13 Years of Struggle

Chapter 43

We held our hands up as the woman stepped closer towards us. Her face looked determined and ready to kill. “ You must be the assholes who attacked our outpost 3 days previously.”

                I stared her down as she pointed her gun at me. “ How would you know we did it?’ 

                     She motioned with her eyes to the ground. “ One of those rifles you have belongs to that outpost. All the weapons from the armory there were looted and you have one of them.” 

                    I cursed myself inside for taking that rifle. “ Who are you?’

              She rolled her eyes and continued staring at me. Her finger closer towards the trigger of her gun. “ Rashida Abbas. Sister of Abaddon. He isn’t too happy with you people killing a lot of our people. Now… tell me who you are and we can keep this easy.”

                 I reluctantly answered. “ Claire, my name is Claire… Anderson, this is Amani and her brother Xavier, and Noa…” 

                        She got up to my face and held the gun close to my forehead. “ Well Claire Anderson. You and what’s left of your little posse are coming with us. If you refuse. You end up like the old bastards laying dead in the streets.”

                  I sighed and nodded. “ We understand.”

        Noa, Amani, and Xavier quickly nodded their heads after I said this and the woman named Rashida looked a bit happier. “ Good.”

                        She then lowered her gun and knocked me unconscious with the side of it. I fell to the ground after that and everything was a blur. 

                     I quickly opened my eyes and looked around. I was in a hotel room. I was in between 2 beds and I was sitting on old gray carpet.  I quickly looked around confused. Where am I? I looked around to see if anyone else was there with me. But no. I was the only one in the room and I looked down at my hands. 

                    They were tied together with zip ties and duct tape. My legs were like that as well and my mouth was gagged with an old dirty cloth. I tried moving my legs slightly, but it was hard to, with the duct tape limiting my movement.  

                 I looked around the room again to see if there was anything I could use to help me get out of this situation. But there wasn’t. I tried spreading my legs apart quickly to break the tape. But it didn’t even budge. I yelled and it was concealed by the gag and I tried spreading my legs over and over to break the tape. 

               I heard the door to the room open. I quickly stopped what I was doing. I quickly leaned against the bed and closed my eyes to make it look like I was still unconscious. I heard the door then close and the sound of footsteps on the carpet. 

                   “ I know you're awake. Now look at me.” A voice commanded… Rashida’s voice. 

                I didn’t listen and kept my eyes shut. I heard her groan as I heard her step closer to me. She grabbed me and with her fingers pulled my eyes open and forced me to look at her. “ When I tell you to do something. You do it. Or I slice your throat.”

                       She removed her hands from my eyes and I rapidly blinked for a few seconds as I stared at her. I said something but it was muffled from the gag. “ What was that?” She smiled and put her hand on her ear and leaned closer.