No Escape

Chapter 26

There they were, sitting in a shabby, dim-lighted room, tied to chairs that were arranged in a circular position. They were all silent and staring at the floor.

Ellie Maisie's mind was lost in a whirlwind of fearful thoughts. Of course, they'd gotten caught, there was no actual way they would get away with this. Keres was going to kill them, she could feel it. This room felt oddly familiar, it wasn't long before she realized this was the room she had been held in when she was first kidnapped. She remembered how it felt. How scared she was, how repulsive the smell of dry blood was, and how nerve-racking it was to see said blood plastered over the white walls. She was certain she would die back then, yet she didn't. She desperately wanted that scenario to repeat itself, but that seemed unlikely. A guard entered the room and untied Mo from her seat.

"Where are you taking her?" Nanette asked angrily.
"Keres wants to talk to her," he said.
"Why?"
"He's not going to hurt her yet. You dykes can say goodbye to each other later."
Those words cut through Nanette like glass. She didn't look at him after that. Before leaving the room, he stared at Dominic.
"I always knew you were a freak," he said, "I just never thought you'd take it this far. Hope the bullet hurts like hell, you sick traitor."
He turned to Rosanna, "And you. You deserve to burn in hell for your lies."

He left the room. In any other scenario, Mo would've fought back, but she didn't feel like it now. She was too scared. They sat her down in a different chair, tied her down, and left her there for a few seconds before Keres burst through the door.
"Alright, let's talk," he said, completely nonchalantly, "What was your plan?"
"I'm not telling you!" she spat, confidence rushing through her body once more.
"I'm not going to ask twice!"
"What do you care? Why not just kill us now?"
"I'm not that stupid, I need to make sure this never happens again."

"Well even if you stop us now, it will happen again and again and again."
"I already did stop you, and you're wrong. People get tired, people lose hope, and people stop trying. That's human nature. So you may as well tell me everything now."
"I'll die before I confess anything to you."
"I understand you're in a romantic relationship with a woman. Is that correct? I'm sure you wouldn't want me to hurt her"
"She's stronger than you think. You can't hurt her."
While this was happening, the other 5 sat in the room alone.
"We are so screwed," Nanette sighed.

"I'm sorry," Rosanna sighed.
"It's not your fault."
"Actually, if we had some extra information, we wouldn't be in this situation," Ellie Maisie muttered.
"What, so it's Rosanna's fault we're in this situation?" Dominic said with annoyance in his voice.
"Like 5% her fault, and 95% yours"
"Why?"
"Yeah, why?" Ariana added.
"Okay, the two of you, answer me this," she started, "Where are we? What part of the world are we in? How did any of this become physically possible? What is happening? You say that you want to help us, but you expect everything

to happen 'no questions asked.' And Dominic, specifically you, what the hell are you doing here? How did a reasonable, good person end up here? Literally, every one of these men has some sort of mental problem or unsolved repressed rage, or is somehow brainwashed, but not you. So maybe this isn't your fault, but you still need to give us answers."
Dominic paused for a moment and stared at Rosanna who stared at the floor. The silence grew until finally, Rosanna stepped in.
"It's not his fault Ellie Maisie," she said, "He can't say."
"He can't say what?"
"He can't answer your questions"
"Well, why not?"

"Our location is unmentionable," Dominic explained.
"Meaning?" Nanette asked.
"Meaning, we can't say it. No one can say it. We've been instructed to shoot whoever names the location, not even Keres can say it."
"Can't you just whisper it?" Ellie Maisie proposed.
"And what do you mean Keres can't say it? I thought he was in charge of everything," Ariana added.
"This order didn't come from Keres," Dominic said.
"What you guys need to understand," Rosanna whispered, "Is that most of these young men are brainwashed. They recruited young guys, with no

actual prejudice and just psychologically tortured them."
"Is that what happened to you, Dominic?" Ellie Maisie asked.
"Dominic," Rosanna said, staring him down, "It's time."
Dominic sighed.
"I'm not just a guard," he said, talking with difficulty "I was hired to mess with these guys' minds. I'm the reason Keres has such support."
"What the hell!?" Ellie Maisie yelled. She looked at him with disgust, and he just stared at the floor.
"He was going to kill my moms, I didn't mean for any of this to happen. It was all against my will," he explained.

"Do you have any idea how many people you harmed?" Nanette yelled.
"I know!" Dominic said apologetically, tears seeping from his eyes, "And I feel terrible about it. It got out of hand and now I just want it to end. Please, I want to destroy Keres and help everyone I've hurt."
"Well, we can't do that anymore," Nanette said, "Because Mo's gone and Keres is going to kill everyone right now."
"Okay, I can't tell you where we are," Dominic said, "But I can show you how to get out."
"Didn't you hear her!" Ellie Maisie yelled, "There's nothing we can do, we're dead!"

Gunshots were fired from the other room. They all leaped from fear. The door slammed open and Mo came out, holding a gun. Nanette rushed to hug her.
"Did you kill Keres?" Ariana asked.
"No," Mo said, "I just fired a shot to scare the guard, Keres was long gone. Let's get out of here!"
They all sighed with relief, knowing that now, they could get out of there. Ellie Maisie was happy, but still angry because of what she'd just heard. She was more conflicted about Dominic than ever.
Ellie Maisie clutched her handgun tightly as she ran through the halls in that uncomfortable dress. All these thoughts and emotions were rushing through her head. They were

being led by Dominic and Rosanna to an unknown location and they didn't know where they would encounter guards, and how dangerous those encounters would be. They encountered other women along the way who joined their group, and soon most of them were reunited. They were an unstoppable force once more. They pushed past gunshots and soldiers until they reached a stairwell which they were at the bottom of. They were all confused except for Dominic and Rosanna. What was this place? They'd never seen this before.
"Let's go!" Dominic said, urging that they all climbed up it. Soon, they were all rushing up the stairwell. Ellie Maisie pushed past the crowd, trying to reconnect with her friends. Soon they stopped,

Ellie Maisie could see a green wooden door. It was very different from all the other doors. It gave off a different vibe. A warmer and homelier feeling. She didn't know doors could give off vibes. Dominic opened, and a ray of sunshine hit Ellie Maisie's face. It was so bright, she felt her eyes sting. The mass started leaving the building and soon they were all outside, admiring the great sun. They were on this green field in the countryside. It was a great shock to Ellie Maisie. She hadn't been in this type of environment for what felt like ages. What was this place? Why were they here? Ariana looked especially taken aback. She stared around and stared back at Dominic and Rosanna.
"My son proposed this location, didn't he?" she said.

They both nodded. She sighed.
"This was our country house, we'd come here for the summer," she said, holding back tears, "We stopped after his father died. He certainly liked him more than me. Maybe that's why he did this, I wouldn't know."
This all hit Ellie Maisie like a ton of bricks. They had all been underground this entire time. What a combination of minds. Keres with his psychosis, religious fanaticism, and misogynism, and Adrian with his grief and resentment for a mother he probably didn't get along with.
"I know this is hard," Dominic said, "But we can't think about that now. They have planes here, Keres uses them to go places, I bet Mo could

get us out of here with one. It's certainly big enough."
Mo nodded, they ran to the huge plane, behind the deceitful little house. They all started boarding it. After a while, all of them were safely on the plane.
"Where to?" Rosanna asked.
"Washington D.C" Mo replied.
Right before they could leave, Keres and his army emerged, shooting at the plane.
"What do we do!?" Nanette yelled, "We won't be able to leave."
"I'll distract them, you go ahead," Rosanna yelled. She grabbed her gun and hopped off the plane.
"No!" Ellie Maisie and Ariana yelled. It was too late, as they

left, Rosanna was struck down and no one could help her. Rosanna sacrificed herself, and Ellie Maisie was going to make sure it wasn't in vain.