"In any story, the villain is the catalyst. The hero's not a person who will bend the rules or show the cracks in his armor. He's one-dimensional intentionally, but the villain is the person who owns up to what he is and stands by it." -Marilyn Manson
At the sound of Lauren's name, Kevin's smile- which had been present almost the whole time we'd been escaping- disappeared. He dropped Cecil, who fell, and grabbed the radio.
"We are not negotiating with you!" he screams, and then drops the radio and shoots it.
Cecil stands up and glares at Kevin again.
The guards start to advance on us, and then I hit the jackpot. Whoever's uniform I stole had left three more bullets in their pockets. I pull them out and shove them into Kevin's hands, then I wield my knife and Cecil brandishes his taser.
"Shoot," I say. "You'll have... twelve bullets? That leaves three of them and three of us. We can take 'em."
"They have guns too, though." Cecil says as Kevin starts reloading the gun and firing. They all start either firing back or retreating.
"Keep shooting, Kevin. While running. Run."
We take off again, Kevin firing off bullets. I start rummaging through my pockets. If I find three more bullets- bam. We're out.
Kevin screams loudly. "There are more!"
I swear, and I'm about to give up so we can go die horribly or get interrogated or something, then a miracle happens. I recognize something.
I snatch Kevin and Cecil's hands and pull them through a doorway. I slam the door shut and flip the lock over. Then I drag a chair over and place it in front of it.
"Where are we?" Cecil asks.
"The employee break room," I say, and I tear off the stupid yellow jumpsuit. The guard I left here earlier is just starting to awaken. I hit him over the head again, and leave him and another chair in front of the door. Then I find some more bullets, and throw them to Kevin. "That should hold them. Let's go." I run for the other door and open it. Sunlight washes over us. Both Kevin and Cecil make repulsed shrieking sounds and cover their eyes.
"Oh," I say, forcing a laugh. "Right. Long term confinement. No light. Uh... Just follow me." I grab their hands again and run. "And, uh, try not to-"
They both fall over.
"Hey," Kevin says, facedown in the sand. "I think my eyes are adjusting!"
Doors to the prison snap open, and guards come rushing out.
"Great, 'cause they're coming. Let's go."
They stand up, shakily, and stumble after me as I run. I hear popping sounds, and bullets come whizzing by.
"Zigzag!" I shout to them over the sound of gunshots. "It's harder to hit a moving target!"
"I literally cannot see anything!" Cecil shouts.
"I don't care! Run!"
I hold onto them tightly as I dash across the desert sands in a scrambled lines.
"Now my eyes are adjusted!" Kevin says, blinking. Then he screams and falls over to avoid running into a cactus. Cecil sniggers, and then he does the same thing.
I nearly pick them up before I start running again. I'm just beginning to think that we won't make it, when it happens.
A door appears in front of us. I nearly slam into it as I come to a sudden stop, and Cecil and Kevin, whose vision must still be adjusting, do.
"Ow," Kevin moans, rubbing his head. Cecil scowls.
"That's a door," I say.
"How clever of you."
"Omigosh!" Kevin says. "Don't those lead to a desert otherworld?"
"Do they," Cecil mutters. Then his eyes widen. "Carlos went through one of those! We have to check it out!"
Kevin opens his mouth, and I step on his knee.
"And Dana," I say. "She's in the otherworld too."
"And there are people shooting us!" Kevin adds. "I say we go through!"
"I concur," Cecil agrees.
"I also agree," I say. "Stand up and let's go." I reach forward and open the door, revealing a dark desert.
"Wait," Kevin says. "If we all go in how do we get out? The door'll disappear and there'll be no one too-"
Cecil charges through the door.
"If one door appeared," I say. "I guess it's likely another one will. Besides, it's this or facing all those guards."
"Okay!" He says brightly, and then he also runs through. I jump in after them and close the old oak door behind us. There's a lock. I turn it.
"Safe," I sigh. I hear pounding on the door, and something that might be shooting. But it doesn't budge. I turn out to look at the desert. It looks like the one we were just in, but darker. I can see a mountain in the distance, with a lighthouse blinking on top of it.
"Okay," I say. Kevin's started to wander off and Cecil is staring at the mountain in shock. "We need to make camp. I have a tarp, we just need... sticks?"
"Why don't we just head for the lighthouse?" Kevin asks. "We could probably sleep there."
"Because it's on top of a giant mountain."
"Mountains," Cecil scoffs, "aren't real."
"I don't care if it's real or not," I snap. "It's steep. In the past two days, I have hung off the bottom of a car, sat still in a desert, run from guards, not eaten properly, and done a whole bunch of other stuff. I'm not climbing that mountain tonight."
"You know," Kevin says cheerfully. "You should never put off till tomorrow what can be done today!"
"You know," I say back. "You should shut the hell up."
Kevin pouts, and I shrug off my backpack and pull out some NutraLoaf. Cecil moans, and I throw it to Kevin. "This is your dinner."
"Thanks!"
I throw Cecil the microwaveable pizza. "This is ours."
He grins and tears it open. I join him, and we wolf down frozen pizza, sitting under the hot desert sun.
"Oh gosh," I realize. "You guys need sunscreen." I get it out and pass it to Cecil, who starts smothering it all over himself, and then he throws it at Kevin's head. He looks up from his NutraLoaf in surprise, and it hits him in the forehead.
"Ow! Oh, thanks Cecil!"
"I hate him," Cecil mutters.
"Me too," I tell him. "Let's sneak away while he's asleep."
"Agreed."
"Now the sun won't kill me, yay! That NutraLoaf was super good, thanks!"
"He's insane."
"Definitely." I get out my backpack. "Also, I've been dreaming of meeting you for awhile now, so I'm taking a selfie with you."
"I-"
I get out my camera and take a picture with Cecil before he can protest. Then I snap a photo of Kevin, who looks up from his next packet of NutraLoaf, bewildered. I snigger at the photo of the surprised, spooky-eyed idiot.
"Ooh! Can I see?"
"I guess."
He rushes over to look at it, then he grabs the camera.
"Hey!"
He clicks a photo of all three of us, then hands it back me, before skipping back to clean up his empty NutraLoaf packets and retrieve the sunscreen.
I stare at the picture he took, then I grin at Cecil. "Look at you. You look like someone just told you that angels are real and the dog park is now open to public access."
"Well, you look like a nonexistent angel just kissed you."
"Good one."
"Thanks."
"Oh my smiling god!" Kevin squealed. "Look! I see something!"
"That's a cactus."
"Oh, hey. You're right."
Then he falls over sideways.
Cecil and I turned to stare at each other.
"Run. Now."
We both get up and take off, only delaying to grab the sunscreen.
About five minutes later, I hear Kevin shouting something and turn to see him chasing after us.
"Wow, sorry about that! I totally keeled over. Too much sun, I suppose. I hope I didn't keep you guys waiting too long."
Cecil sighs loudly.
"Never mind," I say, setting down my backpack to get out the tarp. "Let's make camp."
