Antidote

Chapter 41

Cautiously, I press my ear to the door of the next cell dungeon, listening for voices or any sign of human activity. I hear low groaning and signal to Chad, ready to bust down the door and go inside. But, as Chad puts a hand on the door, I hear another, crueler voice. Blake!

His footsteps echo across the concrete floor and I grab Chad, pulling him haphazardly away from the door and into the shadows. We stumble back until our backs hit the wall. "Thanks," he breathes breathlessly as Blake exits the room.

We wait until Blake is gone before we storm inside. Sitting on the lone chair in the middle of the dungeon is Zoe. She's sporting a black eye, a busted lip, a nasty cut above her eyebrow, and a few cracked knuckles.

I rush to her to untie her bonds and free her. As soon as she's free, she stands up and says, "Thanks." Then all three of us leave, huddling in the shadows to discuss our next move.

It was decided that Chad would go alone to find Tony and Chace, who were the only members of Tristan's gang that hadn't been captured. Then the three of them would go to the downstairs cell dungeons and rescue whoever was down there. Zoe and I would rescue the people up here in these cell dungeons. We would meet at the downstairs cell dungeons if all went well. If not, well, I don't want to think about what will happen if all doesn't go well.

Zoe and I meander down the hallway, talking quietly. "So, are you and Tristan going to get married?" The question surprises me so that I choke on the air. "W-what?" I ask shakily. "We're not even dating yet!" "But aren't you guys like, in love?" Zoe asks, raising an eyebrow skeptically. "Well, yeah," I say. "But I was just in the hospital, so we don't really want to rush things." "What were you in the hospital for?" Zoe asks, and too late I realize I've backed myself into a hole.

"Um," I start, trying to come up with a believable lie. Then, I hesitate. Why don't I tell her the truth? Zoe's never done anything to make me not trust her. I can tell her. I don't need to lie to her.

Taking a deep breath, I turn to look into her eyes. "I was in the hospital because I used to cut and I cut too deep one night." "Oh," Zoe says, then goes quiet for a minute. After five minutes of us walking in awkward silence, she asks, "Can I see it?" Without prompting I know she's talking about the cut that put me in the hospital.

Without hesitation, I rub off the concealer that covers my cut. She stares at it for a while, and I really don't blame her.

It's a pretty gruesome sight, really. It's red and huge and of course, deep. Anyone who looks at it knows that it couldn't have been caused by something normal. Nothing normal really cuts that deep. Seriously, you'd have to like, imbed a piece of barbed wire in your skin to get anything close to what I have now. It's covered with stitches now, but you can still see the extent of the cut.

We come upon the first cell dungeon door. I'm about to put my ear up to the door to listen when Zoe busts down the door, creating a loud sound and perpetually throwing caution to the wind. Rolling my eyes, I follow in after her and watch as she leans down to cut someone's bonds free.

I look and I see that the person is Denny. Like Zoe, he's also got a black eye and a busted lip. His knuckles are bleeding and a swift blow to his head is making a sizable bump. Grabbing his wrists, I pull him up swiftly and Zoe helps him to stand on his own.

In a few minutes, when the circulation has returned to Denny's legs, we strike off towards the next cell dungeon.

As before, Zoe kicks the door down without a moment's hesitation and barges in. Nobody is in this dungeon.

We move on to the next one and Zoe busts in. This time, Tony, Chace, Chad, Max, Ty, and Jake are in there. I stop short. "What are you doing here?" I ask. "We were just looking for Jake and Tristan," Chace explains. "Max and Ty came in to warn us. Guys, we've got to get out, and I mean now. There's no time to rescue Tristan."

A strangled sound escapes my throat. "What? No. We can't leave Tristan here!" "We have to," Chace says. "The men that are coming in here are heavily armed. Those guns can kill you from a long ways off. They're incredibly powerful and it's much too dangerous for us to stay here. We'd be digging our own graves."

"I don't care," I state firmly. "I'm staying." Chace looks at me like I'm crazy, and I stare back. Finally he breaks and says, "Fine, Alex. If you want to stay, stay, but I'm warning you, you're not going to come out of this alive." I nod. Zoe steps up then and says, "If you're staying, so am I."

Gratefully I look at Zoe and smile. The other boys shake their heads at our behavior. "Well, we're going to go and wait for you guys outside. If you're not out there in fifteen minutes, we're either storming the building, calling the cops, or both."

Zoe and I both nod, of equal understanding of what we're getting ourselves into. The boys exit the room and we leave after they do, heading to the very last cell dungeon. We're both armed and ready to fight, but that doesn't calm my racing heart as we creep down the dark hallway, watching and listening for danger.

AN: I'M SORRY!!! I'M SORRY FOR MAKING YOU WAIT!! AND I'M SOERRY FOR THIS BORING CHAPTER!!!