Bagged 1

I felt rumbling deep within my chest. Rushes of train wheels turning against metal flowed in and out of my ears. Something heavy hit the floor jolting me out of my sleep. I tried to move, but I was trapped somewhere. I started hitting the walls around me; they were thin and soft. Swallowing back my panic, I felt around the seams slowly, finding the back of a zipper. I clawed the zipper until it was open enough that I could see out of the corner. It was dark. I slowly unzipped the rest of the zipper and crawled out. Why the hell was I in a suitcase? Something clanged a few feet ahead of me. I sat up straight and looked around. Another massive suitcase had fallen over. Wait… where am I? I slowly stood up, trying to steady my feet. Am I moving? I blinked a few times trying to adjust my eyes to the darkness. There was sunlight flashing through the cracks in the room. I reached for my pocket to get out my phone to use as a flashlight. I felt my other pockets for my phone. Shit.

I could feel my breathing picking up. I crawled to a nearby wall and pulled my knees up to my chest. I don’t remember anything. I mean I can remember that my name is Lila, so I suppose that’s good. My heart was racing. I racked my brain for what I was doing yesterday, but my head hurt too much. Running my hands through my long hair, I winced as I grazed over a lump on the back of my head. I took away my hand and looked at it. It was dark, but I could feel the sticky wetness. Ew. I wiped my hands on my jeans and propped myself back up. The train started turning, but I caught myself. Some of the suitcases weren’t so lucky. I heard thumping and crouched behind a crate. It was coming from one of the other suitcases. I slowly crawled towards the noise.

“Help!” the person inside yelled and I gasped. “Hello? Please help me! I’m stuck!” the British boy’s voice was scared. Where am I? The suitcase was giant, blue, and had wheels. Much bigger than I would think for holding a little boy.

“Shhhhhh. Someone will hear you!” I slowly unzipped their suitcase, careful not to accidentally zip them in the process. A tall, lanky boy fell out of the suitcase, untangling his limbs from each other. He looked a lot like a giraffe being born if I’m being honest. “Are you okay?” I tried to help him up. For being kinda lanky, he sure was heavy.

“Where are we?” He got up, almost pulling me down in the process. His voice was a lot deeper now that he wasn’t trapped.

“I don’t know, I just woke up.” I walked over to one of the bigger cracks in the wall and peered outside. I could see blurry shapes of trees whip by. “I think we are on a train, but I don’t know how I got here. Do you know how you got here?”

“No.” The boy walked over to me. “I think you’re bleeding.” He lifted a section of my hair.

“Ow!” I pulled back, only making the pain worse.

“Let me see if there is anything in one of these suitcases that could help with the bleeding.” He started unzipping a nearby suitcase.

“Be careful. What if there is someone else in there!” I slid down the wall feeling light-headed.

“Were you in a suitcase too?” He looked at me. The slits of sun on his face showed a strong jawline and gorgeous brown eyes.

“Um.. yeah…” I closed my eyes.

“Do not close your eyes!” I immediately opened them back up. “You’re not supposed to fall asleep with head damage or something.” He came over with what looked like a hoodie. “Press this against your head and keep your eyes open. I’m gonna keep looking in the suitcases for something else to help you… or I suppose other people.” I watched him as he methodically went through the rows and piles of suitcases in the car. He kinda looked familiar.

“Where are you from?” I asked, thinking about his British accent. He unzipped another suitcase.

“Greenwich. It’s about a thirty minute drive from London. Oh, I found one!”

I panicked. “A-another person?”

“No. A first aid kit.” he laughed. I leaned back against the wall again breathing out a sigh of relief. I’m glad we haven’t found others. The thought of unzipping a bunch of people from suitcases made chills run down my back. “Where are you from? You don’t sound like you’re from England.”

“Unfortunately, America. Luckily, the west coast. I came to London for the summer though, so we must still be in England. But, why were we in suitcases? I don’t remember anything about yesterday or how I got on a train.” He handed me a water bottle and took out some bandages and rubbing alcohol.

“Drink some water.” He crouched down next to me looking at my head. “I don’t really remember much either. I know someone gave me something to drink and I think that’s what made me pass out.” I looked at my water suspiciously and he laughed, “I did not spike your water, I promise. It looks like they had other methods of knocking you out though.” He pressed the hoodie to my head and I groaned. As if on queue, he put two headache pills in my hand and prompted me to take them. “I need to clean this, but it is probably going to hurt. Lay down real quick.”

“This is so stupid. Why couldn’t I have been given a drink instead?” While trying to lay down my head rolled back.

“Careful there…” he paused, “What’s your name?”

“Lila,” I closed my eyes.

“No closing your eyes, Lila.” He gently moved my hair out of the way. “My name is Ezekial, but people just call me Zeke.”

“Ezekiel… That sounds rather pretentious” I laughed, but the sound hurt my head.

“I’m going to pour the rubbing alcohol over your wound, okay?” I nodded slightly and instinctively grabbed his other hand. He looked at our hands then let out a small laugh.

“Sorry!” I let go and put my hands over my eyes. “Just do it.” He started to gently pour the alcohol over my head. I cried in pain and he put his hand over my mouth.

“You have to be quiet, are you crazy?”

“I’m sorry, but that really hurt dude.” I took a deep breath. “Just try again.”

Before he could, the door to the next train car latched shut and we saw a figure appear through the door’s frosted glass. “Shit.” He ran over and grabbed my suitcase. “Hurry get back in here. Now!” he said in a hushed but surprisingly direct tone. I curled in as quickly as I could and he zipped me up, leaving the corner unzipped just enough that it would be easy for me to get back out this time. I tried to slow my breathing. I hate small spaces.

“Promise you will get me back out!” I whispered.

“Shut up!” he hissed back at me. I could hear him struggling to get back in the suitcase while the person was fumbling with the keys to unlock the train car door.

“Hurry!” I heard the final zip of his suitcase then the door flung open.

“Hello? Is anyone here?” a deep voice boomed throughout the room. I kept my eyes open like Zeke told me no matter how badly I wished I could shut them and this would all just be a bad dream. “It doesn’t seem like anyone is making noise, Lance.”

Who I can only assume is Lance responded, “A guest swears they heard talking behind the door, sir.”

“It looks like my luggage moved around. Put it back together and make sure nothing moves again,” the man snapped at him. “If anything happens to my luggage, you will regret it. Do you understand me?” He then slammed the door behind him before he could be answered and the other man sighed. I could hear his footsteps coming closer. I stayed as quiet as I could, but my head was throbbing. The man shoved my suitcase against the wall and this time I did close my eyes. It took everything in me not to scream in pain. I could feel him stacking other suitcases on mine and started to panic. Is this suitcase sturdy enough? Will I be able to get out? Will Zeke be able to get out? My head is somehow throbbing even more.

“Where is that blue one?” I snapped out of my panic and opened my eyes again. That’s Zeke’s suitcase. “Ah… there it is. Jesus, that's heavy… I wonder who he is lugging around this time.” He laughed at himself and I heard it wheeling across the wooden floor. The suitcase slammed on the ground and I winced. “Now it won’t roll away.” The man's footsteps faded away. I could barely hear the door close over the loud rumbling on the railway beneath us.

After a minute or two, I gathered the courage to whisper, “Is he gone-gone?”

“I think so. Hang on, I’ll get you out.”

“Are you okay? It sounded like you hit the ground pretty hard.”

“Yeah…” I could hear him struggling to get out, “It was not fun. Are you okay?”

“I mean he basically kicked my head, and I am claustrophobic so no, not really.” He started taking boxes and suitcases off of mine.

“I almost got you.” He unzipped my suitcase and helped me out. “Go back to the first aid kit and keep applying pressure.” He restacked everything the way Lance had left it. Heading back to me, he said “We really gotta clean that and for the love of God, do not scream again.”

“I’m sorry.” I handed him the rubbing alcohol and laid down again. This time he grabbed my hand.

“If you have to rip off my hand to stay quiet, just do it.” I laughed and started to squeeze his hand while he poured the liquid over my hair.

“Jesus, dude. Ow.” I shut my eyes as he bandaged my head to the best of his ability.

“Okay, just don’t look in a mirror and you will be fine.” He leaned back and laughed as I sat up. I felt the top of my head and felt gauze and medical tape tied into a bow. He shrugged, “It’s not the most fashionable, but I tried my best.” I laughed and pushed myself off the floor.

“So what are we supposed to do now? We know literally nothing.” I walked back over to the slits in the walls and watched the trees pass. “I can’t even tell where we are. It all looks the same.”

“Well, we probably need to get off of this train and away from whatever psychopath put us in suitcases.” He handed me a jacket. “I found this in one of the suitcases. You felt cold, so…”

“Thanks.” I took the jacket and slowly put it on, trying not to move my hair too much. “So what is our game plan?” I looked around the train car. Unfortunately, there was only one door: the one that the two men used earlier.

“I’m not really sure.” he squinted trying to adjust to the light levels. “We don’t exactly have a lot of options. There’s only one door and that obviously leads to people who want us unconscious. Plus, it’s locked.”

“I didn’t hear the Lance guy lock it back up now that I think about it.” I walked over to the door and put my ear near the side that opens to the room. “I don’t hear anything… well besides train noises.” Zeke gave me a sideways glance. “You didn’t happen to find anything useful in the other suitcases, did you?”

“Not really. Besides the first aid kit.” I looked around and saw a rope tied up to one of the columns on the side of the car. I walked over and untied it from the post. “And what do you plan on doing with that?”

“I don’t know, but I have watched enough movies to know we can’t go in empty-handed.” Zeke shook his head and looked around. After a moment he crossed the train car to a bright orange suitcase and opened it up. He tossed a scarf at me.

“Tie this around your head so you look more normal.” He looked at his shirt and frowned disapprovingly at the blood. “This was my favorite shirt.” He quickly switched out shirts and neatly zipped the suitcase back up. He handed me a small, rolling carry-on and picked up a decently-sized briefcase. The guy mentioned there were passengers, so try and blend in and maybe we can get out of here.” He paused, with his hand on the doorknob. “Are you ready?”

“I mean, no, but yeah.” I folded up the small rope and shoved it into the large jean jacket pocket on my left. He slowly opened the door peering into the other side. “What do you see?” I whispered.

“You are a terrible whisperer.” He looked at me, not whispering that well himself. “There's a small connecting hallway that leads to the next door. I’m going to try to crack it open and see what’s on the other side. Stay here and hold the door open in case we need to run back in here.” I grabbed the edge of the door and slowly opened it the rest of the way.

“Please be careful,” my voice wavered as I looked at him. He nodded, grabbed his briefcase and slowly worked his way across the small hall. There was a small glass window built into the other door, but it was frosted. From here, I could see nothing. I held my breath as he gently opened the door ever so slightly. I sighed with relief when he turned to me, waving for me to come closer.

“I just see a bunch of passengers and they’re just talking like normal, so let’s just slip in and hope no one asks any questions. If they do, just say we are on our honeymoon or something because then they will assume…” he trailed off and turned his head back to the door, but not before I could see him blush.

“Ohhhh I see.” I laughed. “That’s pretty smart though.” I grabbed my fake luggage and put my arm through his. “After you, darling.” We both laughed for a second before he opened the door and stepped into the train car. A couple people looked at us and giggled. I suppose we did look pretty funny holding hands with messed up hair, coming from the luggage car. Little do they know.

We sat down in an empty row and I leaned my head back against the seat. “This is a lot more comfortable than a suitcase,” I mumbled. Zeke smiled.

“Hopefully the next stop is soon because I am properly starving.” Zeke started laughing, but it quickly died down as we realized someone was coming through asking for tickets. “Just follow my lead and hopefully this works out.”

“Tickets, please?” I tried to keep my facial expression calm, but I recognized this voice. Lance.

Zeke turned to me, “Do you have the tickets in your bag still, love?” I almost lost it. Despite our situation being incredibly not hilarious, I somehow was still amused.

“No, I thought you had them.” I tried to look as innocent as possible.

“Shit. Sorry, sir. Let me double-check my bag.” He reached for his briefcase, but not before the man grabbed his arm.

“That won’t be necessary.” He let go of his arm and gave us a smile. “Were you in different seats before? I am pretty sure I would remember a woman that beautiful.” His eyes twitched over to me.

“Oh, isn’t she as cute as a button?” Zeke glanced over at me and grabbed my hand.

“You’re not supposed to be here, are you?” Lance smiled and I repressed a shiver. He looked pretty creepy for a scruffy, plump middle-aged man.

I leaned forward and smiled, “We’re actually going on our honeymoon -” The man whipped out a cane and it landed a few inches in front of my face.

“Do not speak.” My eyes widened and I looked around. The other guests somehow seemed to not notice.

Zeke stood up. “I do not appreciate you talking to her like that.”

The man stepped even closer to Zeke. “Let’s get you back in those suitcases, huh?” He ran his tongue over a golden tooth.

Before I could do anything, Zeke whipped around the briefcase and hit Lance right in the temple. The man hit the floor and this time, people were looking. A couple of people gasped and others were practically floating out of their seats to see what had happened. “Let’s go.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me over the now-unconscious Lance. He deserves it. I ran as fast as I could down the aisle and halfway through let go of my rolling suitcase. Zeke was fast. We jumped through the door into a second small hallway that led to another train car. I leaned against the door panting.

“I can’t believe you just hit him like that.” I laughed.

“Me neither.” His eyes were wide.

“Are you okay?” I asked as my panting died down.

“Yeah, this is just crazy.” He looked younger when he was scared.

I grabbed my rope out of my pocket. “Well onto the next train car I suppose.” I followed Zeke through train cars full of people. Nobody really paid much attention to us. Well, except for a gorgeous blonde woman wearing bright red heels. She smiled when we made eye contact, but that was the most eventful train car so far. After a few minutes of weaving through the train, we came upon another luggage car. We stopped and looked around for a second, but it was even darker than the original luggage car. “We gotta get out of here,” I gently touched my head. The door behind us flung open to reveal a rather angry Lance.

He pushed the hair out of his face and pointed, “There they are!” Two heavily-built men pushed their way through the door, the light coming from behind them only made it more intimidating.

“Run.” Zeke pushed me towards the other door and we stumbled our way out of the dark room. The next few train cars were a blur of running, trying not to trip, and the occasional exclamation of passengers. Although those men were big, they were not that fast.

When I thought we were a couple of cars ahead of them I called to Zeke, “Wait!” He came to an abrupt stop ahead of me and spun around. I began tying the rope to the door we had just gone through as securely as I could. Boating lessons finally paid off I suppose. I threw the other end of the rope over the bar above our heads. “I need you to finish tying this side. I can’t reach it. Hurry.” He definitely never had boating lessons. When he finished the knot, we heard a door from the previous train car slam. “Go! I handed Zeke his briefcase and took off.

When Zeke pushed his way into the next hallway, I peeked my head to see the roped door. “What are you doing?” He asked, anxious to keep moving.

“I’m seeing if the rope worked.” I could see the rope moving ever so slightly and the door knob trying to turn. I smiled, but it quickly disappeared when a guest reached over and snipped the rope in half. “What?” The guest looked at me and winked. It was the same blond-haired, red-heeled lady from before. How did she get over here? Before I knew it, Zeke was dragging me to the next car. It was the engine room and it actually had windows. “That lady, I saw her before, Zeke! She cut the rope!”

Zeke looked at me worriedly, “We have to jump.”

“Are you insane?” I ripped the scarf off of my head. It was hot in here.

“The door to the control room is locked, so we can’t access the brakes and those guys are one car away. We are out of options!” He glanced over my shoulder worriedly at the door and placed a hand on my shoulder. “I need you to go first so I know you’re safe. Hurry. Now!” He flung open the window and the wind nearly blew me away.

“We are going so fast!” I screamed.

“We don’t have a choice! The train isn’t stopping,” he yelled back, his hair wild in the wind.

“Jump immediately after me.” I stared at him then grabbed the window, putting a knee up on the window sill. And just like that, the train seemed to slam to a halt. I tumbled out of the window onto surprisingly soft ground and groaned. My head felt like it was splitting apart. I saw Zeke jump out next. I grabbed my head and looked at my hand. It was bleeding again. Zeke ran up to me and the train was really stopped now. “Please tell me we didn’t just jump for no reason.” I leaned to the side and was trying not to throw up.

“How did they stop the train?” He whipped his head around trying to figure out what was happening. “We have to keep going. I’ll carry you.” Zeke reached to pick me up, but a door from one of the train cars opened right in front of us. “That would have been useful information,” he mumbled under his breath. The woman with the high heels came walking out of the train.

“Congratulations.” She smiled at us both.

“What?” I was trying so hard to keep my eyes open.

“You both have been selected to join the International Realliance Association. You have passed the first test. Now, follow me.” she started to turn around.

“Are you insane? We need a medic! She is bleeding!” Zeke started to help me up and caught me when I collapsed. I heard her agree and call for the medics to take me.

***

The next thing I remember, I woke up in a bright white room with Zeke by my side. He was wearing a weird outfit and I surprisingly felt a lot better. “What happened?” I coughed and my head hurt a little.

Zeke handed me a glass of water. “Well… you passed out and apparently us getting literally kidnapped and you getting almost killed was some twisted test.” He scoffed as if he couldn’t even believe what he was saying. “We are inside of some weird reinforced training center.” He glanced sideways at the door where I saw an armed guard in another interesting outfit. “I’m not really sure how to get out of this,” he whispered, “but I convinced them to let me be your partner and we are supposed to go on our first mission when you wake up.” The guard spoke into his wrist in a language I couldn’t understand.

“Literally what?” I leaned up on my elbows and blinked at him several times. The security guard opened the door and the same woman strode in looking at us.

“Well, look who is awake! How wonderful.” She walked over, tossing an outfit and a manila folder on the bed. “Get dressed. Your first mission is in the folder and you will both be working together for the time being.” She reached into her purse and pulled out the brightest red lipstick I have ever seen. After she finished reapplying, she looked at us again, “Get up. Meet me in the briefing room in no more than 5 minutes. I do hate waiting. Oh and by the way, I’m Charlotte.” She shook my hand and walked out, but not without kissing the security guard on each cheek and exchanging what seemed to be French niceties. “Au revoir!” she sang as the door shut behind her.

I looked at Zeke. “Where are we?”