Hope

Vengeance

'Look at his god damn hand!' Brad demanded. As I turned around, Brad narrated what I saw 'He had his transmitter in his hand the whole time. He was transmitting everything we said' 

I looked at the transmitter, and then to the treacherous guard who died a selfish coward. 

'FUCK!' I shouted, just as the transmitter began to speak. 

'Gentlemen' said the voice I immediately recognised as the Ripper, who spoke his name 'It's Thomas' he said 'The Ripper, remember? The guy you FUCKING KNEECAPPED!' he didn't sound too happy. I picked up the transmitter and pushed the button to talk back. 

'Just give us back our people, we leave, and nobody else needs to die' 

'I don't think so Jerry!' he shouted, making me curious, I can't recall giving him my name 'You have killed thirteen of my men, not to mention the other six you killed in that suicide explosion. That's nineteen men Jerry! A lot of them have families here!' 

'And do those families know what you're feeding them?' I asked 'Dead meat from people you torture and kill in a sick game of roulette!' I shouted back, proving to him that I will not be fucked with. 

'It's our life, or theirs, and I choose ours. Now unless you want more of your men dead, let us go. Because we are not going down without a fight' 

'You killed nineteen of my men Jerry. I only killed one of yours. So if it's a fight you want, then gear up. We're coming for you' 

'You know where we are' I said 'Come and get us' I released my grip and threw the transmitter over the building, down to the desolate streets below. 

'We're just going to stay here and wait for him?' asked Toni curiously and cautiously 'He could bring up thirty men with him!' 

'We're not fighting him' I said, walking past Toni 'We're getting the fuck out of here' 

I ran with the others to discover the one bit of truth in the traitors lies, the scaffolding exists, but I have no idea where it leads to... and we don't have much of a choice.  

Standing at the edge I looked at hundreds of rusty pipes, holding planks of wood intact, the outside covered by torn and deteriorating green mesh. 

That shot down five stories to the ground below, just as grey as the sky over our heads. 

'So how do we work this?' asked Toni as we all examined the shaky looking scaffolding, seemingly ready to collapse at any given moment. 

I looked down, the first plank was a drop. Though it wasn't the height that frightened me, it was the thought of whether or not it would hold my weight. 

'We go one by one, no two people on one plank' 

'And what if it can't hold us?' Brad asked. 

I looked down, the pipes looked like a small stone could take them down. All they had to do was go to the ground below and release the foundation of the scaffolding, and we all die. 

'Then we die'

I hung myself off the edge of the building, holding on by the tips of my fingers on the cold, gritty surface of the schools roof that felt like a grey mush substance to cling from. 

I stretched myself down as low as I possibly could, my legs dangling in the toxic air before releasing and dropping down onto the plank of wood and bending my legs the second came into contact with it. The entire scaffolding shook slightly, enough to have me shift all my body weight towards the wall and hold onto the stone covered building for grip.