Colored Hope

Chapter Two

Shouts were heard throughout the marketplace, both from the angry people and the Despair's guards chasing her. He felt hands grabbing at his clothing, trying to stop him at the guards' command, but he just shoved them off. Gunshots rang out, and the screams of those they hit when they were intended to hit him the worst part about it. The scent of the bread and the other treats that had been created to sell that had been long forgotten filled his nose. That and the scent of blood.

He took a left, running through a long line of the stalls that had been abandoned. His breathing was labored and he feared his knees would give out, but he could see the tree line now. He was close to the forest, where he would be able to lose the guards and return to the base. Just as he thought he would make it, he tripped. He felt hands grab him as he yelled out. "LET ME GO!" He knew they wouldn't and that he would have to put up a fight. As soon as he was going to swing a fist, he felt the cold metal of handcuffs around his wrists. He hung his head as he was thrown into the back of a truck.

***
Aleana paced around the small office-like room. There was a filing cabinet in the corner, open and revealing the folders and papers inside. It looked a little bit messy, but Aleana knew it was organized alphabetically. In the middle of the room, there was a desk made out of some sort of dark wood. It was smooth and had an old office chair behind it. It was black and looked like it was made out of leather. The chair was supporting many rips and tears through the back of it and the seat. It had wheels and spun as Aleana sat down in it quickly. On the other side of the desk, there were two old chairs, each of them having cushions to make sitting in them a little bit better.

On the left side of the desk, there were important-looking documents sitting neatly in a small pile. A pen was on top of the document at the top of the pile, the paperwork abandoned when Aleana grew restless. The top right corner had a small cup full of pens, pencils, markers, and others things like that. Next to it, facing the office chair, were some old photos of what looked like a younger version of Aleana and her family.

   Aleana sighed, picking up a ballpoint pen and pulling one of the papers off of the stack, going back to doing paperwork. She only got halfway through the first page before she stood up and started pacing again. She had no idea why she was being so paranoid something had happened all of a sudden.

  After an hour of doing paperwork and pacing, Aleana heard a knock.

  "Come in."
  The door opened to a dark brunette with caramel brown eyes. He was shaking, and he looked to be around the age of thirteen. Aleana recognized him as one of the messengers that met up with the spies to take what they had figured out and report it to the leaders and commanders. Before Aleana could ask why he was there, he spoke.

   "F-forgive me for intruding, Green Leader, but I was told t-to tell you that Commander Taylor has been c-captured..." His voice was shaky and he stuttered, but he stood up as tall as he could, trying to seem confident.

   Aleana captured her bottom lip between her teeth, something she did when she was thinking. After a few minutes, she spoke. "Tell the others we're planning a rescue mission."

***
   Commander Taylor felt the truck roll to a stop. He was pulled out of the back of the truck, and almost immediately afterwards, he was gagged and blindfolded. His hands were still handcuffed, and he decided not to fight, as it probably would not end well on his part.

   Taylor felt himself being dragged away from the truck by the guards who had blindfolded and gagged him. He heard a door opening before he was shoved through the door. He shivered as a burst of cold air hit him, in stark contrast to the hot summer air. With a guard on either side of him and one behind him, Taylor was pushed through what he assumed were hallways.

After what felt like ages, but what really could have only been five minutes, the handcuffs were taken off his wrists and he was harshly shoved to the cold, hard floor. A loud slam of what sounded like a door made out of iron or metal echoed throughout the hallways.

With shaky hands, Taylor undid the blindfold and removed the gagged. He blinked a little, even though there was very little lighting. Looking around, he concluded he was in a jail cell, and that the door that had been slammed was the door to his cell. The cell was made out of very big and strong stone. It looked like the cell had not been taken care of before he arrived. Dirt was in between the small indents in between each stone, and vines were growing from some of the higher rocks. There was no light source in the cell, and the only reason he could see was because of the light that peeked in from the bars in the middle of the door.

Taylor rose to his feet, legs shaking, as he cautiously stepped closer to the door. He looked out the bars, and from what he could see, there were more cells lining the hallway, each in the same condition that his was in. They were all empty, or had blood and bodies in them. He stepped away from the door at the sound of footsteps. They continued to grow louder until they stopped, right outside the door to Commander Taylor's cell...

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Words:1007

AAAAND there we go! It took two months to write that one chapter. ;-; I WAS going to continue the chapter past my usual word minimum(1000), but decided that this would be a good place to stop. ANNNYYYWAYS, chapter 3 is Laticia's to write.