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Stride
-Samantha's POV-
They pushed us before the authorities, before the men that overlooked the Games. Everyone in the arena sat stiffly silent, watching our every move. The men glared down at us, fuming with hate and disappointment because Fred and I defiled pieces of their sacred Greek culture: I with my "womanhood" and Fred with the rock he threw at the Statue of Zeus.
"It is decreed that both of you will be led directly from the Stadium, and thrown off a cliff." the middle authority told us, his voice nearly a growl. Fred and I shared an equally terrified look. I bit my lip hard.
The man went on. "Your, so called, 'book' shall be burned until it is reduced to ashes. You will never see it again." He handed it to a guard below him. The guard gave us a sharp look before he returned to his previous location with the now precious Book in hand.
All the men in the Stadium box then stood up together and called out as they pointed, "Tie them down!"
I looked over at Fred again, my eyes bulging out of my head. My heart raced and I found it difficult to breathe. He looked shocked, but in a way that said he hadn't fully grasped what was going on. I didn't know why...I shouldn't have, but I told him. I made clear that: "This is actually happening... We're going to die." I said in a hush. I questioned if he heard me, as the stadium full of people began to roar in approval. "KILL THEM" they all chanted. Their voices meshed together like fire in lava as they projected a flood of vicious sound.
Guards surrounded us and pointed their spears at our necks. A couple of them took hold of our wrists and dragged us to the middle of the Stadium, then pushed us down to our knees and told us to beg the gods for mercy. I glanced up at the guard that gave us the order, then over at Fred. I was too shaken to form words until Fred took a breath, looked up at the guard and said, "We're sorry."
"Do not speak for her!" he yelled, gesturing to me.
I could hear my heart in my ears, and feel it in my throat, but I looked up at the guards and choked out, "I'm sorry."
"Louder!"
"We said beg, not whimper!"
"We beg for mercy!" I called, folding my hands atop of my head. My voice quivered as I spoke.
I was then suddenly hit on the back of my head, forcefully. "I said not to speak for one another! Do not speak for him!" another guard yelled in my ear.
Writer25
-Fred's POV-
Being in trouble wasn't anything new for me; Sam, Joe, and I got in trouble all the time when we warped. But this time was different. Samantha was trembling next to me, her eyes wide with terror. It was embarrassing to admit, but my heart constricted in my chest when I saw how afraid she was. And when the guard hit her, something in me snapped.
"Don't touch her!" I yelled, jumping up.
"Get back to your knees, worm!" A guard roughly shoved me down again.
"Fred," Samantha whispered to me, "what are you doing? Don't talk back to them."
"Silence!" A guard raised his spear as if to hit her again.
"I said, don't touch her!" I yelled again, and sprained wrist or not, I leapt up and butted the guy in the stomach with my head. I didn't care about getting into more trouble; all I cared about was protecting Samantha.
"Insulate worm!" the guard yelled, then suddenly the lot of them were all over me. They kicks and blows rained down from their feet, the butt of their spears, and their fists. I shielded my head as best I could. Samantha was screaming and yelling at them, trying to stop them, but they just kept on throwing. The crowd went crazy with excitement; they seemed to be encouraging the guards. Blood filled my mouth and my entire body was throbbing by the time they decided to stop.
One guard pulled me up into a seated position, then called over to another, and they tied mine and Samantha's wrists together with a thick rope. "Get up!" a guard yelled, and I was hoisted to my feet again. I glanced over at Samantha. She shook viscously and tears streamed down her face, but I smiled in relief anyway. At least they hadn't hurt her.
"Take them away!" the middle man at the box shouted. A train of guards surrounded us and forced Samantha and I to walk. My eye started to swell up, so it gradually became harder for me to see. But I did happen to see one of the guards out of the corner of my eye, carrying The Book; I kept my good eye on him.
Samantha stepped closer to me and elbowed my arm. "Fred!" she hissed sharply, whipping her nose. "What in the world possessed you to do that? They're already furious with us! And did you forget about your arm?"
I spit out a mouthful of blood before I answered. "I don't know, I just… I didn't want them to hit you anymore, okay?" I told her hoarsely.
"So you let yourself get beaten!? Possibly even killed!?" she pressed.
"I just didn't want them to hit you." I repeated. I didn't know why, but I could feel my heart beating for a different reason. Samantha looked at me with half annoyed and half worried eyes.
She lowered her gaze and sighed. "Why?" she whispered. "Why would you do that for me? We're already going to die."
"Maybe not. Sam could come back, or maybe we can escape and get The Book back somehow." I told her hopefully.
Samantha looked back up at me. "You think so? This is pretty bad, Fred."
"I've been through worse." I winked with my good eye, even though it kind of hurt. "We'll be okay."
Stride
-Samantha's POV-
It was difficult to believe his words. His bruised and battered face and the blood that trickled from his mouth only lessened my belief. These guards were going to be ruthless with us. Our defilement of their culture was a crime equivalent to them as killing a child was to us: inexcusable and unforgivable.
"Silence!" several guards yelled at us again, at our whispering.
I turned away and kept my gaze at the gravel. The crowd at the Stadium followed us behind the guards, still cheering and chanting. Their voices pierced through my head. The tears that flowed from my eyes returned from before; I was unable to hold them back. I bit my lip hard, but sobs wracked my body and escaped my mouth sloppily, regardless of my efforts.
I could feel Fred's gaze on me through the heat of the day and the roar of sound. "Samantha," he begged, but I shook my head and wailed loudly, repeatedly; my cries ripped at my throat. A guard came up behind me and gripped my arm and growled, "Stop this! Enough!"
"Leave her alone!" Fred bellowed next to me. I heard the guard swing at him for speaking; he groaned in pain.
I whipped my head up and glared at the guard. "Don't- touch him."
"You dare to-"
"Is it such a bad thing that he's trying to protect me?" I yelled through sobs.
"Samantha, stop." Fred ordered, tugging at the rope, but I went on:
"How dare you think it right and just to treat mere 10-year-olds this way?!" I spat.
"You have the audacity to scream at me?!" the guard hollered back at me. He stepped closer to me, but Fred got in his way.
"Stop, she didn't mean any offense!" he begged. "Please, please! Just let her go!" Fred tired to push the guard back and prevent him from reaching me, but was shoved forcefully to the side. I felt like a fool for calling out the way I did.
The guard grabbed me by my collar and pulled the hair ties from my head, throwing them too the ground. I winced as he ripped pieces of my hair out, then threw the ties to the ground. "Your rude behavior will not be tolerated, just as your womanhood is not." he growled. I held the sobs in my mouth, but my body visibly shook out of fear and frustration. My knees felt as though they would give out at any moment, but the same guard that pulled at my hair then took the rope that tied Fred and I together, and began to pull us. "We end this now!" he called out to the crowd before he did so. They cheered further.
I heard something crack as the man pulled us by the rope. My irritated eyes went wide, and Fred's face contorted in pain. With his teeth clenched tight, he whimpered and brought his head to my shoulder as we struggled to keep up with the pull of the guard. Now it was his turn to sob grossly...
Writer25
-Fred's POV-
The rope might as well have been made of flaming razor blades; my wrist burned and felt as if it were going to be torn right off my arm. The pain ripped a couple of sobs from my throat as I laid my head on Samantha's shoulder to keep me moving. It was so humiliating to have her see me like this, but the pain was so intense I almost passed out. I needed the support of her shoulder, at least for a moment.
The ground began getting more and more rough the further the guards walked us. Buildings also became more and more spread out until they disappeared altogether and sat far behind us. We later walked through a broad, untouched field of grass. Rocky, bare ground then stretched out at our sides until it narrowed again, ending in a cliff. All the while, the crowd of Greeks at the Stadium kept on roaring, and the authoritative men kept a sickly satisfied grin upon their faces.
Samantha stiffened when she saw the cliff, and began to slow her pace. A guard yelled impatiently and smacked the back of her legs with the butt of his spear, ordering her to keep going.
I grit my teeth and was about to yell at him, but Samantha quickly shook her head. "Fred don't," she whispered. "Please, I can't stand you getting hurt because of me."
"And I can't stand seeing them hurt you." I whispered back tensely.
"Silence!" a man from the box ordered. "Will you not learn obedience before your deaths?!" He then signaled for the guards to stop, a few yards away from the cliff's edge.
The man turned around to address the crowd. "Now, it is time for these two barbaric defilers to receive their punishment!" The crowd cheered loudly. "Guards, unbind them and bring forth their, so called, 'book.' It will be burned before them before they are thrown off!"
The crowd cheered again, wildly, as the guards moved closer toward us to carry out their orders. They gradually shuffled us closer to the edge of the cliff, then cut the bonds off our wrists. One guard then stepped closer to us with The Book in hand, and another one stepped forward with a lit torch.
I looked over at Samantha. She looked at me. We both had the same thought. This was it; any minute now either the space time continuum would be destroyed...or we would be thrown off the side of a cliff. My heart beat in a frenzy in my chest, as though trying to escape its cage.
"Fred," Samantha said quietly, her voice cracking. "I'm…scared. Really, really scared."
I was too, but I didn't want her to know. "I… We'll think of a way out. I know we will." I couldn't see a way out of this, but I didn't want Samantha to feel any more afraid than she already was.
But she just shook her head and gave me a sad smile. "Fred… before we die, I just wanted to let you know- that I didn't regret going on this adventure with you. I… just wish we could have more."
"Yeah," I tried my best to smile at her, even though tears began to sting my eyes. "We should have a lot more adventures together. Warping with you was one of the best experiences of my life." I admitted.
Samantha's eyes softened and tears rolled down her cheeks. She took a shaky breath before she told me, "Fred, I've always wanted to tell you… I… I've always liked y-"
"Enough talk!" the authoritative man yelled angrily, cutting her off. But I knew how her sentence would end. "Burn their book and throw them off the cliff, now!" he went on.
The crowd cheered as the guard with the torch held it under The Book, the flames slowly nibbling at it. I bit my lip and looked back and forth between Samantha's teared-up face and The Book. I then looked at the guard holding it; he was the youngest out of all the guards, but still physically bigger than me. But maybe not that much faster than me, I thought, and he was standing awfully close to make sure we saw The Book get burned. So maybe… I debated my next movements and thought them through before I put them into action. No matter what the odds of my success were, I had to try for Samantha.
I gave her another small smile, since it might have been my last if my plan failed, before sprinting forward and grabbing The Book out of the young guard's hand. Thank goodness he wasn't expecting me to take it; I took hold of it easily as his grip was loose, but I didn't have time to be proud of my quick actions.
"Kill him! Immediately!" the man 'in charge' screamed furiously.
"Samantha, jump!" I yelled, grabbing her hand with my good one and gripping The Book close to my body with my damaged arm. She looked at me as if I were insane, but we both turned and leapt off the cliffside, our hand clasped tightly together. The air smelled like seawater, and whooshed past our ears and through our hair as we fell. Several spears shot down around us, but thankfully none of them hit us. However, below us were several speared rocks looming up at us; I tried not to notice some of the bones strewn among them.
"Here!" I then yelled, handing Samantha The Book. "Warp us out of this mess!"
"Fred, you're incredible!" she called proudly with a wide smile. Samantha opened The Book with one hand, still holding mine with the other hand, and the green mist poured out, wrapping around us like a cloud. We let go of each other as separate portals sucked our bodies in. The last thing I saw was her beautiful face painted with a smile that mirrored my own, before we finally warped home.
I landed on my back, on my bed to be exact, and just laid there, huffing. I tried to absorb all that had happened, but I simply couldn't. Adrenaline coursed through me, and I ran a hand through my hair as I laughed, "Oh my god!" That was one heck of a day...
I then took a moment to examine myself: my arm was healed completely, as moving it around in all sorts of ways caused me no pain, and my eye didn't feel swollen anymore. I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror just to make sure, and I sighed in relief when I saw my bruise-free face. I looked down into the sink, thinking over mine and Samantha's accidental warp to Greece. I kicked myself mentally for messing with The Book...I had gotten us into all that trouble...
Just then, my cell phone buzzed in my room, and I went to pick it up. It was Sam: "Fred, where are you?! Are you and Samantha okay?! I was at Mabel's Time Diner and then I suddenly warped back to 2005!" he yelled through the phone.
With a hand my head, I told him, "Sam, relax, we're both fine. Boy, do I have a story to tell you..."
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