I hope y’all didn’t think that was the last chapter :) I should really be reading but I decided to update all my stories at once before I disappear off the planet while I scramble to finish my AP US History summer assignment which means do eight, page long journals about All the President’s Men.  I have four done, working on the fifth.  Thank God I had a choice about what journals I could do because I chose the easiest :P (who doesn’t?) and then I also have been nicknamed “Gator Girl” by my friends after about six guys lifted my arms and legs and attempted to throw me in a pool.  I death-rolled them like and alligator and they dropped me.  It was freaking epic!  Oh and then I kicked them and all you heard was this loud SMACK!

Quote of the Chapter:

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step and a lot of bitching.”

~Unknown

___________________________________________

AWOL

Blaze 

June 1, 2011…

I couldn’t believe where I was today.  I, along with my squadron, Cassie and Genette, were the President’s personal assistants (I guess that is what you could call it).  He would consult us about an idea of his and we would give our honest opinion about it.  He would give us jobs to do, mainly touring bases and making sure everything was in order.  Then, we were also given assignments.  Right now, we had one.  I was attempting to get us, or at least me, another one.  Of course, if I went somewhere out of the immediate vicinity of Oured, someone had to go with me for my protection.  That’s what happens when you work for the president and have the same level of security clearance as him, a.k.a. the highest clearance possible.  My whole squadron, my brother, Cassie, Pops, and Andersen had it too.  Geller even received some clearance but he had gone home to his wife and kid right after the war.  He had come back yesterday but I hadn’t seen him yet.  He was coming today though.

The Grabacr and Ofnir squadrons had been found swimming towards Oured about one hundred miles away.  They were exhausted but from what I heard, they put up one hell of a fight against the Coast Guards that captured them.  They were currently in the highest security prison on Devil’s Island off the coast of Miramar about two miles out.  The island was aptly named seeing as how they sent the worst criminals and people there (i.e. mass murderers, traitors, enemy aces, etc.).

I rocked back in my chair as I listened to President Harling go on about going to Sand Island.  I scowled inwardly at the name just because it was the place that had been the epicenter of most of the problems that had caused my squadron and me to be branded traitors.

“I’m sending in a team of people to search through everything there: computer files, computer searches, papers, everything.  We need to see how many people were involved with the Belkans and what their jobs were,” President Harling said.

“Let us go in; we’ll know what we’re supposed to be looking for,” I spoke up.  My friends backed me up. “Besides, I would like nothing more than to search the Base Commander’s office.”

I glanced at my friends and it took them barely a second to know what I was thinking of.  That made us all start giggling.

With a sigh, Harling agreed. “Fly in fighter jets just in case you’re greeted with enemies although I don’t think that will happen.  However, it’s better to be safe than sorry.  You leave tomorrow with the group of soldiers.  I’ll inform General Lassiter.  I’ll see you later.”

We stood up and saluted Harling, a habit he had never been able to break us out of.  He returned it and walked out.

“I could really use some donuts now,” Grimm admitted.

With a grin, I said, “We have time to kill before Pixy, Cipher, and Geller get here.  I say we go get some!”

When no one objected, the six of us bolted out of the room, pushing the others out of the way to get to the door first.  Triumphantly, I hollered as I reached the door first.  But then someone grabbed me from behind and pulled me away, letting Nagase get it first.  I whirled around to see Genette smirking.

“You suck,” I muttered.  The six of us walked down the street to Shipley’s Donuts, the best donut shop in Oured, probably Osea in general.  I ordered two dozen chocolate munckins (don’t judge, it was noon and I hadn’t eaten anything!), which are pretty much donut balls.  They’re amazingly delicious.  Nagase and Genette split a box of a half-dozen chocolate-glazed donuts while Grimm, Cassie, and Snow shared a dozen strawberry-glazed donuts.  We also got some coffee drinks; my drink was a frappacino actually because I don’t like straight coffee.  It tastes disgusting to me.  Cassie and Grimm pretty much lived off the stuff which didn’t help their already hyper demeanor.

Once we were finished, we walked back to Versailles.  Pixy and Cipher were just entering the building right as we reached the door.

“Perfect timing!” Cassie exclaimed.

“She’s had about three cups of coffee so she’s a bit hyper,” I explained.

“God help us,” Genette added, earning him a smack upside the head by Cassie.

Cipher looked at my outfit and with a droll look, said, “Blaze, this is not a fashion show.”

“What?” I demanded innocently.  I had on a one shouldered, dark purple-red dress and some pewter colored flats along with a black leather aviator jacket.  My aviator sunglasses were on my head.  I saw absolutely nothing wrong with the outfit.  Rolling his eyes, my uncles said nothing but just walked in.  Guys did not understand fashion…

“Anything new with Rald?” Genette asked.

“Besides millions of emails from people saying they saw him, no.  Nothing new,” Pixy answered casually.

“What about y’all?  Anything new?” Cipher inquired.

“Nothing about Rald but we’re going back to Sand Island tomorrow to find anything that might help us figure out the loose ends in the whole Belkan plot for world domination or whatever the hell they were after,” I explained.  Pixy and Cipher stopped dead in their tracks.

“Is it safe for y’all to go there?” Cipher demanded.

“Of course.  Besides, we’ll have a lot of soldiers joining us.  I think there are about fifty total, not including us.  You have nothing to worry about,” I assured.  My uncle looked dubious but didn’t comment any further.  We walked up to the computer room which we had pretty much taken complete control over.  There were eight computers in there, one for each of us.  They were all on their own little desk.  In the center of the room there was a big table, scattered with photos we had received of Rald look-alikes and locations he had supposedly been spotted.  There were also journal articles about Rald, actual pictures of the guy from when he was at the height of his power, pictures of his son (who seemed to care less about politics.  Strange I found), phone records from his son (which none were placed to his father or any suspicious numbers), and other papers that I didn’t know what to call them.  We had to take into account that Rald aged fifteen years and for all we know, he could’ve grown a mustache, he could’ve grown his hair out to the middle of back (ew), or he could’ve grown a beard like Dumbledore’s.  Or maybe he didn’t change at all.  Pixy and Cipher hardly looked like they’ve aged a day since the war fifteen years ago.  God I hope I have the same luck…

“Guys, did any of you ever notice that these five photos look just a like?” Nagase inquired as she pulled out photos and put them side by side.  We crowded around her and stared.  Putting them up next to an actual picture of Rald, we stood there in a stunned silence.  How oblivious had we been?

“How the hell did we miss this?” Snow demanded.

“In our defense, we probably have about three hundred photos on this table.  It was going to take us a while,” Cassie pointed out.  None of us disagreed because saying we had three hundred photos on this table was no exaggeration.  In fact, it was probably an understatement.

“Where was this taken?” I inquired.

“Umm… these were all taken within a fifteen mile radius of Dinsmark.  We should start calling businesses and whatnot to try and find out if they know who he is,” Pixy said.  The eight of us went to work, each taking a specific place.  Genette printed out a list of all businesses in and around Dinsmark.  We split the list up into eight sections and we each started calling.  It took most of the day and by the time I was done with my list (because for some reason I got stuck with the Chatty Cathy’s), it was nearly ten.  Everyone else had gone and gotten supper.  I had stayed behind and finished working.  It seemed like that’s all I do now, is just work.  I guess it’s my escape.  Ever since the war, I guess you could say I’ve been lost… at least with free time.  Therefore I bury myself in any and all my work.  I knew the excuse would only last for so long because sooner or later my friends would ask me why I was always working and never took any time for myself and yaddi yada yada.

Not for the first time, I fell asleep at my desk and woke up in my bed.  I never was able to figure out who carried me from my chair to my bed every time without waking me up.  I seriously needed to have a secret camera in my room to film it and figure out who it was…

It was five in the morning when I woke up.  I had two hours before I had to fly to Sand Island.  Groggily, I stumbled out of bed, took a shower, put on makeup, blow-dried my hair, put on my flight-suit, and went downstairs to the dining room.  My squadron, along with Genette, Cassie, Pixy, and my uncle, were already there.  Pixy and Cipher were the only ones not in flight suits.  They were staying here to find out more about those Rald pictures.  Snow, Genette, Nagase, Grimm, Cassie, and I ate a light breakfast, enough to fill us up but not enough to make us sick when we went up in the air (because that would majorly suck).  A guy named Yuri drove us to the airstrip where we were greeted by the leader of the search.  His name was Joshua Lassiter.  He was surprisingly very amiable, which his weathered face, gray hair, and sharp green eyes did not agree with.  People are so good at surprising me sometimes.  Other times I’m thinking, ‘dude, a goldfish could’ve predicted you would do that.’

Genette got in with Nagase and Cassie got in with Grimm.  Snow and I flew solo.  The flight was about three hours, not too bad.

“I call searching through the Base Commander’s room!” Grimm shouted.  We all laughed but only Genette, Cassie, Nagase, and I truly got it.

“Okay, let us know if you find anything,” I told him firmly.

“Yes milady.”

The rest of the conversation consisted of us bantering back and forth and the pilot of the transport plane would laugh occasionally which I was very proud of myself for because like Lassiter, this guy looked like he had no sense of humor.  I vaguely wondered if the soldiers were able to listen to our conversations.  I didn’t think they could though.

We landed about noon.  Most likely, we were going to be spending the night on the island so the transport plane had brought enough food for everybody.  Lassiter came out and the soldiers lined up.  We stood off to the side, wondering what we were supposed to be doing.

“We’re splitting up and searching every single inch of this base!” He barked. “If you find anything that even mentions Belka once or has a Belkan word in it, I want it taken back to Oured.  This is a serious mission people so there will be now screwing up!” Turning to me, he asked, “What rooms would you like to take?”

“We’ll take our old rooms and Lieutenant Colonel Davenport’s room.  And, if possible, we would like the Base Commander’s office as well,” I requested.  I knew the former one was fine but the second one might be a bit iffy.  Lassiter hesitated before agreeing much to my surprise.  After that, everyone took a room.  I went directly to mine.  My anger swelled when I saw that someone had gone through it.  I mean, it’s not that I have anything to hide but I don’t want anyone going through my personal items, you know?  With a groan of disgust, I went over to my closet and took out the clothes I had left behind.  Thankfully none of them were damaged.  I set them in a neat pile in the closet before walking over to my drawers and pulling out other articles of clothing and putting them in a bag and setting them next to my clothes.  After that, I got all my personal belongings and set them in a big pile next to my clothes.  That left my room practically bare.  The only thing I had left was to copy all my files from my computer onto my flash drive.  That took literally about five minutes.  I searched all over my room for any type of bugging device or something of that nature.  My room was clean.

With a sigh, I went to Chopper’s room.  I thought I was angry at my room being searched, but his room… it was nothing compared to mine.  Drawers were taken out, clothes were strewn about the room, his bed was a complete wreck, papers were everywhere, and pictures were cracked.  Clenching my jaw, I walked over to his dresser where he had pictures of friends and family.  There was one of the day that he and I got had gotten engaged. The picture was cracked right down the middle, like it was separating us.  I found it somewhat ironic.  With an effort, I resisted screaming in frustration and started gathering the papers.  Most of them were reports for him or about him or evaluations.  I searched through all of them and there was nothing of importance.  Still, I decided to keep them, just in case his family wanted them.  I didn’t know what to do with his clothes.  In the end, I decided to give them to a charity when we got back home.  I fixed his bed, put the drawers back where they belonged, and put his personal belongings in a stack to take home with me before I went to his computer.  Thank god for my memory that remembered things I probably wouldn’t need.  For once, it worked for me and I remembered his password: Enter Sandman.  Always was a Metallica fan.  I opened his files and looked at them one by one.  Nothing had any importance to Belka.  I was halfway through when my phone buzzed.  Flipping it open, the phone screen read it was from Grimm: Come to Commander’s room immediately!!!

I raced over there.  Genette was already there and the rest of my squadron wasn’t far behind me.

“What is it?” I demanded.

“I hit the jackpot,” he said in a deadly serious tone.

“Well, show us!” Cassie prodded impatiently.  With an incredulous sigh, Grimm lifted something out of the drawer.  When I saw it, I collapsed onto the floor laughing.  Everyone else did the same.  I think it took us about ten minutes for us to finally gain some of our composure back and to actually gain the ability to talk.

“Chopper was right!” Nagase exclaimed.

“I can’t believe it,” Genette said drolly.  We stared at the container of moldy donuts… or were they cookies?  I wasn’t sure because the mold had pretty much made their original form unrecognizable.

“I’m sure those could be classified as toxic waste now.  I don’t think cookies should be purple,” I noted.

“I thought they were donuts?” Snow said.

“I thought they were brownies,” Grimm noted.  That sent us into another five-minute fit of laughter.  Once that was done, we all split up searching for more food items the Commander had stashed away.  We found three cartons in his filing drawers, a box of some green things that I think used to cookies behind some file holders, another four boxes in a metal locker, and one more box in a desk drawer.  I think we lined them up by what color mold was on it.  There was green, pink, purple, and blue.  We almost had the whole freaking rainbow.

“This is disgusting.  If I come down with some incurable disease from touching them, I’m suing all of you,” Genette warned.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “I’m going to go back to Chopper’s room.  Have fun with the Commander’s office.”

I walked out of the room with a grin still on my face.  I finished searching through Chopper’s room.  There was nothing pertaining to Belka at all.  Apparently, except for in Hamilton and Bailey’s room, everyone else was clean.  I obtained a suitcase and carefully packed all my belongings and Chopper’s together.  It was loaded onto the plane.  Even though it was only six at night and there was still daylight, Quincy decided to spend the night.  I took Chopper’s room and let Snow have mine.  I barely slept that whole night.  Too many memories, both good and bad, came flooding back to me.  I tried not to remember too much that happened here on Sand Island but it’s harder than you would think.  Around two in the morning, there was a soft knock on my door.  Whoever was there knew me well and knew I would be up.  When I opened the door, Cassie and Nagase were standing there, giving me sad half-smiles.

“We couldn’t sleep…” Cassie mumbled.

“Too many memories that kept us up,” Nagase added.

“I know the feeling,” I said with a humorless chuckle.  I moved aside and let them come in.  I sat on Chopper’s bed while Cassie and Nagase pulled up the couch right up to the bed.  They sat down on opposite ends, silently declaring their space.

“I can’t stop thinking about the time that the boys eavesdropped on our conversation and we got our revenge by dumping water on them,” Cassie mused.

“Oh my god that was hilarious and then of course Chopper decided to hug me from behind so I was practically as soaking wet as him.”

“I never knew a guy that could piss off so many top brass and get away with it every single time,” Nagase acknowledged.

“He rubbed off on you, too, Blaze,” Cassie said with a laugh.  I groaned as I remembered my conversation with Thunderhead.

Mimicking my voice, Nagase quoted, “Screw you Thunderhead… oh wait, you already have!”

She and Cassie started bellowing as I covered my eyes with my hands in embarrassment.  You could say I’m not necessarily proud of that moment.

“I think Chopper wanted to marry you right then and there,” Nagase mused drolly.

“You and Genette are going to get married,” I declared.

“How do you know?  Wait, did he say something to you?” Nagase queried suspiciously.

“No!  Not yet at least.”

“Nagase, you should know Blaze has this freaky sixth sense.  I swear to god she’s psychic sometimes,” Cassie said. “Of course she knows that Genette is going to ask you.”

“Grimm’s going to ask you too, Cassie.  He hasn’t told me but you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out,” I told her.  Cassie blushed and not because she was embarrassed by what I said.  Nagase and I pounced on her. “Cassie!  Are you and Grimm engaged?!”

“No!” She protested. “But we’ve talked about it.”

“And you’re just now telling us?” Nagase demanded.

“We didn’t want y’all to know until we had made an actual decision.  That failed.”

“Miserably,” Nagase and I said at the same time.  That all made us laugh.

We talked some more and I kept thinking something was strange but I couldn’t place my finger on it.  Finally, I looked out the blinds and figured it out.  The three of us had literally stayed up all night talking.  And, to be honest, I wasn’t tired whatsoever.  Nagase and Cassie didn’t seem to be tired either.  It was about eight when someone knocked on my door.  I opened it to find a frantic looking Genette and Grimm at my door.

“Have you seen Cassie or Nagase? They’re not in their rooms!” Grimm explained quickly.

“They’re in here,” I replied. “They’ve been here all night.”

My brother and Grimm looked over my shoulder.

“Hi boys,” Cassie greeted.

“Why have you been in with Blaze all night?” Genette asked curiously.

“Girl talk,” Nagase answered simply.  Her tone implied any other questions in that direction would be unwelcome.

“Well next time leave a note or something.  We thought something had happened to you two,” Grimm said tiredly.

“What did you think happened?” I asked with a chuckle.

“We thought that some of the guys had hit on you and… never mind.  Listen, the plane’s going to board soon so you should make sure you have everything you want packed,” Genette said.  He gave Nagase a quick kiss before heading back to his room.  Grimm went… somewhere.  The girls and I had all of our stuff packed so we rolled the suitcases out to the plane.  They were loaded on and we got in our planes, eager to get off the island.  Snow, Grimm, and Genette were soon to follow.  Of course, it took about an hour for everyone else to get onboard the transport.  And then, when the plane was heading back to Oured, the girls and I put our planes on auto pilot and sacked out.  You can’t blame us since we literally got no sleep last night.

I woke up to Snow and Grimm singing my name.  I promptly told them I was awake and that they needed to shut up.  Nagase and Cassie were also up.  After we landed, I don’t know how we were able to walk a straight line to the car that was giving us a ride back to Versailles since we were so tired but somehow we managed.  I don’t remember much of that trip but I think Genette had to pull me out of the way because I was heading straight for a pole and in my mind I was thinking that I was just going to walk right through it.  Oh man, got to love it when I’m tired.

On the car ride to Versailles, I fell asleep and woke up in my bed.  Seriously, I really needed to set up a video camera and figure out who keeps carrying me up to my room without waking me up.  It’s creepy.  I looked at the clock and saw that it was five in the evening.  Wow.  I had slept for practically four or five hours on top of the four hours on the plane trip.  I took a quick shower and made myself look decent enough by blow drying my hair and putting on makeup.  I walked out of the room and went to the ‘Rald Room’ as I called it.  There was a note on my desk from Genette telling me that everyone had gone home to get some rest.  Apparently Harling was still here though.  I sat down and delved into my work.  I had been meaning to organize all of these pictures and files on the table into my computer using the NeatDesk Desktop Scanner.  I didn’t think it worked but the universe decided to shock me.  With all the files, I was at my desk for six hours between scanning, sorting, naming, and filing, but that was because I’m a neat freak when it comes to filing things like that and so I was being extremely OCD about where things went.

By the time I finished, it was eleven at night and now I was just fooling around on the computer playing Spider Solitaire.  Why it was called Spider Solitaire, I don’t know but it was madly addicting.

“Blaze?  What on earth are you still doing here?” President Harling inquired in shock.  I looked up.

“I’ve been filing everything away so that it’s stored on the computer,” I explained.

“You need to take a break from working, Blaze.  You haven’t missed a day since I gave you the job, not even when you were sick with strep.  Take a day off, go hang out with family or friends.  Go on a shopping spree that you women find so much fun… have you visited your fiancé’s family since he died?”

I looked down shamefully. “No…”

“Why not?” Harling inquired.  I merely shrugged my shoulders.

“I’m almost done here.  I’m just going to put all these files back on the table and then I’ll go home.”

“Okay, but take the day off tomorrow.  I’m going to tell all security you’re not allowed in here at all tomorrow,” he said with a grin.  I gave a dramatic, defeated sigh. “I’ll see you soon Blaze.”

He said goodbye and left the room.  Okay, truth be told, the only reason I hadn’t talked to Chopper’s family was because I feared they blamed me for his death.  I was deathly afraid that they would blame me and I couldn’t bear the look in their eyes when they told me.  Put me up against the top aces of the world, I could handle that with no fear at all.  Put me up against my dead fiancé’s family, I’ll be shaking so much I’ll be making an earthquake. 

I put the pictures and files on the table in a neat order before grabbing my purse and walking out the door.  I headed down to the garage where I found that my car was the only one down there.  I’ll admit it was a bit creepy being the only person down there so I hurried into my car and tore out of there.  I don’t know why I was on edge but something felt off down there.  I shook off the feeling as I drove home.  I smiled to myself at the thought of being in my own bed.  It had been a week since I had recently been falling asleep at my desk and been waking up in one of Versailles’s 2300 hundred rooms (yeah, it was huge.  Psycho architects in the 1400’s thought it would be fun to create a palace that size.  This place is a bitch (pardon my language) to walk through.  It took me two months to figure out where everything is). 

My house was a ranch style house that was in a neighborhood where the houses were decently separated.  It was nice.  You could even have horses on your property.  I had thought about getting one but my job was to time-consuming right now.

I pulled into my driveway and turned off the engine.  My nerves were acting up again.  Something was off.  Figuring it was still because of Sand Island and the anxiety it caused me of being back there, I walked into the house.  I was stupid to not have listened to my instincts because something whacked me on the back of the head.  I blacked out.

___________________________________________

Genette

“So what were you, Cassie, and Blaze talking about?” I questioned for the fifth time since Nagase and I had gotten back to my house.  I kept an eye on the bacon as I turned to my girlfriend.  She put her book down.  It was called Clockwork Angel.  It took place in a fictional world called London, England.  Where on earth do these authors come up with these names?

“I’m not telling you,” Nagase retorted with a smile. “It was girl stuff.”

“Like?” I prodded.

“Sweetie, don’t burn the bacon,” she pointed out.  I quickly took the pieces of bacon off the pan and turned off the stove.  She and I started eating it.

“Did you three stay up all night?”

“Yeah.  Have you talked to her since you carried her to the room?”

“No, I should probably call her,” I mused.  I took out my cell phone and held onto the one button until it started ringing.  I waited and waited but her phone went to voicemail.  In annoyance, I hung up.

“Not answering?” Nagase asked.  I shook my head. “She probably fell asleep again and you know she’s dead to the world when she’s asleep.”

I laughed but something was telling me that something wasn’t right.  Blaze and I had always shared some sort of sibling telepathy-like thing with each other.  We knew when the other was in danger or if the other was troubled even if we were hundreds of miles away from each other.

“I’m going to call Harling, see if she’s at the palace,” I said.  I called him and he picked up.

“Hello, Genette,” He greeted pleasantly.

“Hello, sir.  Is Blaze there?” I inquired.

“No, she left last night.  Why?”

“She’s not answering her cell.  Okay, thank you.  Goodbye, sir.” I hung up and called Blaze’s house phone.  I was getting more worried by the minute.  She didn’t pick up her home phone either.  This wasn’t like Blaze.  She was always good about answering her phone.

“She still not answering?” Nagase asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

“No.  I’m going to go over to her house and see what’s up,” I announced.

“I’ll come with you,” Nagase said softly.  We got dressed and I drove to Blaze’s house.  There was a sense of foreboding creeping farther into my mind, and it didn’t help that when I pulled into my sister’s driveway, her front door was wide open.  Nagase and I jumped out and ran inside.  We ran through the house, calling out Blaze’s name and checking every possible place she could be.  My sister was nowhere to be found.

I went back to the front door and noticed Blaze’s cell phone lying next to the wall.  I hadn’t noticed it when I came in.  I picked up her IPhone.  The screen was cracked which told me right then and there Blaze was gone.  She never left anywhere without her cell phone.

“Nagase!” I yelled.  She came running. “Call Harling, tell him Blaze is gone.”

“What do you mean gone?” Nagase demanded fearfully.

“I mean she’s missing.  Someone has Blaze.”

___________________________________________

Blaze

My mind was hazy but I was able to figure out that I was being carried by my arms and legs by some very strong people; I couldn’t see anything which made me panic.  I started thrashing about and using all my strength.

“Damn, she woke up already.  Otto didn’t hit her hard enough,” a man grunted.  I was losing the struggle and the more I fought, the more I was able to figure out that the reason I couldn’t see was because there was a blindfold covering my eyes.  Of course, that didn’t help me with the fact that I had been kidnapped and was being carried by a bunch of what I presumed was men.  The blindfold was loosening and that made me fight harder.

“She’s feisty,” another guy muttered.  On instinct, I twisted my body.  You could say I found the inner alligator within me and did a death-roll.

“What the hell?  She’s twisting!” the first guy shouted.  I did it repeatedly and it helped get the blindfold off.  It was dark out but the moon was shining brightly.  I was able to count six men around me, all trying to keep a firm grasp on either my arms or legs.

Somehow, I was able to make them drop me and I immediately bolted.  My arms were tied behind my back making it hard for me to run.  That doesn’t mean I didn’t try.  I ran a mercurial path and it worked for a while until one of them threw a well-aimed, good-sized rock at my head.  It knocked me down and knocked me out.

I woke up with a groan.  My hands were free and I was on some blanket.   All I could see was black which scared me more than anything.  I could handle the silence, I could handle knowing I was trapped and probably lost.  I couldn’t handle not being able to see.

“Miss?” a voice whispered.  I jumped about a foot in the air.

“Who’s there?” I demanded, my voice sounding way stronger than I felt.

“My name’s Henry.  Are you okay?” he inquired.

“I feel like I got run over by a semi but good nonetheless,” I replied.

“From what I heard, you caused quite a commotion.  They were talking about how you were running all over the place and they kept diving to get you but they kept missing.  Oh, and your nickname by them is Gator Girl right now since they don’t know your real name and apparently you death-rolled them?” I heard the amusement in his voice.

“Yeah, I watch the show Gator Boys all the time and the alligators were always death-rolling them so I guess it unconsciously entered my mind,” I admitted sheepishly.  Henry laughed. “So are you a prisoner too or…?”

He sighed. “Yes, ma’am.  I don’t know how long I’ve been here.  They brought me straight from the hospital to here.”

“You were in the hospital?”

“Yeah.  I was in some sort of accident I think.  I don’t honestly know.  I have amnesia and I couldn’t even remember my name or how old I was when I woke up.  Two guys were there and the first thing I said is ‘You’re not my fiancée.’  They laughed and said they were friends of my fiancée.  I can’t believe I believed them… I don’t think my fiancée’s friends would lock me up in some basement, cellar, whatever the hell this place is.”

“Do you know why you’re here?” I queried, feeling carefully around for everything around me.  My hand connected with a wall to my right but there was empty space to my left.

“No idea; they keep saying I know everything, and I asked everything of what, and they never reply.  It’s annoying as hell.”

“Are we the only ones here or are there others?”

“No, we’re the only ones here.  I was the only one here until you came.  Don’t take this the wrong way but I’m glad I have someone to talk to.”

“I completely understand.  I don’t understand why they have a civilian as a prisoner though,” I said.

“The silence was killing me.  I mean, could they at least play some rock n’ roll or rap?  They could also give better food other than bread, a really watered down soup, and water,” Henry ranted. “And I’m not complaining.  What I’m doing now is not complaining.”

“Then what is it?” I chuckled.

“They are requests for improvement,” he claimed. “Anyways, I never got your name.  What should I call you?”

I hesitated, deciding on whether he should call me by my callsign or my real name.  I decided my real name was a safer bet. “Elizabeth.  Call me Elizabeth.”

“Elizabeth.  That’s a really pretty name,” He complimented.

“Thank you,” I replied.

“So why do they want you?”

“Probably because of my security clearance but that’s a story for another time.”

At that moment, a door opened and someone grabbed me.  Naturally, I flipped out.

“You’re coming with me,” the guy ordered as I struggled.  I tried going dead weight on him to drag him to the floor but this guy must’ve been the freaking Hulk or John Cena because he wasn’t fazed one bit.  He dragged me up the stairs, put me in a chair, and tied my hands behind my back.

“What’s your name?” The guy demanded.  I looked around the room.  He wasn’t the only one there.  I counted eleven other men.  Three were blondes, four had black hair, four were brunette, and one was a ginger.  The ginger was the one that had dragged me up I was able to figure out.

“Elizabeth.”

“Elizabeth what?”

“Elizabeth what,” I repeated, attempting to confuse him.  It worked.

“What?”

“What?” I asked.

“What’s your last name?!”

“Oh, why didn’t you just say that in the first place?  It’s not like I’m a mind reader dude.”

“You will not address me as ‘dude’ again.  You got that?” Ginger demanded.

“Deal, Ginger,” I chirped.  I heard a few snickers and glanced around the room.  A few of the men were trying to hide their smirks.

“Halt die Klappe!” Ginger shouted.  So he was Belkan.  That explained so much.

“So you’re Belkan?  Hola!” I greeted.

“That’s Sapin,” Ginger pointed out in annoyance.

“I know.  I just wanted to spice up the conversation.”

He gave me a ‘you’re crazy’ look.  I had a strange urge to tell him crazy is my middle name. I resisted. “Again, what’s your last name?”

I looked down at the floor trying to think of something they wouldn’t expect me to say.  I prevented myself from smiling as I remembered something from the Hunger Games movie. “That is mahogany!” I said suddenly.  Looking up, I was satisfied with their stupefied looks.

“It’s oak,” one of the blondes said bluntly.  His response made me grin.

“No, it’s mahogany,” I wrangled.

“Enough of this nonsense!” Ginger shouted.  I gave him an innocent look.

“What?  We were just having a pleasant conversation,” I said.

“Last name.  Now!” He ordered menacingly.  At least that was the way he was trying to come across.  He didn’t really scare me.

“You do know there are people looking for me right?” I said.

“They might be looking but they won’t find you,” Ginger declared.

“Yeah, you keep thinking that.  It’s not like you just kidnapped a military officer with the highest security clearance possible,” I said sarcastically. “There are going to be people looking for me.”

“Put her back in her room.  We will get it out of you, Elizabeth.  You can count on that,” Ginger assured.

“I’ve met kittens more frightening than you,” I retorted.  Two of the blondes came and locked me in my room down in the basement.  I sighed.

“Elizabeth?  Are you okay?” Henry’s tentative voice queried.

“I’m fine.”

“Did they hurt you?”

“No… not yet.  They will sooner or later.  They play mind games first, then they get physical if that doesn’t work.  I’m pretty tough minded so it would take a lot to break me.  I’ve seen a lot so…” I trailed off. “I’m going to go to sleep.  I’m tired.  Good night, Henry.”

“Good night, Miss Elizabeth.”

I smiled. “Just call me Elizabeth.”

“All right… Elizabeth.”

And after that was said, I fell asleep.

___________________________________________

So, I hope y’all enjoyed the chapter.  I wonder if Henry is a good guy or a bad guy just pretending to be good?  Honestly, I haven’t decided yet.  I’m completely winging this part.  Please review!