There was only one omega that had managed to escape, but that was before Oliver had been there. What was his name? Damon or something... he couldn’t recall. That man had run, but no one knew if he had escaped and made it to safety. If they were to believe Anton’s words, then Oliver would be led to conclude that he hadn’t.
But Ollie thought maybe Anton was lying. He refused to end up dead in a ditch, just another statistic. They needed to do something.
“Time is running out,” Oliver said his voice low. “We need to plan our escape.”
No one replied at first, but then he heard it... a collective snickering around the room. “Are you out of your mind?” Shawn asked.
Oliver shook his head. “No. I’m dead serious. We can’t sit around just waiting for Anton to pounce. We have to act, and the sooner the better.”
Sophie laughed and sniffed. “Yea, coming from the only person that has never seen the horrible, harsh reality outside of those doors,” she muttered.
“Sophie, let’s be real…” Marco started. “Ollie here is just plain naïve, and we can't blame him for the fact that he’s clueless to what we’ve endured. We don’t wish it on him... on anyone.” He stared off into the distance like he was remembering... finally, he shook his head and added, “Right?”
Oliver swallowed, trying to get rid of the sour taste in his mouth. They were right, he hadn’t been through what they had... he shouldn’t talk. Though it might make him sound horrible, Ollie admitted he didn’t want to go through any of it. He didn’t want to go through what they had, so he needed to figure a way out.
“I’ve seen your bruises and your scars,” Oliver sighed. “I’m not naïve. I can never imagine what you've been through.” No one said a word, so he took it as permission to go on. “But, if we don’t do something, we may never see our families again. My parents... my baby brother...” His voice caught just thinking about them.
Shawn clapped, startling him. He lifted his head and met the other omega’s gaze, surprised at what he saw.
Shawn had a smirk on his lips. “I’m not foolish enough to run, only to have Anton’s words bite me in the ass. He says you don’t run, and you don’t. Devon ran and who knows what happened to him. This is better than dead.”
Devon… that was his name.
“He could have gotten away,” Oliver argued.
Shawn snorted. “Yeah, right. No one gets away.”
“And he could have not,” Sophie supplied.
Oliver could hear anguish and hopelessness in their voices. Fuck, he prayed like hell he wasn’t here long enough to feel it.
God, if you’re listening… if you exist… please get me out of here.
Oliver nodded. “You’re right. We don’t know what happened to Devon, but he wasn’t scared of taking a chance. Don’t you want to at least try... be as brave as he was?” Ollie knew he probably sound like something out of a fortune cookie... but he couldn’t give up. His life couldn’t end in this horrible, depressing room.
“Brave?” Marco’s voice was snide as he finally chimed in. “Don’t you mean stupid?”
Oliver heaved a sigh. “It doesn’t appear that sticking around here is doing us any good. I know I’m not one to talk, but being used only to benefit Anton can’t be the way we live for the rest of our lives. How much more can you guys take?”
Oliver looked over to where Cybil was rocking back and forth. Her knees were pulled to her chest, and her eyes were cast downward at the floor. “What do you think, Cybil?” he tried.
She didn’t reply, but just kept on rocking back and forth. If you listened, you could hear her humming a song. She was the youngest of the group, as she had just turned nineteen years old. When she looked up, her eyes were glazed over from crying. “I want to get out of here.” Her words were so quiet, they had to strain to hear her.
Oliver looked over at Shawn, Marco, and Sophie. “If we don’t at least try, then we'll definitely regret it,” Oliver said. “I know that it won’t be easy, and I also know that it won’t be tonight, or even tomorrow. I’m sure Anton will be back soon. I’m just saying we need to figure this out because we don't deserve this. We are omegas, and that doesn’t mean we have to be weak.”
“Says the guy that just figured out he's an omega and what omegas even are,” Shawn shot.
“Yea, okay, you’re right.” Oliver nodded, agreeing with Shawn. “So I’m just figuring a lot of stuff out, but it doesn’t make what I'm saying any less true.”
He took a deep breath. He had never been around shifters before until he was brought to this warehouse. He wasn’t sure how to interact with them, but someone had to take charge. Before he could come up with something else to say, the door to the room flew open again, this time slamming back against the wall. Oliver jumped and his eyes hesitantly lifted, meeting Anton’s.
Anton moved into the room, holding Oliver’s gaze for a moment before looking away to the other omegas. “What’s going on?” he asked. “Something is different.”
“N… no, it’s not.” Shawn’s voice came out shaky, his arms around his legs that had been pulled up to his chest.
Anton turned his attention back to him. “What are you doing?” he shot, his eyes on Oliver narrowing. He moved closer to him, and Oliver swallowed, terror engulfing his whole body. But somehow he managed to keep eye contact even though his brain screamed,This is it. My turn to be the one singled out.
“You look guilty of something,” Anton said, coming closer to his mattress.
