Kukri pressed hard in the middle of my spin and I arched back, pulling muscles. Eyes closed, I silently begged for the pain to stop. Beatings were better than Kukri’s pressure point torture.
“You didn’t like me calling you those names, huh? Felt it was some big insult to your honor? Honor is a societal construct. It doesn’t exist except in our societies. Your honor is nothing.”
Pain made me incapable of responding. Walking up and down my back, Kukri’s fingers played with my pressure points.
“You could have given me the answers I need, but you chose to be difficult. You have only yourself to blame for your suffering, Bunny.”
“Liar,” is all I thought.
“Even with your eyes closed,” Kukri scoffed. “I can see your defiance etched in every line of your face. Tell me, Bunny, how does your defiance fair against Ruben? Does he visit you in the middle of the night when no one is awake and take you then? Do you stay silent so no one will know? Or does he wait until you are all alone at home and make you scream for him?”
Anger began to boil in my gut. Kukri disgusted me. He was sick and disgusting. I hated him more than even Ruben at that point.
“What do you think the boy that did this to you would do for us if we let him have you to himself for an hour or a night? Do you think he’d beat you more or would he pleasure himself at your expense?”
Vomit rose in my throat. I couldn’t throw up due to the angle of my head, but I wish I could have and aimed it at Kukri.
“I hear you have a sister. Maybe he’d prefer having alone time with her instead. I could arrange it so you’d watch. Would you like that?”
Something in me snapped. Insulting and threatening me was one thing, but not Summer. There was an automatic stapler on the desk. Snatching it up, I hit the latch that allowed it to unhinge from the base. Wrenching my back, letting out a cry of pain, I twisted around. Click! Click! I pressed the staple to Kukri’s face and arm. He roared in pain, releasing me. Dropping the stapler, I ran, slamming the office door open.
The main office was deserted, but I barely noticed. Running flat out down the hall, I called out for help. No one responded to my calls. Skidding down hallway after hallway, I found the classrooms were empty. Sprinting up two flights of stairs, I searched more classrooms. Still there was no one. How could there be no one in the middle of the day? It wasn’t lunch yet and I knew all my friends were here. Where was everyone when I needed them? Sliding into my literature classroom, I stopped and looked around. Then it hit me. The phone. How I didn’t think of it before I had no idea. Scrambling, I searched recklessly through the papers on the desk. Finally, I found it. Yes! Finally, some good luck.
Placing the phone to my ear, I dialed. It rang once, twice, and then a noise that like nails on a chalkboard blew my ear out. Crying out in astonishment and pain, I dropped the phone like it was on fire. Rubbing my ear, I cursed to myself. Of course they would have messed up the phone lines.
“Eri,” a voice called to me, sounding confused. “What are you doing?”
Swiftly I looked up and saw Ramiro standing in the doorway of the classroom. He appeared perplexed and watched me carefully. Despite what he had done to me just the day before, I felt relief at the sight of him. He could help me. He could help all of us. Maybe he had a cell phone. Maybe he knew where everyone was. Maybe, just maybe, he knew a way out of the school, around the Reformers.
“Ramiro!” I said hopefully. “I am so glad to see you.”
“Eri, where is your shirt?” he smiled oddly at me.
Realizing what he was taking about, I covered my chest by crossing my arms.
“That’s not important right now,” I told him, approaching him. “We need to get out of here. There are crazy men here. Do you have a cell? If so, please let me use it. I need to call for help.”
“What are you talking about?”
Ramiro closed the distance between us at the same time I did. Shortly we were only a foot from each other. His gaze was intense as ever. It didn’t matter at the moment though. Shaking my head, I struggled to find a way to make him believe me.
“Ramiro, there are bad men here. They are going to hurt us if we don’t get help.”
“Are you feeling alright? You are talking gibberish.”
“I am not talking gibberish! Will you just give me your damn phone?”
The flashing of his eyes should have told me what was coming next. His foot slammed into the side of my right knee, causing it to buckle. Stepping on my knee, he grinded it into the ground as Ramiro grabbed my hair.
“Did you just give me an order?” he said in a deadly soft voice.
“No! Ramiro, stop! It hurts!” I begged, on the verge of tears.
“I told you yesterday. A woman should never be higher than a man.”
“Please, Ramiro, listen to me. This is important!”
“I will tell you what is important.”
Grinding his foot harder on my knee, Ramiro snarled at me.
“Ramiro, stop it!”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
“I’m asking you! Not telling you. Please…Ramiro…”
“You never listen, Eri. I told you women should never be higher than men and you order me around. I tell you not to take off that necklace you got for your birthday and you haven’t worn it since. I tell you to never give me that fake smile of yours and you do.”
“What are you talking about? Please, we need to get out of here before they find us.”
“I’m teaching you a lesson right now, Eri. Pay…attention.”
He emphasized his last two words by slamming his foot down again on my knee. Clutching it, I gasped. Then I felt the anger again in my belly. Ramiro thought he could bully me just because he was bigger. But I had faced Kukri and Ruben just now and they were both bigger and meaner. Ramiro was nothing but a power-crazy teenager. He wasn’t anything I should fear or bow down to. Straightening the best I could, I met his eyes. I wouldn’t look away anymore.
“Are you challenging me, Eri?” Ramiro whispered.
“No, I’m refusing to bow to you. You think you are some badass, Ramiro? You think that you pushing me around makes me afraid of you? Grow up. I have had more beatings in the last few months than you can imagine. I face scarier men in my pajamas than I am facing right now.”
“Excuse me?”
Flashing, his eyes warned me, but I ignored them.
“You don’t like me because David hangs around me too much? Then you stop him. You’re his friend. And for the record I dislike David. I am disgusted by him. If he never talked to me again, I would die happy. In fact, if you never talked to me again, I would die happy.”
Ramiro slapped me. I didn’t even flinch. Anger pulsated out of Ramiro.
“Go ahead. Try to make yourself feel like a man, but the people waiting for us somewhere in this school are way scarier than you.”
“Who is scarier than me? Who are you afraid of so much more than me?”
“Me,” a smooth voice replied.
Not taking my eyes off Ramiro, I knew it was Kukri. He had found me thanks to Ramiro.
“Who are you?” Ramiro growled, studying Ramiro.
“Kukri Muert, special officer of the Reformer army. You must be the boy who had words with our Eri yesterday.”
“Your Eri?”
“Let’s say she is a special part of our entertainment division.”
“You bitch.”
Ramiro slapped me so hard I fell to the ground. Kukri stayed in the doorway. Pushing myself up, I glared at Ramiro, still refusing to back down.
“Now, now, Ramiro, was it? There is no need to get jealous. From what I understand no one has taken her yet. Would you like to?” Kukri chuckled softly.
“What?” Ramiro barked at Kukri.
“Would you like Eri for your own? We could give her to you.”
“Go to hell, Kukri!” I screamed, ripping my gaze from Ramiro.
“She belongs to us and we can arrange it so she becomes yours if you join our army. We could use skilled men like you.”
“Don’t act like I’m something you can trade!” I shouted, fuming at being ignored.
“The menfolk are talking, Eri,” Kukri snapped at me, his focus so murderous that I fell silent. To Ramiro he said, “So what about it, Ramiro?”
Thinking for less than a minute, Ramiro replied, “Sure. I’ll join you, but she isn’t your gift to me. I’ll think of something else.”
“As you wish. Our men are setting up for our big introduction to the school in the cafeteria. Go there and tell them Kukri sent you. They will greet you proper.”
“Ramiro, don’t!” I begged.
Yanking me up, Ramiro pulled me to him by my hair. His lips brushed my ear, tickling it as he spoke, “Don’t tell me what to do…they can’t give me what I already have…so bite your tongue.”
Tossing me to the ground, Ramiro stepped over me and passed Kukri. Patting him on the shoulder, Kukri congratulated him then watched Ramiro disappear down the hall.
“Now, I could have stopped him earlier,” Kukri sighed as if regretful. “But I thought it was better that he punishes you than me. I tend to get carried away and you seem to be a useful tool for gathering new recruits. Plus, Ruben would be angry if I broke his toy before he was done with it.”
Leaning over me, Kukri showed me all his teeth in a scary smile.
“But if you ever staple me again, I will break every bone in both of your hands,” he warned, lifting me up by my neck. “Do you understand me, Bunny?”
Nodding vigorously, I hoped he would not begin to torture me again. Placing me on my feet, Kukri took off his belt and used it to bind my wrists together. Once secured, he yanked me forward as he became walking out of the classroom.
“We are late now, thanks to your shenanigans.”
Stumbling, I tried to keep pace with Kukri. Often he’d jerk his belt, causing me to trip and fall hard on my knees. Kukri would keep walking, dragging me along as I desperately got to my feet. Personally, I think he did it on purpose as punishment. My knees quickly purpled.
“Quiet down!” a voice boomed from down the hall.
We were rapidly approaching the cafeteria. Stealthy, Kukri slide into the cafeteria, pulling me against his front and covering my mouth. Eyes growing large, I trembled at the sight before me. No less than two hundred soldiers stood arranged among my peers and teachers. They all wore black uniforms with gold stitching. They all carried large automatic weapons. Students and teachers huddled in manageably divided groups, patrolled by soldiers. Bryan and several soldiers I knew stood on the stage that lined the far wall. The stage traditionally had been where seniors enjoyed their lunches and the talent show was held each year. Now it was where my peers’ worlds were being crushed.
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