Lost Hope
Chapter 1
Andrew Tucker stared at Katie Flynn, studied her dirty, dark, brown hair and her slightly-panicked, wide, blue eyes, then let-out a long sigh. “We're stuck,” he stated matter-of-factly, knowing that it was true, not wanting to try to cling to any false hope that it wasn't. “We'll just have to wait and see what happens,” he then added after having paused for a second, knowing that his girlfriend wanted to hear some assurance that their situation wasn’t completely hopeless, but he couldn’t think of anything to say to try to nullify the blow which the truth had smacked them with.
Katie glanced back at him, her eyes scanning his dirty, grease-ridden, black hair, his accepting, green eyes and his developing, black stubble before she, too, sighed and pulled her gaze away from the door. “I know, but I don't want to believe it...” she almost whispered, as if afraid that someone was just outside of the room, eavesdropping on their discussion. “Anything could be happening out there! It's obvious that this isn't a safe place to be... I don't know how we fell for what they said...” she then finished, sounding so meek and hopeless that Andrew had to resist the overwhelming urge to leap onto the weak-seeming, single bed and embrace her tighter than he’d ever held someone in his life.
The two of them were stuck in a predicament. Following their completion of the test which their captors had put them and countless other people through- to survive in the Amazon Rainforest unaided for a month- one of the many people who'd been affected by the new, wide-spread, daily, unstoppable urge to commit a crime had told them that the people who'd organised the test were liars. Now, stuck in the secure room, it was becoming more and more obvious that she'd been right to believe such a thing, that what she’d overheard regarding satellites had, in fact, been a discussion about the causation of the urges despite the fact that she’d been told minutes before that no-one knew anything about what was giving most of the population these daily urges.
The people who’d locked Andrew and Katie in the tiny room with nothing more than a toilet, bed, sink and each other were, as it seemed, liars. It seemed obvious. Still, though, Andrew didn’t want to believe it. He still wanted to cling to hope that the only reason for what felt like their imprisonment was the fact that he was one of the Affected, yet that he could somehow control his urges, able to restrain himself from doing anything- something which, understandably, caused him a lot of pain, though it was also something which he’d grown used to doing. He wanted to believe more than anything that the people who’d organised the test simply wanted to study him, to see why he was different from everyone else, if everyone had the power to resist the urges, even… But Andrew’s hope for that being the case was beginning to slip more and more with every, passing moment.
“The others are strong,” Andrew assured, staring at the space to Katie’s left, just beside where she was sitting on the bed before she patted the section of the stiff, thin mattress which covered the tiny bed, urging for him to sit, though the expression on her face as he complied with her command almost made it seem as if doing-so was him completely giving-up on trying to leave. “We survived that attack for a reason, didn't we? We've all toughened-up because of the rainforest, so I'm sure they can handle themselves if something happens.”
“How can you be sure?” Katie mumbled, staring at the blank wall in front of them, just above the grey, metallic, prison-like sink. “What if they'll have to fight against guns? Or even knives? They don't have anything to protect themselves, so-”
“We're all here for a reason, Katie,” Andrew cut-across before wrapping his right arm around her waist and lightly tugging on her to pull her slightly closer. “They want us for some reason. They aren't gonna just kill them without a good motive.” He paused, taking the fact that his girlfriend hadn't responded to his words as a sign that she was silently agreeing with what he was saying, that she was finding solace in his attempt to reason with her as to why their friends of a month would be fine. “We're only here because... Well, I can only assume it's because we know something they don't want us to know.”
“Which means that girl was telling the truth...” Katie whispered, almost dramatically, her eyes widening a little as she continues to stare at the wall, just a lower portion of it, by the base of the metallic sink which was concealing the plumbing from sight. “So... these people aren't... the good guys?”
Andrew watched Katie for a second, awkwardly having to crane his neck in order to do so, then shrugged lightly. “I guess we'll figure that out soon.”
Katie remained silent until she put her left palm to her left eye and groaned lightly, rubbing at her eyeball as if hoping that it would act like a magic lamp and that a genie would appear and grant their wish to be out of the terrible mess which they’d found themselves in. “It's too much to process,” she mumbled after a second before lowering her hand. “Should we try to get some sleep?”
Andrew nodded lightly. Processing all of the information wasn't very easy, and he'd already been fairly tired for the entire month which they'd spent in the rainforest, despite the fact that him starting every day with waiting to have one of his urges before restraining himself from doing anything had left him, Katie and another member of their group, Amalia, resting against a tree, mostly unmoving for an average of a few hours.
Something about the fact that they'd spent so long in the rainforest was just so draining.
A loud, banging knock came from the door, jolting Andrew and Katie awake. The two of them glanced at each other, slightly fearful, wondering who was on the other side of the door and why they seemed to be so cranky. The immediate assumption which came to Andrew's mind was that one of the men who'd introduced Andrew, Katie and everyone else within the building to the trial in the rainforest was on the other side, maybe even all three of them. They’d probably come to explain why he and Katie had been locked in the room. No, that seemed too tame, especially given the force behind the knocking. Andrew knew that they’d probably come to deal with them, whatever that would entail…
“Come on,” came from the other side of the door, the voice reverberating around the room as if a giant had spoken the gruff words. “Don’t make any rash movements. We have guns.”
Again, Andrew and Katie glanced at each other, their fear having drastically increased within a matter of seconds. Though, at the very least, one detail was comforting Andrew: they’d be shot if they’d move too quickly, meaning that they weren’t destined to die. A wrong move would kill them, but it wasn’t a guaranteed thing to happen. Maybe… Was there a chance that they’d only been separated from the others to keep him from having an urge and attacking them? Katie had said that these people would have probably been keeping enough of an eye on them that they’d have known that he’d already had his urge, but, then again, could they really just assume that? Maybe it had simply been a precaution. Maybe the single bed, toilet and sink being the only things in the blank room were for the sake of him not having anything to use as a weapon. Then again, though, Andrew started to feel as if he was building too much of an excuse for the situation.
Cautiously, Andrew slid from the bed, nudging Katie from the front of his shoulder as he did so before he approached the door, careful not to move too quickly, but also not to move too slowly out of fear of making them impatient. “Yes?” He asked after a moment, a metre away from the door.
The lock within the heavy door clicked before it swung open.
“Follow us,” the tall, broad-shouldered, slightly-muscular, brown-haired man growled, the friendly aura which had radiated from him upon his first meeting with Andrew and Katie having disappeared entirely, the friendly-gaze which had once come from his grey eyes now having been replaced with a cold stare which was almost as dark as his black suit was. “Don't do anything stupid.”
Katie slid from the single bed, too, and quickly trotted to Andrew's left side as he began to leave the room, the two of them realising that the other two men- men whom Andrew considered copies of the first given that they looked fairly similar, though one seemed to be the leader of the organisation and had blond hair, while the other, according to Andrew’s memory, hadn’t spoken in front of him and had black hair- had been concealed behind the wall by the door, both of them gripping pistols, one of each of which were promptly pushed into the backs of Andrew and Katie's heads, jolting their craniums forwards with a quick force to remind them not to try to fight back.
Then they began to walk.
They left the small hallway which the room was down, turned right at the approaching T-junction, then continued down the hallway for a moment until they were pushed into a room on their right. Andrew tried to take a mental note of the journey as they moved but found that the gun pressing into the back of his head was making it hard for him to concentrate, as if it was pushing into a nerve which was preventing his short-term memory from functioning.
Okay, he thought, knowing that it would be a good idea to try to calm himself, to try to prevent himself from freaking-out when seeing what was in the room- something which he was anticipating would cause his and Katie’s deaths or would cause them severe amounts of pain and discomfort. Don't do anything stupid. Don't put Katie in danger. This'll be fine. There'll be a chance to escape. There must be. Just stay calm.
Walking into the room, Andrew immediately set his eyes on six tables which looked like they'd been ripped directly from a horror film, laid-out in a horizontal row, decent-sized gaps between each of them. There were shackles bolted to the surface in various locations, the spacing making it clear that they were for arms, legs and that the larger one at the other end of each of the wooden surfaces was for a head to be gripped in place.
Continuing to be pushed into the room by the guns at the backs of their heads, Andrew and Katie reluctantly separated from each others' sides and approached the two of the closest tables, the men who were leading them- the blond one pushing Andrew and the black-haired one pushing Katie- walking alongside them and to the sides of the tables.
“Lay-down,” the brown-haired man instructed, staring deeply at Katie as if he knew that she was going to cause trouble before he shifted his gaze to Andrew. “Now,” he then growled as if he was beginning to lose his patience with the two sixteen-year-olds despite the fact that they’d only just been given the instruction.
Both of them obliged, crawling onto the tables and laying in position to have their bodies restrained by the shackles.
“What're you going to do to us?” Andrew demanded calmly, a buzz of adrenaline beginning to zoom throughout his veins as his instincts to get away from the danger started to set-in.
The blond man who'd been holding the gun to Andrew's head menacingly jabbed it into Andrew's forehead, leaning over him from Andrew's left menacingly, probably thinking that Andrew was stepping over a line by talking, but the brown-haired man, surprisingly, answered.
“You're both useful to us,” he stated, his voice deep and menacing as if he was daring either of them to lash-out and to try to attack him or his accomplices. “We don't want to kill you. We'll just wipe your memories of what that bitch told you and this process.”
“Really? That's all you'll do?” Katie questioned forcefully, not buying it for a second and, after a moment of processing what had been said, Andrew didn't, neither. Wiping their memories seemed like so much of a hassle that simply killing them would take much less effort, even despite the fact that they were, apparently, useful to these people- probably because of Andrew’s ability to refrain from giving-in to the daily urges which he’d feel and because of Katie’s connection to him which, most-likely, was aiding Andrew’s ability to drown-out the urges. After all, his main motivation not to do anything was the knowledge that letting the urge control him would put Katie in danger.
The man's eyes narrowed slightly. “Restrain them,” he then ordered of the other two.
Obliging, the two men moved to restrain them, though, in order to do so, they had to put their guns down...
Andrew lashed-out furiously with his left hand and smashed his fist into the blond man's face before using his legs to kick himself off of the table, slamming into the floor before he leapt to his feet.
As he moved, he heard Katie's movements as she struck the man by her side, making him recoil in surprise and giving her a chance to leap to her feet and dash to the door, right past the brown-haired man who stood still for a second, dumbfounded, giving Andrew and Katie a slither of time to dart out of the room.
Less Hope
Chapter 2
Andrew almost crashed into a wall as he threw himself through the door, Katie just behind him, both of them hastily turning and beginning to sprint in the direction which they'd come from, no idea as to where they were going to go in mind, both of them simply wanting to get as far away from the three men as they possibly could.
“Do you have a plan?” Katie panted, frantic, Andrew guessing that she'd only attacked the man who'd been at her side because Andrew had done the same.
“Honestly, no,” Andrew grunted in response, a wave of extreme panic and clarity slamming into him. What they'd just done had probably ruined any chance which they could have had of sneaking out of the building undetected. Then again, though, they'd have had to allow for their memories to have been wiped, and there was no guarantee that the brown-haired man had been truthful with that explanation... No. It was better to have fled, even despite the fact that they didn’t have a plan.
They threw themselves to the right as soon as they'd realised that they were beside the doors to the room with the extremely wide window which had previously been used as the entrance and exit to the rainforest for the month-long test, the room where everyone else had been when Andrew and Katie had been taken to that bland room to be locked inside of it. Maybe everyone else was still there. Maybe they could spread what they knew. Sure, the two of them had been asleep for however long, but there was the possibility that only about an hour had passed since the two of them had been separated from everybody else.
Bursting through the doors, however, they very quickly realised that everyone was absent. The tables which had been pushed against one wall had nothing on them. The few couches which were scattered throughout the area had no-one sitting on them. The glass door to the cafeteria showed them that no-one was in there.
They were alone.
The thunderous sounds of footsteps came from behind them, rushing in the direction of the room which they were helplessly stood in, wondering what to do, but the noises of what sounded like more than just the three men approaching snapped Katie out of her pondering state.
“This way!” She cried suddenly before rushing to one of the fair-sized but light tables and hoisting it from the floor before charging at a portion of the large window which led to the rainforest, the legs of the table slamming into the glass and making the smallest of possible cracks before the wood splintered and all of the legs snapped into pieces, two of them falling away from the table and clattering to the ground, sounding just as hollow as the two of them felt upon the realisation that they wouldn’t be able to break out of the room, that the three men would find them within moments.
Katie dropped the table, dumbfounded at the strength of the glass or the weakness of the wood which was keeping them in the room.
The door behind them was thrown open before the brown-haired man quickly glanced over his shoulder at what turned-out to be five people behind him- the other two men and three, armed guards. “Don't hurt them.” He commanded as he turned back to the fearful teenagers who were helplessly standing in front of him, searching for any idea as to how to escape. “They're useful.”
“Not to you,” Andrew spat, his eyes narrowing slightly, attempting to look and sound menacing as a mask for his fear, aware that it didn't come naturally to him, knowing that his attempt to be intimidating was probably just making him look even more helpless than he’d already seemed.
The brown-haired man chuckled lightly before he began to move towards them, taking slow, carefully-measured steps, probably cautious of them given that they’d lashed-out and had managed to flee only a minute before. “You don't have anyone else to help,” he stated, his voice surprisingly steady considering the situation. “You want to leave... Fine. Where will you go? We're in the middle of the Amazon- you'd be killed by the wildlife before you could make-it a quarter of the way to civilisation!”
“Yeah? Try us,” Katie retorted, Andrew able to tell that she, too, was putting-up a facade, and she wasn't doing a brilliant job of it, either. The light, upward-flick of her head as she said the words was so unlike her that it was horribly clear just how much she was trying to fool the men. The way that she was speaking and the way that she was staring at the men, trying to be frightening, just reminded him of the usual, poor acting which could be found in school plays which younger children would be forced to be a part of around Christmas time. “We'd rather die than help you!”
The man chuckled again and stilled. “How noble of you,” he growled, the light grin which had come with his chuckle fading incredibly quickly into a deep stare and what was almost a grimace. “Unfortunately, you don't have a choice.” He paused dramatically. “Make one move and we'll shoot you.”
“You don't want to kill us-” Andrew began quickly, thinking that he'd seen through the man's bluff, though the man immediately interrupted him, holding his right hand in the air almost too calmly given what was happening.
“We will if we need to,” he growled, going silent for a second as he lowered his right hand to his side, studying Andrew and Katie as they stood completely still, not knowing what to do, trying to spot an opening to dart past them or to attack them, though fully aware that any attempt at this point, no matter how fool-proof it would seem, would almost definitely end with their deaths. “Grab them,” he then ordered, to which two of the three, armed guards with semi-automatic guns who were dressed in what looked like a deep, black version of military gear hastily approached Andrew and Katie, one of them grabbing both of Andrew's arms and restraining them behind his back while the other did the same to Katie.
For the second time in a few minutes, Andrew felt a gun being pushed into him, but, at the very least, he was beginning to lose his fear. Had the threats which they'd been presented with been actual threats, they'd have been killed already, right? Something was keeping them alive. Maybe it would keep them alive for longer if he and Katie would play their cards well-enough.
The guards pushed Andrew and Katie, both of them having no choice but to oblige with the silent and forceful instruction to walk towards the door and, most-likely, back in the direction of the room which they’d only just managed to escape from.
As they moved, Andrew's mind started to race. Could they break-away again? If they could, how would they do it? It wasn't just three people to avoid anymore, it was six! They stood so much less of a chance... Still, though, there had to be some way, right? Even if it would be incredibly risky, some sort of an opportunity would present itself at some point, wouldn’t it?
Andrew glanced at Katie and saw that she was staring daggers at the brown-haired man who was silently staring back, a slight grin on his smug face as he seemed to believe that he'd succeeded.
The two of them were pushed out the room, back into the hallway, and were led back in the direction of the room with the horror-movie-esque restraints.
Andrew began to panic more and more with every step which they took. The only thing which he could think of doing was to dare to attack the guard behind him, to foolishly hope that Katie would follow his lead, to stun the others for a moment and then dart away from them and into a brilliant hiding place which they’d have to find on the fly. But he knew that he couldn't do that. He couldn't rely on Katie to make such a daring move alongside him, and even if she would be willing to make such an attempt, there wasn’t a guarantee that she’d make her move at the right time. All of the odds were pointing at what was almost guaranteed to be failure. He couldn't put the girl whom he loved in horrible danger just for the chance of them being able to break-free.
“Hey!” Came from behind them, to which everyone paused and, almost comically, rotated slowly, turning to look at the familiar-sounding man who'd called the word, Andrew able to see who it was when the guard who'd been standing behind him moved a little to Andrew's right: Edgar.
The Australian man stood there, the blond figure who was a little taller than Andrew staring at what was happening with his brown eyes, the jaw which shaped his defined sharp-stubbled cheeks clenched. “There you are- we've been worrying!” He stated, the words making it seem as if he was completely oblivious to the situation which Andrew and Katie were trapped in, as if the six people who were essentially holding his friends hostage were completely invisible.
“What're you doing out of your quarters?” The blond-haired man demanded menacingly, glaring at Edgar, though the leader of Andrew and Katie's group didn't seem to be fazed by the question.
“You never said not to leave,” he replied, fully-aware that he was pushing his luck, probably having realised that Andrew and Katie being held at gunpoint was a bad thing, attempting to buy them some time to make an attempt to get away. “Anyway, you coming?” He continued, ignoring the narrowing eyes of everyone except for Andrew and Katie as he turned to address them. “The others are waiting.”
Silence. A horrible void of sound which made Andrew wonder if everyone had fallen asleep while still standing.
That was when Andrew took the opportunity. He hastily jabbed his right elbow into the liver of his guard, the man falling to the ground instantly, his gun clattering to the ground, while Katie yanked the semi-automatic weapon out of the hands of the woman who'd been keeping her in check before kneeing her in the stomach and slamming the body of the gun into the top of her head as she bent-over to clutch where she’d just been struck.
Everyone behind Andrew and Katie began to react, though Katie spun-around and pointed the gun at them, hesitating for a moment before she began to back-away from everyone, Andrew hastily turning on his heel and following her lead as she started to leave before he fumbled with the gun which had previously clattered to the ground, yanking it up and pointing it directly at the brown-haired man's head.
“Kill us and you die,” Andrew growled, his voice actually sounding menacing now that he had the means to defend himself. It was as if simply holding a gun and pointing it at one of the only people whom he could definitively say that he was both afraid of and hated was changing his personality and his morality when it came to the idea of killing someone.
The brown-haired man, possibly in a mocking way, held his hands up slightly, either as if he was pretending to surrender or as if he was trying to wordlessly tell them to calm-down.
Andrew and Katie continued to back-away, reaching Edgar's side after a moment, their friend quietly telling them that they were clear from the back but that they needed to hurry-up.
Cautiously, Andrew began to lower the weapon, not knowing what to do. He knew that continuing to aim it at the man would keep him from being shot at, but, then again, he couldn't realistically continue to walk backwards until he'd reach a way to get out of their sight.
Katie began to lower her gun, too, following Andrew's lead before they simultaneously dropped the weapons and darted down the hall to either side of Edgar, narrowly managing to fly down a small hallway on their left before they heard the thunderous, menacing noise of six pairs of footsteps giving chase to them.
“In here!” Edgar commanded, quickly throwing a door open on their right and ushering Andrew and Katie into the room, both of them staggering in, Andrew having tripped over Edgar's right foot before he stabilised himself and realised that he, Katie and Edgar were standing in front of about twenty of the people who'd survived the rainforest. Immediately, Andrew spotted Diane, Amalia and Sora in the corner, the three of them staring wide-eyed at Andrew and Katie, speechless at their entrance.
“We need to get out of here!” Andrew spluttered, deciding within a fraction of a second that he needed to get everyone away from what was going-on. It seemed as if what the Affected woman had told Katie was true, that the organisation which they were supposed to be working with knew that the urges were being caused by satellites, yet were pretending that they had no idea what was happening. If that really was the case... Well, it didn't seem like a good sign. Andrew didn't want to jump to any conclusions and state that they were working with the bad guys, but things certainly weren't looking good for the coordinators of the trial which they'd completed.
“What?” Amalia asked with the slight trace of her Swedish accent as she stared, glancing from Andrew to Katie with her hazel eyes, her fading, long, purple-dyed hair flowing quickly as she moved towards them suddenly, as if she'd just snapped out of a trance. “Why?”
“You look awful,” Diane commented with her somewhat-deep voice, the fairly rough-looking, curly, black-haired, tall and thin Korean lady approaching at a slower pace than Amalia had.
“What's happened?” Sora grumbled, his brown eyes narrowed slightly, the usual, affectious smile which was usually plastered on the young, tall, brown-haired Japanese man’s optimistic face now absent.
“We just have to leave! Trust us, we have to go!” Katie pleaded.
“Andrew and Katie were just being held at gunpoint,” Edgar added, his voice slightly shaky, the cockiness which he'd previously shown probably having come with a rush of adrenaline.
“They wanted to wipe our memories!” Andrew finished, hoping that the others would begin to piece it together. Other people within the room were staring at them, some wide-eyed, some clearly looking sceptical. But, at the very least, Diane, Amalia and Sora weren't sceptical in the slightest.
“Okay,” Diane breathed, sounding slightly worried, though she gave a light nod, the expression on her face either trying to say that she was giving them the benefit of the doubt or that she was immediately beginning to re-think their experiences from the last month.
The sounds of the footsteps of the approaching six people were getting louder and it was incredibly clear that time was running thin.
“Through the window-” Sora began, about to turn to face the decent-sized window in the wall to his right, though Katie shook her head.
“They're too tough,” she stated, grumbling the words as she tried to think.
“No- it opens,” Amalia stated, beginning to get slightly frantic. She'd noticed the approaching, thundering footsteps and, judging by how wide her eyes had grown, even the slightest amount of scepticism which she'd possibly previously felt had faded-away in an instant.
The group of six rushed to the window, Diane hastily pushing it open. The gap was large-enough for two of them to clamber out of it at a time.
As fast as they could move, Edgar and Diane leapt out of the window, falling a few feet and landing on the leaf-covered ground of the Amazon Rainforest.
Amalia and Katie followed, clambering onto the windowsill.
Then a loud bang came from the door as it was thrown-open, the three guards and the three men bursting into the room just in time to see Andrew and Sora disappearing from the room a moment after Amalia and Katie had jumped.