Song - High Enough (K.FLay)
"Great idea Thomas... here what the man has to say. Really working out for us," Minho grumbled.
The blood rushing to my head made my vision blurry and hearing foggy. I wanted to punch Minho in the arm but could not reach with my feet tied up to the roof and body dangling over an at least fifty-metre drop. I wriggled, trying to give my brain some relief.
"Shut up Minho," I hissed.
"Maybe I can reach the rope," Tom suggested while using all his body strength to try and lift his upper body up to his feet. After a few exhausted grunts he fell back down to be vertical.
"Enjoying the view?" Jorge sang out from the level beside us.
"What the hell do you want?" Thomas snarled.
"That is the question... my men want to sell you to Wicked. Life has taught them to think small... I'm not like that," He claimed.
"Is it the blood that's rushing to my head or is this shank not making any sense?" Minho huffed.
I rolled my eyes.
"Tell me what you know about the right arm," He ordered.
"I thought you said they were ghosts?" Newt questioned from beside me.
"I happen to believe in ghosts," He smirked, "Especially when I hear them chattering on the airwaves,"
He waltzed over to the lever that was hoisting all of us to the roof. He wrapped his hand around the handle.
"You tell what you know now, and maybe we can make a deal," He suggested.
"We don't know much," Tom admitted. Jorge raised an eyebrow before pushing the lever forward.
We all screamed as we dropped a meter down.
"Hey!" I yelled as the shock of the drop made my bones shake.
"Okay! Okay, all right. They're hiding in the mountains. And they attacked Wicked. They got out a bunch of kids. That's it. That's all we know," Thomas pleaded.
Jorge opened his mouth to respond but another male voice echoed through the room.
"Yo, Jorge,"
A gigantic man with arms and legs like tree trunks walked into the room,
"What's going on?" The man looked suspiciously around the room at us.
"Me and my new friends were just getting acquainted. We're done now," Jorge snarled.
"Hey, wait, you're not going to help us?" I scowled. He sneered in return.
"Don't worry hermana, we'll get you back to where you belong,"
He waltzed away, leaving the man behind, but gave one last passing thought,
"Hang tight,"
My blood boiled and the other man gave us one last sneer before stalking down the stairs.
We hung in silence for a moment. Then I sighed,
"Well fuck me,"
"You ready El?" Thomas asked
"Yep, just do it," I responded, preparing myself for the movement.
After much bickering and trial and error, we finally found a possible way out. If Thomas passed me to Minho and then Minho pushed me as hard as he could towards the edge, I could just reach a bar close to the lever.
Thomas grabbed my hand and swung me towards Minho. He caught me around the middle.
"Gotcha," He murmured while spinning me around, "Okay, one, two, three,"
He used all his body strength to push me towards the lever, I tried to shift my body to gain more momentum but as I reached as far as I could to try and grab the bar, I fell a few centimetres short.
I grunted in exasperation,
"Ah!" Minho huffed.
"Shit," Tom cursed.
"Come on, let's go again. We can do this," I maintained.
"Okay... Thomas, push her over here," Minho instructed.
Thomas grabbed my hand and swung me over to him once more.
"Let's try this again," I affirmed, "One, two three,"
Minho pushed with a grunt... but I fell short once more.
"Fuck!" I cursed while swinging back towards the others.
"Come on Minho, push her harder!" Newt encouraged.
"I'm pushing as hard as I can considering I got struck by lighting thirty fucking minutes ago!" he hissed.
"Shut it Minho, just push me!" I barked.
"Okay, this is it," Minho breathed, "One, two three!" Minho pushed me with a loud grunt of exertion and with the momentum, I could just grab hold of the bar.
"Yes!" The boys shouted as I flipped myself around.
"Ella, hurry!" Tom shouted.
I reached for the handle and pulled it all the way down, causing a chorus of roars from the boys and Teresa as they fell further to the ground but I fell just onto the floor beneath me. I began untying the rope around my ankle as fast as I could.
Once I was free and found my feet I reached for the closest rope and used all my strength to heave them up onto the ground. Thomas hoisted himself up and I helped him untie his feet.
And then we heard the booming voice from outside and helicopter chopping that made my blood boil with rage.
"Good evening! This is the World Catastrophe Killzone Department! We have your compound completely surrounded!"
"Shit!" I cursed while finishing up Thomas's rope. I'm so done. Done with Janson. And Wicked. And my friends being in danger every minute of every day. Them being taken from me. My new found energy made my hands move quickly on Thomas. Once he was free, he scrambled to his feet,
"Hang on guys!" he shouted while reaching for Newt's rope first. I reached for Minho's rope next.
"You find yourselves through no fault of your own in possession of Wicked Property! Return them to us unharmed. Return them to us unharmed and we'll consider this a simple misunderstanding.
"Quickly guys!" Frypan stressed.
"Or you can resist... and every last one of you will die. It won't be long before the Flare wipes out the rest of us. The hope of a cure lies in your hands. The choice is yours..."
I ignored Janson while finishing up Teresa's feet. She's remained completely silent during everything but especially now she looks deep in thought at Janson's words. I bent down next to her and pulled my mouth close to her ear.
"Teresa, he's lying to try and draw us out. Come on, we have to hurry," I whispered harshly into her ear. She looked up at me and nodded. I rubbed her shoulder while giving her a smile and hoisting her up.
"Come on let's go!" I yelled while helping Newt pull up Aris. Once he was free, everyone was done.
Thomas ran around the hole and grabbed Newt by the arm,
"Okay! Okay, let's go!" He yelled while we headed for the door but was stopped by a gun pointing at us. The man from before.
We froze in fear and Newt grabbed my hand to pull me behind him and Thomas, millimeter by millimeter. The man smiled devilishly while moving towards us,
"We're not trying to cause any trouble, okay? We just got to get out of here," Thomas pleaded to the man.
"Is that so?" He snarled. Newt's grasp tightened around my hand as the man brought a walkie-talkie to his mouth, "Janson, I got 'em for ya. I'm bringing 'em down, don't shoot us,"
The man had the gun only a few inches from Thomas's chest.
"Come on, let's go," He barked. I remained still like the others. Thomas would think of something.
"I said, let's go!"
Thomas took a tiny step forward.
I saw a flurry of motion and then heard the gun shot. He had disarmed the man with surprise. He tried to tug the gun out of the man's hand and head-butted him but the man ripped him off. Thomas ran back to be in front of the rest of us. Putting his body as much as he could before ours.
"You little bastard!"
BANG!
Newt jumped in front of me, ripping himself from Tom's grasp. Everyone looked around to see who had taken the bullet, but I looked up at Newt's terrified face.
"Newt," I whispered, he looked down at me still breathing heavily. My breath caught in my throat and suddenly, I wanted to tell him right there and then. We could die any minute. And he wouldn't have known. And yet he still was prepared to die for me-
"I have to tell you something-" I started grabbing onto the sides of his arms when I heard somebody collapse. I spun, remembering where we were, and saw not any of our friends, but the man, fall to the ground. Revealing the girl from before with a gun in her hand. She had shot the man. Her chest heaved rapidly.
"Okay come on," She ordered while motioning her head to the door.
None of us moved as she took a few steps toward the door. She spun to see us still in our place.
"Come on! Let's go!" She barked while running out the door.
Thomas glanced at Newt. Newt nodded. And he bolted after the girl. Newt followed behind him, pulling me along with him. The others followed behind us.