Young Writers Society

Six






It is quiet in my cell. Very quiet. One of those Quiets that is just quiet.
Also I might be going crazy.
I tap a staccato beat on the bed-frame to fill the silence. It doesn’t help. I get up, only to sit on the floor. It is sticky, so I go and stand by the door. Hey, I made a rhyme! ... I do it all the time! I notice the door is new. it is also sort of blue... no it isn’t, never mind. It was replaced recently. It still has the stickers. Maybe it had been damaged. I smiled. If it had been damaged, that meant it could be damaged. Where was the weak point? I pulled on all the bars. Nope. I fiddled with the lock. Nope. Maybe the hinges. Bingo. I ripped on the door. It parted from the wall. Hmm. I hadn’t expected it to be that easy. I punched a wall experimentally. I left a fist-sized hole. My scarred hand hurt. The gashes had parted. Memo to me: don’t punch wall with scar hand. I hit it with the other one.
“YEEOUCH” I yelled.
Strike that memo. Always punch wall with scar hand.

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Outside my cell two guards were talking. I gave them the names Peu de Gazouillis D'oiseaux, and Vieux Ours.
“Strange cicatrices sur ces deux, pensez-vous qu'ils appartiennent à une secte?” said Peu de Gazouillis D'oiseaux.
“Non, je pense qu'ils ne sont que des criminels.” Vieux Ours said.
“Vous n'avez pas beaucoup d'imagination.”
“Aucun”
Silence. Time to dance the two-guard shuffle. “En fait, je ne suis pas partie d'un culte.” Ballaquacianovatrinia, you are a genius.
“Aucun parler” said Ours.
Silence. I waited
Loiseaux couldn’t take it. “Pourquoi tous les deux avez-vous des cicatrices alors ?” He peered through the bars.
I looked down sadly. “vous ne me croire si je vous disais. Personne ne me croit jamais.”
“Aucun parler” said Ours again, but I could hear the curiosity burning behind the words.
Silence.
“Que s'est produit ? Je vous croire.” This from Loiseaux.
“Pas, il semble fou, je ne prendrait plutôt pas un voyage à la ferme drôle, merci.”
“ Dites-nous rapidement!” said Ours. “Nous mourons ici.”
“J'ai pensé que vous n'avez dit aucun parler!”
“Ah, ouais… Aucun parler.” Ours said, chagrined.
I waited.
“Dites-nous rapidement!” they said together
“Puits…” They were looking through the bars. “Très bien, mais ceci est strictement confidentiel.”
“Sure!”
“Je suis un voyageur de temps. Je ne suis pas né encore. Il y a, avec l' ; futur, une grande guerre. I, et mon camarade dans l' ; une autre cellule, sont la seule qui la combattent. Nous sommes le seul espoir des personnes. Nous sommes venus à cette heure pour compléter le niveau de notre approvisionnement, mais parce que mon compagnon est jeune il est devenu porté. Elle a oublié son devoir. Nous serions hors de ce temps déjà, mais nous avons été arrêtés.”
They were staring at me incredulously. they didn’t believe me. I felt my face sag.
“Vous vous attendez à ce que nous croient cette charge des ordures?” said Loiseaux.
My shoulders drooped. “Je vous ai dit.”
“Vous étiez correct!” Ours was pouting. “nous ne sommes pas des idiots!”
“Évidemment, vous n'êtes pas. C'est pourquoi vous ne me croyez pas. Aucune personne raisonnable ne me croire..” I went and sat on my bed, the picture of a hurt female.
This shut them up for a while. I lay down with my face toward the wall. I began to cry quietly. Just quietly enough for them to hear. There was no emotion behind the tears. I had cried myself out years ago.
“Votre date de cour a lieu en quelques jours…” said Ours, obviously uncomfortable with letting a female cry in his presence. It was, after all, the eighties. “Si vous omettez le peu fou vous pourriez avoir une chance.”
I sniffed dramatically, “Une chance à ce qui?” I stammered.
“Une chance de ne pas aller à la prison, la petite” said Loiseaux kindly.
“Oh. Ok.” I put my head down. Now they felt even worse. I was playing them like a pipe organ.
“Aucun vraiment, dites au juge que la jeune dame avec vous vous a dit de voler le magasin.” said Ours.
“Je ne dirais pas un mensonge comme cela!” I said, and stood up. “Elle est comme une petite soeur à moi!”
“Oh...” Ours said. Loiseaux hit him over the head.
“Ce que veut dire ce grand oaf est que vous devriez dire que vous aviez faim, et ainsi vous revêtu d'une robe un magasin d'habillement…” He trailed off.
“Pourquoi vous avez essayé de le voler?” said Loiseaux. I let that sentence hang in the silence. I wouldn’t say anything about time travel, but I could tell they were thinking about it.
“Vous sauvez vraiment le monde?” Loiseaux looked incredulous.
“Puits… oui. Je dois. Personne, autre que me, n'a la technologie. Mais parfois j'ai le besoin d'habillement, ou nourriture, ou bandages, et la délivrance du monde ne paye pas beaucoup, ainsi je dois les voler. Je considère que parce que je sauve leurs vies, je pourrais, peut-être pour prendre les choses que je dois survivre… mais il y a quatre jours j'ai sauvé cette fille.” I looked down, putting a disappointed look on my face. “C'est sa première course. Elle a été accablée.”
The men were silent for a while. “Ainsi c'est sa première course?” one finally said to fill the silence. I walked up to the bars and leaned up against them.
“Ouais. Elle a besoin de quelques leçons.”
The men looked at each other. There seemed to be a silent thought flowing between them.
“Bien, nous ne pouvons pas avoir jeune aller sans leçons pouvons nous?” said Ours.
“Pas, je suppose que nous ne pouvons pas.” Loiseaux said.
“Nous obtiendrons dans l'ennui.” 
 “Oui nous .”
Slowly they each pulled a key out of their pocket. They were unlocking the door just as Alice came around the corner. She stopped and smiled. Then she ran back around the corner. I had to cover up her presence.
“Vous deux sont les plus gentils hommes que j'ai rencontrés dans un long temps, je détesteriez pour causer l'ennui pour vous.” I pretended to have an idea. “Pourquoi vous ne feignez pas vous avez été assommé?”
“Petite dame, nous pouvons faire cela.” They both collapsed on the floor. I ran around the corner. Those two were idiots.


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I couldn’t wait to tell Benny what I had learned about my hand. She would probably be so surprised that she would... not do anything. She wasn’t exactly the type of person who would jump for joy. Oh well. I realized that I would be lucky if she wasn’t screaming at me. I was the one who had gotten us into this mess. Oh goodness.
Benny came around the corner. “Let us go quickly.” We ran toward another corner. “Do you know where your cell is from here?”
“Yes, why?” Was she going to make me go back?
“I know a way out from there.” She said curtly.
“Oh. Ok” So she was angry. “If you want, I can lead the way?” It came out a question.
Benny nodded. I pulled ahead of her. It was difficult because she was so fast. She fairly flew over the rough bricking on the floor. I tried to match her stride. It was a technique I used in track to pass fast runners. If you get in front of them and match pace, they would have trouble regaining their position. I didn’t understand how she was able to move that fast. Her stride wasn’t anything new, she held herself loosely, I could see she wasn’t pushing herself, but her legs pumped the ground at a disarming speed. I also realized that I couldn’t hear her feet touching the ground. No, I could, but they were almost silent. I modified my foot position so they wouldn’t slap the floor, and I lengthened my stride to compensate for the speed. I couldn’t keep this pace up for ever though. We turned another corner.
“This was my cell.” I pointed to it. Benny stopped.
“I can tell.” she said, as I wheeled back around. The destruction was evident. Some of the bricking was crumbling, and the door was completely off it’s hinges.
“Oh, yeah, my scar hand is a lot stronger than the other.”
“Hmm.” Benny didn’t even look mildly surprised. She started running again. “Follow me.”
We ran quickly and quietly through corridors and passages. Benny said, “Watch out for guards. We don’t want to run into any more trouble.”
Then the alarms went off.

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Oh my god. Could today get any worse? Thats what I was thinking as we were running down the corridors. The answer was ‘yes’. Yes it could.
“*&%$” I said, as the sirens blared. Wow. I was really favoring swearwords from the dark continent today.
“What?” said Alice. She didn’t understand what I was saying.
“It roughly translates to: May all your descendants rot in the stagnant crocodile-river. It sounds better in Cilubà.” I said, as we raced toward the exit.
“Yes. Its shorter to.” Alice looked impressed.
“VIOLATION DE LA SÉCURITÉ FERMANT À CLEF TOUTES LES PORTES.”
“*&%$” said Alice. Nice pronunciation. This is what made supplies missions bearable. The chase. We ducked into an office. We were almost out. Guards ran by the door. I felt my brain move into battle mode. Time to have silent-quick feet.
“Alice, walk quiet.” She nodded.
Sneaking to the next corner, peek quick, run again... Quick feet on stairs... Sign says ‘DESSUS DE TOIT’ through that door, up on roof. HELICOPTER!!! duck! “Alice, get police officer who falling.” See Alice obey. Good. Pull tardis key from pocket, “GET IN” over the sound of helicopter while tardis appears, Alice and Police Officer safe, Alice running here. Open tardis, in tardis.
Safe. Brain go back to normal.
“Whew, let’s get out of her.” says Alice.
“We will now go to Mount Vesuvius, to recharge.”
Alice looked at me strangely. “You know that exploded right?”
I let a wicked gleam come into my eye. “Silly Alice, We will go before it explodes.”
She gulped.

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