We were upside down. Only seconds after Jorge had announced our worth like we were some sort of precious goods, he'd ordered the men standing around to grab hold of us, again, and drag us to a pit. A pit filled with the zombie people that they seemed to call 'cranks'. We were then promptly strung up by our ankles above it like pray for show - so it was safe to say things were going great.
"Great plan, Thomas. Just hear what the man has to say. Really working out for us." Minho remarked, sarcasm practically oozing from his voice.
"Oh shut up Minho..." Thomas sighed, "maybe - maybe I can reach the rope." He said, trying and failing to push himself towards the edge of the gaping hole and grab onto something. Nothing seemed to work - it was a very simple yet annoyingly, also a very effective plan.
"Enjoying the view?" A sudden voice called out from the darkness, causing all of us to pause our actions and turn as best we could to face none other than Jorge himself, walking up to the side of the pit snidely - making sure to keep a safe distance away as he smiled up at us.
"What the hell do you want?" Thomas spat out, obviously tired of all the setbacks we seemed to face every few minutes.
"That is the question." The man replied vaguely, still smiling. "My men... they want to sell you back to WICKED. Life has taught them to think small. I'm not like that... and something tells me you're not either."
"Is it the blood rushing to my head, or is this shank not making any sense?" Minho cut in, causing the smile to slip off Jorge's face, but he ignored the boy, still looking straight at Thomas.
"Tell me what you know about the Right arm." He said in a low voice.
"I thought you said they were ghosts." Newt said defensively from my right.
Jorge gave the boy a small smile. "I happen to believe in ghosts... especially when I hear them chattering on the airways." he walked over to the lever I noticed was holding all the ropes that were attached to us up - laying one hand on it in a clear threat. "You tell me what you know, and maybe we can make a deal."
Thomas sighed, shaking his head slightly. "Well... we- we don't know much." Jorge immediately pushed the lever forward at his response, causing everyone to cry out as we feel at least two feet lower before coming to a jerking stop again. Everything was blurring up again, my vision darkening scarily. This was not the time for my head to start acting up.
"No! Okay! Okay! Okay, all right!" Thomas cried out holding his hands up - or rather, down. "They're hiding in the mountains - and they attacked WICKED. They got out a bunch of the kids. Thats it - thats all we know."
Jorge frowned, he opened his mouth as if to say or ask something else, but before he could - he was interrupted by one of his men walking into the room suddenly.
"Yo, Jorge... whats going on?" The guy asked.
"Me and me new friends were just getting acquainted. We're done now." he said carelessly, the mans whole demeanor switching within a matter of seconds.
"Wait... you're not going to help us?" Thomas asked. I wasn't sure exactly what train of thought had led the boy to somehow believe our capturers were about to throw us a party or something, but I wasn't going to question him.
The man who had just walked onto the room looked at Jorge suspiciously - but the other man simply smiled, turning away. "Don't worry hermano... we will get you back to where you belong soon enough." he started walking away, but not before throwing in a "Hang tight!"
We stayed hanging there for a good few minutes before anyone spoke - and of course it was Minho, complaining. "Okay... this is getting ridiculous. We've gotta do something. Thomas - hurry up and think of a plan already."
The brown haired boy sighed in frustration. "You think I'm not trying? If its so easy go ahead! Please, tell us what we should do." he shot back.
"Okay - s-stop. Just stop." I tried to speak as loudly as I could to cut over their bickering voices, but my words barely came out louder than a whisper. My worsening vision was sending my head into a mess and I was trying my hardest to not pass out on the spot. "You guys see the lever there, right? Well maybe we can try swinging whoever is closet to it even closer and they can try grab it and lower us down. We could untie ourselves pretty easily then."
"Thats... brilliant. Come on, Thomas - try swinging me towards Minho, he can probably get me there." Teresa said quickly, and they got to work.
"Hey. you alright?" I heard a voice ask from next to me and turned in that direction to see Newt looking at me with a worried look on his face.
"Yeah, I'm fine - just don't wanna be hanging here much longer." I tried to say in a convincingly bright tone, but the boy didn't seem to buy it. I turned back to watch the others struggle - Thomas barely managed to push Teresa far enough for Minho to grab onto her jacket and push her towards to edge.
"Come on Minho push her harder." Newt said impatiently, and Thomas started counting down. At 3, Minho yelled out, using all his strength to shove Teresa towards the bar - she grasped onto it wildly and managed to cling on this time, causing everyone to cry out in nervous cheers. Teresa managed to get both of her arms holding onto the railing type thing firmly, quickly flipping herself over to get a better idea of what she was doing.
She grabbed onto the lever and pushed down on it, causing all of us to plummet once again - but this time she landed with her feet on the ground, grinning. After making quick work of her ropes, Teresa moved onto Thomas, who then got to work on Minho and so on. By the time Newt got to me I was barely conscious. I could only hope that was the result of being upside down and would go away as soon as I stood upright for a bit.
The blonde grabbed hold of me as the ropes slid off my ankles, pulling me safely away from the edge of the pit. "Seph?" he asked softly, worry lacing his voice as soon as he realised I wasn't moving.
"I'm fine, untie Aris." I managed, trying to push myself off the ground and shakily getting to my feet. Newt didn't seem pleased to move away, but he obliged, running over to where Aris was still hanging. Something was definitely wrong with me - but I couldn't deal with it right now. We had to get out of here, and then I could figure out whatever seemed to be the issue. A few seconds later everyone had been freed - and we looked around, not knowing what to go now.
Thomas nodded, "Okay, we've gotta-"
But he was immediately cut off my a booming, sickeningly familiar voice that seemed to be coming from everywhere and no where all at once. "Good evening. This is the World in Catastrophe: Killzone Department. We have your compound completely surrounded. You find yourselves with no fault of your own - in possession of WICKED property. Return them to us unharmed and we will consider this a simple misunderstanding. Or you can resist and every last one of you will die."
"Newt?" I called out in a small voice, knowing I wouldn't be able to go much further.
The blonde was by my side within a second, grabbing hold of me before I could collapse. "Seph - whats wrong? What happened?"
"I don't know, I just think I-I need a second. I'm sorry." My words were slurred, but I couldn't help it. I saw Newt look up at Teresa as if silently asking for help - unsure what to do.
The girl bit her lip. "Seph, don't apologise. I don't know whats going on but its not your fault." she said, looking at me - her gaze then turned to Newt. "She can't walk, just try to help her along best you can. I wish we could stop and help but we don't have time to be doing that right now, we gotta keep moving. Just don't let go of her."
"Wasn't planning to." Came the accented boys simple reply. He had a hand around my waist, the other tightly gripping onto my arm as we started moving - I tried to hold as much of my own weight as I could, not wanting to be more of a burden than I already was. But only a few steps later, Thomas, who was in the front of our group came to a sudden halt. With a sinking heart I saw a man in front of us, the same one who had walked in minutes ago - this time holding a gun out, pointed towards us.
"Look, we don't want any trouble." Thomas tried to say in a low voice, hands out as if in surrender. "We just... we have to get out of here."
"Is that so?" The guy asked, holding the run higher with a maniacal grin on his face. He pulled out some sort of handheld transceiver with his other hand, "Janson, I've got them for you... I'm bringing them down. Don't shoot us." he spat into it with utter glee in his voice.
"Come on, lets go." he said, clenching his jaw when no one moved. "I said... LETS GO." But Thomas suddenly pounced on him, causing the guy to shoot his gun in a random direction. He managed to push the boy off him within seconds, holding the gun up again, this time pointed at the boy who was supporting me. "You little bastards!"
"Don't you dare touch them." I didn't realise I had spoken those words until everyone's gaze had fallen on me. I didn't recognise my voice - not having any idea where I'd gotten the strength from. I pushed away from Newt, taking a step forward. The least I could do was distract him for a few seconds. "That idiot says he need us unharmed, well I'm willing to bet you're not going to shoot us, whatever we do. So I'd suggest putting that gun away before you accidently shoot yourself."
The man faltered - but only a few seconds passed before he aimed the gun again, this time at my head. "You bitch! I'm sure Janson wouldn't notice one less lab rat. I think I'll take the chances."
And a gunshot rang out across the room.