Sold Away (26)
Rescued.
Caden: Ruler of Zone 3, the most powerful in the world
Carlita: Caden's wife, a girl trapped in a prison zone that a team has assembled to rescue
Napua: Fashion model that is part of the guise for why the team is there
Sora: Carlita's sister, a trained assassin in Zone 33 (the prison colony)
Homer: A boy Carlita met in Zone 33
Celise: A 12 yr old who was part of the family Carlita was staying with
Jason: Part of the rescue team
Ebanis: Evil leader of Zone 33
Synopsis for Sara: Homer and Carlita are trapped outside in the freezing cold of Zone 33's outside, formerly known as Antarctica. Homer has lost consciousness. Sora and Caden are running around in the simulated rooms of the prison and Napua and Celise are hiding in a dressing room. Jason just got done killing a prisoner that Ebanis sent to kill all of them and Ebanis is looking for him, right after throwing Homer and Carlita into the cold to die. Caden isn't even supposed to be there but he sneaked into the prison zone to help rescue Carlita, when he accidentally ran into Sora, Carlita's sister that no one except Jason knew existed.
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Barely able to stand, I summoned energy like fire in my bones, stood, grabbed him and wrapped his arms around my neck. He was still breathing, but I don't think he was conscious. He was too cold. I went onward, struggling. It was a horrible struggle. Breath came like daggers to my nose and mouth, each step was painful, and he was heavy for such a wimpy looking kid. Sweat began to trickle down my face and inside my suit, and as I stamped on fiery needles pierced my feet and even my fingers as they came alive again under the warmth of me moving, exerting energy to uphold me and Homer.
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There was no way she could have known the 'outside' was actually just a simulation of one. Ebanis grinned as he watched the hapless couple struggling through the ice. He requested the program to drop 10 degrees lower and then looked at a different screen to check on Jackal's status. The signal had disappeared and Ebanis's perfect brow furrowed. This was worrisome. None of the personnel reported seeing him or the Tibetan boy and Ebanis turned the lights back on and left the control room to find him.
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We burst through the freezer door into an ice storm. For a second my guide looked around anxiously, her black hair whipping in the wind. We saw them at the same time, the person stumbling towards us with a human burden on her back. She fell and suddenly I was sprinting forward, all pain forgotten. The girl was right behind me as I hauled Carlita to her feet and hugged her close, feeling how cold she'd gotten. I forgot to look at the person she'd been carrying, forgot about the black-haired girl as familiar gray-brown eyes looked into mine.
"Caden?" She whispered. I held her close and rocked and her face was buried in my chest. "You got thrown outside too?" Her ears were bright red from the cold, and I knew soon she'd be irreversibly damaged from frostbite. Her friend probably already was.
"It's not the outside." The other girl said. "This is another simulation. And that's the way out." She pointed to what appeared to be black water in a crack in the ice. "But you stay here with them. I'll go and I'll find a way to open the door. Because this is the last part of the program." I didn't reply, I was still looking at the person for which I'd traveled this far to collect. I didn't watch her dive into the shockingly cold water. We sank down in the snow together, her trembling violently.
"Help us." She murmured, and reached out frozen hands to the boy lying beside us. I helped her drag him closer, but he was dead weight. I was afraid he was already gone. "I can see him breathing." She whispered and made me help her put him in a sitting position between us.
"This isn't exactly how I thought being reunited would go, with us sandwiching another man." I joked, but she didn't laugh, only reached around the boy with her arms and legs to tuck her hands into my sleeves and bury her face in his neck.
"We won't last much longer." She murmured, no energy left even to be glad to see me. I looked around, but the other girl was gone.
************************************************************
Jason left Jackal's body behind and ran all the way to the rocketships. No one was there, only Fox's team, waiting. He ran back without them, desperate to find out where Carlita went. Not knowing what else to do he went back to where he started, the main room. It was lit again and disconcertingly quiet, everyone having exited the building. He looked around and saw the lithe figure of Ebanis exiting the control center, thankfully not looking in his direction. Keeping deathly still, he watched as the enforcer walked into Napua's room. Then he sprang towards the control center and entered. He was greeted by a vast array of screens, and after frantically searching all of them, recognized Caden's big shape in the center of a simulation room set on freeze. Zooming in he saw Carlita's face bent over her friend, eyes shut and face a frost-bitten white.
"How do I do this, how do I..." Jason scrabbled around the panel in a panic, trying to get the control room to shut down the simulation. "Shut down!" He yelled. "Turn off! Quit!"
"I'm sorry. I do not recognize your voice." The computer mocked him. Panicked with fear and a sense of urgency, Jason snapped. He whipped out the blaster he'd taken from Jackal, and after struggling it into position with his one good hand, he fired it point-blank into the screen. The computer screamed as it died, an electronic, eerie wail. Jason fired at all the screens, all the control panels, and then taking the crowbar he'd also lifted from Jackal, he smashed up the remaining parts of the room.
Not too far away, Caden watched as the blowing wind and snow abruptly shut off and left them in what felt like a dark, empty room. Inside his sleeves Carlita's frozen hands began to warm, and the boy they were keeping alive between them stirred.
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Not knowing what to do, Napua had gone back to her room.
A child's frightened voice piped up in the dark, startling her, "What's going on?"
Napua hastened over to the girl's chair and laid a hand on her shoulder. "I don't know, we'll figure something out though." She tried to answer the girl's questions while pondering what to do. Was she going to be tried as a traitor, a spy, and be hung? She shivered. Then the lights came on, and she heard footsteps. "Quick, get in here!" She stashed the girl in her closet behind the fashion show clothes and turned just as the door slid open and Ebanis strode into the room.
She shrank back as the full force of his gaze enveloped her, like a snake locking into its prey. "Are you here alone?" He snarled. "Where are the other two?"
"W-what other two?" As soon as the words left her mouth she realized, he must be the one who'd communicated with the man who attacked them. "I don't know where they are!" She gasped as he suddenly sprang forward and grabbed her arm.
"Don't lie to me, I -" He paused and inhaled deeply. "There's someone else here, isn't there?" He asked, and looked towards the closet. "The perfume was covering up the scent but it moved and I can smell..." He let go of her and stepped toward it. Though it was relief not to be the focus of his attention, Napua felt a new surge of fear. He'd said to have the soldier kill her and Carlita, what would this crazy man do to the child?
Fighting against her need for self-preservation she dug her nails into his shoulder. A vicious backhanded blow knocked her to the ground and she screamed as he drew back his fist. At that second, the door slid open a second time and Ebanis whirled again as Jason entered the room with blaster drawn. With lightening speed Ebanis kicked the weapon out of the younger man's hand and tackled him to the ground, pinning him to the floor. The tiny room erupted into chaos as yet another person entered, a girl with long black hair and jumped into the fray. She grabbed the crowbar just as Ebanis lifted it to crack Jason's skull and forced him to let go with a blow to the armpit. Holding the wounded Jason down with one arm Ebanis swept his legs around to trip up Sora but she skipped over them and brought the metal rod down twice, once on his spine and the other on his head. Ebanis collapsed, blood pouring from where she hit him. Quickly Sora and Napua pushed him off Jason and they helped the injured boy up. Napua took Celise out of the closet and, covering the girl's eyes with her hands, led her out of the room followed by Sora and Jason.
Without saying much the four of them left the bleeding Ebanis behind in the dressing room and ran across the large main room back into the hallway. Napua covered Celise's eyes again as they crossed over where Jackal lay dead and hurried on to where Carlita met Ebanis. The hatch door was open and three people stood outside it. Carlita, her hands buried in her armpits, Caden, with his arms wrapped around her and Homer, leaning unsteadily against the wall.
"This boy needs medical attention." Caden said, "But he said he can walk and he'll escort that little girl to where they both need to go. Now we have to leave." He took Carlita by the shoulder and steered her towards the exit, leaving Homer and leading the way for the rest of them. Napua paused to put the little girl's hand in Homer's before following.
"Who are you?" Carlita asked a little numbly, noticing for the first time her sister.
"My name is Sora." She said.
Caden reached a hand backwards to envelope hers. "You're coming with us, Sora. This is your sister, Carlita." He looked at Jason as they reached the hanger. "Where's Fox?"
"Dead." Jason said. They were able to fit four into two rocketships and two in the last. Napua went into a rocketship with the woman from Fox's team and Jason, Sora, Carlita and Caden got in the last. They quickly donned suits and got in, and Caden strapped in next to Carlita.
"You're finally coming home." He told her, through their communicators. She turned to him and smiled, a sad, tired smile.
"Finally."
He began coughing, hard. "There's something I need to tell you." He said, and as her eyes widened he let her know the name of the autoimmune disease his doctors said he had. "I only have a few more years to live, but I want to spend them with you."
"I had that." Sora said calmly. "Ebanis made it go away." As the rocketships fired up and everyone was pushed down into their seats, Caden and Carlita looked at each other. Jason and Sora looked at each other, and Jason winked. They knew without saying they would someday return to Zone 33 for Carlita and Sora's brother and for the cure to Caden's sickness.
From outside the prison facility Homer and Celise watched the rockets take off with twin sets of jets blazing smoke across the harsh, Antarctic sky.
The end.
Carlita: Caden's wife, a girl trapped in a prison zone that a team has assembled to rescue
Napua: Fashion model that is part of the guise for why the team is there
Sora: Carlita's sister, a trained assassin in Zone 33 (the prison colony)
Homer: A boy Carlita met in Zone 33
Celise: A 12 yr old who was part of the family Carlita was staying with
Jason: Part of the rescue team
Ebanis: Evil leader of Zone 33
Synopsis for Sara: Homer and Carlita are trapped outside in the freezing cold of Zone 33's outside, formerly known as Antarctica. Homer has lost consciousness. Sora and Caden are running around in the simulated rooms of the prison and Napua and Celise are hiding in a dressing room. Jason just got done killing a prisoner that Ebanis sent to kill all of them and Ebanis is looking for him, right after throwing Homer and Carlita into the cold to die. Caden isn't even supposed to be there but he sneaked into the prison zone to help rescue Carlita, when he accidentally ran into Sora, Carlita's sister that no one except Jason knew existed.
************************************************************
Barely able to stand, I summoned energy like fire in my bones, stood, grabbed him and wrapped his arms around my neck. He was still breathing, but I don't think he was conscious. He was too cold. I went onward, struggling. It was a horrible struggle. Breath came like daggers to my nose and mouth, each step was painful, and he was heavy for such a wimpy looking kid. Sweat began to trickle down my face and inside my suit, and as I stamped on fiery needles pierced my feet and even my fingers as they came alive again under the warmth of me moving, exerting energy to uphold me and Homer.
************************************************************
There was no way she could have known the 'outside' was actually just a simulation of one. Ebanis grinned as he watched the hapless couple struggling through the ice. He requested the program to drop 10 degrees lower and then looked at a different screen to check on Jackal's status. The signal had disappeared and Ebanis's perfect brow furrowed. This was worrisome. None of the personnel reported seeing him or the Tibetan boy and Ebanis turned the lights back on and left the control room to find him.
************************************************************
We burst through the freezer door into an ice storm. For a second my guide looked around anxiously, her black hair whipping in the wind. We saw them at the same time, the person stumbling towards us with a human burden on her back. She fell and suddenly I was sprinting forward, all pain forgotten. The girl was right behind me as I hauled Carlita to her feet and hugged her close, feeling how cold she'd gotten. I forgot to look at the person she'd been carrying, forgot about the black-haired girl as familiar gray-brown eyes looked into mine.
"Caden?" She whispered. I held her close and rocked and her face was buried in my chest. "You got thrown outside too?" Her ears were bright red from the cold, and I knew soon she'd be irreversibly damaged from frostbite. Her friend probably already was.
"It's not the outside." The other girl said. "This is another simulation. And that's the way out." She pointed to what appeared to be black water in a crack in the ice. "But you stay here with them. I'll go and I'll find a way to open the door. Because this is the last part of the program." I didn't reply, I was still looking at the person for which I'd traveled this far to collect. I didn't watch her dive into the shockingly cold water. We sank down in the snow together, her trembling violently.
"Help us." She murmured, and reached out frozen hands to the boy lying beside us. I helped her drag him closer, but he was dead weight. I was afraid he was already gone. "I can see him breathing." She whispered and made me help her put him in a sitting position between us.
"This isn't exactly how I thought being reunited would go, with us sandwiching another man." I joked, but she didn't laugh, only reached around the boy with her arms and legs to tuck her hands into my sleeves and bury her face in his neck.
"We won't last much longer." She murmured, no energy left even to be glad to see me. I looked around, but the other girl was gone.
************************************************************
Jason left Jackal's body behind and ran all the way to the rocketships. No one was there, only Fox's team, waiting. He ran back without them, desperate to find out where Carlita went. Not knowing what else to do he went back to where he started, the main room. It was lit again and disconcertingly quiet, everyone having exited the building. He looked around and saw the lithe figure of Ebanis exiting the control center, thankfully not looking in his direction. Keeping deathly still, he watched as the enforcer walked into Napua's room. Then he sprang towards the control center and entered. He was greeted by a vast array of screens, and after frantically searching all of them, recognized Caden's big shape in the center of a simulation room set on freeze. Zooming in he saw Carlita's face bent over her friend, eyes shut and face a frost-bitten white.
"How do I do this, how do I..." Jason scrabbled around the panel in a panic, trying to get the control room to shut down the simulation. "Shut down!" He yelled. "Turn off! Quit!"
"I'm sorry. I do not recognize your voice." The computer mocked him. Panicked with fear and a sense of urgency, Jason snapped. He whipped out the blaster he'd taken from Jackal, and after struggling it into position with his one good hand, he fired it point-blank into the screen. The computer screamed as it died, an electronic, eerie wail. Jason fired at all the screens, all the control panels, and then taking the crowbar he'd also lifted from Jackal, he smashed up the remaining parts of the room.
Not too far away, Caden watched as the blowing wind and snow abruptly shut off and left them in what felt like a dark, empty room. Inside his sleeves Carlita's frozen hands began to warm, and the boy they were keeping alive between them stirred.
************************************************************
Not knowing what to do, Napua had gone back to her room.
A child's frightened voice piped up in the dark, startling her, "What's going on?"
Napua hastened over to the girl's chair and laid a hand on her shoulder. "I don't know, we'll figure something out though." She tried to answer the girl's questions while pondering what to do. Was she going to be tried as a traitor, a spy, and be hung? She shivered. Then the lights came on, and she heard footsteps. "Quick, get in here!" She stashed the girl in her closet behind the fashion show clothes and turned just as the door slid open and Ebanis strode into the room.
She shrank back as the full force of his gaze enveloped her, like a snake locking into its prey. "Are you here alone?" He snarled. "Where are the other two?"
"W-what other two?" As soon as the words left her mouth she realized, he must be the one who'd communicated with the man who attacked them. "I don't know where they are!" She gasped as he suddenly sprang forward and grabbed her arm.
"Don't lie to me, I -" He paused and inhaled deeply. "There's someone else here, isn't there?" He asked, and looked towards the closet. "The perfume was covering up the scent but it moved and I can smell..." He let go of her and stepped toward it. Though it was relief not to be the focus of his attention, Napua felt a new surge of fear. He'd said to have the soldier kill her and Carlita, what would this crazy man do to the child?
Fighting against her need for self-preservation she dug her nails into his shoulder. A vicious backhanded blow knocked her to the ground and she screamed as he drew back his fist. At that second, the door slid open a second time and Ebanis whirled again as Jason entered the room with blaster drawn. With lightening speed Ebanis kicked the weapon out of the younger man's hand and tackled him to the ground, pinning him to the floor. The tiny room erupted into chaos as yet another person entered, a girl with long black hair and jumped into the fray. She grabbed the crowbar just as Ebanis lifted it to crack Jason's skull and forced him to let go with a blow to the armpit. Holding the wounded Jason down with one arm Ebanis swept his legs around to trip up Sora but she skipped over them and brought the metal rod down twice, once on his spine and the other on his head. Ebanis collapsed, blood pouring from where she hit him. Quickly Sora and Napua pushed him off Jason and they helped the injured boy up. Napua took Celise out of the closet and, covering the girl's eyes with her hands, led her out of the room followed by Sora and Jason.
Without saying much the four of them left the bleeding Ebanis behind in the dressing room and ran across the large main room back into the hallway. Napua covered Celise's eyes again as they crossed over where Jackal lay dead and hurried on to where Carlita met Ebanis. The hatch door was open and three people stood outside it. Carlita, her hands buried in her armpits, Caden, with his arms wrapped around her and Homer, leaning unsteadily against the wall.
"This boy needs medical attention." Caden said, "But he said he can walk and he'll escort that little girl to where they both need to go. Now we have to leave." He took Carlita by the shoulder and steered her towards the exit, leaving Homer and leading the way for the rest of them. Napua paused to put the little girl's hand in Homer's before following.
"Who are you?" Carlita asked a little numbly, noticing for the first time her sister.
"My name is Sora." She said.
Caden reached a hand backwards to envelope hers. "You're coming with us, Sora. This is your sister, Carlita." He looked at Jason as they reached the hanger. "Where's Fox?"
"Dead." Jason said. They were able to fit four into two rocketships and two in the last. Napua went into a rocketship with the woman from Fox's team and Jason, Sora, Carlita and Caden got in the last. They quickly donned suits and got in, and Caden strapped in next to Carlita.
"You're finally coming home." He told her, through their communicators. She turned to him and smiled, a sad, tired smile.
"Finally."
He began coughing, hard. "There's something I need to tell you." He said, and as her eyes widened he let her know the name of the autoimmune disease his doctors said he had. "I only have a few more years to live, but I want to spend them with you."
"I had that." Sora said calmly. "Ebanis made it go away." As the rocketships fired up and everyone was pushed down into their seats, Caden and Carlita looked at each other. Jason and Sora looked at each other, and Jason winked. They knew without saying they would someday return to Zone 33 for Carlita and Sora's brother and for the cure to Caden's sickness.
From outside the prison facility Homer and Celise watched the rockets take off with twin sets of jets blazing smoke across the harsh, Antarctic sky.
The end.
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