Michael had just woken up. He was kneeling with Gerald saying his morning prayer. This morning he didn’t have a lot to give thanks for, but he did have a lot to ask for. He was thankful a pastor was with him in this ordeal. It strengthened his faith, which gave him comfort.
“Amen,” Gerald said ending his prayer.
“Amen,” Michael repeated and lifted his head. “Thank you brother Gerald.”
The door opened. Michael turned to the door to see a soldier enter, while the other stood guard. The soldier grabbed someone and forced him towards the door. Michael desperately wanted to stop him, to kill him, but the other soldier was staring right at him and already had a hand on his side arm. There was nothing he could do.
He looked around at the people around him. All these people are depending on me to get them out of here safely. I can’t let them down. With God’s help I won’t. He thought. He searched the room for one person in particular. Once he found her walked towards her.
It seems most people listened to Jennifer, although Michael didn’t know why. She was soft. She would make a very good politician, but this is no time for their BS. She must start listening to him.
“I want my gun back,” he said to her when he got close enough. She was talking with the Chinese man and the older gentleman he was always hanging around with.
She turned to him. “Michael good. I wanted to talk to you,” she said. She gave him a pleasant smile, as if she could manipulate him like she did the others.
“No, the time for talking is done,” he said. “That was the 5th person they took. There won’t be anyone left ta rescue if we just talk about escaping more. We need to get out of here now.”
“You know that won’t work. At best you will ruin any chance of us getting us back home, at worst you will get us all killed,” she said with a determined look on her face.
“That hardly matters now does it?” he said. “Our situation an’t getting better. If we attack, at least we got a fighting chance.”
She considered him for a moment. She sighed and pulled out the side arm he had gotten when he first appeared on board this ship. “Before I give this to you can you at least tell me where you got it?”
“When I first got here I appeared in their armory,” he said. “I grabbed it and hid it just before they discovered me and threw me in here. Now hand it over.”
She hesitated, but finally handed it back to him. He started to leave, but she spoke up before he could even turn around. “Before you start shooting your way out of this room, would you mind listening to an alternate plan?” she said.
Michael considered it for a moment. It would border on suicide to try and fight out of this position. All of their defenses have to be setup to contain this area of the ship. It would be worth hearing her plan out, although he doubted it would be very good.
“We think we can manage to get them to take you to another room,” she said. “We can get them to do this at a time when most of the guards will be asleep in their bunks.”
Michael considered the plan. It would make things a bit easier. He would have to fight his way back to this room to let everyone else out, but getting behind their defenses would give him the element of surprise.
Plus the door to the bunks isn’t an electronic door. If he can find something sturdy enough to wedge in the door, he could trap most of the soldiers inside, at least temporarily.
“Ok, suppose I could get back here and let you all out. What next?” he asked. “Head to the shuttles? I thought all of you were convinced nobody could fly it. Certain death is the word you all used.”
“John thinks he can land this ship,” she replied. “That is if you can find a way to take over the bridge, and keep it for a while. Let’s say an hour or so.”
“Hmm,” Michael said. “Well we an’t going to be holding any areas of the ship for very long, that’s for sure. I think I can come up with something though. Ok I’m on board. We have to do this quickly though, before another one of us is taken.”
“That is the bad part of the plan,” she said. “It will take a couple of days before we can get you out of here and into the other room.”
“No, that is too long,” he said. What was she thinking? “They are taking one of us every few hours now for god knows what purpose. We have to act now. What if they take John or me? What happens to your plan then? Have you thought about that?”
“They won’t take either of you,” she said. “They won’t do anything to us until they know how we got on board. You know that.”
“No!” he said. “You have to arrange for me to get to this room your talking about sooner. If you can do it at all, certainly you can do it sooner than a couple of days.” He was determined to get this plan in motion sooner. No one else had to die!
She reached out and put her hands on his shoulders. “We will have to be patient. If we act too soon, we will only get everyone killed,” she said. He hated it, but she was right. Attacking them now would be suicide.
He left with a disgusting look on his face. He knew she had manipulated him, and he hated her for it. He went back to where Gerald was standing. He was offering a sermon to a group of people who had gathered near him. He sat down and listened.
The next couple of days passed without much incident. Word had spread that they were planning an escape attempt. Everyone split into 2 groups. One group worked with John, the Chinese kid Ken, and Charles to work on figuring out how to fly the ship. The other group was lead by Michael. They worked on figuring out how to take over the bridge, and then keep the soldiers away from it while John landed the ship.
As time went on Michael grew more and more frustrated with the others. None of them had any tactical experience. They just didn’t posses the knowledge, experience, or intelligence to plan an assault like this. There were a couple of older gentlemen that served in the military, but neither had any combat experience. He hoped they were all better at fighting, or this escape would end in disaster.
They did end up taking four more people in the two days they did nothing but planning. All four times, the soldiers kept a close eye on Michael, preventing him from interfering in any way. It is good that Jennifer arranged to get Michael out of the room. There was no way he could stage an ambush with the soldiers watching him so closely.
He wondered how Jennifer arranged to get him out of this room, but he certainly wasn’t going to ask her. He figured the strange alien women came to get John. He almost regretted agreeing to this plan. She made him feel uncomfortable.
On the second night the door opened. There was a collective sigh when everyone saw it was the strange alien woman that came through the door. She looked around until she found Michael. She pointed towards him. Michael got up, but hesitated. Might as well get this over with. He said to himself. He ensured the gun was safely hidden under his shirt, and started towards the door. The soldier led him down the corridor, up the stairs, and then down a few other corridors. Michael made a note of the path he took, along with all the other corridors he saw.
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