Robin Hood: Out of time
Baxter Academy
The back door was unlocked, just as Josh had said it would be, so opening the door and stepping cautiously into the corridor, I found myself trusting Josh Harrison, former school bully and reformed squad member, a little bit more. I scanned the room, there was no one in sight so I turned to Mark and gave him the thumbs up, he nodded at me and with the tap of a laptop key the CCTV camera's inside the building were shut off. After Mark replaced his laptop in his bag and threw it over his shoulder, I motioned for him and the others to follow me. Noiselessly we crept down the darkened and disserted corridor's of The Baxter Academy's school building, so this was were specially selected teachers brain washed the school's pupils with Baxter's specially selected lies and trained them up to fight as soldiers. We snuck down the corridor wary of the Academy's dormitories, where hundreds of 16-20 year old troops slept, only a few kilometres away, we didn't want to awaken them anytime soon.
We reached the end of the corridor and walked into the main reception and instantly we were reminded of whose school this was, the lavish décor and expensive furnishing would not have looked out of place in the Baxter mansion itself. Luxurious read sofas proved seating for visitors around a small wooden coffee table a good distance from the receptionists desk, potted plants and photo's were dotted around the room tastefully, clearly Baxter wanted to impress visitors with this room, he had certainly splashed out on making it look just right. What was also clear, just from looking around, was that the students defiantly were not permitted in this room, the kind of stuck up guests that obviously waited here would not have appreciated dirty squad trainees walking through here spoiling their view in their dirt splattered P.E uniforms and trekking mud across the polished dark wood flooring. I turned up my nose at the arrogant show of Baxter's wealth and turned back to the other outlaws.
"Are you sure they don't have any other security measures?" Will asked quietly looking around sceptically, I had to admit I had wondered about that earlier, it seemed a little foolish to lock the doors and windows, turn on the CCTV cameras and hope for the best, especially at a place like this. But Mark (who had found a building plan on the internet) and Josh had assured me there were no more security measures, with sleeping squad members near by I suppose they didn't really need it.
"Positive." Mark whispered in reply, he took out the handwritten note Josh had given him with the room number we needed written on it, W015, West building (which was where we were now), basement level, and room number fifteen. Mark consulted the signs, I smiled and shook my head, sometimes my incredibly intelligent friend lacked common sense.
"We need to go down a level Mark." I whispered before motioning towards the staircase behind me, Mark looked down at the piece of paper, back up at the sign and then at the staircase.
"Makes sense." He said and we were soon creeping down the staircase, well we were creeping until John asked.
"You know the names of the kids were ment to be meeting?"
"Yeah" Will replied "Jonathan Tottingham, Elizabeth Jennings and Adam Hawthorne, though Josh said they might bring more people."
Oh I really wish Will hadn't said that name, walking beside me George looked concerned as I flinched, I looked away from him, it was bad enough having this shameful secret without George worrying about what it might be. Ever since that fateful (fateful not faithful, the later was not a word in Adam's dictionary) I had been at Adam's constant bec and call, fetching coffee, posting letters, picking up laundry, and so on and so forth, basically all the trivial stuff Adam didn't want to do had become my responsibility. It made my blood boil that I was practically his slave, I was a strong independent woman and now look what I was reduced to. Though I'd rather this than the alternative, Baxter finding out George was really the Crusader. I hated myself almost (notice the use of the word almost) as much as I hated Adam for letting myself get into this situation, but there was little I could do about it now, anyway I was going to make Adam pay for this, of that I was certain, it was just a matter of how and when.
We reached the bottom of the stairs and I drifted away from George as we carried on down another corridor hoping he wouldn't take it personally; it was just so hard to be around him sometimes, ever since I'd sold my soul. I'd be foolish to believe that this would be it, Adam wouldn't be happy just having me as a personal maid, he had said so himself the last time I saw him, he said I was going to be more than that. I was worried what exactly 'more' was, I had a sneaky suspicion what that might be, especially if what he had said that night was anything to go by, 'soon I wont have anything to be jealous of' isn't that what he'd said, did that mean he wanted to make another go of our failed relationship? I sure hoped not, what with me unable to refuse and all, oh sometimes I had to wonder, why me?
"This is it." Mark announced as we stopped outside the door, sure enough the plaque beside the door read W015. Last month when Baxter had unveiled his brand new Academy, which would benefit Locksdale's youth though good old fashioned army training and some slight field work, we had know we had to shut it down. Its target audience being teenagers fresh out of school the Academy was training up these youths to join the B.A (Baxter's Army, a privet police force used when the real police couldn't get the job done the way Baxter wanted or when he needed someone rubbing out, like the Kennedy sisters the other week) and cause a whole load of trouble for us, it was sick and wrong. Baxter made joining the Academy sound like a day at the fair to the teenagers and a character building experience to their parents, so that the kids would come running to sign up as soon as they had put their pens down upon completion of their GCSE's. Of course it didn't always work like that, some teen's (like Josh for example) we either forced or blackmailed into joining up, threats and brute force were not uncommon parts of the signing up process.
That was why we needed to shut this place down, we figured if we could convince enough kids to leave the Academy and boycott the whole thing (we would provide protection of course, though it would be hard, with surveillance cameras in place at both the Hudson farm-after the sell out incident-and the Kennedy manor-after the attempted murder) then the Academy would run out of students and have to close. After running the idea by Josh he agreed it was the only safe and smart way to do it, he also said he could put us in touch with a couple of his friends from the Academy who wanted out. So here we were, I opened the door and flicked on the lights, in the basement classroom I figured it would be safe.
"Hello?" I asked cautiously fitting my bow with an arrow just in case, the others followed behind me mirroring my actions, you couldn't be too cautious. I received no response so I journeyed further into the classroom; maybe they were being just as cautious.
"Robin, this doesn't look good." George whispered behind me, I had to agree, something here wasn't right, I was getting really bad vibes and my instincts were going crazy, turn around they screamed, I did. It was all I could do to suppress a gasp, oh just perfect.
"You'll want to put that down" Conner instructed nodding towards my bow from his position leaning casually on the wall behind the door "it will do you no good, your surrounded."
As he spoke squad members flooded into the room, a tidal wave of deceiving teenagers descended upon us and before we knew what had hit us all six of us were restrained weapons laying at our feet. Struggling I turned my head and looked out of the window where stood a dozen or so squad members blocking off that rout of escape, I'd say there was about twenty of them in the room with us and who knew how many more beyond the walls, someone had definitely thought this one through..
"Oh dear Hood, you really shouldn't be so trusting, it will be your down fall you know? People have a tendency to betray you." Conner said grinning from ear to ear; finally he had accomplished what Baxter paid him to do, capture me and the other outlaws, and it sure didn't look like we were escaping anytime soon.
"Who was it?!" George demanded angrily but Adam just laughed at him, I knew George was thinking the same thing I and probably the others were as well, Josh?
"Now that would be telling" Conner said "speaking of which, why don't we get rid of those masks and find out who exactly you hooligans are."
"Somehow I don't think so." Jack said voicing the rest of our thoughts, as if we were going to take of our masks ourselves, he was going to have to come and do it himself.
"Really, well then we'll just have to do it by force then aren't we?" Conner said snapping his fingers so that five squad members stepped forward and advanced on the others, Conner headed towards me. Quickly I flashed a look to Jack and George who were restrained at either of my sides, they nodded in response and I turned back to face Conner, one. He lifted both hands to either side of my head and took hold of my masquerade mask, two. I spread apart my legs, bracing myself and checking the location of my bow on the floor, three. Conner made to pull up my mask but making the most of the close proximity I raised my right knee sharply and hit Conner right where it hurts. As he cried out in pain I swung my leg back and in-between the legs of my capture, he let out an 'ooft' sound as my leg collided with his crown jewels. On my left Jack did the same thing, where as George on my right, being a man and all and therefore able to understand the pain, head butted his capture instead. Upon our realise we made a dive for our weapons, while Mark, John and Will took our signal and freed themselves from their captors in similar ways. Immediately we sprang into our battle stations, each of holding a bow, well except John who was brandishing his metal staff, we were going to have to fight our way out of here.
Well the squad guys were hardly going to stand aside and wave us buh bye as we did a runner were they, blades were drawn, fight stances were assumed and fists were raised. Man I hated knives, more teen violence chesh, what was it about knives that made kids feel all big and tough, it was beyond me. The squad members wasted no time in advancing and soon I was ducking and diving to avoid on coming squad members and their blades.
"Get them!" Conner wheezed as he rolled about on the floor, as if he still had any credibility at all while in that position.
Ok, I needed to think about this, we were clearly out numbered, like seriously out numbered. We needed a plan, or maybe this would be one of those situations where the smart thing to do would be to run away, yeah this was one on those situations, best to get out of hear now. That would have been the train of thought of a smart person, a rational person, but you see im not exactly famous for being smart, what I am famous for is being very irrational. Irrational is a bit of a harsh word, im not crazily foolish or anything like that, im just prone to following my heart rather than my head, especially in these situations. I was angry, at Conner and at Adam especially, I felt guilty, for lying to George (ok strictly speaking I wasn't lying but still) and I don't know, my heart was telling me that I shouldn't run, that this was how it was supposed to happen. I knew that there was something here that would help us shut this place down, and I knew that if we stayed hear just for a little while longer, we would find it. So call me crazy but I went with my gut instinct and decided we had to fight our way out of hear, we weren't going to get out any other way anyway, I rationalised.
Boof, I drove my bow into the stomach of one attacker and winded him, and then I span around the bow (in a very ninja like fashion) and tripped another squad member who was in mid run. One thing was for sure, we weren't going to find anything in this room, Conner had chosen this place for us to meet for a reason, it was safe, there was nothing in hear he needed to hide. So we needed to get out of this classroom and inspect the rest of the Academy, which was kind of difficult with forty or so squad members on your back.
"You got a plan?" George asked backing up closer to me as he fended of several squad members, man did George ever look good when he was in the middle of a fray, so serious, so masculine, so unlike Adam.
"Half of one." I replied booting a on coming squad member in the chest before shooting an arrow across the room and knocking the knife out of a squad members hand as he advanced on Mark from behind.
"Need help figuring out the rest?" George asked flashing me a smile before jumping at a squad guy trying to wrestle the knife out of his hand, oh my knees went weak, which isn't really what you want or need in the middle of a fight with a group of army rejects. By all standards by now we really should have been over powered and carted off to meet our fait, I mean come on, six teenagers against forty highly trained squad members, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out what should be happening. But not us, we did this kind of thing every other day and were well stocked for it thanks to our ancestor's geans, we found this of relative simplicity, Will and John were even finding the time to get cocky and taunt the squad guys across the room. This wasn't going to be easy, but it wasn't going to be hard either, but I am only human, so while I was sighing at how cruel fait was and why George had to be constantly waved in front of my face but held so out of my reach. I hate you Adam. But anyway taking advantage of my obvious distraction, a (thankfully) unarmed squad guy hit me in the back of the head and sent me to the floor.
I wasn't face down in the carpet for long, dragged back to my feet by a second squad guy and still disorientated from the flooring, I wasn't all that good at defending myself. What with the others locked in combat and George moving across the room still fighting the squad guy with the knife and batting away other squad guys I had enough sense in my then scrambled brain to realise I wasn't getting any help any time soon, oh why hadn't we just ran while we had the chance? That was the question, that and what was my name?
"I got Hood!" The teen squad member holding me up rather stupidly hollered, Hood that was a strange name to have, I didn't feel like a Hood. It was stupid because at his proud outburst he not only got a very dirty look from the quad member that had floored me; he also caught the attention of every outlaw in the room, at once and upon his words the others heads snapped round and looked murderously in our direction. The others promptly finished up their fights and dashed across the room to my aid, I had such good friends, now only if I could remember my name.
"Robin!" someone called, Robin, now that sounded more like it. John jumped forward and the first squad guy backed off as John made to whack him with his staff, Will and Jack took the second squad guy the one who was holding me, he promptly realised my jacket as he was kicked backwards. Still a bit disorientated I felt my legs give out beneath me and George and Mark quickly caught me under my arms to steady me.
"Looks like you need help figuring out more than the plan now." George said smiling slightly and indicating to my legs.
"Im fine." I said, trying to smile my appreciation as the room around me stopped spinning and I felt my brain wake up again, wow, what had that guy hit me with? That was gunna leave a mark.
"You sure?" Mark asked.
"Yep, but we wont be if we don't moving!" I said as many, many, many squad members were making a run in our direction and I looked over at the others who were second's way from being over powered by dozens of squad members.
I freed myself from their supportive grasp and began shooting arrows, now over my disorientation I had my perfect aim back, so of course I began purposely narrowly missing squad members not distract them as Mark and George ran forward to attack them. I squad member who grabbed me from behind regretted the decision instantly, I sharp kick backwards and he let go of my arm and went flying, so as I kicked, punched and bashed my way through the crowds of squad members I found a new emotional drive. Things were looking bad for us now, so in my brains last attempt to save the day it pulled out its fool proof plan, Adam, I had so much rage for him right now, why not vent that. It made the whole thing so much easier, all I had to do was imagine every attacking face to be Adam, and poof, and I couldn't stop myself. Adam made a lung for me his lips twisted in sick amusement; I ducked his blade before kicking it out of his hand and punching him in the side of the head. Adam made to grab me so I elbowed in the ribs before tripping him up with my bow and whacking him with it as he fell. Adam aimed a punch that sick grin still there, I pulled my head to the side as his continued to take swings at me before I punched him under the chin with such force he fell backwards.
I was so engrossed in my anger I didn't have a clue what was going on around me, that was until I span round to kick a running Adam in the chest (I just have to tell you right now how good it felt to vent all this anger) when I saw it.
"Robin!" Jack said knocking a knife out of a squad members hand and shooting an arrow at another, she stared in horror at the door as more squad member rushed in. all anger inside me evaporated and was swiftly replaced with fear, fear for my friends, fear for myself, they were not Adam, they were the squad members elite team, the very best. You could tell this by the sashes they wore, were as the initial squad members wore sashes of green, the new arrivals wore red. We had to get out! Maybe it was time to be rational.
"Get out now!" I shouted, forget my gut instinct, I had to look after the others.
"Robin's right" Mark shouted in agreement "we need to go."
Will and John, who had been about to argue, were silenced at the sight of the true elite fighters entering the fray. Quickly and desperately we finished the fights we were having and dashed for the door, we had to get out of here right away. We fought our way to the door listened as Conner, now back to his feet, yelled.
"Don't let them get away, we've got them this time lads!"
We stumbled into the corridor and gasped as we were grated by more squad members running towards us down the corridor that led to the main staircase.
"This way!" George shouted indicating further down the corridor as the on coming squad members had blocked our earlier rout.
We sprinted down the corridor aiming arrows over our shoulders in a desperate attempt to further the distance between us and the squad elites. We skidded to a halt at the end of the corridor before a fire exit staircase.
"Up here!" Will shouted panicking and holding open the door for us to walk though, we took to the stairs two at a time, some of the lads doing more, as Will slammed the door shut behind us. Reaching the top of the staircase, a little more out of breath, we groaned as we were greeted by more squad members of the ground floor landing.
"Split up!" I ordered, I couldn't see any other way of us getting past this blockade "go in twos and keep in radio contact at all times, meet you back at the forest!"
With everyone agreed to split up and meet back up at Sherwood we divided, Will and Jack ran up the next flight of stairs, John and Mark ran into the reception room and George and I sprinted down the ground floor corridor. We were being followed but there was a bit of distance between us and them, so as we turned a corner George pulled me into a classroom and silently closed the door behind us. Pressed up against the wall, we waited as the squad member ran past, we didn't have long, once they realised we had given them the slip they'd start checking the classrooms.
"Phew!" George sighed bent over double in exhaustion in the darkened room "we need to get out of here."
I looked around, we were in what appeared to be a science classroom, gas taps, Bunsen burners and other equipment lined the room, much like the science labs at Locksdale upper. However there was one thing here that you wouldn't have found in a science lab at Locksdale upper, a large eerie looking silver chamber. Cautiously I crossed the room, what was that? It wouldn't have looked out of place in a Sci-Fi film, the odd rectangle was completely smooth and chrome, with a metal tube linking a small cylinder on the outside to the inside chamber. A key pad covered with buttons and dials was located on the side of the chamber, and in a glass case above this was a single arrow head attached to wires. I raised my hand to the metal case; I didn't like this, slowly I walked to the chambers door, it was thick and like the rest of the contraption, silver, a ship like port hole served as a window, the whole thing was creepy.
"Robin?" George asked as he crossed the room and stood by my side, I barely hear him though, what was this? A kind of torture chamber? George obviously thought so as he started pilling me away from it, his strong hands applying concerned pressure to my shoulders.
"Robin leave it" George spat the word it was if whatever it was, was distasteful "we need to get out of here."
That was true, we did need to get out of here, I managed to register that thought just as the classroom door swung open and squad members piled in. Battle stations then, and once again we found ourselves locked in combat, George let me go and began firing arrows attempting to scare the squad members back out the door, no such luck. What kind of sicko was Baxter? That machine behind me looked pretty nasty, he made my skin crawl and my stomach turn, George had been looking at the chamber with a similar look of repulsion and probably thinking the same thoughts, but now that didn't matter, we had to get out of here. As George tackled the still not deterred squad members and dived into the fray, trying to back them out the door with hand to hand with my bow, which basically involved me blocking there attacks with the wooden bow and kicking them backwards. Though it wasn't working, George and I found ourselves being backed into the room and fighting just to keep ourselves from getting injured never mind attacking ourselves, on top of all that I found myself becoming distracted by the look on Georges face, pure concentration and effort, he wore it so well. Shaking myself for what must have been the forth time since the squad members had swarmed into the room I ducked a blade and punched a squad member, I was going to have to stop partnering with George; he was going to be the death of me.
Then it happened, everything was moving in slow motion, my hair as my head span round, George as he ducked out of the way of the wrong squad member, the knife as it sank into George's side.
"GEORGE!" I screamed completely forgetting where I was, George was all I could see as he fell to the ground clutching his side.
"George's been stabbed!" I shouted into my mic, although I knew everyone else was probably having problems of their own I was desperate for help, I ran across the room to George "please someone, we're in the science labs on the ground floor!" as I sprinted to George's side I slipped into a flash back, the farm, the roar the fighting echoing in my ears, the smell of petrol strong in my nose, tears rolling down my cheeks as I held George's head in my arms praying he would be alright. I came back to the present with a thud, I couldn't just break down here, I had to keep fighting and protect George, were still weren't safe.
Pure rage, stronger even than what I had felt earlier while venting my fury at Adam, they had hurt George and now they were going to pay.
"Robin!" George warned still conscious knelt on the floor nursing his wound, but I wasn't stopping. Thud, thud, the two closest squad members to George hit the floor, as I did my worst, I gipped slightly as the blood stained knife lay limply in George's attackers hand, but soon snapped myself out of it, I was needed. I was desperate to see to George or at the very least as him how he was, but sadly that wasn't an option as the rest of the squad members advanced and surrounded George and I.
"Robin be careful." George warned as he attempted to stand, he obviously hadn't seen the wall of squad members encasing us, had he seen them he would have known that was a stupid thing to say.
"Don't worry im never anything but." I said and George made a sceptical noise before raising his head and taking in the scene, he gasped though it could have easily been from pain.
We were out numbered; it was simple as, although the squad members had split up to chase after us there was still no way the two of us could take on all of them, though we gave it a good go. For George even ducking was painful though he attacked with as much vigour as a possibly fatally wounded person could, as I danced around to ovoid my own attackers I did my best to defend us both but it just wasn't going happen. George was floored and after swiftly kicking one squad member I was distracted by this, I needed to help George but I could hardly help myself as a squad member tackled me, ouch he should be on the rugby team. Flung over his shoulder and then rammed into the mysterious machine a was winded and doubled over in pain, my attacker smiled and had a light bulb moment. Impressed by his own intelligence and brilliance at thinking up such a plan he opened the metal contraptions doors and threw me inside before flinging the door shut.
"ROBIN!" George shouting was the last thing I heard before the world was muted; the booth was obviously sound proof. It seemed the squad member had assumed what George and I had, that it was some sort of torture device. George continued to shout mutely as despite his injury he fought his way across the room, he shouldn't do that, he'll hurt himself.
The look of pure anguish on George's face cut though me like a knife of my own as he tried to get to me, his look of fear an obvious mirror image of what mine had been as I had dashed to his side earlier. Boop, beep, boop, the squad member was pressing random buttons on the control pad outside, the floor of the contraption began to shake, nothing else just the floor, and as it did I was bashed from wall to wall, NO! George mouthed before the shaking of the floor became so vigorous that I had to close my eyes, I siren sounded and blue lights flashed though my closed lids, and I was still being thrown around. The noise, the lights, the shaking reached their peaks and I let out a scream, it was alright because the both was sound proof, and then everything went black.
Author note: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Robin Hood: Out of time, please let me know what you think, as before constructive criticism and improvement ideas are more than welcome. Xxx
