The Rise [1]

| XIV. RELOADED

xiv. reloaded

                    "Go!"

They had exactly ten minutes.

Ten minutes to choose from a stored collection of various things ― from boxes full of inflatable balloons to corkscrews to fishing gear. The entire storage was piled up with seemingly random things from the truckers that were lured into the strip bar.

While the others scattered into different directions in the barely illuminated room, Amber turned to her left, hurrying to go through the dusty boxes. She found whine, a lot of whine, before she decided to rip open a bag that stood next to the wooden boxes. As she reached inside it, she discovered a flashlight ― a simplification in the search for something useful in the fight against the culebras.

During her search, the flash did not only bring the inside of the boxes to light ― troubled, Amber soon noticed the dry blood that clung to her strained hands like a second layer of skin. Horrifying apprehensions rocked her mind ― did her face and body present the same image? A sense of disgust washed over her, too quickly to stop the guttural pant from leaving her mouth. She tried to rub it off her hands, unable to concentrate on anything else until she had freed herself from the claws of the Twister's machinations.

Meanwhile, Tanner retrieved a sword ― naturally, a grin growing on his lips ― and Jacob found wooden stakes that he decided needed even more sharpening. Seth ran through different boxes and finally stopped at fishing gear and Kate discovered weapons of other calibers. The time was up just as Amber had managed to open a long box with yet unknown things. "Time's up!" the man's voice boomed. Amber quickly unlocked the box, soon beholding the picture of an axe. Rapidly, she took it out of the wood, and joined the group. Stepping up to Kate, the young girl's eyes came across hers.

"He should come with us", Kate said and Amber's glance wandered to the dark skinned man who the storage seemed to belong to. Kate was right. He shouldn't be rotting in this hell hole when there was a light at the end of the tunnel. The isolation had had him grow paranoid, almost delusional, and if anyone could talk some sense into him it was probably one of the Fullers.

"Dad, you should talk to him", Kate spoke upon that, her head turned to her father now. The girl's eyes were full of worry as she hoped for her father to do something about it. Anything.

"Can't judge a man I just met", Jacob shrugged. "Besides, he's lost hope. Once a person does that, there's nothing you can do."

With a loud sound, the man pushed the wall he stood in front of to the side, grunting from the effort it claimed. "There it is", he revealed and the group stared into the darkness behind it. "Your one-way ticket is about to get punched, but don't come crawling back, 'cause once you go through there, I'm shutting the door."

Carefully, Kate walked up to him. "You keep acting like you don't care, if we live or die, but you keep helping us. Why don't you help us fight our way out of here? You know your way around down there, don't you?"

"I'm not partial to suicide missions", he stated nonchalantly as if he wasn't touched in any way by the things Kate had said.

"My brother's down there", Kate explained calmly with wet eyes, "Alone. In the dark."

"Kate, the man has made up his mind", her father, Jacob interrupted her, but head-strong, Kate continued.

"My family might survive if we stick together, because we're better together. When we're alone, were lost." As Kate spoke, something inside the man seemed to awake. "You say that you're surviving, but you're just rotting away."