The Captive ✔️ (#5 in the Our Side of The Dice series)

6. Burning Routes

Songs for this chapter are:

Closer - Goapele

Rat race - Andy mineo, Jon Bellion

Everything - Hulvey

Surrender - Natalie Taylor

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"Holy...sh..." Dan nearly cussed in a whisper but somehow, his voice had echoed through the room. My heart raced madly, I felt like It would stop pumping blood at a point. He looked at me pleadingly like he still had something left to do before jumping into the home with me.

The gun fired louder now. The loan shark was close. We did not have any more time. Oh God. I bit my lip hard in anxiety till it hurt.
"What do we do with the ropes? I don't want to leave anything in here." Dan asked me. That was such a foolish question.

"Throw the ropes into the fire, Dan!! Are you really asking me that?!" I rolled my eyes impatiently. Dan needs a big slap.

"I already did that." He winked with a smile on his face. This idiot really does have the time to joke at a moment like this. Such a nitwit!

He jumped into the hole at last. Then he held me firmly by the hand as we began to run down the tunnel. Thankfully the tunnel was wide and high enough to stay a little above Dan's head. It was very dark and my chest was still hurting but I clutched it hard, promising myself to get though with this before passing out or falling completely sick. I'm finally going to go home. I knew that even if I was out of the castle, I was still far away from home but I had faith in Dan to be able to take me home for some reason. He annoyed me a lot but he was nevertheless, reliable.

Dan, slowed down on his steps a little and so did I. Telling from the way, we were striding athletically, devouring the muddy ground beneath us by each thumping of the foot, I could ascertain that we were far war from the dungeon now but we still had a long way to go since the tunnel looked pretty much endless.

But another gun shot ran through the air. The loan shark was chasing after us.

"Oh shit. I forgot to cover the bike with the rag. Now the loan shark has definitely jumped into it and—"

"He already found out from his brother so that's irrelevant. He already knew. Is this why you slowed down from running? Come on now, we have to keep running!!" I pressed impatiently, my heart racing madly, that I could hear it.

We both were panting loudly in a husky unison, energy at it's peak and soon to diminish once it does not get a booster. Dan brought out a lighter from his pocket, something I had seen very frequently in my neighborhood from some mallams that smoked a lot by the old rusty caravan at the end of the third street. Then he lit the lighter and a small flicker of fire burned at the top. Then he looked at me briefly. "It's getting darker. We need some illumination." He said.

Another bullet ricocheted to our hearing. It sounded very much closer now. Dan gripped my hand fully and held the lighter in front of him with another hand as we began to run speedily, reenergizing ourselves with the last dose of our stamina. Oh God! I'm already on my way home, please let me get home safely. I thought of my family for a brief second and pictured the best reactions possible on each of their faces once I ran back home into their arms. A tear ran down my cheek. God, I've had enough.

But now, my chest was hurting more than I could bear and the gun was blasting through the air sporadically. I could not even see my foot as I ran, all I held on to was that small flicker of light from the lighter ahead of us but now, it seemed like it was that little source of illumination that was going to implicate us. But we could not put out the light.