42 Arriving at Westgate

Waze jolted awake. She struggled for a moment, before remembering her circumstances. That's right, she was currently tied up in the back of an SUV right now. The ropes dug hard into her wrists and ankles, and to top it off, she was blindfolded and gagged. Waze struggled around for a moment and managed to sit up and bring her arms out in front of her. She patted around for a bit until she found someone else's body. She traced down their arms and then tapped their hands. Whoever it was grabbed Waze's finger and gripped it in response. She did this for everyone else until she was sure they were all awake. Good, everyone was conscious.

Waze sat back and relaxed for a while before she felt the car stop and heard the front doors open. She quickly went limp and pretended she was still unconscious.

The back of the SUV opened, and Waze could see light filtering in through her blindfold.

"Looks like they're all still out."

"Good. They were kind of a bitch to fight, after all."

Really? That was what these guys considered 'a bitch to fight'? They must have had it easy up till now.

Waze felt someone grab her and toss her over their shoulder, and she could here rustling as the same happened to her friends. She bounced along on the man's shoulder for a while as he made small talk with the other men. They passed through a few doors in the building, garnering a lot of comments on the 'good haul'.

Eventually, they went into another room and the man threw Waze down on the ground. She hit the ground hard, and the air crumpled out of her lungs. It took all she had in her not to curse.

"Got some new friends for all of you." The man cackled. Waze could only assume they were now in the room with the rest of the girls. Waze heard the door slam shut, and after a moments silence someone started fiddling with her ropes.

"Here, let me get you out of this." The woman was interrupted by another familiar voice, though.

"I got it." Waze felt her blindfold ripped off to reveal Michelle standing over Waze with a smile.

Michelle raked her nails along the ropes and they easily slipped off. Of course, that was her ability: her unbreakable claws. Michelle walked over and freed all the other girls similarly, earning surprised looks from the girls in the room.

Waze rubbed her wrists as her friends all stood up and stretched a bit, acting as if everything was perfectly normal.

"Man, that kinda hurt. Plus the car ride back was really boring." Waze yawned before plopping back down on the ground.

"You were bored? I was only out for a few minutes. I must have been up on the car ride for a half hour. All of you were still unconscious when I woke up." Cassidy scoffed.

"Oh... I'm pretty sure I woke up last." Waze shrugged uncaringly.

"I got to lay next to Waze when I until we got there!" Byrd scrunched her face in an ecstatic smile. "It was so nice."

"I was fairly uncomfortable. That man certainly wasn't gentle either, he was carrying me like a sack of potatoes. He even commented on how heavy I was." Michelle scowled as she casually examined her nails.

"Yeah, well you are five feet and eight inches of pure muscle." Waze laughed.

"Seriously, why do you get to be so tall?!"

"Don't get mad just because you're short, Cassidy." Michelle giggled. Byrd, Waze, and Sable joined in. Even in a situation like this, their banter held strong.

"Are you guys just gonna joke around? Don't you realize you just got kidnapped?" A girl with scrappy dark shoulder length hair scowled in their direction.

"Hm... yeah, but no use in being all down about it, though, right?" Waze beamed at the girl.

"Your optimism is somehow terrifying." Cassidy gave Waze an irked expression.

"It's your true ability." Sable gave Waze a slightly uncertain expression.

"Sable, did you just make a joke?" Waze looked at Sable in surprise.

"Oh! Sable made a joke!" Michelle grinned at Sable, who was starting to look annoyed.

"Yay! Go Sable!" Byrd erupted into applause, Cassidy, Michelle, and Waze joining in.

"Seriously, you guys, what are you, idiots?" The same girl from before shot the group another glare.

"Haha maybe." Waze gave the girl a lighthearted laugh. "You mind if I ask you a couple questions, though?"

"What? Why?" The girl wore an irritated expression.

"Just because. I mean, I'm supposed to be confused, right?"

"Ugh, fine. Whatever."

"First off, can the guards hear us in here?"

"Not really, no." The soft looking girl who had tried to untie Waze earlier spoke now. She had plain brown hair cut in straight bangs. "All the walls in this place are pretty much sound proof."

"Oh... thanks." The other girls in the room seemed to be making no moves to talk to Waze, a lot of them were asleep after all.

"Second, have any of you seen a Katie Hopkins in here?"

"Huh? Oh... that's me..." The girl with the dark brown hair looked up at Waze, who flinched back in slight shock.

"This is Katie Hopkins?" Michelle leaned in to take a closer look at the girl.

"Ms. Yuka's friend?" Cassidy took a look too, Byrd and Sable also turning their attention to the small girl.

"You know Yuka?!" Katie looked up at the group of girls in shock.

"Yeah, we do. She helped us out a lot. Thank god we found you, I promised her I'd get you back in one piece." Waze gave Katie a soft smile, and then turned to the girl with the dark scruffy hair.

"If you don't mind me asking, what's your name?" The girl scowled and glanced away.

"Maya."

"Sweet, now I'm gonna need to ask you two a few more questions. We need some information if we wanna get out of here."

"Get out of here? What are you crazy? Do you even have a plan?" Maya looked at Waze with an incredulous expression. Waze grinned.

"Actually, we do."