room was tiny, so there wasn't exactly anywhere she could be. And if she was no longer there...

She'd been moved to another room, and that meant they had to find her.

Clarity groaned in frustration, anger, fear, and just about a thousand other things. She didn't want to stay there for another minute. Why'd they have to move Scarlett?

Johnny slowly opened the door, then seemed to think twice, so pushed the door back into place, then he turned to her.

"I need to do something in here really quick, but can you go ahead and check the hall so that we can find Scarlett?" Johnny asked, kneeling over the guard.

"Okay." Clarity agreed, and she stepped over Johnny.

She opened the door, and cautiously stepped out. She felt like she ought to be crossing the street as she stepped into the hallway because she kept glancing both ways. Thankfully, there was no one in sight, but she was still being as careful as possible. She tried to keep her ears open for any sounds of danger as she took each quiet step.