Coloring Outside the Lines

Chapter Thirty-Five

I'm screaming.

Everyone's screaming.

People are running.

More gunshots are heard.

People are falling, bullets in their bodies.

Ray is on the floor, soaked in a pile of blood. My gut wrenches at the sight.

My head is spinning and I can't concentrate on this moment and suddenly my entire body is connected with the ground.

I try to get up and move but my vision is blurring. My arms are weak and I can't feel my feet. My throat is constricting and I find it hard to breathe.

"Everybody move!" A loud voice hollers through the bakery. "Get down and shut up!"

A new man rips my purse from me and steps on my spine before passing.

"Hand over your items nicely and we'll be nice too," one man says. "If you don't, we have to resort to killing all of you."

My legs are going numb, but I try to crawl away from the door, where the masked men with guns are. I only get about a foot without collapsing.

My head is kicked to the ground by someone's foot, and I wince in pain as my nose comes in contact with the cement once again. There are now three men standing in the bakery, one gathering people's purses and wallets. One is gathering the money from the cash register and stuffing it into a bag. The last is shooting people at random.

I blink over and over again, trying to find the power to get up, but I'm so dizzy. Ray's body comes to mind and I force myself to focus. I can barely see his chest rising and falling. He's breathing, though, which is the most important thing.

My eyes are blackening, and I can't keep them open any longer. When I fall, I hear sirens and screaming.

"Take the living ones. They'll be valuable."

********

There's a light blinding my vision, and right away I feel a searing pain run up my leg. I wince and grab gently with my left hand. I know right away that it's a bullet wound. I was shot in the midst of the chaos.

"Get up," a voice calls. "All the lot of you."

It's only now that I realize that I'm not the only one in here. There are eight others in counting. Three women, two men, two little girls, and one baby. Almost all of them are sobbing.

"I said, get up!" The man says more forcefully. He pulls out a threatening gun from his waistband.

I try to follow command, but placing any pressure on my leg results in pain through my entire body. My eyes are prickling with painful tears. I can't let them fall. But I can't stand. I don't have the strength. I'm forced to stay on the ground.

"What, you poor young little girl can't follow directions anymore?" A man with dark, tangled hair and stubble on his chin leans down to my eye level, staring me down.

"Answer me, girl!" He yells into my face and I carefully wipe the spit off my cheeks.

"I... I was shot in this leg," I barely let out a whisper.

The men all let out a harsh laugh. "You call that an excuse? I could shoot the other one, if you'd like."

He grabs my hair in his right hand, grip firm and slams my head onto the ground. "You'd better follow commands better next time. Get up, you worthless child."

Using all the strength I can muster, I press my arms to the ground and lift myself up onto my right leg. I bite onto my lip hard, so I don't let out any tears. There can be no signs of weakness.

"Why are we here?" A younger girl, about Lizzie's age asks quietly. She resembles Liz, actually. Her blonde hair is brought back into a braid and tied with a red bow at the end. She wears a green dress that matches her eyes.

"That, dear young one, is an adult matter," another bearded man says.

"Why are we here?" One of the captured men, who seems to be the girl's father asks gruffly.

The bearded man turns to him slowly and walks up to him. He spits to the side before getting so close that their noses almost touch. "You don't ask questions here." He shoves the father against the cement wall. "You hear?"

The father chokes but nods firmly. He is released and leans over, rubbing his swelling neck.

"Now that we're all clear," the dark haired man says. "I suppose we could shed some light on the matter."

The room is almost silent, except for the sobs of the mother holding her baby.

"You are here to serve one purpose only," the man continues. "The owner of that little bakery owes us some money from way back in college. He made some dumb choices. We need all that money back from him."

"Why," a woman across from where I stand says softly, "why are we here?"

"If you would all shut your mouths, maybe we could get to that," the bearded man growls. And he shoots the lady in the forehead. I gasp and her lifeless body flails before falling to the ground in a heap. One of the little girls with bright red hair bursts into tears and falls over her mothers dead body. She sobs and screams. She screams so loud I'm sure somebody will hear it and find us.

But the bearded man hits the girl in the head with the back of his gun. "Shut up, stop your crying."

She still hovers over her mom's body, whimpering and wiping her swollen eyes on her sleeves.

"As I was saying, he owes us money. You're here, being held until our money is returned to us, precisely to the penny."

My heart sinks at his words. Who knows how long that could be, or what he plans to do with us while we're stuck here. Who knows where the heck we are right now?

The women are all in tears and the young girls stare at them in confusion. The captured men are straightened and alert to the words.

"If we are caught before then," the last man, a tall blonde-haired man says, "we will be arrested. That is, until we have enough money to get out of this country. We just need to stay out of sight until then."

"That's right," the dark haired man confirms. "So don't cause any trouble. I can assure you that we have no problem getting rid of the whole lot of you."

*************

Ray.

Where is Ray right now?

Did he get out in time?

Did the police get there and take him to the hospital?

Is he alright?

And Jack, where is he? Did he get out alive?

The questions will remain unanswered. I may never see either of them again.

I wonder what my parents and thinking right now. I wonder if they're worried sick. Jacob is probably going insane. Not knowing where I am or what condition I'm in must be terrifying for my family.

The nine of us were shut into this small cement room with no windows. There's a draw string lightbulb in the center of the ceiling, but that's the only thing this entire room contains. The children are crying, the women are trying to comfort them while their own tears are falling, and the men pace.

Nobody says a word to each other. We just wait. And wait.

I try to sleep, but whenever I close my eyes, all I see is the collapsed body of Ray.

There is no food, no water, no bathroom, not a thing that could keep us alive here. We were given no words of advice or help when we were forced inside here. Now the door is locked and we are trapped inside with no clue as to what our future holds.