Chapter 10
Kiara's vision was completely blank. All she could see was black, her body was still numb and she had no feeling. She could, however, hear people talking. Their voices were distorted and blurry, but she could make out a word or two that was being spoken. She recognised one of the voices, it was Carlos. The others were anonymous.
She could barley move, every time she tried; pins and needles struck her tenfold. Her memory was also fuzzy; it was like her mind was refusing to face the reason as to why her body was in the state it was. She felt so helpless and alone.
Eventually, her vision slowly started to come back to her in the form a light blur. She painfully opened her eyes that soon began to water, and tried to make out where she was. Still unable to see much, she could tell that she was in a small, metal room. Though there wasn't much light, what little there was reflected off the cold, blue steel that surrounded her. To her right was a solid wall and she seemed to be laying on a bed. Though she could feel bed sheets beneath her, they were thin and the hard metal was causing her back to ache.
Meanwhile, the voices became clearer and could hear that they were coming from her left. Kiara slowly turned her head to see what was happening. It was indeed Carlos who seemed conversing with two guards in the door way of what seemed to lead to the room she was in. There was another metal wall behind them which bore a barded window that sunlight just managed to shine through. Their voices were still somewhat distorted, thus, she still could not figure out what they were saying.
Then, suddenly, one of the guards noticed that she was stirring. Kiara saw him point at her and alert the other two. The second guard and Carlos turned round to witness her opening her eyes, to which the latter walked up to the teenager and strike her, knocking her once again into a deep sleep...
A couple of days passed since Kiara's assault on the site. She herself was kept in the brig and remained under Zaulthook's spell. Security was tighter than before as Red Star now held her hostage.
For the slaves, time went by as it usually did: long hours filled with gruelling schedules and labour whilst being tortured and tormented by the troops. Some slaves ended up dying from too much abuse or from pure exhaustion. No time was given to grieve these unfortunate ones.
In the south eastern section, the workers were given the job of lifting large joists using a pulley. There were many slaves unable to cope with the magnitude of the work, but their pleas were ignored.
In one group of workers, a young boy known by others as Orbison was one of the few who managed to work effectively and avoid as many beatings as the others, although he still received his fair share. He had no authority of any kind over everyone else, but his will was stronger. Thus, many looked up to him as a role model of sorts, despite not knowing her personal life.
"Man...huff-heave... this sure is... taking everything out of me..." said one of the slaves.
"You're not the only one..." said Orbison. "But you've just got to keep going and have hope. There's not much else we can do."
"Hey! No talking! Stay focussed!" yelled a sentry.
The slaves quickly bowed their heads and obeyed.
"Orbison. Orbison (!)" a voice whispered.
Orbison turned his head to see his friend Murphy, his long, curly ginger hair sticking to his hot and bothered face. "We got any new plans yet?" he asked.
"No, not yet. To be honest, I'm starting to run dry on ideas." Orbison replied. "Meeting tonight, tell the others."
Murphy nodded.
"Are you guys planning to escape again?" asked the young boy next to Orbison.
"With any luck, yes."
"How is that going?"
"Well, we're still here aren't we..."
The young worker laughed slightly.
"But don't you worry, one day we'll get out of here and we'll get help. Before this fortress is done." Orbison said in a warming voice.
That evening, in Orbison's hut, he and his friends, Murphy, Hippete, Lloyd and Quill were sharing and brainstorming escape ideas with each other. After all their attempts had failed up to this point, they were beginning to run out of ideas.
"C'mon guys, there must be something we haven't thought of yet..." Orbison pondered.
"Like what! We've been trying for ages and we still haven't got anywhere!" Lloyd yelled, infuriated.
"Lloyd (!) Be Quiet (!)" Hippete whispered in a slight panic. "They'll hear you (!) Do you wanna get us killed (?)" Lloyd fell silent.
"Now, I know our plans haven't succeeded yet, but it's nobody's fault. In all the time Red Star and Dark Saga have had these concentration camps, no one has been known to escape. But we must have hope that we will one day. Otherwise, we'd die of shame. If anyone wants to give up, say so now." Said Orbison.
There was no objection. "Okay, wise choices. Everyone in this entire site is relying on us because we're the only ones who'll dare to try and get out of here. Now c'mon, concentrate. It has to be something that could potentially be flawless. Every aspect of an idea must be thoroughly shared and thought about between all of us. Something that you think may work is no good. Get those brains rattling." He said again.
As the evening went on, no one could think of a good enough plan. It got to the point when interaction ceased and they all lounged about, pondering, making little progress. Even Orbison was struggling to find motivation.
Then, suddenly, there was a knock at the door. All five of them nearly jumped from their skins as the tapping of the wood broke the silence. None of them said a word, until the person on the other side knocked again. Murphy put his head against the door.
"Who is it?" he whispered.
"Just open the door (!)" a voice from beyond the wood demanded, quietly.
"Password please." Murphy replied
"You gotta be kidding me, what password?"
"The password so that we don't open the door to guards."
"Do I sound like one of the guards to you?"
"Well, you could be held prisoner by guards" Murphy said, to which Orbison palmed his forehead.
"If I was held prisoner by the guards they could just force me to say the password if I knew it. And anyway, if I was one of the guards they would hardly bother knocking would they. Now open the freakin' door!" the voice sounded, infuriated.
Then, Orbison went to the door and pushed Murphy aside. "Out of the way, Murphy. You're not helping." He said.
"I'm just saying, we can't trust anyone around here." The ginger boy claimed, to which Orbison tutted.
He then went on to slowly lift the hatch like door and poke his head through. There was no one there. "Hey, hello? Who's there?"
"Down here." Said the voice. Orbison looked down and saw a small bush at the foot of the hut. The leaves were pushed aside to reveal the face of a tight faced boy with a pointy nose. He looked younger than the rest of them. "It's me (!)" he said, trying not to alert any attention from the guards.
"Stouty (!)... You realise that we're more or less on baron land. Do you have any idea how futile that disguise is?" The 18 year old commented.
"Hey, don't knock it. It's got me through to every section of the whole site. Now lemme in, I've got news for ya."
With that, Orbison stepped aside as Stouty entered the hut and removed his cover. Lloyd closed the door. Everyone emerged from their bunks and gathered round in a huddle, so as to keep the noise down.
"Right then, Stouty. We're in the middle of brainstorming here, so this had better be good." said Orbison.
"It's not like we're getting anywhere though is it (!)" Lloyd commented. Orbison gave him a quick glare to say shut up before turning back to Stouty.
"Listen in guys, got some bad news, very bad news and more... interesting news. Bad news is, security has been tightened round the camp, making escape attempts even tougher for you guys." Stouty explained.
"Oh man. Just when things were bad enough. We couldn't escape the way security was before." Hippete complained.
"Who ordered that?" asked Murphy.
"I heard two guards talking about it. They're orders from Zaulthook himself." Said Stouty.
Everyone gasped. "But Zaulthook never gives orders directly. He usually gives them through Carlos. What's going on here?" Orbison questioned.
"Well, listen to this. This is the interesting news. A couple of days ago, the northern sector was broken into by an outsider." Stouty informed.
"Who want break in here? This place is dump (!)" Quill stated.
"Well get this, not only was the northern sector broken into, the outsider was undetected and fought against an entire guard unit and won (!) Not only that, the intruder fought Carlos and beat him as well!" The pointy nosed boy continued.
"No way (!) Carlos? He beat Carlos too!" Lloyd interrogated.
"Not he, she." Stouty corrected.
"It was a woman?" Hippete asked.
"Better than that, it was a young girl, no older than some of us. I saw it all happen with my own eyes. I was hiding behind a dirt bank with Spike from the northern sector. She kicked ass, dude! I've never seen anything like it. All the guards had weapons, but she was bare fisted, and she still beat them."
Everyone listened intently as Stouty explained to them what happened when Kiara fought and defeated Carlos. They were all mesmerised by what they heard, it was like the gods had smiled upon them.
"Where is she now?" asked Hippete.
"Uh... yeah... that's the not so good bit. While Carlos was getting his ass handed to him, he must have panicked and called for Zaulthook. Because the next thing we knew, she was going head to head against him." Said Stouty.
"What? Against Zaulthook? But he never comes down from the command tower." Said Murphy.
"Well, in this case he did. We all thought she was done for until she gave him a taste of knuckle as well. She put up a good fight, and this was against an agent! But, after that, Zaulthook got rid of her super fast." Stouty said.
"... You mean... she's dead?" asked Lloyd.
"No, she's not dead. We thought she was, but a bit later I saw them carrying her to the brig. If she was dead they would have burned her body. I have no idea why, but they must want her alive for some reason. She's been locked in the brig ever since. That's why security is so tight now, they have something to guard." Said the pointy nose boy.
"Oh man... if only Zaulthook hadn't shown up, she might have been able to bust everyone out of here." Murphy moaned.
"It sounds like she would have been a life saver..." said Lloyd.
The hut fell silent, everyone think of what could have been.
"Maybe that's it..." said Orbison finally breaking the silence.
Everyone looked puzzled. "What do you mean?" asked Hippete.
"Maybe this girl is what we need to get out of here. If she's been proven to be better than them, save for Zaulthook, then we wouldn't have to worry about getting caught trying to escape. Do you see? That girl might be our lucky break." Explained the 18 year old.
Everyone murmured in agreement. Orbison's statement uplifted the mood in the hut; they now had a new goal.
"All we have to do is put together a flawless rescue mission. It won't be easy though, especially if security is even tighter now. Stouty, spread the word, we're gonna need some help. Tell anyone who'll listen; we need to band together to get her out of there." He continued.
"But what about the security?" questioned Hippete.
"We'll think of a way, like i said, we'll need more than the five of us to do this." Answered Orbison.
"And what if she no want help us?" asked Quill.
"Do you think she would have broken in here and risked her life if she didn't want to help? And if we need to reason with her, she's stuck in here like the rest of us and we have a common enemy. I'm sure she'll agree." Orbison responded.
The mood was now upbeat and everyone in the hut was inspired. Maybe they could escape from the site.
"We'll get some shut eye for tonight. Stouty, you'd better get back to your hut. Tomorrow night, we'll start brainstorming a brand new plan to get her out of the brig. Then we need to come up with another escape plan, then we have to get help, we're playing a long game her guys." Said Orbison.
"Wait! Orbison! That was the other thing!" Stouty piped up.
"What other thing?" he asked.
"The VERY bad news. I've got a pen pal who writes me letters about what he's going through. At the moment, he's disguised as a soldier for Dark Saga and yesterday he gave me a tip-off."
The hut stopped and listened.
"It's bad guys, very bad. Even Red Star doesn't know this. He said in his last letter that Dark Saga has recently found out about the construction of this fortress, and they're not too happy. He said that they're planning an assault on this place, to blow it sky high and take all the workers and Red Star aligned soldiers with it!"
"What! Why didn't you tell us that earlier? Don't you think that that's important information?" Lloyd yelled.
"Lloyd, be quiet (!)" Hippete urged.
"How long until they get here?" Orbison asked.
"He said something like 2 weeks, but it could vary, Orbison. What are we going to do?" said Stouty.