5 Hostages

I wake up, my head killing me. "Ugh... w... what... happened...?" I sit up slightly and my eyes slowly focus on my surroundings. It's a cell of sorts. I sit up more but then chains around my wrists yank me back down. I look around and spot a figure of sorts across the room from me. I sit up again, slower, and the chains don't pull so tight. "Hello?" I shout, but it's like a whisper. The figure moves slightly, and their eyes open slowly.

"H... hello?" They say, their voice hoarse but familiar.

"Xan??" I say, all restraints on calling him his whole name disappearing in an instant, leaning towards him a little but then the chains pull on my wrists and I flinch slightly.

"Adraxian?" He says, sitting up slowly.

"Xan what happened?" I whisper.

"I... can't remember." He says, and he looks up at me. I see blood on the side of his head that has run down his face that has dried. His eyes are slightly glazed over as if he had been drugged. I realize my memory is groggy too. I look out the cell door and a Gragzul walks past, making me and Xan panic.

"X-Xan... how much trouble are we in?" He takes a deep breath before speaking.

"The deepest shit we could imagine." Another Gragzul walks over and opens the door.

"Which... Adraxian?" They say in very basic English. We may be a parallel but we still speak English. I shake slightly.

"M-me." I say, my voice shaking slightly. They walk over to me and unlock the chains, and grab the two still connected on my wrists and pull me up.

"Come." they say and they lead me off. I take one scared glance back towards Xan before they pull me into the hallway.

"You. Sit." They say once they lead me into a room with only a chair in it and some sort of machinery. I sit down and they hook me up to the machine. They walk over to some sort of console and press some buttons. Some clear fluid runs through some tubes that are connected to me that I hadn't noticed before and my vision blurs slightly. After what feels like an eternity, they flip a switch and it feels like lightning is flowing through my veins. I scream but can't hear myself.

I wake up some time later back in the cell, dazed and groggy. Xan was leaning against the wall of the cell, staring off into space. I sit up slightly, everything sore.

"Adraxian! You're finally awake!" He moves towards me, stretching the chains out as far as they can go. "What happened? Are you okay?" He asks several more questions but they don't stick in my drugged head, or at least it seems like I've been drugged.

"... calm... down. I can't think." I say, my voice cracking and hoarse. Xan takes a deep breath.

"What happened?" I think, trying to gather my blurred thoughts and fuzzy memories enough to tell him.

"They led me to this... room. They connected me to something after making me sit in a chair. They flipped... a switch and... it felt like lightning... I know I screamed but I... couldn't hear myself." Xan looks at me sympathetically.

"Well, at least you're okay. That's the important part." I smile slightly and another Gragzul walks over to the door and opens it.

"Xanthos." It says and Xan nods and they walk over and take off the chains around his wrist chains and they lead him off. I smile at him and he smiles back, nervously. After about 15 minutes, I dozed off, Xan and the Gragzul still not having returned.

I hear the cell door open and sit up immediately. Xan stumbles in and sits down on his 'bed'. He looks pale and dazed and almost like he is gonna vomit, but he seems more awake than I was at first.

"Xan? You okay?" I try not to swarm him with questions, but he still looks confused when I ask him if he's okay.

"... yeah... I think so... they must've... put me through the same thing they... did to you." I sigh a slight sigh of relief. I let him rest, because he clearly needs it. I fall into a dazed state, somewhere between being awake and asleep.

A pan rattling against the cell door wakes me and Xanthos up. We launch up and nearly fall off our 'beds', which are more like wooden slats that have cloth and small pillows.

"Food. Eat." They slide two plates under the door and I stumble off the bed and grab the one closest to me, and Xan does the same thing. We eat as though we haven't eaten in days, not really tasting what it is that we're eating, which is like a light grey mush. It tastes like nothing when we eat it fast enough. We finish eating and we set the plates down before the Gragzul even leaves. They smile awkwardly, their faces not meant for smiling, and they shout something to another Gragzul, and more mush is given to us. We keep eating it, and after a while we finally stop, our appetites sated. The Gragzuls both leave, talking in their language that's nearly impossible to understand. I look over at Xan and he looks back at me.

"Feel any different?" He says. I shrug.

"Not that I can tell. What do you suppose we should do?" Xan looks out to the cell door.

"Well, we're presumably the first prisoners these guys have. They'll probably grill us for information, and any information at that. But why do you suppose they picked us?" I blink, realizing that it wouldn't make sense for any of them to keep us alive.

"I... I'm not sure. But... we are probably gonna have to be strong willed, huh?" Xan laughs slightly.

"Yeah, we'll have to do that too..."

Xanthos noticed something was off with Adraxian, but he wasn't able to figure it out in his dazed state. Something inside himself seemed more aware than before, and Xan figured Adraxian felt it too, but it might just have been from neither of them ever having been in a hostage situation like this before. He looks at the door quickly as a Gragzul walks past, grumbling to another next to them. Adraxian is still sleeping, more or less, and Xanthos sighs quietly. He starts to think of what the men are going to do without him.

'They're either gonna fight like Hell to get to me and Adraxian, or they're all dead. Or neither.' He loses his train of thought as an alarm, distant, but still noticeable, starts blaring somewhere in the tunnels. Adraxian woke up, looked through the door as Gragzuls ran past as quick as they could, and then looked at him. Xanthos shrugged. Adraxian looked back at the Gragzuls running past.

I haven't seen anything like this before. It's like they are... preparing. I realized the alarm was for attacks. I look over at Xanthos, and he looks at me and shrugs. I look back at the Gragzuls. Slowly, I feel as though something isn't right. I can't decide if it's just the situation I'm in or something inside me, my instincts. I notice my vision going red again and I look at the exposed wood from the bedlike thing they set up for me and Xanthos, and try to focus on it, as if it'll help me calm down.

"Adraxian?" I hear Xanthos say, but he sounds distant, like he's far away from me. I feel the adrenaline going through me skyrocket, and I twist my wrists a little, testing the chains. I tug against them as hard as I can, which should've done nothing, but I heard a metallic snap. I moved my wrists in front of me, looking at the broken manacles around them. The chain falls limply from a loop that once was part of both manacles. I look at Xan, and he looks back. I can't tell if he was surprised or scared.

"Want help?" I manage to choke out, and Xan nods.

I scoot over to him and start working on his chains, and sure enough, I snap them apart like I did with mine. I look at him as he studies the door, waiting for an opportunity to break out. Shortly after, the Gragzuls have stopped running past. Xan and I stand up, and then stumble as something violently shakes the tunnels.

"The cannon... they're using it." Xan says, going over to the door and manages to shove it open. He looks around the tunnels and starts walking to where the Gragzuls where running to.

"What are you doing??" I whisper.

"If they're going that way, it must be our way out."

"Straight onto a battlefield?!"

"You want to get out of here don't you?" I pause. "That's what I thought. Come on." Xan starts walking again and I follow, not wanting to make him angry.

We break out into the light of the battlefield, and immediately regret it. The chaos of the fight is everywhere. Gragzuls charging at the men that felt either brave or stupid enough to go face to face against one, men and Gragzuls alike, dead on the ground, the blasts from the cannon has left massive pits in the ground, leaving some Gragzuls horribly injured, or just slaughtering them. Xan and I look at each other for a moment, and then start running. We manage to navigate through the dead Gragzuls and the pits, trying not to be seen. Something settles like a stone in my stomach, and I pause for a moment, feeling as though I might throw up. Xan looks at me.

"Come on, we're almost there!" I take a deep breath and climb up the rest of the pit, and Xan and I take off running to the other side. I stumble and fall, pain shooting through me, and I get up and keep running, seeing stars in my eyes. I feel warm blood start running down the side of my head, and I get to the line of men, and suddenly fall down, my vision going black. The last thing I see is Xan rushing to get me, hearing faint and distant explosions.