It had been nearly 2 days since X-ray had seen the triplets. He was glad, though, for last time he could have set them off spat in their faces. X-ray shook his head; that would have gone over well.
It had also been nearly 2 days since that last time he had took a bite of the disgusting mush he called food. Yet right now, he definitely wouldn't mind having a bite of it.
It had been nearly 2 days since the last time he heard Magnet speak. X-ray was just starting to get used to the silence, but he muscles were tired and achy. He was surprised since he was giving his arms a break from digging, but having them hang lifelessly above his head wasn't helping them awaken from their tingling state.
Yet it had been almost exactly 2 days since the last time he saw or heard his 3 other friends, Zigzag, Squid and Zero. They had been as quiet as he ever had heard, and he was beginning to wonder if they had even woken up. In fact, he didn't even know if they were alive--
"Oh, don't worry, they're alive. In pain...but alive,"
X-ray's head shot up and hurriedly looked around the room. No one was there. He was going to ask 'who's here?', but it came out as more of a,
"oo'sere?" He tried to lick his painfully chapped lips, but his mouth was completely dry.
"Oh, it's just us. You know, the 'Gruesome Threesome', the 'Piggies who broke out of their pens', the 'Wolves who ate the Ugly Duckling' the—"
"'e ge' the poin'," Magnet mumbled, his head slowly shifting from side to side. X-ray was somewhat relieved that he wasn't the only conscious one of the D-tent boys.
One of the triplets was suddenly walking deliberately slow towards them. His intimidating demeanor grew onto X-ray's fear; yet he knew he shouldn't be this scared. He was a leader. He was going to keep himself and everyone else (minus Avery, Bailey, and Evan) safe. He had to.
"I wouldn't count on that," X-ray realized it was Bailey, more-so of the leader to the 'pack'.
"'oun' on wha'?" Magnet growled, to the best replica of his normal voice. X-ray nudged him with his knee and muttered,
"Shu' up,"
"Yeah, shut-up, Maggie,"
Magnet's head shot up, ready to thrash against his ropes, when he winced in pain from the movement he had made. Bailey laughed,
"Poor little Maggie. Poor little Cat scan. How's that X-ray? You like the name Cat Scan? Kitty, Kitty, Kitty. Poor little Kitty. How 'bout Kitty as a name?"
"Shu' up!" X-ray hissed. His throat stung terribly, but he wasn't going to let the boys get to him.
"Hey, boys!" Bailey called into the back of the warehouse, "Kitty and Maggie are awake!"
Two beautiful horses, their coat the silkiest black they'd ever seen, trotted into the open space. Each now on either side of Bailey, they reared up onto their hind legs and growled threateningly.
X-ray cringed at the memory…the same beautiful—no, not beautiful. They were monsters. The same stupid monsters who had hurt not only him, but his friends, too.
"Y'all remember us?" Bailey snickered. He suddenly morphed into a black horse, just like his brothers. Walking calmly, he stopped in front of X-ray.
"Goodnight," He whispered.
And everything went black.
"Miss! Miss! D-tent is missing! Everyone in D-tent is missing!" Mr. Pendanski ran into the Warden's cabin, Mr. Sir trailing at his side.
"Excuse me?" She turned around, staring wide-eyed at the two.
"They're all missing—every one! Even the new boys!"
The Warden sighed deeply. Her eyes closed for a moment, then opened with a massive glare, "You find them, you bring them to me. You don't find them, you get back here, and you'll deal with their consequences."
Mr. Pendanski gulped, then turned around, dashing out of her cabin.
"You too, Marion,"
Mr. Sir followed Pendanski's leave.
"24 oceans
24 skies
24 failures
and 24 tries
24 finds me in 24th place
With 24 dropouts at the end of the day
Life is not what I thought it was 24 hours ago
Still I'm singin' spirit take me up in arms with you
And I'm not who I thought I was 24 hours ago
Still I'm singin' spirit take me up in arms with you.
It's 24 reasons to admit that I'm wrong.
With all my excuses, still 24 strong
You see I'm not coping out, not coping out, not coping out—
When you're raisin' the dead in me…"
Magnet woke up to the sound of singing. His conscious told him he was just delusional, but his ears told him something different. The boy's voice sounded like an angel. It flowed evenly, going from note to note with ease. Its words seemed to posses some sort of message that was just within reach of grasping…
But who was singing?
Opening his eyes, his agreed with himself that it couldn't be X-ray. No definitely not, for his body posture told him his was either passed out or sleeping. Looking to his left, Zigzag was in that same position as X-ray. In fact, Magnet hadn't heard a word from Zigzag the whole time he'd been here—same with Squid and Zero.
"And you know why they aren't awake?" Bailey's voice pierced his thoughts, and he glanced up, "'Cuz all of you are dying…First 'Mr. Do-rag', then the 'curly kid', then 'Kid Paranoia', then 'Maggie'…remember? That's you. Then poor little Kitty. I remember reading his thoughts…he's the 'leader' isn't he?"
Magnet didn't answer.
"Well…we always like to have the leader's watch their friends die first. Then they get to die a slooow and painful death,"
This time, Magnet didn't care how painful it was to thrash against his bonds. He moved his tongue back and fourth, gathering as much spit in his mouth as he could. Then, without warning, spat a glob of phlegm onto Bailey's shoes.
Bailey's eyes flared before furiously walked over to Magnet's far left. He twisted his head to see what Bailey was doing, but couldn't see past Zigzag's hair.
"Boys, ya'll wanna give me here?" Evan and Avery walked through a side door, walking over to their brother. Magnet heard rustling, but could still not see a thing of what they were doing.
But that all changed when they appeared in front of him. Evan and Avery were holding two unconscious, bloody and bruised, bodies.
And suddenly Magnet wished he still couldn't see a thing.
Well…how was that?
I'm still a little rusty for not writing in awhile, but I hope that changes soon. I'm planning on writing either another chapter to this story, or the final to 'In Too Deep'…if you want, just suggest one if you leave a review.
…And ya know what really sucks?? You know the story 'That's what friends are for'…I don't remember a single stinkin' thing about that. I'll have to refresh my memory before I go writing a new chapter to that.
So…anyway, I know ya'll might be a little mad at me for not writing in, like…a half a year. I'm definitely going to work on that. Besides, I still have ½ of vaca. left to work on this stuff.
Oh, yeah…and if any of you didn't get the nicknames:
Mr. Do-rag: Squid
Curly Kid: Zero
Kid Paranoia: Zigzag (that one kind of just popped into my head…ya know…like Sid Vicious, then Joel [GC] called Benji Kid Vicious. So know, Zigzag's Kid Paranoia…Please don't ask how my brain works :P)
Maggie: Magnet
Kitty: X-ray
So, before I go, I'd just like to thank all of my reviewers. All of them mean something to me…before I started writing, I found it all annoying that people kept asking and thanking all reviewers (you know…making this huge deal about it). But now, I seriously understand it. A simple 'cool chapter' made me all happy inside...don't ask what happens with one of those long, awesome reviews :P. So, yeah...
Oh, sorry…the words to that song: "24" by Switchfoot…they're a really awesome band. You can check them out and their music at: www.switchfoot.com.
