A/N: Jak chapter! SWEET! I know you guys were dying to see this chapter, so here it is. Next one will be in a little while because I still need to space it out. I'm so sorry for getting it out late. I was gone all Friday and Saturday. On Sunday my laptop broke down and I only got it fixed last night. Stupid computer!
Disclaimer: I'm 14! Do you think I could have thought up all of Jak2? Think deeply about it!
Chapter 31
Jak was lying on his back in his open cell that was behind Devo's house. His day of torturing was done and he could finally drift off to sleep. This night was different, though. It was his last in the prison cell. The cell was round and made out of big stones carved into blocks. The walls were tall and there was no ceiling but only bamboo reeds placed on the top. There was nothing to block out the rain or the burning sun. But it did give Jak a perfect view of the stars at night.
Jak looked different now. He was extremely thin. His skin was a dark color because of the relentless sun beating down on him all the time. The light had gone out of his blue eyes. He had not smiled in the four months he had been held in the prison. Scars ran up and down his whole body from the many times Devo tortured him. It had been useless, though, because for four months Jak still said nothing about the pills.
I wonder what the camp will be like, Jak thought to himself while staring up into the sky. Nea and Tubal will be gone. I will know no one. I hope the two have a better life now. Life will be different when I get out of here.
Tubal and Nea sat across from each other in Nea's tent at night. Tubal was all better now and back to his normal self. He was not his self tonight, though. They both sat in silence while staring at the map of the fort and the weapons they had collected over the past few months. The gun Jak had stolen was off to the side. They did not want to remember him.
Finally Nea snapped. "We are not leaving tonight," she said harshly to Tubal. "I know this whole time we were planning on leaving the kid here, but this is not right. He put his life on the line to save your life. I don't care that you have been in this fort for so long. We can not leave him here to die!"
"Nea," Tubal said while putting up a hand to stop her.
"No, Tubal," she almost shouted back. "Listen to me. I'm not leaving this place till we have the kid with us. Okay? I might be a bit of a pushover, but right now I'm not doing anything you say to do."
"Nea," Tubal tried again to talk to her.
"Stop talking," she spat back. "I'm not leaving!"
"Nea!" he almost yelled. "I'm with you all the way! So stop talking and let's get a plan together so all three of us can escape."
"Oh," Nea said feeling stupid all of the sudden. "You could have said that before I went off ranting."
"I was having too much fun seeing you make an idiot out of yourself," Tubal said with a smile. "Now let's get down to business."
Jak picked up a tray and went through the line for food. It was his first morning back into the fort. He took the tofu eggs, and he knew he was crazy when he did not complain. He was hungry from being tortured for so many days. Sometimes he did not get food for a week. Right now he was so thin and weightless that you could pick him up and throw him across the room with no trouble.
Jak walked over to his old table where Tubal and Nea used to sit with him. He took a deep breath to prepare himself to not see anyone he knew there. He frowned a little when the worst had been true. Nea and Tubal were nowhere to be seen at the table. They were gone. They had left him. Jak never felt so alone in his whole life.
"Don't eat the tofu eggs, kid," someone said from behind Jak. "They made even Durgen throw up last week."
Jak's eyes lit up while he spun around. Tubal and Nea stood in front of him with smiles on their faces. They all put their trays down on the table. Jak was about to sit down, but Nea wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug.
"I almost thought they would kill you," she whispered into his ear. She let go of him, and they all sat down. Jak had the widest grin on his face. They had not left him. They stayed for some reason. Jak now knew that these were friends he would never want to give up.
"We still have an escape plan, kid," Tubal whispered from across the table to Jak. "This time it takes three. How 'bout it, kid? Still want to get out of this dump, or is the food in Devo's prison cell too good to let go?"
Jak looked up from his breakfast as he heard the news. All this was for him? He gave the two a sly smile to show that he was still in. His spirits were set free all of the sudden. He would live. He would get free and find Daxter with the help of his news friends. They would all get back at the Baron for all the hell they went through. After this day everything would change.
A month went by since Jak got back into the training. He needed to get to know the plan Tubal and Nea had made for all of them. It was kind of like their first one, but this one was way better. If it went by perfectly everything would go good for them. The last one was thought out, but it was lacking the chance of getting out without being seen.
Jak quickly stepped back into the life of the fort. Sometimes Tubal or Nea gave him some of their food to get his health back. He had looked like a toothpick when he had first gotten out of Devo's section of the fort. He was so thin and light. He had a high fever for the first three days back into the fort.
While he had his fever, Jak would dream. His dreams were replaying his days back in Sandover Village. Most of them were of him and Daxter. Man! He missed Daxter so much. He missed his old home. It had been so peaceful. He would wake up with sweat soaking his whole body and feeling like the last person on the planet. He would feel so alone. He was in a living hell.
When the fever broke and Jak was allowed to go back to training, he was back to himself once again. The three went right away to their escape plan. They explained every detail to Jak in low whispers at breakfast. Every chance the friends got they talked about their escape. It was on their minds every second of the day. It seemed to lift them up too. It made them run faster to know that one day they would not have to do anything. Jak found all his strength to know that soon he would be away from the horrible place.
Finally the night came to escape.
The night was perfect. The darkness surrounded the fort like a dark blanket. It was a full moon that night, and the disk in the sky shone a brilliant glow over the fort. Stars twinkled in the sky, and you could make out every constellation. The air was crisp and clean. It was also a bit cool with no wind at all. It felt good to step out of the tent after a hot day and feel the coolness flow around your body.
"We all know what we need to do," Tubal said to his team. He was elected leader of everything. "Remember the details and what you need to do," he said in a low whisper. He flashed his tiny team a smile because the happiness was too much inside of him. "Got it?"
"Yes," Nea said while smiling herself. Jak gave a nod to show his answer. All were nervous too. Tubal would talk to himself when nervous while Nea would just bite her lower lip. Jak would switch to different feet with too much energy. The first move they were going to make would be his. He did not want to screw it up.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. The footsteps of the patrol Krimson Guard seemed to echo around the dark tent the three were in. This was it! They waited for them to get louder before acting quickly. Tubal nodded to Jak, and the teen turned on the lantern with his hand slightly shaking.
"No hard feelings, kid," Nea whispered to Jak while they both stood up. She then yelled at him loudly for the guard outside to hear, "I should throw you into the a blender and turn it on high and then serve you to Devo. And when he asks me what made his meal so good I'll answer…"
Jak could hear the footsteps quicken outside the tent. He gave Nea a guilty smile while throwing his arm back. He struck her lightly on the chin, but she made it dramatic by backing up as if it hurt badly.
"You did not just do that!" she yelled at him. She then lunged at him with a smile on her face. Jak let Nea knock him to the floor of the tent. By this time the Krimson Guard was there to break up the so-called "fight".
"Cut it out!" he yelled while aiming his gun at the two on the floor about to beat the crap out of each other.
"Chill," Tubal said from behind the Krimson Guard. The guard turned around with surprise to see another Elf in the tent. Tent five only had two people in it. Where had he come from? Before the Krimson Guard could respond, Tubal struck him over the head with a big rock. The dude hit the floor of the tent knocked out from the blow.
"What is going on down there?" came a call from a Krimson Guard on the wall. When Jak was gone the whole fort was redone. Instead of glass pieces on the top of the wall there was electric wires. At every corner was a small box with a spotlight to keep an eye on the prisoners. Right now the spotlight was coming toward the tent.
"Crap!" Nea whispered while getting up and seeing the light come towards them. If the lookout did not see the Krimson Guard he would put the whole place on alert. That would end the three's escape. "Do something, Tubal!" she said to him with a bit of panic in her voice.
Thinking fast, Tubal grabbed the Krimson Guard and held him up so it looked like nothing was wrong. The light came on the tent and made the whole room in there light up. The three had to squint because of the brightness. Tubal stood behind the propped up guard and made his hand wave to the guard on the lookout tower. This seemed to satisfy the lookout, and the light went away.
All three had been holding their breath. Every heart was beating so fast and loud that they could swear that the whole world could hear it. They waited in the dim light for a few seconds before doing anything. Tubal was first to break the creepy silence by dropping the Krimson Guard to the ground with a thud.
"Suit up, kid," he urged Jak while clipping off the Krimson Guard's red armor. Jak quickly put all the armor on as the plan went on. His hands were still shaking, and Nea put a hand on his shoulder to reassure him. He gave her a smile then slid the helmet over his head. He looked like a perfect Krimson Guard as he held the gun up and stood up straight. The other two looked him over for any mistakes then smiled to tell him to go.
Jak gave them a two-finger salute while walking out of the tent and into the open. The spotlight shone on him for two seconds then went away once the lookout person saw his red armor. Jak slowly walked over to the lookout tower. He climbed the ladder to the top.
"What was going on in tent five?" the Krimson Guard asked Jak without noticing that his buddy was shorter than before. BAM! Jak had thrown his fist back and landed it on the guard's jaw. The guy stumbled backwards while holding onto his chin.
"What are you doing!" the guard yelled at him. Jak smiled behind his helmet and put some of his held up anger and hate into his next move. He ran up to the guard and struck with his left foot while twirling on his right one. In one easy and graceful move, Jak had the man down. He had kicked him on the side of his head. The stupid Elf had had his helmet off, so he was dizzy from the blow and fell to the floor with a grunt.
Jak moved quickly. He pulled out some rope and cloth from his pocket. He tied the man's hands and wrists together. He smiled wickedly while pulling out a dirty sock he had used the other day. He shoved the sock into the Krimson Guard's mouth then used the cloth to gag him some more. The hard part was done.
Jak then took out a mirror and leaned out of the window of the lookout tower. He used the mirror to reflect the light from the spotlight to shine brightly into the other lookout's eyes. Jak saw the man put an arm up to cover his eyes while backing up.
That was when Tubal and Nea ran out of their tent. There were around four other Krimson Guard patrols going around all the tents. No problem there. The two quickly and quietly found the guards and took them down. Jak watched from the lookout tower way above them.
Nea ran up behind one guard and used a roundhouse kick to knock him down. She then kicked him hard where it counted. To top it off she slammed his head against the ground, and he was knocked out silently. She then dragged him to their tent to tie him up.
Tubal had the same job. He was not as graceful as Nea, though. He first body slammed into his first guard to knock him down. After a few hard punches to the face, the guard was knocked out and ready to be tied up. The two then took out the other guards and tied them up while Jak kept the other lookout guards busy with the mirror. They could not see a thing.
Then the two ran up to Jak's lookout tower and climbed up the ladder to his level. It was time for the tricky part. The three had to get over the electric wire running around the top of the walls. Jak quickly took off all the armor when he saw his friends. He gave them a grim smile while glancing down to his tied up guard.
"Good job, kid," Tubal whispered to him while patting Jak on the back. "You were perfect. So far everything is going well. Now for the wire."
"Here are the plans for the electric wires running all over the walls," Nea said while taking out a piece of paper from under her shirt. Tubal had stolen another map of all the electric wires around the fort. Tubal took out an old screw diver from his pocket and started to open a small box in the small space of the lookout tower.
He opened it and Nea started to look at each wire carefully. She started to bite her lower lip, and Jak knew that was not a good sign. She glanced from her paper to the box holding all the different colored wires. She finally picked one she thought was right, and Tubal handed her a rusty knife. They had planned this thoroughly. Getting their hands on all the tools was not easy, but they proved it was possible.
"Let's hope this is right," she muttered to her team. She then cut the wire, and they could hear the tiny buzz of electric bolts suddenly turn off. They all smiled and opened the back window of the lookout tower. They carefully stepped over the harmless wire.
"Down we go!" Tubal whispered in a sing song voice. Jak let out a silent laugh because he knew he would not be heard. They all started to climb down the rocky wall. The inside of the fort's wall was smooth, but they had left it rocky with many feet and hand holds on the outside.
Jak had climbed many times in Sandover Village. This was no different. He tested every foothold before putting his whole weight on it. It was hard to see anything with no light. The only thing showing them the way down was the bright moon way above them.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
All three jumped in surprise. Jak lost his footholds and started to fall because the wall was still very steep. He started to panic. He could get hurt if he landed from this fall. Then it would be all over. He was just thankful that Tubal had seen him start to fall and grabbed Jak's arm before he fell too far. Nea grabbed Jak's other arm. They both held him there till the teen found more foot and handholds.
"What did we do?" Nea asked Tubal as they started to climb down again. "Why is the fort on alert?"
"We did nothing," Tubal said with confusion. "MOVE, kid!" he shouted down to Jak. "We have to get out of here as soon as possible. Quicken the pace! Sorry for yelling at you, kid."
Jak just glanced up at Tubal and gave him a small smile of forgiveness. He did not test footholds now. He went down the wall blindly and slipping a few times. He finally felt soft ground under his feet, and he backed away from the wall. Tubal and Nea were right behind him.
"Now run!" Tubal said to them, not bothering to whisper. Before the team could race into the jungle, they heard an ominous growl from behind them.
Jak almost freaked out right then and there. They turned around slowly to face the Metal Head. Jak had never seen one before. The yellow skull gem glowed in the darkness of the night. It seemed to be smiling evilly at them with its razor sharp teeth dripping saliva.
"This is why the fort is on high alert," Tubal said quietly while backing up from the Metal Head.
"Perfect timing," Nea muttered. "Now we have to fight a bunch of Metal Heads. How lucky can we get?"
Then the Metal Head pounced.
A/N: I love my evil cliffhangers! HAHA! Please give a review! It would be nice. Thanks!