Pride, Freedom, and Humanity

I cautiously began walking down the long tunnel with nothing, but the sound of my own
breathing. I could feel my heart pump harder when it felt like I had been walking for hours and hadn’t
found anything.

The light to my flashlight began to flicker and soon enough it was out. Now I had nothing but the
walls around me to follow. I placed my hand onto the cold wet dirt wall and walked along it.

What the hell was going on? Who was that guy up there? What did he mean by I was the one?
And when am I supposed to find these guards…?

“Who goes there,” I heard a deep voice call out behind me making me jump.

I quickly spun around and saw no one. Was I beginning to hear things?

“I said, who goes there?”

The hair on the back of my neck stood straight up when I still couldn’t find anyone. “Aaron sent
me.” I said aloud.

“Where is he?”

I paused and wrapped my arms around myself, “He told me to run while he distracted them…”

“Very well. King Ner will see you. Keep moving and he shall be sitting with his men.”

“Can you come out so I can see you?”

“No. Get moving.”

I sighed then turned around and continued my long walk of loneliness. How did they manage to
make a large tunnel under the prison without people knowing?

I heard men’s laughter getting louder and louder until I tripped over a rock and everything went
silent.

“What was that,” Someone whispered.

“Shh! They can hear you, Fool!”

“I’ve got the gun, I’ll go check it out.” I heard a click and then footsteps.

“Wait! I’m unarmed! Aaron sent me!” I held up my hands and instantly light was shined at me
from every direction.

“A female?”

“Aaron?”

“Where is Aaron, Girl?”

“He told me to run. I don’t know what happened.”

“What is a female doing here, Ner,” the smallest of the five figures dressed in black said.

“I do not know, James. We will find out though. Why would Aaron send her?”

“Brother, could she be the one?”

I cut in, “Aaron mentioned that you were looking for a woman who still had hope.”

“Did he mention anything else?”

“No…He was brief.”

“Tod, take James and rescue Aaron. We need answers!” The Ner guy demanded.

“Yes, Sir!” Two guys ran past me and into the darkness.

“You,” the tallest man pointed at me. “Come with me.”

I nodded and followed him even further into the tunnel. We reached a bunch of chairs sitting in
random spots and stopped.

“Please have a seat. I have questions and I’m sure that feeling is mutual,” he said to me while
motioning to a chair.

“What is this place?” I asked in awe. “And how as it made?”

He laughed,” How about I answer a question and then you answer a question?”

I frowned. “Let’s start after you answer mine.”

“My you are demanding. Very well, this place is headquarters so to speak. We didn’t build it.
This prison has hundreds of tunnels from attempted escape convicts. We only widened it up a bit so
that we could fit.”

I nodded. That made enough sense to be true.

“Why did Aaron send you?”

“He said that you were looking for a girl who—“

“No, why did he really send you Did you tend to his sexual needs?”

I glared at him. “No. I had only just met him before we escaped.”

“Before you escaped.” He pointed out.

I gritted my teeth and frowned, “Yeah.”

“I still don’t understand,” he murmured.

“You and I both. My turn, who are you people?”

“The resistance so to speak. After all of this happened it gave us a reason to rebel against the
King.” He shifted uncomfortably.

“What was your reason?”

“No, my turn. How old are you?”

“I am twenty-three.” I shrugged. “Not like it matters now.”

“Yes, I suppose it doesn’t.” I could see a smile through his mask.

“Will I ever see your face?”

“When I know I can trust you.”

“Right…” I mumbled.

“Well…” He stood up then offered a hand. “Shall we get you something to eat?”

My eyes widened, “You have food?”

“And wine.”

“What are you waiting for?”

I didn’t know what time it was so I didn’t know whether it was lunch or dinner, but the food was
absolutely amazing. A nice juicy hamburger on soft bread with a bowl of hot soup and two glasses of
a fine wine.

By the time I was full, the wine had made me extremely tipsy. I had never drunk alcohol before
and my weight was so low that I was a light weight drinker.

“I can’t believe you’re drunk already,” Lord Ner laughed.

“I’m not drunk!” I slurred.

“Sure you aren’t. Can I offer you another drink?”

“I’d rather not lose myself completely.” I leaned onto his shoulder and closed my eyes. This was
nice. Leaning into someone and not feeling lonely. I missed it.

“What’s your name?” He asked.

“Well in the prison it was 1020, but I prefer Chloe. What about yours?”

“William Ner.”

Why did that name sound familiar? Then it hit me. This couldn’t be the war hero could it? The
eighteen year old who saved ten lives in bomb accident.

“THE William Ner?”

I felt him move a little underneath me. “The one and only.” He nervously laughed.

“Wow. What an honor.” I sat up and shook his hand.

“None of that matters now…”

“Lord Ner! We found Aaron! He is wounded pretty badly, Sir!” The small one ran toward us. I
think his name was James.

“Tell Burt to get the medical kit and meet me there.”

“Yes, Sir!” James ran past us and disappeared.

“Let’s go see your hero, Chloe.” Then we both took off running in Aaron’s direction.

When we found him, Tod was holding a towel to his leg that was soaked in his blood and Aaron
was biting down on a belt to hold back his yelling.

“What the hell happened?” Ner was extremely pissed as he put pressure down on his leg.

I leaned down beside them and took the belt from Aaron’s mouth then tied it above his wound.
“He wanted to make it look like I did it to keep him safe too.” I had to black out his cries as I tried to
tighten the belt.

“Do you know what you’re doing?” William questioned me.

“For the most part. I was training to become a nurse before all of this…”

“You were?”

“Yes! Now where is that med kit? He missed arteries and everything else important. Sorry,
trying to keep it simple for you. The problem is he is losing blood.”

“I’ve got it right here!” James knelt down beside me and opened the large white box. I reached
in for alcohol and a needle and thread. I place the string through the needle and then poured alcohol
onto the needle to sterilize it. I carefully stitched up the wound and placed a wrap over it to help keep
it clean.

I glanced up at Aaron to find him passed out. “He can’t handle pain?”

“He is usually good about it. Are you going to cut the stitch?” Ner asked.

I laughed, “James or Tod can. I’m feeling really off right now.” I was referring to the alcohol.

His eyes widened at me. “And you just stitched him up?”

“Adrenaline…” I nervously laughed.

“She’s a nutcase,” James looked at Ner.

“James, she did better than any of us could’ve done and you know it.” Ner defended me.

“Ughh,” Aaron groaned before he opened his eyes and smiled at me. “Good job.”

I shrugged then stood up and pulled Ner to the side. “Act calm when I tell you this okay?”

He nodded and raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“Keep an eye on him at all times, but for now we need to get the hell out of here.”

“What? Why?”

“Turn Aaron on his back…If I’m right there will be a red glowing dot in his skin. It’s a tracking
device and a muscle soother. They use them to calm down patients.”

“Wouldn’t he have told us?”

“That’s the thing. They can sense brain waves and shock him when he thinks about things they
don’t want.”

“Like a shock collar?”

“Exactly.”

His hands went behind his head and he took a deep breath then looked at Aaron. “Can we take
it out?”

I turned around and pulled down my shirt to show him the scar I had from when I ripped it out.
They gave us chicken one night and I stole a bone. I sharpened it till it hurt to poke myself and finally
dug it out. The thing knew my intentions and shocked the hell out of me till I finally flicked it out.

“Did it hurt?”

“I’ve been through worse, but yes. It’s painful.”

“Well, let’s check. Tod flip Aaron over his stomach.”

“Brother, why?”

“Do as I say.”

“Yes, Sir. Sorry, Aaron.”

Aaron groaned in pain as he was rolled over. When I saw a patch of dried blood on his shirt, I
knew that I was right.

I took the scalpel from my pocket and tore his shirt in two. That’s when he started struggling.
His elbow came back and slammed into my face as he tried to roll over. I grabbed my nose to make
sure it wasn’t bleeding before recuperating.

“Hold him down!” I screamed as I straddled his back.

James and Tod were now his arms while Ner sat on both his legs. I quickly pulled apart his shirt
and found the red flashing light beside his shoulder blade I took a deep breath before digging the
small knife into his back and trying to remove the chip.

“No! Stop, please! It hurts!” He cried out.

When I pulled it out, his body fell limp under me. The chip was sending short shocks through my
hand as I stood up. “Put this on the wall.”

“Why not destroy it?” James said as he tried to cover the cut I just made.

“You destroy this and they will send people in right away because they know we know. If we
leave it, it will buy us some time.”

“What do you mean? What is that?” Tod asked as he took it from my hand.

“I’ll explain later,” I quickly said. “Pack up, we need to go.” I looked at Ner.

“You heard her, Man! Move it,” He yelled.

Everyone quickly moved their feet and disappeared into the darkness. Ner offered me a hand
and pulled me up then smiled.

“Nice job.”

I shrugged, “Don’t you need to pack?”

His smile widened as he opened up his jacket to reveal hundreds of weapons. Small knives,
guns, grenades, etc. He had it all.

“Isn’t that heavy?”

“Not when you’re used to it. Come on, let’s go.” He said as he pulled Aaron up and swung him
onto his shoulders. He had definitely been in the army.

We started jogging down the tunnel, meeting with members and moving on. Within two minutes
there were at least fifteen other guys following us with bags hanging on their backs.

“Manuel, set up a trigger bomb right here then meet up with us. Chloe, take his pack so he can
move faster.”

One of the masked men in the back nodded then handed me his bag. I slid it on and gasped at
how heavy it was. What did he pack?

Suddenly a loud beeping noise came from Ner’s pocket and everything froze.

“Let’s move,” He yelled!