My Trip.... To Nowhere - Chapter Eleven

I gaped at him. Me? I was never usually the one who was left in charge.

“But… why?” I asked. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me again.

“You proved to me that you are… pretty clever… and quite daring.” Rio said slowly.

“And so what? Look, Rio, I don’t know this place at all. You’ve led us this far, you can't stop now.”

“And so… I will continue leading the way. I am only leaving you to figure out another escape plan.”

“But to do that, I need to know this place.”

Rio paused, and then he smiled again. “And you did it again… Tom, you don’t know it, but you can be very sharp in spotting things.”

He paused as I waited.

“And so… don’t hesitate to point out any other flaws in our plans to escape… the only reason why we haven’t managed to escape before... was because no one had pointed them out.” He said finally.

I nodded.

“Is everyone prepared to face a difficult situation?” Rio asked.

I nodded again, and I could feel everyone else doing the same. I looked up to see Rio’s facial expression. He looked back at me briefly, and I could see that it must be a very hard plan to follow…

“Ok… so, here’s how it goes…”

*

I was running down a passageway with Nicky and Josh by my side. We had come to a decision that was hard at first… to split up, and escape – if we don’t meet again… we don’t go looking for each other, and we just carry on. But I was hoping… hoping that we will all meet again.

We came to a stop at a door. I was panting slightly from running, and so was Nicky and Josh.

“What… now?” Josh asked, breathing heavily.

I looked at the door. I moved towards it. I reached out to turn the door knob. I felt a hand on my arm, and stopped.

“We don’t know who’s in there.” I heard Nicky say.

“There's only one way to find out.” I said grimly. I reached the door knob, and turned it.

I felt Josh and Nicky holding their breaths, and I couldn’t help but do the same as the door swung open.

Everything was pitch-black, and seemingly empty.

We stood there, not knowing what to do.

“Shall we… move on?” Josh asked.

I didn’t know what to do. We couldn’t turn back and risk getting caught, but I wasn’t sure of moving on. I turned, and looked back at where we came from.

“We can't go back.” Nicky said softly.

“But the rest…” I started

“They have Rio. And we…” she paused and I looked at her. “…we’ve got you.”

I raised a hand to gesture for silence. I had heard something. Josh and Nicky fell silent. We all stood still like statues and listened carefully. I strained my ears.

Footsteps. Distant footsteps slowly getting nearer.

My heart pounded hard against my chest, and I glanced at the dark doorway.
As I did I briefly caught Nicky’s eyes and saw the fear in them.

I took a deep breath, and led the way quickly, but hesitantly through the doorway.



TO BE CONTINUED…