Chapter 3
My heart is racing. I feel so nervous and excited. Tonight is the escape. We have planned it all out. I wish we could free some of the other slaves but that is a risk and will shorten our amount of run time. We decided the night was best because our masters will be sleeping. I do not know how Numa is feeling though. Even though we work in the palace together, sometimes we will go days without talking or seeing each other. She is more of a neurotic and worrisome creature. Even though the prince is a horrible person, she has had worse masters. You can see in her eyes that she will never be ok. I don't think any slave is. When you are treated worse than a droid, it changes you. Let's hope everything goes as planned.
The sun begins to set and it is clean-up time. I help some of the older servants. It hurts my spirits to see them abused. Some of these slaves have been here longer than I have been alive. They are what I fear. I can't stay here until I die or worse. They are nice and sweet to me. Most of them struggle to walk and have scars all over. When I was little I was afraid of the older slaves. It makes me wonder if my mom is still a slave. Is she dead? Is she safe? I will never know. I don't even remember her name and barely remember her face. The night wains closer and the clean-up is almost complete. Let's get ready.
I see Numa and yank her off to the side. A big black mark encompasses her eye.
"Numa, what happened?"
I whisper as low as I can.
"I slipped again but this time the food-stained the fancy rugs."
One thing that Numa sucks at is not being clumsy.
"My clumsy twi. Are you ready?"
"Please let's leave."
We head out into the darkness. We wore our darkest cloaks. I called the shots of where to move. I have an acclamation for it. We go down one alleyway then another, slowly zig-zagging to the outer wall. Shit.
"We can't go this way. They are doing a shift change and are coming this way."
"What, they never do it now."
"Let's head in their direction then once they reach their destination we will turn back. We will be parallel and not intersect."
"I think that is good."
The shift change throws me off. Why did they do it? Did someone find out and tell on us? We follow the guards from afar and see they meet up to the captives. The stench of their cage reaches us. I can hear their moans and feel their pain and agony. I struggle to look. The guards enter the cage and randomly tase them. They didn't even do anything. It is infuriating. They tase an old duro man and he screams. My reflex makes me move forward to stop it. The guards laugh then do it again. I start leaving the shadows then I feel Numa tug my arm back.
"We can't help them. We need to leave now."
"I know but I can't just sit here and do nothing. I can't escape knowing that I might have been able to save them. Leave me. Escape for the both of us. I will join you one day."
I try to put on a strong face and hold back my tears. My body aches from the physical and mental strain of this.
"I will never leave you Ahsoka. I love you."
She pulls me in and kisses me on the lips. I can't believe it. Her soft lips caress mine but it soon ends. We both feel the pressure of what we are about to do. I signal her around the building. We sneak past the guards and reach some of the doors. We go by one by one unlocking them and quietly say leave to them. After about 5 cells, a guard notices. He comes running towards me. I flip out of the way and punch him in the groin. He collapses. Numa continues to unlock more cells. More guards run towards me. I dodge each attack and steal one of their tasers. I use it on them. I attract most of the guards but I see some grabbing Numa. I won't let them take her. Not now. I have protected her this far. I won't let this go any further. Slaves of all kinds try and run away but the slower ones get caught and slammed or whipped or tased. For a single second, I stop and look around. What has this turned into? The plan has failed tremendously and I will probably forever be a slave. My chances of freedom are down the drain. Then in a second, I see an array of laser blasts. Slaves drop one by one. I try to stay low and run towards Numa.
"NUMA! NUMA GET DOWN! GET DOWN!"
She looks at me and smiles then drops. A glowing hole in her chest illuminates marking where she is cursed. I crawl over and hold her body.
"No please don't go. Don't do this to me. No, please. Numa, I love you too."
I don't believe this. How. Why. Why her. She was so kind and did no harm. She was good. She deserved to live. Not them, she deserved life. The blast fire stops and many bodies lay around me. At least some escaped. Numa died a hero. Guards surround me and a few other slaves. The queen and prince approach me. Tears clean my cheeks.
"WHY DID YOU DO THIS! SHE WAS SAVING THEM! SHE WAS SAVING THEM FROM YOU! YOU GREEDY MONSTERS!"
The prince steps forward with audacity.
"It is truly sad that she is a casualty of your mistake. She was an ok slave."
"AN OK SLAVE! I can't… I can't even with you. You deserve to slowly have every single piece of torture that you have inflicted on your slaves, inflicted on YOU!"
An urge rises out from me and I raise my hand and stand up.
"You and the Queen should become my slaves."
His body lifts off the ground. His legs kick sound and his hands grasp his throat.
"YOU ARE THE EXACT SCUM THAT SHOULD BE WIPED FROM EXISTENCE!"
He gasps for air. The queen smiles and mumbles under her breath. She then waves her hand. I ignore it and soon the dirt of the floor meets my tear-covered cheek as everything goes black.