On My Knees

As he squinted his eyes and braced himself for impact, Alex tensed his shoulders up awaiting for what was to come. He slowed his breathing and calmed his heart rate as he kept his cool. He wasn't going to let panic settle in as he waited for his time to end.

And yet as seconds turned to years Alex finally felt it.

His first hit.

First in his right thigh the man felt a sharp pain but that same pain quickly made its way all over his body. Feeling like he was glued to the floor, Alex didn't even realize he had collapsed onto the ground until he felt his head come crashing down onto the wooden surface beneath him. He didn't have time to process what was happening as the impact knocked the man out cold instantly.

Before he knew it, he was waking up to a loud shriek and the clamoring of metal hitting more metal.

Groaning as he started gaining consciousness, after what only felt like a second, Alex felt only a cold surface beneath him. Where the pain in his body should have been was replaced by an uncomfortable sense of heat. His back was frozen but his body had never felt more on fire. 'This must be what hell feels like.' The man thought as he laid uncomfortably in place trying to gain a sense of understanding to the world around him. Surely he was dead. He had never been more sure of anything ever before. Even the loud shouts and screams that never seemed to stop for even a second seemed to back up his idea.

Not that he could make out any of the shouting.

It all just seemed muffled. It was like he had the thickest pair of earmuffs on as hardly any noise made it back to his ears. It seemed like hours passed by as he laid unable to open his eyes before the screaming finally started to clear.

What he thought was a collection of damned souls screaming from their eternal pain was instead a duo of two very distinct voices. Prying his eyelids open, despite the sand around them, Alex squinted tightly as a bright ray of light shined down onto his face. After fluttering his eyes open Alex's head began to spin as reality hit him for a second time.

He wasn't dead. Although he felt like he was.

The suppressed pain in his body and mind had just been released as waves upon waves of trembling pain washed over him. He had been pushed, several times throughout the course of the night, far beyond his limits. Physically he didn't know if he still had it within himself to fight onward, but mentally he felt the complete opposite. After everything he had been through if he somehow didn't manage to make it out alive then it would have all been for absolutely nothing.

The more he forced himself to wake up the more his foggy mind seemed to clear. Looking past his hanging eyelashes, the man was able to see a blurry glimpse of what looked like his friends.

"He's awake!" He heard a familiar someone shout earning a small whine from the man as the volume was more than his ears could bare.

"Keep your voice down Lauren!" Another voice said.

Letting his eyes take in the entirety of the situation, Alex couldn't believe the predicament he was awoken to. In a small and desolate room with only a few cabinets on the walls, both Nina and Lauren were here in the room with him. Or at least kind of. Alex shot his eyes wide open as soon as he caught sight of the metal cell Nina was currently imprisoned in at the end of the barren room. Standing with her body pressed against the thick metal rods trapping her within the three feet by three feet cell, the woman only managed to reach her arms out towards the man in celebration.

Meanwhile, with Alex's attention first drawn towards his friend held captive at the end of the room, he didn't even notice that only a foot away from himself was none other than Lauren herself. Shackled to a metal gurney in only a hospital gown, her wrists and ankles looked bruised where the metal cuffs secured her down. With only her neck free of restrictions, Lauren looked up ecstatic to see that they were all still alive.