Strangers To Freedom

Chapter Two

    She walked into the kitchen and drew her hand across the nearby counter, her fingers making lines across the counter as she did so. She heard the low rumble of the refrigerator and the sound of her running shoes making squeaking noise across the linoleum floor, nothing else.

‘Well, at least the electricity is still running.’ she thought to herself as she approached the refrigerator. ‘At least I can have a hot bath.’

    It was not surprising to her that the electricity isn’t cut. Apparently, every household has been self-sufficient for a while. She remembers hearing the news about how houses are to be fitted with solar panels to generate electricity individually, thus lowering the cost of living significantly when she was a young girl. This house had to be one of the few houses that had installed solar panels on the roof. She opened the refrigerator and her eyes opened wide. While the house had been barren and seemingly looted, the refrigerator seems quite heavily stocked.

    She thanked her lucky stars that the previous tenants and raiders had overlooked this. She thought that this was the best thing to ever happen to her. She started to pick out some fruits and some preserved and cured meats, stuffing her face in front of the refrigerator.

    Eating her fill, she walked back to the foyer and started to head up the stairs. She was looking forward to the hot shower and hopefully the looters left some clothes for her to change into at least. She gets to the fourth step when there is a loud creaking sound. She froze on the top of the fourth step for what felt like eternity. It was muffled, but she was very certain that she heard a bell ring. Once, twice, three times at most, and then silence descended once again. She stood there for a moment longer before continuing up the stairs, her back against the wall, cursing under her breath that she had been too careless.

    Of course there was someone in the house, all the signs pointed to it. The door was closed despite the house being in disarray. No looter or tenant that is in a hurry would even bother to close and lock the door. There is also the fact that the house had a fully stocked fridge. It did not even cross her mind that there could have been people already squatting in the house. She tried to perk her ears to listen while keeping still. Silence once again. Not even a peep, not even a rustle of wind or breeze. Perhaps it was just her mind playing tricks on her. She continued upwards towards the landing.

    Up on the landing, she finds that the landing is really dark. Remembering that the electricity is still running and that houses usually have lights on the landing, she ran her left hand along the wall on her left to find a switch. She found a set of light switches not too long later. As there were multiple switches, she decided to scrutinize closely to see if there was any indication on which switch belongs to which light. She saw that there were embossed sticker labels stuck over the switches. Running her fingers on them, she quickly found the one for the landing.

    She turned the light on and turned around to look around the landing area. Her eyes opened wide when she saw a face right in front of her. The face was gaunt, solemn, sallow male face staring right in front of her face. His eyes are bloodshot and irises are brown. His eyes are darting around wildly. He has a wild look as his hair is unkempt and his face unshaven. She opened her mouth to scream, but before she could even do so, he grabbed her by her throat with his left hand and started to choke her. With her wind pipe closed and her airway cut off, her mouth and eyes are open wide but not a peep escaped her lips.

    She began to see stars. Her eyes begin to roll back and her vision began to turn to black. When she awoke, she found herself bound and gagged to the chair in a dark room. She struggled against her bonds, but found that the more she struggled the more her bonds begin to tighten and hurt her. She tried to scream but it seems that in addition to the tape gag on her mouth, her captor seems to have also put something in her mouth to stop her from screaming. She was not blindfolded as she could see the moonlit thinly curtained window of the room in the far corner of the room.

    A figure passes by her and heads to the window. The figure stares out the window into the distance for a long time. Finally the figure turns back and away from the window before approaching her. He grabs her by her hair and tugs it back before removing her tape gag and pulling out the cloth he stuck inside her mouth.

'Who sent you?' he asked, his voice gruff and rough, as if he has not used it in some time. 'Who are you? Where are you from? Military? Overseers? Rebels? How did you find me here?'

'Rin.' she croaked, her mouth and throat parched. 'May I have some water please? My throat is so dry.'

'Not until you answer my question. Who sent you? How did you find me here?' he hissed as he began to tug harder.

'I don't know. I...I just...came across this house by accident.' she started to sob from the pain and had felt some hair strands being tugged free from her scalp.

    He let go of Rin's scalp. She started to take deep breaths and continue to sob. She did not understand what he was talking about. What was it about the military? Overseers? Rebels? Rin did not understand anything about that at all. This man must be mad. She watched him walk across the room through tear-filled eyes. He walked over to the nearby table and start to pick up something from the table. He came back to her and began to undo her binds before handing her a bottle of water.

'Drink your water and keep quiet.' he said. 'We might have company soon.'

'Company? What company?' she thought to herself, but before she could open her mouth to ask, she heard a sound coming from downstairs, it sounded like a click.

    It sounded as if someone was picking the lock downstairs. The man reached her in 2 strides and covered her mouth with one hand and pinned her to the wall. With his other hand he put a finger to his lips, gesturing her to keep quiet. He then let her go and picked something up from the nearby table. It gleamed slightly in the moonlight. He strode closer to the door and opened it before stepping out of the door leaving her alone in the room.