Chapter 4 - Trapt

I am speechless. The guy is huge. Humongo, ginormous, massive, bulky, stout - all of these run through my mind in an attempt to describe him. They are not doing a very good job. He has to be over eight feet tall, judging by the silhoutte of him from the light inside the door. Maybe close to 300 pounds, though I doubt he has an once of fat on him. He is dressed in ragged jeans and a tight long-sleeved shirt that looks specially made for him. His eyes are bright orange. They are borderline neon, such as Elisha's, the black girl who is saving me? He is white, unlike Elisha though.

"Fuck, it's a rebel! Run!"

I do not stand around waiting for the eight foot behemoth's reaction, so I turn and start to run like hell. Elisha is already a good thirty feet or so ahead of me and is pulling ahead quickly. I can hear the footstep's of the giant over the loud thumping of my heart, and I'm terrified. I do not want to die. I take a quick glance backwards and see that he is only fifteen feet behind me. I shout a quick curse and try to put on an extra burst of speed.

"God damn, Butch, come on!"

She abruptly turns into an alley, and I follow. The man with orange eyes is only a few feet behind me now. I know he is going to grab me in a few seconds, and I wonder how he is going to kill me. Might he torture me for information I do not have or just brutally murder me right here on the street? I wonder if he is going to pull off my fingernails one by one or pour burning hot oil down my throat. A dozen different ways to die pass through my head, the next worse than the previous.

I have turned the corner into the alley, but I do not see Elisha anywhere. She must have left me to die. I do make a good distraction for her to get away. I run past a dumpster and hear a loud THUMP!

I peak over my shoulder and see Elisha standing over the rebel with half of a two by four in her hand. The other half is lying next to the unconscious rebel.

"Good job."

"We got lucky he was a small one. That blow probably wouldn't have done much to a normal recruit."

". . .You're kidding right?"

"Do I seem like the "I'm just kidding" kind of person?"

"How big might a "normal" recruit be?"

"Eh, the average is about ten feet tall, and 530 lbs. or so. I've seen much larger in some of the more serious battles. Luckily, we've managed to stay pretty much unnoticed for the last few months. Are you alright?"

I can hear the concern in her voice, and it feels good to have somebody who cares about me.

"Yeah, just give me a second."

I wander back into the alley a few feet and dry-retch a few times.

"So, what're our plans for somewhere to stay tonight?"

"We'll just have to find a stable, but crappy looking building and take a chance."

With that, we go off to search for a suitable location, which does not take long. After walking for half an hour, we are climbing the stairs in an apartment building similar to the one I had stumbled into only an hour ago. It seems as if days have passed since.

She picks a room on the third floor that is right next to the stairs. It is a basic three room apartment with a kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom/living area.

"The bathroom won't work, so don't even try it. It's going to be getting extremely cold soon so go find as many blankets as you can from the other apartments."

I come back ten minutes later loaded with ratty old blankets, comforters, afghans, and sheets. She has set up a small lamp with a halogen light bulb in the bedroom, and I finally have my first good look at her. She is beautiful. Her dark skin gives off a soft glow in the light as she takes the blankets out of my arms and makes a crude bed on the floor. She is only a few inches shorter than me, and I am about six foot. I do not know how I know this either, but it seems like I remember more and more about myself every minute. Maybe I will remember what happened to get me into all of this sometime, but now it is time to find out what happened to earth and what all of this talk about the moon being a planet, rebels, PSD's, and battles is all about.

"I need answers."

"I know. Set up your bed first."

She throws a load of blankets at me, and I lay them out as she explains.