Chained (11 page)

“It's not fine.  Now sit
up.
” 

Looking slightly startled, Sophie sat up on the cot, wincing as the movement pulled at the skin on her hip.

I sat down next to her and pushed her hair back to look at the bruise.  With my other hand I pressed the roll of paper into her hand.  “Don't say anything,”  I whispered into her ear.  “Read it first.”  Out loud I said,  “This doesn't look as bad as I thought.  It should be okay.”

Sophie glanced at the paper, then crumpled it and shoved it under her blankets.  “So,”  she said, a little breathlessly.  “How are you feeling these days?  I mean, with the pregnancy?”

She has an idea. 
I nodded.  “I'm okay.  Baby is growing fast.”

Glancing at the door to see if Travis was looking, Sophie jerked her head at the bathroom.  “Bet you have to pee a lot.”  She mimed lifting something and reaching  underneath. 

“Oh, yeah.  Like right now,”  I responded, managing a not-quite-fake sounding laugh.  Not quite understanding, I walked into the bathroom and closed the door.  Inside, I looked around.  It was exactly like the one in my cell.  Pedestal sink, cloudy mirror, ancient claw-foot tub and plain toilet.  Light bulb with a pull chain.  Bare concrete floor and cinder block walls. 

The toilet. 
It was the only thing that could be lifted.  As quietly as I could, took the lid off of the tank and balanced it on the toilet seat.  Inside was nothing special...until I saw the metal glittering underneath one of the pipes. 

Keys!
  Heart thudding in my chest, I took the two keys from the water.  They looked like one of the keys Travis always kept on his key ring that he used to unlock our cells.  One had the pattern of a house key, while the other was much longer with a plastic handle—maybe a car key?  How in the world had Sophie gotten these?  Alone, it was worthless, as the cell doors could not be opened from the inside.  But if I could get out, come back in the house and let Sophie out...suddenly my chances of surviving after escape were looking just a little bit better.

The metal might be visible if I stuck it in my hairband.  After a moment of thought I rinsed the keys thoroughly in the sink and stuck them in my mouth, holding each inside one cheek.  As long as I didn't have to talk too much, they were invisible.

When I came back out, Sophie stood from the bed.  She pulled me toward her as if hugging a friend.  “I'm sorry for always being so rude to you,”  she said loudly.  Then she whispered:  “Same key unlocks all the cells.  Look out my window.”  As I did, she continued to whisper, holding me tightly.  Through the frosty glass, I could see the gravel of the driveway and a rusty blue pickup truck.  “Second drives the getaway car.”

Chapter 13: 
The Best Laid Plans

I knocked on the cell door and Travis opened it, taking the medicine box from me.  “Ready?”

I nodded silently and walked in front of him back down the hall toward my cell.  When we got there, Travis unlocked the door and ushered me in, shivering a little at the cold inside.

“Not sure why yours is always so much colder than the others.  There's supposed to be a big winter storm tonight, you know?”

“How would I know?  I don't have access to the TV or internet.”

Travis ignored me.  “I will be back in a little while with your lunch.”  He scooped up my breakfast tray and left, balancing it on top of the first aid box.  The door closed behind him with a click.

Gagging on the metallic taste in my mouth, I pulled the keys from my cheeks and stuck them in the tank on my toilet like Sophie had.  Then I filled the tub with water and took a bath, afraid my face would betray something of my intentions if Travis saw me when he returned with my lunch.

By the time the water ran cold, the younger of my captors had come and gone.  On the tray was a bowl of steaming soup, toast, and scrambled eggs.  My stomach was so nervous, but I forced myself to eat all of the food except for the toast, which I added to my small stash outside the window.

Day 121: 
Tonight we might escape.  Tomorrow we could be free. 

I'm not even sure I remember what freedom feels like anymore.  It feels like my whole life has been lived in this dark, cold basement.  Maybe I'm like a cave person now.  Maybe my eyes can't stand the sunlight.

That's silly. 

But still...I'm scared.  That's crazy, right?  To be scared of leaving?  Maybe it's the vast unknown versus the evil that I know.  Whatever it is, I am nervous even though I don't know why.  Nervous about being free.  I know why I'm nervous about escaping. 

I don't remember what the evening's dinner was.  I pretended to be asleep when Travis brought my food, then I ate it as quickly as I could.  Then I sat in my cot, staring at the opposite wall, unable to move.  I had no clock, no way to know what time it was.  The “good” food today meant Master was gone, and only Travis was around to deal with.  The day inched on with agonizing slowness, the shadows slowly turning to black. 

The wind howled outside.  It was a heck of a night to be doing this.  I'd always lived too far south to know exactly what a winter storm was.  I guessed I was about to find out.  I pulled my sweater on and my thick socks and my slippers.  I turned one blanket into a bag of sorts and stuffed my journal, my freshly-filled water jug, and one of the extra blankets inside.  The other I wrapped around my chest and tied it like a crude dress under my sweater.  I had a feeling even this would do little to keep the cold out...but it was all I had.  I removed the keys from the toilet tank and looped my hair tie through the holes on their ends, securing them to my wrist.

The wind screeched outside.  Too late, I realized that the glass in the window was falling inward.  I jumped from my cot in a desperate attempt to catch the falling glass, watching in horror as it fell just beyond the tips of my fingers to shatter on the floor.  For a moment I stood frozen, my ears straining to hear any sound from the other end of the hallway.

My heart leaped into my throat as I heard the locking bar start to slide. 
Have to go now. 
I took the desk and pushed it under the window, climbing up on top.  The door at the end of the hall opened and I heard Travis's voice call out.  “What happened?”

Frigid air swirled around me as I shoved my blanket bundle through the window then pulled myself through, my belly scraping painfully on the sill.  The wind immediately began to bite into my skin, and inside I could hear boots pounding down the hall.  I grabbed the food I had stashed and shoved it in my bundle.  Then I got to my feet and looked around.

It was almost completely dark.  The black shapes of the mesas soared in the distance, and the sky overhead was low and threatening.  The sun would have set on the other side of the house. 

There was no more time to hesitate.  I stepped through the bushes and turned to my right, holding one hand to the wall as I ran.  Behind me, I could hear Travis's reaction as he saw my window, the clanging of my door being shoved open.  “Sarah!” He shouted. “Sarah, don't do this!  Come back!”

I didn't listen.  I spun around the corner of the house, skidding a little in the gravel.  Everything was coated with a layer of ice, and sharp snowflakes pelted the exposed skin of my face and hands.  There, along the bottom of the wall—the light from Sophie's room.  My heart sank as I realized I'd gone the wrong way.  The entrance to the house was on the other side.  In front of me, the rusty pickup truck loomed in the darkness, just outside Sophie's cell.

An idea hit me as I moved forward.  Travis had stopped yelling behind me—he must be on his way back up.  I picked up a large rock and knelt, smashing it into the window to Sophie's cell.  She bolted up from her cot, her eyes wide.  “What?  Who's there?”

“Sophie!”  I called through the window.  “Hurry!  We have to go!”

Sophie sprang into action, pushing her desk beneath the window and climbing up.  The glass was jagged around the edge and she cried out as I helped her climb through.  I could see the dark streaks of blood running down her arms, and staining her gown at the knees.  She had no shoes or sweater.

In the distance, the front door slammed.

“The truck!”  I helped Sophie limp to the passenger side and ran to the driver's door, yanking the rusty thing open.  Just then Travis skidded around the side of the house, a fact I registered more by sound than by sight. 

“Lock your door!”  I yelled once Sophie had thrown herself into the passenger seat.  Following my own advice, I shoved the truck key into the ignition and turned, praying it would start.

The truck roared into shuddering life.  I yanked the stick into drive, and floored the gas pedal.  Gravel spit from the tires, and there was a yell from behind.  We sped forward, bumping and shaking over the rough ground. 

“Lights!”  Sophie yelled.  I looked around for a frantic moment before finding the dial that turned the headlights on.  In the distance was a fence, off to the left a small shed.  I spun the truck around the corner of the house, and we sped down the back of the property, which huddled up against the foot of a large hill.  Snow was falling thickly, flying into the windshield with the force of the wind that howled outside the cabin.

“Go around front.  We need to get on the road.  We'll never make it in the back country.” 

I had already rounded the second corner.  This was the front of the house, with the door and the porch.  A white van loomed out of the darkness and I swerved, barely missing it.  At the edge of the headlights' beam, I saw Travis pelting toward us.  I floored the gas and we leaped forward, toward the opening in the fence ahead.

“Sophie!”  I screamed, when I saw what lay in front of us.  “There's a gate!”

“Keep going.  We'll make it.”

I couldn't help it. As the truck sped forward, to what seemed like our inevitable doom, I screamed.  The truck hit the gate with a crash, and then there was a screech as the chain broke and the metal barrier was pushed to the side by the force of our momentum.

“Which way?”  A thin, rutted dirt track was in front of us.  Anything more than a few feet ahead was obscured by the driving snow.  Ahead in the gloom, I could see where the track ended at a wider dirt road.

“Left!”  cried Sophie and I spun the steering wheel in that direction. The truck's rear tires skidded against icy rocks as we turned.  I lowered the gas even further and yanked the wheel again and we righted, speeding down the dirt track in the dark.

“How do you know this is the right way?”

“I don't.”  I glanced over at the breathless sound of Sophie's voice, to see that she was pale and slumped back against the seat. 

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.  Just don't crash us, okay?”

I squinted to see into the dark, wheel clutched tight in my hands.  I gulped deep breaths, trying to calm the fierce pounding of my heart.  “I'll do my best.”

As we sped down the road, two pinpricks of light appeared far behind us.  “Travis is chasing us.”

“Well, don't let him catch us.”

The jolting ride was making me nauseous and sore, but I kept the gas pedal down.  The truck rattled as if it would fall apart at the seams. 
Please God, let it hold together.  Let us get out of here.  Please.

Try as I might, I couldn't get any farther ahead of the vehicle behind us.  At least he wasn't drawing any closer.  I kept my eyes fixed on the road ahead, hands gripping the wheel so tightly that my hands were sweating, despite the cold air in the truck cabin.  With a strange shock, I realized that the radio was playing.  Country music.  In any other setting I would have listened greedily to the crooning guitars.  It had been so long since I'd heard music.

After what seemed like hours but was only about 10 minutes by the dashboard clock, I began to see lights in the distance in front.  These lights were passing slowly from left to right and right to left in my field of vision.

“A road!”  I exclaimed.  “Sophie, it's a real road!”

“That's great,”  Sophie groaned.  Her eyes were closed.  “Just keep driving.”

Travis was slowly gaining on us.  I drove as fast as I dared.  With excruciating slowness the highway approached.  The snow was swirling even faster now, the flakes beginning to stick on the ground.

The last bit of dirt road was down a hill and around a curve that made me scramble frantically to keep the truck from spinning out.

With a sudden bump, we were on the road.  I shrieked and pulled the truck to the right, jerking it into the right-hand lane as a semi truck roared past us, horn blaring.  My heart was in my throat, pounding so hard I could barely breathe.

As we accelerated, I looked in the rear-view mirror to see a white van brake hard at the edge of the road, as Travis had to wait for a few cars to pass before he could merge.  I pushed the truck faster and faster, trying to match the speed of the rest of the cars.  We were on a four-lane highway with a black and white sign blurring past that proclaimed a speed limit of 75mph.  I went as far over that as I dared. 

Sophie was panting, her face so pale she looked like a ghost.  “What's wrong?”  I asked her after a glance made my heart drop into my stomach. 

Sophie moved her hands from where they were clasped in her lap.  I gasped when a glance revealed the huge red stain between her legs.  “What's going on?”

Sophie leaned forward and retched, strings of vomit falling to the floor in front of her feet.  When she was done, she wiped her mouth with her hand and leaned back, clutching her stomach.  “If I had to guess...miscarriage.”

“You're
pregnant
?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why did Master...”

“He doesn't know.”

The detached part of my brain wanted to laugh at the part that suddenly felt like crying.  She'd known she was pregnant but hadn't said anything?  “Why??”

“What was the point?”

A big, fat, traitor tear rolled from my eye to splash on the steering wheel.  “He would have left you alone if he'd known.”

Sophie groaned and turned to lean her head against her window.  “I don't care.  I didn't want to birth that bastard's child anyways.”

Another death.  Another life destroyed.  This is so senseless. 
Even while Sophie's harsh words shocked me to the core, on some level I understood.  My own baby writhed in my belly as if sensing my thoughts.

As I blinked the tears from my eyes, I happened to catch a glimpse of the fuel gauge.  “We're almost out of gas.”