Dissidence (24 page)

“Leigh?” he
gasps.

I back away a bit, knowing he needs some space, and sit in front of him where I’m sure he’ll be able to see me easily.

“I’m right here.”

“You’re okay?”

“I’m fine.” He’s still breathing like he just ran a marathon. “Peter, look at me. I’m right here. I’m fine.”

“All right.”
He takes a deep breath and holds it a moment before releasing it slowly. “Okay.”

“You all right?”

“I’m good.”

I draw my knees up, hugging them close to my chest and drop my chin on them. “You want to talk about it?”

“About what?”

“The weather,” I deadpan.
“Your dream, dummy.”

“Oh . . . I don’t remember it.”

Somehow I doubt that. He always used to tell me about them when we were younger. He said it was the only way he could get them out of his head. They usually revolved around his irrational
fear of clowns, which inevitably
led to endless jokes and one truly epic costume that I used to scare the pants off him when we were about ten. His spastic reaction to that actually led to one of my many hospital visits.

“It didn’t have to do with your old friend Bozo, did it?”

“Leigh.” He gives me a look that quickly reminds me we have bigger problems at the moment than bad dreams.

Being locked in a small space with me is never a good thing for the other person. Peter does his best to try and ignore my hours of relentless pacing. I’ve been wracking my brain, trying to come up with some kind of solution to our current situation, but I’m drawing a blank. Maybe it’s the lack of fuel. Evidently
,
they don’t believe in feeding people around here.

Peter’s been quiet most of the day, a rare thing for him, and I know he’s just as frustrated as I am. My stomach is grumbling, my head is pounding, and I’m getting absolutely nowhere. Aggravation finall
y wins out,
and I slam my fist into the wall.
The
cement
wall.
Genius
.
Now I can add a busted hand to my list of troubles.

“Leigh.” Peter carefully unfolds my fist, and examines my bloody knuckles. “What are you doing? I told you not to worry, didn’t I?”

“I know, Peter, but . . .”

“No buts, I’ll get you out of here. I promise.”

“Us.”

“What?”

“You’ll get
us
out of here.”

“Right.
So, don’t worry about it.”

“Do we have a plan I don’t know about
?
B
e
cause I’m running on empty here.
”

“I’m working on it. Just promise me something.”

“What?” People always say that right before they say something really stupid.

“If you see a cha
nce to run, you’ll take it. And
you won’t look back.”
Point proven.

“Peter . . .”

“Leigh, I mean it, if I . . .”

Whatever completely idiotic plan is brewing in that head of his is interrupted when a pair of irate voices reaches us from just outside the door.

Chapter 22

“I said I want to speak with them, and I meant now!”

“But, S
ir, if you could just wait for . . .”

“If your boss has a problem with this, you can have him come and talk to me, but I’m taking the prisoners to my office for interrogation immediately.”

“But, S
ir . . .”

“Now!
Open the door.”

We’re both on our feet before we even hear the jangle of
keys,
and in walks the mayor, accompanied by one of the guards from yesterday. Huh.
I must admit, I
d
idn’t see that
one
coming.

“You two are coming with me.” Mayor
Hixon
directs the lone guard toward the pair of us.

“Why?” Peter’s weaseled his way in front of me, like that’s going to stop them . . . or me.

“I just want a chance to talk to you both. If you don’t give us any trouble, then we won’t have a reason to give you any.”

Peter glances back at me
,
and I just shrug. It’s not like we’ve got a whole lot going for us right now, and anything that gets us the hell out of this room sounds good to me.

“Okay.” Peter agrees
,
and
Hixon
nods to the guard
,
who
produces two sets of cuffs. “You don’t need those. We agreed not to give you any trouble.”

“Neither of you is so much as
looking
out that door without these,” the guard seethes.

“It’s procedure.”
Hixon’s
explanation is slightly more amiable, but essentially means the same thing. We’re going to be rocking some silver jewelry again.

I don’t bother struggling when he pulls my arms behind my back and squeezes the cuffs just a bit tighter than necessary around my wrists. What does it say that I’m almost used to the feel of them there?

The guard pulls out the blindfolds next
,
and Peter immediately bristles.

“Those won’t be necessary.”
Hixon
steps closer, shooing the guard away.

“But, S
ir, procedure . . .”

“You have an awful lot of procedures around here, and I’ve already told you, this one is unnecessary. Now, let’s go. I’m a very busy man.”

Peter nudges me forward, and I hear what he’s not saying, loud and clear. ‘Let’s get out of here before they change their minds’. I don’t know what they were trying to hide with the blindfolds. Outside, the grand view is of a vacant parking lot set between several tall brick buildings. Obviously
,
we’re somewhere in the business district, but I’ve lived here my entire life and never seen this spot before.

The mayor climbs into the front of the SUV we’re loaded into, and our guard escort chauffeurs us over to town hall. We’re ushered in through a back entrance, away from the prying eyes of the general public,
and left in the mayor’s office
while he and the guard have more words just outside the door.

“What do you think he wants?” Getting out of that room was all I cared about, but now that we’re here, I’m wondering why. 

“I don’t know.” Peter’s standing right by my side, critically examining the office door. “But, we have a much better chance of getting out of here. What I said earlier still stands.”

“Peter, I am not . .
.”

“Leigh, for once in your life
,
would you just . . .”

“Release them.” Mayor
Hixon
steps into the office, trailed by a sullen looking guard.

Whatever the mayor said out there seems to have sufficiently chastised him. Without further argument, he frees us from the cuffs and leaves the room again.

“Please, have a seat.”
Hixon
indicates the two chairs opposite his desk, and offers me a smile, which understandably cranks my level of distrust in the man by a few degrees. It’s the nice ones you’ve got to watch out for.

I ease into the chair, half expecting it to spring some kind of elaborate trap. Clearly, I’ve watched too many cartoons. All it does is give under my weight and cocoon me in a soft
,
pillowy
luxury I could get lost in.

“From what I’ve been told, you two are charged with stealing medical supplies?”

“Yes, S
ir.”
Peter’s awfully quick to confess.

“What I can’t understand
is why that particular offense would warrant isolated confinement. Over the years, I’ve gotten wind of a lot of odd judgments coming from our Head of Security
, and I get the feeling something else is going on here
. Perhaps
you can explain it to me.”

Peter looks to me for my opinion, but I’m still not seeing how it could get any worse. What do we really have to lose?

“Why not?
But, remember, you asked for it.” I plow right into a no-holds-ba
r
red explanation of work camps,
Permatech
, and rebellions. It’s quite the tale, made all the more incredible by the fact that every single unbelievable word of it is absolutely true. The final chapter thus far is a bit of a letdown, though, highlighting our utter failure at the hospital and resulting arrest.

“Wow.”
Hixon
settles back in his chair. I hadn’t even noticed his tense posture while I was busy talking. “I expected something, but this . . . I never . . . Wow.”

Yeah, that’s pretty much the reaction I have every time I stop and think about it
,
too.

“So, you went looking for assistance at colony M
,
and they turned you down?”

“Flat.” Peter cringes at my blunt reply, but it doesn’t seem to
faze
Hixon
one bit. I’ve never
seen
what ‘
flabbergasted’ actually looks like before, but I’m seeing it now.

“I don’t . . . And you have injured people there with no medicine or supplies?”

“Yes.” I don’t know where he’s going with this, but his attention has caught mine. “That’s why we’re here.”

“That’s . . . That’s unacceptable. There must be a way we can help.”

I’m sorry, what? Did he just say ‘help’? As in, help
us
?

“You’re going to
help
us?” Peter sounds as stunned as I am. “Give us supplies?”

“I’m hoping to do better than that. Do you have a way to transport the people in need of medical care here?
”

“Wait.” What do they say about things that seem too good to be true? That they usually are? Well, this holds all the trimmings of being exactly that. “Why would you want to help us?”

“What kind of human being would I be if I didn’t?”

A normal one, based on my experiences.

“If I can arrange for them to be treated at our hospital, could you get them here?”

“Not if we’re locked in that room.” Now
who’s
being blunt, Peter?

“I think I can help you with that,”
Hixon
offers, and a little seed of something that looks su
spiciously like hope burrows it
s way inside my defenses. “I’ll insist on holding you on
the
premises tonight. Jackson won’t like it, but I can hold him off for a few hours.”

“Won’t he know you’re helping us then?” Not to discourage him or anything.

“Jackson’s a moron. Better yet, he thinks I’m a moron. If I tell him you escaped while under my watch, he’ll easily believe it. I’ll make sure the coast is clear and then give you a signal when you’re good to go. Can you be back in four days?”

“If we hurry.”
When did I start seriously considering this plan?

“Good. I know some people from the hospital that we can trust. They should be able to get ready for you by then. Is there anyone else who knows about all of this?”

“Sal.
Sal . . . the baker.”
Huh, I work with the guy for over three years
,
and I don’t even know his last name. How lame is that? 

“Good. I may need his help to get you all back in.”

“How exactly
are
we getting everyone back in?
It’s not like Jackson isn’t going to notice a
few
hundred extra people.” And
why am I the only one asking questions here?

“You just get everyone to that station at three A.M, four days from now, and leave the rest to me.”

We seem to be leaving a lot of this to him, and those ugly trust issues are starting to strangle that hope trying to take root.

“I don’t understand. You’re going to help us escape, and then help us sneak a bunch of injured people back in, just to patch them up? Why would you do that? Why risk it? What are we to you?”

“You’re human beings.
Kaleigh
.
Peter. I know it must be hard to believe considering everything you’ve been through, but sometimes
,
people just want to do the right thing.”

Damn if his words aren’t like sunshine and water to that little seed. Hope is dangerous. It can get you hurt faster than almost anything, but there it is anyway.

The guard is nowhere to be seen when
Hixon
shows us to a small office with a couple of couches where we can rest until it’s time to go. By the time he leaves us alone in the first unlocked room we’ve seen in a while, my excitement level has reached an all-time high. I’m practically bursting at the seams. Could this really be happening? Could something
finally
be going our way for a change?