Generation 4, Chapter 11: Escaping a place has never been so disturbing

The ominous word "death" hung in the air, stirring feelings inside me that I had never experienced. A terrible anxiety clutched itself around my heart, making it hard to breathe. The only time I had ever really been afraid was when there had been an incident at the school where there was a massive spider, and of course, that was back in grade one. This, however, was much worse than that. Perhaps because I realized just how possible it was for us all to die in that room. After all, I didn't know how merciless our captors could be. Vala was the only one with past experience in the organization, and if she said they were dangerous, I believed her wholeheartedly.

As Vala's eyes shut, I crawled across the room to her, hoping to keep her awake and optimistic. "Vala...," I said in hushed tones. "Are you giving up just like that?  Even when you had a battered face, you were in high spirits. Has that finally been broken? It was one of the best things about you..."

She turned the full scorn of her eyes on me. "Don't underestimate me just because I'm lying on the floor like this. In fact, I'm busy planning an escape, unlike your friends."

She did have a point. All three of them were leaning with their backs against the walls, recuperating from the damage done to them by the drugs. It wasn't everyday that you got to see Jack be as silent as a mouse hiding from a cat. I didn't know whether or not Sam could be as rowdy as Jack, but still, she remained quiet, leaning against the wall with her nose pinched between her forefingers.

What worried me was that even Darcy was curled up against the wall. Her spirit was broken, and her face pale from shock. She wouldn't put up a fight if someone did come to take her life. It was up to me to save all three of them, especially my little sister. What would my mother say if she were to find out I could only save myself from such a situation, abandoning everyone else to their fates?

The thought made me shudder. The image of her wrathful gaze was enough to fill me with the willpower to see this through...all I needed was some help from a rather unhelpful individual.

Just as the confidence was slowly starting to assert itself in my being, it was easily crushed by the footsteps approaching the room. No, they wouldn't get rid of us this quickly. They usually questioned captors before that happened...right? That's how it worked in the movies, and movies have to carry a little bit of truth.

The door flew open, revealing a rather ticked-off girl with purple hair. Of course. The girl at the bar. She was in on everything, maybe even the mastermind, or at least a grunt. Whatever role she played, she seemed quite satisfied with herself, though dissatisfied with us.

"I thought it would be harder to capture you, what with your names on the list of important suspects that needed to be terminated...but no. You fell into my trap just as I planned for it to happen. It was all a little too easy, so excuse me for being suspicious of all of you. I'm waiting for one of you to pull off some kind of stunt."

Vala clambered onto her feet and approached the purple-haired girl. The way she glided so comfortably towards her made it obvious that they knew each other. "Lucy, this is ridiculous. What kind of a stunt could these puny people pull off?" the comment hurt, but it was true. Darcy and I were not known for our physical endurance, and Jack and Sam were still in training. "The reason they were easy to capture? They're civilians, they're innocent of all of this!"

The girl named Lucy raised an eyebrow at Vala, but kept her gaze on me. "That one over there. He's an accomplice of yours."

"Ohhh, puh-lease. He was someone I dragged along for the fun of it. He's nothing, trust me. What are you, Lucy? A coward? Capturing useless people just for the fun of it? You used to go after the big money, the big prize... Hah. I could beat you now."

Goading the captor was definitely the worst technique I had ever come across.

Lucy turned her murderous eyes on Vala, and moved a step closer to her, until her face was inches away from Vala's. "You know I'm telling the truth...," Vala whispered, and chuckled darkly.

Acknowledging defeat, our captor stormed out of the room, but left a last comment when she was behind the safety of the door. "There's a guard outside, so I wouldn't even try to escape if I were you. He's famous for crushing skulls under his boot."

But Vala couldn't leave it at that, and went for one last shot at antagonizing the girl. "Hey, what about turning the green light down a bit? It really doesn't go with your skin...or hair...or eyes! Those weird, alien eyes..."

As soon as we heard her angered footsteps thumping away from the room, life returned to Darcy, Jack and Sam, and heated arguments were started.

"This is all her fault!" Darcy yelled at me, pointing at Vala.

"No, it's n-"

"Why did you have to be the hero, Daniel?" Jack interrupted me, shaking his head in disappointment.

"What do y-"

"Oh, at least he's a better gentleman than you'll ever be!" Sam aimed her comment at Jack.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he bit back.

"That you're a jackass?" Darcy offered.

I buried my face in my hands, hopelessly looking at the three individuals that I called my friends. Instead of fighting against a common enemy, they chose to fight among themselves.

Remaining silent for another half an hour, I waited for the argument to die down. It eventually did, but unfortunately, the atmosphere remained, which didn't help our situation. Nobody had come up with nay good ideas of how to save our asses. The only suggestion that did come up was a sarcastic one made by Darcy, suggesting karate chop our way out of here. Only one big problem with that idea: None of us knew karate.

Sam and Jack departed from our enclosed circle to argue on their own, which left Darcy and I standing next to each other. That fact gave me chills. Darcy was more than capable of launching a full blown argument on her own against me of just how lousy a human being I could be.

Luckily, there was something to distract my mind, and what I saw shocked me.

"Vala...what...the...fuzz?" I raised an eyebrow as she brought her top over her shoulders and subsequently tossed it into the corner. 

"Well," she raised her head, looking at the roof. "I have a plan."

"Oh, great. The criminal has a plan...fantastic," Darcy rolled her eyes at Vala,  her voice dripping with sarcasm. It was one of Darcy's most horrible qualities, though she viewed it as a talent. She drove people nuts just by talking. "What do you have in mind, wooing your way out of here with good looks, seducing the guard then knocking him out and allowing us to escape?"

"That's exactly what I'm going to do."

Darcy hadn't been expecting that response. "T-that's insane. That guy could be smart enough and could k-kill you before you get anywhere."

Twirling the excuse around in my head that I didn't want to see her demise at the hand of the enemy, I turned away at the exact moment Vala turned to face Darcy. This small action interested Vala, who immediately forgot what Darcy had tried to argue.

"What's wrong, Daniel? You don't like what you see?" Vala said in an innocent voice, acting hurt.

"N-no," I spluttered. "My mom raised me to be a gentleman. I don't look at ladies in their undergarments, alright?"

She laughed. "You're so sweet and innocent. It's sad that you had land in this situation."

Though Vala had bought the excuse, Darcy certainly did not. As Vala moved towards the door to get the attention of the guard, Darcy looked me straight in the eyes. "You like her."

"No, no! It's not like that for me, Darcy..."

"Then what? You're definitely feeling something for this chick."

"It's...I...I don't know. She tried to do something good for the first time in her life, and she got burned. I just want to see her succeed for once. Maybe make a few friends."

"Oh...," Darcy's voice faltered. "So you like her as a friend?"

"I don't know. She can be a pain in the ass at times, but she's okay. She's unique."

"Right," my sister nodded, unconvinced. "And you're an idiot."

I couldn't help but sigh. "I know."

One couldn't help but be both thankful and terrified for Vala. She was risking her life, being the hero for once, but such an act of bravery could very well be a stupid mistake. Though according to her, guards used by the organization weren't chosen for their intellect, only their smashing capability, and supposedly, she had experience in seducing men into getting her way, or to get out of a situation. It would be easy to trick them into doing something they really shouldn't be doing. In theory.

The door opened a crack, and a deep voice could clearly be heard. "What is it?" he growled.

"I was wondering if you were interested in having someone keep you company..." From my vantage point, I could see that Vala was fluttering her eyelashes at the guy. She was really into character, acting as a innocent girl, when she was the complete opposite.

"Huh?" the guard looked clueless. He really was as dumb as Vala had perceived.

"The people in here are so boring," she pointed a finger at our group who had since then come together, being extremely interested in what was going on. "What if we...sneaked away...just for a little while..."

Her fingers mimicked a scene, showing how the couple would sneak away, and her lips formed into a pout. The guard finally understood was she was suggesting. "Sounds awesome," he grinned, grabbing Vala by the arm and spinning her into a bear hug, where they subsequently entered a kissing session. All of us averted our eyes at the time.

Like two animals going at each other, the guard pulled Vala away from what he thought were curious eyes, and launched her down the hallway to what could be a more private area. The sounds we heard were rather unsettling. The clattering of a drum set on the ground, an exhausted sigh of someone that was definitely big, and a massive thud against the floor left us all freaked out.

"Did they just...go at it...on the floor?" Sam choked on the words, looking everywhere but the door where Vala would reappear at any given moment. All of us did the exact same.

"Evidently," even Jack was shocked by all of it, his eyes as wide as that of a deer that was about to meet an unfortunate end in a car accident.

A minute later, she returned, a cheeky smile sprawled across her face. "I told you I would get it done."

Jack cleared his throat. "Well, the 'it' has disturbed us all."

"What?" she was taken aback. "I kicked the guy through the face and he dropped to the ground. It left a few instruments broken, unfortunately, but if we get out of here quickly enough, no one will know who did it!"

What she explained to be the truth was a little hard to believe, and after a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock, it was decided that Darcy be the one to lead our team of bandits to safety. In other words, check to see if there was a naked guy possibly lying around.

"Wow...," Darcy seemed both impressed and relieved as she stood in the center of what seemed to be the practice room of a band. "So she was telling the truth."

"Of course I was," Vala was confused. "What do you think I was doing?"

"...Nothing," Darcy whistled innocently, and led us to a door that hopefully meant freedom. It did, and we found ourselves in a street somewhere downtown in Bridgeport.

Afterwards, we all scurried back to the safety of the apartment, where all of us changed into a new set of clothing, either lent out by Darcy or that which was brought along in suitcases. Jack quickly called and asked that a security system be installed in our rooms, while Sam and Darcy started cooking dinner. We were all famished, except for Vala, it seemed.

She disappeared silently, but this time I caught her red handed, and followed her from a distance. Expecting to see her make a run for it and leave town, I was pleasantly surprised to see her walk to a somewhat abandoned park at the edge of town.

Vala took a seat on one of the whitewashed benches, gazing out at the ocean that stretched far and wide before her. She seemed peaceful, yet again acting the complete opposite of her real self, or the person I had come to know. maybe there was a reason for her acting the way she does.

As to not alert her to my presence or disturb her, I sneaked around the back of the lot, and quietly took a seat next to her, staring out in front of me just as she was doing.

The girl beside me sighed. "Sir, I'm truly not in the mood for company, so please, get your butt off of the bench before I..." Her voice trailed away as she finally noticed who it was occupying the space beside her. She smirked. "Ah, Daniel, I didn't know you had a occupation as a professional stalker."

I shrugged with a smile. "I don't. I'm just worried about you."

"Don't worry," she winked at me. "I've survived worse things than this. I was fine then, and I'll be fine now."

"Really?" I was interested in this comment. Was she finally ready to confess to me what had happened in her past? "Do you...wanna talk about it, perhaps?"

She absentmindedly scratched her neck, looking as if she were fighting a battle inside her mind. I wouldn't have placed bets on who was winning, but I sure hoped that it would be her.

"You asked for it, I guess..." She took a deep breath, and relaxed against the back of the bench. "The whole truth then. I never knew my real father. Apparently he disappeared around the time of my birth. Problems with smuggling he was involved in. Because of that, my mom remarried to take care of me, and I at least had a father figure. A crappy one, though. When I was a little girl, my step dad left us as well. He was no good to us anyhow. An alcoholic through and through. He...drank so much he sometimes became aggressive, beating my mom and I. My mom even landed in the hospital once, but she never ratted him out to the authorities. She still loved him. It was a stupid love to have, because he didn't return it."

"She hoped that he would change, didn't she?"

"Most likely. In any case, he never did. He left us for days at a time, but always returned. One time he stayed away for longer than usual, and we knew... The police told us they found him and his car at the bottom of a cliff. My mother was heartbroken, of course. She died a year later, but not from a broken spirit. She had damage to her skull which was slowly killing her, and one day she just didn't wake up. Of course, she did have a handful of pills that night, so it could have been a number of things. I didn't really stick around to find out. God, I was so afraid that they would put me in foster care. I didn't want to live like that at all. And so, I ran. When I was eight years old, I took to the streets, taking care of myself, making friends and enemies along the way."

Her sudden movement startled me as she pushed herself off of the bench and moved towards the edge of the cliff. I closely followed in her footsteps, A tear rolled down her cheek, but she quickly dabbed at it, pretending that it never appeared.

"Vala... It's alright. You don't have to continue if you don't want to."

She shook her head stubbornly. "No, I have to. It's time someone knew the whole truth."

Though worried that I might cause her to spiral into an emotional breakdown, I nodded once. "Please, continue then."

"Of course...where was I? Oh yes, my life on the streets. Not much to say about that. I was an expert shoplifter and pickpocket. Thieving was second nature to me. I guess I inherited that trait from my real father. There were one or two times that I was nearly caught, but I was young and fit, not to mention gorgeous, so I had no trouble avoiding the police force, either through running away or talking my way out of it. While the police's eyes were blind to my deeds, there were some that definitely weren't. One night, on the even of my sixteenth birthday, a tall yet slender man approached my hiding place that I called home, and offered me the opportunity of a lifetime, to put my skills to better use, and to actually get massive amounts of money for it. I agreed to it, so I could garner enough funds to live the life I was supposed to. Only, that wasn't it turned out. Once I started working for their organization, there was no way out. I was trapped...until I met you."

She turned towards me. "Daniel, you have no idea how much change you brought into my life."

"I doubt I made a significant impact, except for getting you to be a normal person instead of a criminal," I accepted her compliment humbly, but didn't let it go to my head. Instead, I kept my gaze on the oceans, noticing how the waves crushed against the rocks, yet they never moved.

"No, that's not the only thing... I'm going to tell you something that WILL shock you, so you might want to sit down."

"Nah, I'm fine, thanks."

"If you say so. Remember how you told me that you had a fiancée that was killed in France in an art gallery?"

I rubbed my palms together in a effort to get my memories stirring. "vaguely."

"Believe it or not, that was the day I first saw you. My partner and I were assigned to rob the art gallery of all of its possessions. We watched you two from afar, and saw you enter the building. My partner, Drake, planned to ambush you two, as she figured she was in charge. I didn't agree with him at all. I could see the ring on her finger blinking in the sunlight. I knew you two were a couple. Your face...was glowing with adoration and pride when you looked at her. I wasn't going to ruin that for you."

It was getting harder to breathe. The revelations that went through my mind were too much to handle. Vala was there. She could have stopped it from happening. But why would she? It was her job. But wait, she didn't say anyone had to be killed. So why did her partner go ahead and do just that, and not take any of the items? Why did he leave me alive? I held my sore head in one hand, peeking at her through one eye. "You were right. I should have sat down for this."

"I warned you!" she smiled slightly, then removed all trace of joy from her face and continued with the story. "When I saw Drake carry a gun with him that had a silencer... I knew that something was wrong. He had definitely received different orders than I had. And so, I refused to go with him, and prayed that he wouldn't dare hurt you. I knew it was an idiotic wish, but I kept it alive. I was the one to alert the police of the possible robbery. Just as he was running out of the building, a car rushed by and hit him with full force. He wasn't dead, but he was incapacitated, and not able to run anywhere or tell them about me."

"How convenient," I grumbled, rubbing at my eyelids.

"It was, Danny. It was all I could do from where I sat, without implicating myself. In any case, I saw them carry out a body, and my heart sank...but then, I saw you appear. You looked so devastated...it broke my heart. I left the scene quickly after that, but I had hoped that we would meet someday in the future. And obviously, that happened."

The sun moved on and hid its glory behind the mountains, and so darkness descended around us, and the moon took over control of the skies, sharing its beauty with the world. The cool air that blew against my face and at the back of my neck was something I desperately needed. All that she had told me was a little bit too much to handle. I had gone from being sympathetic, to distraught, to disturbed, and then...to satisfied. I was genuinely proud of Vala, letting go of the skeletons in her closet, and also helping me to let go of some of the ties I had with the past, and the hate that I had been carrying around with me on the back.

"Thank you for sharing that with me," I simply stated.

She frowned at me. "Are you mad at me?"

"No! Why would I be?"

"I was sort of involved in the murder of your fiancée, and though I didn't pull the trigger, I-"

"Vala!" I stopped her by grabbing her by her shoulders. "You had no control over the actions of your partner. I'm mad at the bastard for killing Sarah, yeah, but not at you. I'm just really happy that you felt comfortable enough around me to tell me all of that."

I released my grip on her, but she took my hands in hers, smiling cheekily at me. "I would feel comfortable doing many things with and around you, Danny boy."

"Ugh," I exhaled loudly. "Talk about ruining a good bonding moment."