Hope

Atlanta II

I slowly opened them to see nothing but black. Closing shut my eyes again with fatigue and struggling to open them again, ever so slightly, this time getting a better colour view. I blinked again before everything began to focus, and on the next opening of my eyes I made out the table in front of me. A round table at which I had woken up in front of, tied by my left hand to an old wooden chair with metallic handcuffs. Around the table were the others, Aaron, Brad, Toni, Kyle and Bryan, all asleep and all tied to a chair by only their left hand, their right dangling freely down the side of the chair.  

We were in a small room with nothing but a single bulb above the centre of the table to shed light upon us, barely lighting up what looked to be a store room, full of shelves and cardboard boxes, seemingly empty. 

'Aaron' I said, reaching across to nudge him, causing him to moan slightly as he began to wake. I did the same on my left to Kyle, hitting him on the arm until he woke. 

Within several minutes we all gradually woke up in the strange room, tied to chairs. 

'Where the fuck are we?' asked Kyle, shaking his hand to notice it was tied to the chair. 

I shook my head as I looked around the dark room 'I have no idea' 

'Holly' said Aaron worryingly 'the girls, where are they' 

'Shit' snapped Brad, sitting two places to my left alongside Kyle 'Kate, if she's dead' 

'She isn't dead' I assured him 'Whoever brought us here, they didn't kill the girls' 

'How do you know that?' asked Brad. 

'Because... they wouldn't be stupid enough to do it' 

'Shut up Brad' Kyle said, exactly the words we were all waiting to say for a long time 'We need to figure out where the fuck we are before we have any hope of finding them' 

'It looks like a store room of some sort' said Aaron looking around 'There are shelves with cardboard boxes, it's the only theory I can come up with' 

'A store room where is the question' I said 'Could be a small general store or a huge supermarket' 

'And what the fuck are we tied to these chairs for?' Kyle asked. 

'Guys' the voice that came from Toni who looked worryingly to his side of the table, at which point I noticed the dry blood on the table.

Within an instant second a bright light had us squeeze our eyelids together as the door to the room opened letting in light so bright all we saw was the manly figures of five men enter the room, faces we could not make out until they shut the door, letting our eyes adapt again to the darkness. 

Four of them scattered around to the four corners of the room, but one stood, being that he carried no weapons and wore no armour, he was the only one who did not have a corner to go to. He stood by the door in the darkness.  

As he came closer to the light we could see him more clearly. He was tall and broad with muscular arms and a large chest hidden beneath his dark shirt. He had an African American complexion and a dark scar on the left side of his face that stretched from his eye to the upper lip of his mouth, looking at us with all seriousness as he walked around the table. 

'Who the fuck are you?' snapped Brad 'And where are we?' 

He walked behind Brad, standing behind him for a moment before suddenly grabbing his head, pulling it back slightly and putting a knife to the muscular skin, slicing a tiny piece of flesh as a warning 'You do not talk to me like that' said the man in a deep voice, releasing Brad who immediately put pressure on the small scar on his neck.