The Confined

19. Ego

Violet looked shocked. She wasn't in any condition to break him out. I had to find a way, and fast. Before the people who Finn said were to come and before Finn made his small friendship with Violet into a complete mess.

I took out my laser and started cutting through the bars. The bars were of course not very hard. They may have been made of cheap metal because they stored weak people who weren't in any shape to break even a piece of cardboard. Finn wasn't that weak right now, but he wasn't strong enough to break through metal. The pain coming from the gash on his face was probably too much right now.

"Finn, I'm going to get you out of here. Alright? Just wait." As soon as I said those words, I regretted them. All of the prisoners had heard me and started crying out to help them. I should have been careful and lowered my voice.

"LET ME OUT FIRST!"

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"HELP ME! I'M DYING!"

Men and women screamed from all around me. My head started ringing and I couldn't concentrate. Every voice of the people seemed to pierce through my brain and plant a thorn in every neuron.

Violet took my hand. Hurry. Her eyes said. Even through the head-ache, I nodded and kept breaking the bars open. With her, it felt like I could at least shut out half of the voices that were suppressing and crushing me with guilt. I could not help all of them. Yet. But at that moment, when Violet touched me, I knew that one day I would be able to help them. One day, I would set them all free from this horrible prison of guilt.

The bars broke open, and Violet helped Finn out. Finn suddenly frowned and covered his ears. His face was still gushing out blood, but his eyes were much calmer than a few minutes ago.

"Finn, do you know where the milk cart is?" Violet asked him. Finn told her that it was still in the cell, but he couldn't possibly take it out. He never wanted to be in there again.

I took a step into the cell and all of the sounds coming from the other cells were blocked instantly. I could only hear what Violet was saying about Finn's wound.

"Ego," Finn warned.

I nodded that I would be careful. The cell was a totally different place from the hallway. It was much more humid and sticky than the outside that you could hardly breathe. There was definitely a type of gas being supplied into the room to keep the prisoners weak. I wondered how long someone could live in here, and if the dead prisoners were ever cleaned up.

I quickly pulled the cart out and Violet checked if there was anything missing. We started to walk through the rest of the aisle. Violet was pushing the cart, and Finn and I were walking. It turned out that the gas had weakened Finn while he was in the cell, but he quickly recovered his strength when he was out. His wound even stopped bleeding.

When we were almost out of the hallway, something was thrown towards me. It was hard and it hit my back sharply. I turned around to see what it was, and to my horror, it was a broken red toy car. I had forgotten about it completely.

"You promised me, Uncle Ego. You promised me." I twirled around to see where the voice was coming from. Was Giddy here? He couldn't be. A young child like him couldn't have done anything that would have gotten in this filthy place. Even though I wasn't quite close with Giddy, he was still no less than a brother to me. He was one of my... few friends.

"YOU PROMISED ME!" he screamed in my head.

It felt like the air was blown out of my stomach. Punching me square in the gut, Giddy's voice knocked me out of control. I covered my ears and crouched down on the floor. I closed my eyes and started whispering to him. I was overcome by the responsibility that I had to save all these people. It was like Giddy was speaking into my ear as a leader of all of the people inside the cells. "I'm sorry. I'll come back. I promise. I promise," I repeated.