Freedom or Betrayal

                On the afternoon of July 25, 2000 in Brooklyn, New York, the weather was nice at 80ºF.  Larry was visiting his cousin Kera.  They were good friends and talked frequently online.  Larry is 16; Kera is 13.  Both are Greek.  Both of Kera’s parents worked, she has a brother who likes to stay home.  Kera wanted to show Larry the village.  A spot in New York City that Kera loved being very much.  Larry wanted to go to Broadway and 43^rd because that’s where WWF New York was and Larry had been a fan of WWF since he was six years old.  Kera’s parents couldn’t take them due to work, there were no cars for Larry to drive and if there were Kera’s parents wouldn’t have allowed him to drive Kera in New York City when Larry didn’t know it well and he was only 16.  Kera had asked if they could take the train, Kera’s mom was a little hesitant because she thought Kera would get lost if she went on a train alone.  Little did she know that Kera had taken the train quite frequently.  She agreed to let Kera go because she felt that Larry was responsible enough not to get lost on the train.  It was the exact opposite to what she thought, Larry would get lost if he had to take the train alone, Kera knew exactly what she was doing.  Kera knew this but held back laughing when she heard her mom say it. 

                Kera and Larry went down to the station to get tickets.  At the station Larry turned to Kera and said, “Ok Kera let’s see if you really know how to find your way around trains.”

“Oh so your testing me”

“Yes”

 “So you could do this without a problem without me,” She said with a smile

“Of course, but I won’t say a thing, you make a mistake I won’t correct you,” he said smiling

“Oh ok” she said still smiling

                They found the train and waited for it to get to the village.  The train was approaching Larry and Kera’s stop and they were ready to get off.  The train stopped and the doors opened.  As they were walking out two guys followed close behind; they were both around 14 or 15.  They both went right behind Kera and Larry and jabbed a dart into their arm.  The dart had tranquilizer poison made to knock out humans.  They had as much tranquilizer to put a chimpanzee to sleep.  Kera and Larry weren’t very big so they were knocked right out.  After they did it, they put their arms around them to make it seem like they were friends.  They hurried to a car where they laid Kera and Larry inside and it drove to their destination. 

                Kera and Larry woke up in a large room.  There was no carpeting, the only furniture were two beds.  The ground was cold and the room was very bare with just floor and walls.  There was a window that was not very large and a large door.  Larry walked to the door and tried to open it, it was locked.  Larry knew that this room was made for them not to escape.  Larry was the first one to awake and he waited for Kera to awake.  When Kera awoke she drew back as she realized as well that they were trapped.  They both wondered how they got there.  Kera asked Larry, “Where are we?”

“I’m not sure, I remember leaving the train and then everything else is a blank.”

“Me too”

Then on a speaker a voice came over, “I hope you can realize that you’re trapped.  We have kidnapped both of you and you have a chance of freedom.  You just have to do our small terms, you can try to escape but if you’re successful we’ll be waiting with guns and will shoot you.  Larry we know how you like to talk people with guns down by calling them yellow but we are well aware of your fighting capabilities and in this case we will use the guns so don’t try it.”

                Larry responded, “Why are we here?”

                “Well we wanted to rape Kera but we knew you wouldn’t approve so we decided to kill you both.”

                Larry responded back, “You said something about us going free.”

                “Yes I did”

                Kera asked, “What is it and who are you?”

                “Who we are is not important right now.  First you have to ask yourself what will you do to avoid death?”

                Kera then answered, “anything”

                “What about you Larry”

                “It depends”

                “What’s worth dying for.”

                “Why don’t you tell me what the terms are and I’ll tell you if it’s worth dying for or not.”

                “Admirable, Larry if you look in your pocket you will find we didn’t unarm you of your knife you have two choices for freedom, one, you kill Kera, two, You rape Kera.  And Kera if you look in your right pocket we gave you a knife of your own all you need to do is kill Larry.  Do that and you go free, refuse and you both die of starvation.”

                Kera drew back in fear, Larry then looked across and said, “Kera come here.”

                Kera stepped very slowly and carefully toward Larry, she was very hesitant.  Larry’s eyes filled with sadness for he knew why she was resisting, she thought that her life was in danger.  Larry decided to test her and walked toward her, Kera froze in fear.  Larry grabbed her by the back of the neck and forced her to look into his eyes and said, “Kera, you know I live by don’t trust anybody so can you trust someone that believes that?  Do you honestly think I’d kill you or rape you?  I don’t think I want to know the answer and I won’t tell you because I want you to look inside and find the answer.” He then turned toward the area the voice came from and said, “you’re one sick bastard, you honestly think I’d rape my cousin? Or kill her? You are one sick fuck.”

                The voice said, “Well Kera you said you’d do anything for freedom I just gave you the terms, you are just as armed as Larry is.”

                Kera stepped back from Larry and looked him straight in the eye than said, “It looks like we’ll both die.”

                Voice answered, “You’re choice but the offer remains until you die”

                Larry lied on the bed and tried to sleep.  He knew Kera wouldn’t kill him.  He pondered ways how to get out of the cage.  At about 3:00AM Larry had an idea.  He went over to Kera who was sleeping and took out her knife; he went to the door and tried to pick the lock.  He succeeded and tried to open but realized that it was chained shut and dead bolted.  He went back over to Kera and reached into her left pocket very gently and delicately trying hard not to wake her up.  He found a lighter; he brought the lighter and put the bolt and chain in the flame.  He then used a key from his pocket to keep the flame on, and then he needed something to hold it.  He realized that the space in between the door and the wall held the lighter.  He finally got it right than he lied down and went to sleep. 

                Larry was first to rise as he did at 10:00AM the voice came over and said, “Good morning Larry, prepare to get very hungry today.” 

                Larry smiled and asked, “How will you know if someone is raped or killed.”

                “We can see you and we have cameras.”

                “So you check the camera every day?”

                “No, only if you claim you raped her did you?”

                “Hell no she’s my cousin.”

                Larry found out what he wanted to know, they didn’t know about his trap and they wouldn’t.  Kera got up a half-hour later and Larry whispered in her ear what he did.  Kera made no reaction for she knew it was important for the men not to suspect anything.  At around 5:00PM the voice said, “Well you two, we’re going to see a movie, have fun in there together.”

                At 5:15 Larry went to the door and pushed as hard as he could.  The lock and chain snapped off for the fire had melted it so it was very weak and fragile.  He took the key and returned the lighter.  They then found their way out.  When they exited the door they realized there were no guys with guns and that was a bluff.  Kera forgot about that, but Larry knew it but figured he would die either way.  They found they weren’t far from the train station so they caught a train home.  After getting off the train they got something to eat because they hadn’t in over twenty four hours. 

                Kera’s mom was very suspicious what happened, and Larry claimed that he wanted to go to WWF New York and they did and were too tired to move so they just checked into a hotel and spent the night there.  Then they did more sight seeing and came back.  It was a very far –fetched story but Kera’s mom bought it to their surprise.  Kera and Larry realized the importance of loyalty for they gave up freedom for their loyalty to each other.  They were willing to die rather than betray one another.  Not many people would do that in those extreme situations.  They are to be commended and others should follow their example of loyalty.