Carnelian (14 page)

One more week done of college and the
weekend was coming, along with another CRUSH tournament on Sunday.
Since I was part of the team, I had to attend a strategy meeting
when I normally have lunch between classes on Friday. I attended
the meeting but didn’t say a word. The next tournament was a big
capture the flag game. I had played it once at summer camp, but
other than that, I had no clue to how to win it. I found out why
even though Murdley dorm was for the studious students, they never
won. It was like too many cooks in the kitchen. It was best to just
sit silently and listen to everyone bicker on the best way to win.
Every single member had their own opinion of how to do it.

I finally made it through my classes and
tutoring to be completely done for the weekend. I felt Seth
snooping around during tutoring, but by the time I was done he was
completely gone.

“And Sim will be here in ten minutes.” Ty
checked for the seventh time as he packed his bag.

“In ten minutes,” I replied, shaking my
head. Ty was just like a mother hen in his worry. “She said she’d
meet me at six-fifteen.”

Ty stood and waited, eyeing me over for a
minute.

“Ty, come on man,” Dee complained from the
doors. He was already on his way out. “She said her friend was
coming.” Ty turned to leave, but paused to look back at me. I
smiled and waved, and he nodded in return. Ty was turning out to be
a nice older-brother type. I always wanted an older brother.

“If Sim doesn’t show up in fifteen minutes,
call me and I’ll come back,” Ty added before following Dee out the
doorway.

I waved to him. He would have been the
protective, older-brother type. I could already see it.

I gathered my books and packed them away,
taking my time as I knew Sim wouldn’t be on time. She never was.
When six-fifteen came around, I took out my phone and texted Sim.
She had completely forgotten and had already headed home for the
night. That was my roommate. I looked back at my phone. It was
almost dead… nope, it was dead. Shrugging to myself, I tucked the
phone away in my bag and decided to walk to the dorms on my
own.

I crossed the road to the
overhead walkway. It was already starting to get dark out. Seth
told me not to walk this way alone, but what was I to do? Sim
bailed on me, and if I walked the other direction, it would be
completely dark by the time I made it back to the dorms with the
additional twenty minute walk. I climbed the stairs to the walkway,
feeling like Seth was just overreacting to the danger of the
fully-enclosed, caged area. I mean, it did have a creepy factor
that if you passed a bad person inside the caged walkway there
would be nowhere to go, but it was empty.
So why all the worry?
I gave one
last look to my dead cell phone. I’d have felt safer if I could
talk to someone as I walked, but there was nothing I could do now.
I really needed a new phone.

I climbed the stairs up to the walkway, and
it was empty as normal. Even during the day, you only saw a few
students coming this way. Mainly because there was a wooded walkway
path on the other side, and the small woods were a well know
make-out spot. No one really wanted to see any of that PDA. I began
walking through the tunnel. My heart skipped a beat as someone came
from the wooded path and began to walk on the walkway. I squinted
to see if the person was male or female, young or old, but I
couldn’t tell. Maybe the walkway at night was creepy after all.

As the person down the way came into focus,
I could tell it was a guy. Even more creep factor to it. I
hesitated and glanced behind me. If I wasn’t too far, I could
pretend I forgot something in my bag and turn back around. My hopes
were dashed when a larger person climbed the stairway. I didn’t
need to see clearly if it was a man or woman, as by size alone it
had to be a guy. My choice was try to go back through the large guy
following me or ahead with the smaller guy approaching. It was an
easy decision since the little guy would provide more of chance to
get by if something happened.

I kept my face down as I walked. I had taken
self-defense classes in high school. It was actually a requirement
since we were an all-girls school, and the female teachers were big
into female power and taking care of yourself. I never had the
opportunity to try anything in real life, but I wasn’t afraid to. I
was up against two guys. My best chance came in taking the smaller
one by surprise, and then I would run. I had to bargain that I
could run faster, or possibly longer, than either of them. If I
remembered correctly, there was a police emergency light just
beyond the walkway exit on the wooded trail. If they were too
close, I’d just keep running. I didn’t have time to worry, and had
to just let instinct take over. If I could get across the bridge, I
could get help.

I walked on and felt my as heart rate picked
up as the shorter man neared. The larger man behind me kept pace,
but at a distance. They could be completely innocent, but something
about both men showing up at once, made me think not. As the
smaller man neared, I didn’t look up but kept walking.

“Hello,” the man said in a low voice. His
hair was sandy blond and he was in need of a haircut. Easily he
could pass as a college student, and who knows, he may have even
been one. I still wasn’t going to stop and chat. I nodded my reply
and made to pass him.

“Whoa there,” the man said, grabbing my left
arm and pulling me to him. “Not even going to…” is all he got out
before my knee made direct contact with his man parts. He dropped
like a sack of potatoes, hollering in the process.

I took off running. I didn’t wait to see how
well that had worked. I’d been taught in classes to put your full
force behind it. I didn’t know if I put enough, but by the sounds
of his continued swearing I’d say it would do the job. It wasn’t
long before I heard the man behind me. I could keep ahead of him in
the tunnel, but I was more worried about the open ground to the
emergency light. The blue of the emergency light peeked out from
the edge of the woods. His shoes stomped in rhythm with mine, and
he had to be gaining ground being that he was at least a foot
taller than me. I let adrenaline take over and kept running. At the
end of the tunnel was a half set of stairs. I flew down them in my
escape, catching my foot on the last stair. My knees felt the
initial contact as I scraped across the cement from tripping, and I
threw my hands in front of my face. They took the second impact and
burned as dirt went into the wounds.

Big guy was now close enough to get me. I
pushed up fast on my hurt hands, but I was too slow. He reached
down and grabbed my twisted ankle, twisting it more.

“That wasn’t real nice, girly,” the man
said, spitting out his words as he sucked in air. I guess he wasn’t
used to running. “My friend there is going to need a moment to
compose himself before he can join us for our fun.”

“No shit,” I said as I
tried to struggle against his grip. I wasn’t going down without a
fight. I had no idea who these guys were, but it wasn’t
‘
fun’
they were
planning for me. He laughed and dragged me closer to him, causing
more pain in both my knees and hands. He didn’t help me stand, but
kept a hold of my foot instead. He was being more cautious to keep
me away now that he already knew I’d fight back.

As quick as I was being dragged, I felt him
release me with a scream. I flipped around in time to see Seth land
a second punch on the guy. Ty was already kneeling by me to pick me
up and put me away from the fight.

“You alright?” he asked, looking at my
bleeding hands.

“Yes. There’s a second guy on the bridge,” I
said, not being able to take my eyes away from Seth. This was
obviously not his first time fighting. He was landing three or more
punches to one of each of the big guy’s punches.

“We know. Dee is taking care of him, but it
didn’t look like he was in any fighting condition. I have no idea
what you did to him or how you fought him. Where I come from most
women don’t try to fight two men at once,” Ty replied, staring at
me in awe. Ty set me down on the wooded path away from the
fight.

“Aren’t you going to help him?” I asked,
pointing to Seth who had blood on him now. I wasn’t sure if it was
Seth’s or the other mans.

Ty looked up and shook his head. “I’d only
get in the way.”

I pushed myself up on my knuckles to avoid
my bleeding palms, and limped my way over to the blue emergency
light. It would have been easier to use my cell phone, but it was
dead. I already knew Seth, Ty, and Dee didn’t have cell phones on
them either. They were more old-fashioned about a lot of things,
even more than my own grandfather. I stared at the tall pillar with
the blue light. I had never heard of anyone using one of these
things before, and really didn’t know what to expect. I limped over
and looked at the box. It had a button to push, and I pushed it.
Immediately, a scratchy voice tried to talk across the speaker. I
couldn’t make out a single word. Of course, when I was running to
the emergency phone it wouldn’t work.

Ty was right behind me, curiously watching
as he helped me back over to sit down on the wooden ties to the
dirt walkway. Dee was hauling the smaller man down the steps by
now. He was no longer yelling in pain, but shooting me daggers with
his eyes. I guess he didn’t especially like where I kneed him. Too
bad for him. I’d do it again in a heartbeat if needed. Once down
the steps, Dee hit the man in his back, and he crumpled to the
ground. It looked like Dee was similarly trained to fight. Who were
these guys? Dee bent down and began going through the man’s pockets
while Seth continued with the larger guy.

The fight was unequal. Seth was at least
eight inches shorter than the man, yet getting in double or triple
the punches. I watched Seth move fluidly; I was in awe of his
ability. He was amazing. He had to be trained, and this was
absolutely not his first fight. As the large guy was slowly losing,
he reached in his pocket and pulled out a knife. Flipping the blade
open, he swiped at Seth. Seth backed up, and the tip of the blade
only left a scratch down his cheek. With the fight turning serious,
Seth turned serious. It only took him two more blows to knock the
man unconscious. Seth let the man’s body drop to the ground before
he turned to find me.

Ty stood and dragged the man over to the
other man as Seth came and squatted before me. A line of blood
dried on his cheek from the blade swipe, but other than that Seth
looked fine.

“Are you okay?” Seth asked, worry tinged his
voice.

“Yes,” I replied, still watching the men.
Part of me thought that they would stand up and try to attack
again. Neither was moving, but my adrenaline was not completely
gone.

“Seti, what do you think all of this is
for?” Dee asked, pulling Seth away from me. In Dee’s hands were zip
ties and duct tape. I shuddered at the thought, knowing what they
were for. I had watched the news too many times to know why two
guys would attack a girl and have zip ties in their possession. Dee
seemed genuinely confused. Seth looked at the zip ties also and
seemed unsure.

“They are zip ties,” I replied, surprised
none of the guys had ever seen them before. I pushed myself up on
my knuckles again to stand and limped over to them. “This end goes
in here and you pull them tight. They are impossible to break out
of, and you need scissors to do it.” I put the zip ties in a loop
and pulled. Seth tested them and nodded before handing the loop to
Ty. He tried to break it without luck.

“And what would be the purpose of someone
carrying them?” Dee asked. Who were these guys? He truly was
clueless.

“I am guessing their plan was to take me,
and it’s a lot easier to do things to a girl if her hands are tied
up.” I looked at the unconscious men. I wanted to puke. Just saying
it out loud made the situation more real. These guys were planning
to rape me… or even worse. A glint of anger showed in Seth’s eyes
as I looked back up at him. He seemed ready to continue beating the
unconscious men. Ty reached for him as he saw the same look.

Police cars pulled up beside the wooded
trail, sirens wailing. At least the newcomers broke Seth out of his
hateful rage that was building. Who knows what he would have done
if given the chance?

The next hour
passed in a blur. The police came running when
they saw the two men down. As the whirlwind of questioning started,
Seth helped me hobble toward a place to sit. I could answer
questions just as well sitting as standing, and it made my ankle
throb a lot less. After the police came and hauled the two men
away, plain clothed officers showed up for more questioning. It
turned out the two men that attacked me were wanted for more than
just attacking me. As the detectives finished with questioning Ty
and Dee, they returned to me and Seth.

“Do you want us to take you to the hospital
to have your ankle looked at?” the officer offered.

I shook my head. “No, that’s fine. I’m just
going to go back to my room and lay down. I’ve had a twisted ankle
before. This is nothing new.”

The officer nodded while putting his pen and
mini-notepad away. “How about you let us give you a ride at
least.”

“Not needed,” Seth replied, standing and
catching me off guard as he swooped down and cradled me in his
arms. “Our car is right there in the parking lot. I’ll make sure
she’s taken care of.” The officer nodded and walked away as Seth
carried me to his car. He placed me gently in the back seat and
moved around to sit beside me. Dee climbed into the driver’s seat,
and Ty sat next to him.

Dee took off out of the parking lot. I took
me a moment to realize we weren’t going to the dorms, but to his
home off campus. Dee pulled into the driveway and all three men
exited with Seth coming over to help me. I stayed in my seat.