Seven (Completed)

CHAPTER 8 ~ Girls

'That's not what we're asking you to do,' she said, desperate to calm him down.

'Then what do you want me to do?' he asked again and stood up.

'We want you to take the girls in your group and make sure the whole pack leaves the dome soon enough,' his father said, setting a hand on his shoulder. 'That's all.'

'Carlos, you can take all the time you want to reflect. We'd be glad to answer any question we can. We still have an hour left,' his mother told him.

Carlos sat back down and held her hand again. 'There are no more questions. I know what to do now. I'll get them out of here.'

***

The children had formed a line and were standing there, patiently yet nervously, as each one of them had a go on the punching bag for about ten minutes.

It was the third of Victor's fighting lessons and he stood there, beaming in pride as his "students" let all their anger and power out. Sonia looked at the red bag that just hung there, resembling an empty corpse covered in red spray-paint, like those sprays the guards used to mark off-limit territories. Red like the message she had seen sprayed all over the teachers' office the previous day. Sonia felt sick to her stomach.

Carlos was up next. He smiled, confident that his hits would be successful. And indeed, they were. Carlos kept his left fist covering his face and let the other one hit the bag over and over again. They could all tell he was letting off steam, using up all his energy, his muscles relaxing as he moved around. However, none of them expected Carlos to be naturally gifted at something, even if that was throwing himself at a bag that was swinging from the ceiling.

Ten minutes had passed. Victor congratulated Carlos for his successful try and made way for Edith to stand against the red punching bag. Everyone's mouths dropped. There was no way in the world that Edith would throw a punch, let alone hit the targeted object.

Her knees were shaking and she felt everyone's eyes on her back. Even Victor smirked and that made her feel extremely uncomfortable.

'Don't just stand there!' he said and Edith pressed her lips to a line.

Her right fist punched the bag but it barely moved. She tried again and again until she decided to switch hands. That did not do much either. Victor's words relieved her frustration even though she knew he was doing her a favour.

'Time's up,' he said though it had only been four minutes.

***

The room felt colder even though that was definitely not the first time the students had gathered there. It was probably due to the recent turn of events, at least that was what Sonia thought as she walked in, avoiding to look into their eyes.

'Now that you've arrived ... I need to make things clear.' Anne begun to speak and everyone's ears were gripped onto her words. 'That book we found so helpful, it was written by the librarian to ... "help us",' she said in sarcasm. 'She wants something in return and we can take the book with us.' Anne gave the rest of the pack less than a minute and then went on. 'She wants us to come back for her son. If we come back, that is,' she concluded.

Carlos was the first to speak after Anne. 'And what happens if we don't?'

'Well, in that case, she's gonna reveal our plans and we're done for,' she answered casually. 'I promised we will do as she asked. We won't, of course,' she replied and the words came out sharp and cold like ice, completely opposed to Anne's usual voice tone.

Edith's arm twitched. 'Are you okay with this? The poor woman sounds desperate to me,' she said with a little voice and everyone looked at her with disbelief and a hint of disappointment.