14. Escape from Purgatory
Kansas
The camp at the back of the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery had only been constructed a few months before. Several acres of forest were bulldozed over, and the barbed wire fence was erected first. The inmates lived in tents as they constructed their own cabins from the felled trees over a three month period. Since there were plenty of empty housing in Fort Leavenworth, the camp guards tended to have their own individual houses nearby and would report to work their shifts as if going to a factory. An outer fence and thirty-foot tall guard towers were soon put in place. Soon afterwards, the camp was split in two. The first camp would house the men, while the women and children would be in the other. Many of the sinners that were deemed to be too degenerate to live as citizens of Christian Kansas were interred there. In the beginning, there were less than two thousand of them. As the threat of an all-out war with the Federals grew, more and more undesirables were soon interred within it. The camp had no official name, just a number: 2241. The guards had their own nickname for it. They called it Camp Purgatory.
The Fort Leavenworth area was right up to the border with Missouri, and the river served as a natural boundary between the two sides. The Federals in the eastern portion had already evacuated most of their citizens from nearby Weston, but the separatists were sure that there were military units stationed on the other side, waiting to cross the Missouri River if there was any sign of weakness. Most of the SOL troops were spread out in a defensive position near the military airfield, at the base of the salient. Both sides were in a quiet stalemate and nobody wanted a conflict to start. Nevertheless, the reason why the separatists placed an internment camp so close to the Federal border was as a show of force. The latest intelligence reports had stated that the separatists would be using their prisoners as human shields in case they were invaded.
The clouds had obscured the night sky, so most of the illumination at the camp ground were from the roving searchlights that were mounted on the guard towers. Patrols with military dogs would regularly sweep the outer perimeter, just in case there was a foolish attempt at an escape. Although there was electricity within the wooden cabins of the camp, it was only for a few hours in the early evening so most of the inmates got by using candles and kerosene lamps. There was a guard barracks nearby, but most of the off-duty sentries preferred to drive off to the nearby housing areas after they had finished their shifts.
Julius Jones got up from his cot and put on his shoes and coat before stepping out of his cabin. When the camp was first organized, there used to be a curfew and all prisoners were confined to their cabins after the evening meal. Ever since he started a prisoner’s committee to demand better conditions, there was a noticeable change in the enforcement of the rules. The fact was that a former friend of his had become the new commandant of the camp, and this also played a role in the relaxation of the harsh order that had once made the conditions almost intolerable. Now the prisoners were allowed to cultivate vegetable gardens to supplement their meager rations. At night, people were allowed to visit other cabins in groups of two or in singles. Julius was also able to set up an occasional arrangement for the prisoners to visit the other camp, for married men to see their wives and children, and for conjugal visits as well. The new commandant had also proclaimed that these kinder, gentler conditions would be quickly revoked if there was any attempt of escape, or if any kind of revolt happened. Julius had every intention of escape, but he counseled the others that it must come at the right time, and not before.
As he stretched his back while standing just outside of his cabin, Julius drew in a deep breath and then exhaled, the vapors from his mouth made a fine mist as it reflected off of the nearby lights from the other cabins. The nights were starting to get chilly, and the camp commandant still hadn’t approved his request that they be given more blankets. He wondered just how much longer this stalemate would go on. Julius had been thinking the Feds across the border would have to move against Kansas sooner or later.
As he rubbed his cold hands before sticking them back into the pockets of his wool jacket, Julius noticed some sort of commotion in the other cabin. He could see two shadows in the blurry window and one of them was wildly gesticulating, though no sound could be heard. He figured it must be some sort of animated discussion. Julius knew the camp guards in their towers wouldn’t be able to see the cabin’s windows from their vantage points, so unless there was a significant amount of noise, then they wouldn’t be alerted. He had told the other prisoners to make sure that they did everything as quietly as possible in order not to get any suspicions up. If those two of the prisoners were fighting, then they would do it quietly, or else they would be ostracized.
Julius figured he might as well try to find out what it was about. He hunched his shoulders forward and started walking towards the other cabin. As he got closer, he could definitely hear someone arguing inside, it was quite animated but it was hushed enough so that anyone not listening intently wouldn’t really notice. As he got to the front of the door, he knocked lightly in separate raps of four.
The muted arguing stopped immediately. He could hear footsteps walking up to the door and it opened slightly with a creak. A man with a dark beard and broken eyeglasses peered outside. It was Mike Thomas and his voice was a faint whisper. “Who’s there?”
“It’s me,” Julius said softly. “What’s going on?”
Mike had to blink a few times because his eyes just weren’t any good anymore. He had been badly beaten by the morality council a number of times and his broken glasses were never replaced. It took a while for him to adjust between the dark and the illumination of the cabins. The worst thing about it was that he could barely read anything and it gave him a constant, melancholy disposition. “Julius, is that you?”
“Yeah, are you okay?”
Mike’s response was terse and to the point. “Get in here, quick.”
Julius stepped inside before closing the door behind him. Mike’s cabin was just like the others. There were crude bunks and old secondhand furniture like tables and chairs that were donated by the commandant. There was an old, wood burning stove at the end of the room, it had a small chimney that poked out from the roof. A small kerosene lamp was suspended on a hook in the center of the room. Standing beside Mike was Jacob Neely, a young man from Wichita. Julius had known Mike when he was holed up in his church, right before the authorities raided it and arrested them both. Jacob was a recent internee. He had spoken out against the harsh treatment of non-Christians and was soon considered part of an underground movement dedicated to overthrow the leaders of the Rock of God Church. Once he was deemed as a potential traitor, Jacob’s family disowned him and they completely agreed with the authorities to ship him away to the camp.
Mike instinctively rubbed the soft part of his skull, at the top of his head. That was where an enforcer from the church had hit him with a baton several months back. He was in the prison hospital for weeks with a skull fracture after that. “Did you hear about what we were saying?”
Julius shook his head. “No, all I could see was the shadow of one of you guys waving his hands around. That brown wrapping paper you put on those windows isn’t a hundred percent opaque, you know.”
“Sorry, that was me,” Jacob said. “I guess I was just excited after what happened.”
Mike looked around nervously. “Do you think the guards saw us?”
“No, the angle was such that they would have to be at ground level to see that,” Julius said before turning to look at Jacob. “So what happened?”
Jacob grinned. His winter cap was still somewhat new but his second hand tweed coat had rips and patches all over it. “We found a girl in the mess hall.”
Julius’s eyes opened wide. “What? She sneaked in from the other camp?”
Mike shook his head. “No, nobody who’s been to the other camp recognizes her and she says she came from the outside. She’s pretty young, looked like a teenager to me.”
“Yeah,” Jacob said. “She must be around sixteen I think.”
Julius adjusted his own pair of glasses. The men were allowed to visit the other camp for a few hours. But if the guards found out that there was a girl in the men’s camp, all of their privileges would be revoked. “Who else knows about this?”
“Just us and Albert over at cabin eighteen,” Mike said. “We had cleanup duty after dinner so we figured we’d do it just before midnight. As we started to clean up the place we saw her, she was just standing there, like hiding in the shadows between the windows.”
“Where is she now?”
“Still there,” Jacob said. “She said she would wait.”
Julius rubbed his forehead. This was really unexpected. “What did she want?”
Mike kept fidgeting. He was clearly nervous about any potential punishments. His wife Alice was in the other camp and she had been beaten badly too. Although he was still defiant, he would now back off when it came to anything involving physical confrontations. “She said she wanted to speak to the leader of the prisoners.”
Julius shrugged. “We don’t really have an official leader or anything like that.”
Jacob smirked. “You are, Julius. You pretty much speak for everyone here and in the other camp, and we always do what you suggest. We were going to tell you about this, but it’s all making us nervous you know… since she said she would free us if we gave her some info.”
Julius’s eyes narrowed. “Free us? By herself? No shit?”
Mike shrugged. “That’s what she said. Seemed pretty confident about it, calm even.”
“You said we would plan an escape when the time was right,” Jacob said as he looked at Julius. “This could be an opportunity if she’s telling the truth.”
“If she’s telling the truth,” Julius said, putting an accent on the first word. “You say she’s a teenager? How on God’s green earth will she be able to free us? The whole two camps are close to twenty thousand men, women and children. Even though we’re close to the border, there must be a brigade of Kansas troops between us and the river.”
Jacob bit his lip. “That’s what she said. I know it sounds like bullshit, but what if she’s telling the truth? Maybe she’s part of an advance team from the Feds or something.”
“She didn’t look like a soldier to me,” Mike said. “Way too young. Looked like she just came from high school.”
Julius took a deep breath. “Either way, this is trouble. If the guards catch her then we’re all in for it. If she’s telling the truth then she better have a good plan because we’ve only begun to talk about it amongst ourselves and we’re totally unprepared as of right now.”
Mike was breathing heavily. “So what do we do now?”
“Let’s go talk to her first,” Julius said.
Tara Weiss saw two men enter the mess hall. Both of them were wearing glasses. She was leaning on a wall at the far end so that anyone looking in through the windows wouldn’t see her. One of the men she recognized had been in the hall earlier when he was one of the cleaning crew. His name was Mike. The other one was a black man and was wearing some sort of priest’s outfit. She hoped that the prisoners didn’t squeal on her. Since she didn’t hear any alarms, she figured that the other man must be their leader.
The black man walked up to her and held out his hand. “Good evening. I’m Reverend Julius Jones. I’m the spokesperson for the internees here.”
Tara shook it. “I thought the people in this state respect priests. Why are you a prisoner in this camp?”
Julius sighed. “Let’s just say that I was helping a number of people that the authorities in this newly self-proclaimed independent country deemed as undesirable. So here I am. May I ask what your name is and how you got inside?”
“My name is Tara and how I got inside is going to have to remain a secret for the time being. I need your help in finding someone.”
Julius looked at her solemnly. “You want us to find someone here? Why couldn’t you just have spoken to the guards and made an inquiry with them?”
“Because I don’t like them,” Tara said. “I don’t appreciate what they’ve been doing. It’s not right to put people in prison just because others don’t believe in the same god as they do.”
“Well, it’s a pretty risky thing you did, sneaking into this camp,” Julius said. “If they catch you then they will most probably put you in the other camp, the ones with the women and children.”
“I’ve been to that other camp already,” Tara said. “They won’t get to me. I have friends helping me out.”
Mike took a mop from beside the wall and pretended to clean the floor when a wandering searchlight passed through the windows. “Friends? You mean the Feds? Are they launching an operation to rescue us?”
Tara shook her head. They didn’t know the truth and it was better that they didn’t. “Not really. My friends are something else. They can definitely get all of you out of here. But I need to find somebody before we do the rescue thing.”
Julius took a rag that was lying on the table and pretended to do some cleaning. “Who are you looking for?”
“I wanted to find my brother, but it doesn’t look like he’s in the other camp. I looked for him there but didn’t find him. There doesn’t seem to be any kids his age in that camp,” Tara said. “I’m also looking for a Matthew and Melissa Olsen. They were a family from Arizona who came up to Kansas when the whole god thing started. They took my brother with them, I think. I tried to find Melissa in the other camp but no luck there.”
Mike looked up. “Olsen? I know of a Matty Olsen. He’s in the infirmary though.”
Tara’s hopes started rising. “He is? Oh my god, I need to get over there and talk to him. He would know where my brother is!”
Julius placed his palms up in the air. “Calm down, girl. Don’t shout or you’ll alert the guards. We can walk over to the infirmary, but only in pairs. The guards might see you and they will sound the alert.”
Tara started moving towards the door. She was so close, there was no stopping her now. “I’m sorry but I have to go see him now.”
Julius ran over to her. “Wait, maybe we could disguise you somehow,” he said as he gestured to Mike. “Mike, give me your coat and cap.”
Mike walked over slowly as he started taking his coat off. “Are you sure this is going to work, Julius? I’m almost a foot taller than she is.”
Julius took the coat from him and handed it to her. “There’s no guards walking inside the camp at night, they are all in the towers. If they look down on us, they might not notice the height difference too much. Anyway, it’s a short walk to the infirmary. How did you know about this Matty guy, Mike?”
“Pablo is the registered nurse who works in the infirmary and I go there to visit every now and then,” Mike said. “Since both camp infirmaries share medical records, he keeps me updated as to Alice’s condition. One of the guys they have in one of the beds is a guy named Matty Olsen. He’s the only guy with that name on the camp so I figured it might be worth the shot to see if that really is the guy she’s looking for.”
Tara put the coat on. It was several sizes too big for her but she figured it was enough to get her to where she wanted to go. “Why’s he in the infirmary?”
Mike looked away as he took off his cap and handed it to her. “When he heard his wife died, he took it pretty badly. He tried to rush the guards I think and they took it out on him.”
Julius placed his hand on the doorknob. “Okay. Mike, stay here and pretend to keep cleaning. Tara, just walk casually and don’t make any sudden moves. Just follow me and I’ll get you to the infirmary.”
Tara nodded. “Okay.”
Julius opened the door and they both stepped out. The searchlights from the guard towers were constantly moving and would occasionally shine over them as they made a slow walk towards the infirmary. Tara had tucked her long hair into the head cap so the guards wouldn’t notice that she was a girl.
Julius deliberately led the pace as he took one step at a time. He knew from experience the guards would notice sudden movements in their field of vision since they had thermal gear up in their towers. A slow, deliberate walk was the safest way for them.
As they made it halfway towards the infirmary cabin, they were both suddenly engulfed in a blinding white light. One of the guard towers had put a search light directly on them. Julius instantly stopped. Oh no, they got us, Tara thought as she just stood there beside him.
“Hey Julius, where do you think you’re going?” One of the guards up in the tower above them said.
Julius pointed towards the infirmary. “I’m just taking Jesse here over to the clinic. He said he’s got a fever.”
“Jesse? I thought from his clothes it was Mike. Who is Jesse again?”
Julius squinted his eyes as the searchlight’s ultra-bright intensity made it more powerful than daylight. He pointed to Tara. “It’s Jesse Bowen. You remember him don’t you? He’s the nineteen year old from Topeka. He’s got a sore throat, I think he’s coming down with something.”
“Why isn’t his dad bringing him then?”
“His dad is out sick too,” Julius said. “He’s in bed at their cabin.”
Tara tilted her head slightly and waved at the guards in the tower. At that moment a raven flew into the searchlight’s projector and landed on top of it. The guards tried to swat it away but it flew into the first guard’s face and started to claw at it. The first guard screamed as he fell backwards and the searchlight swiveled upwards, its light now illuminated the roof of the tower. The second guard tried to kick at the bird but the animal flew up and he hit his own colleague with a boot to the face. The first guard angrily got up and both men seemed ready to kill each other. Tara started walking away as she tugged Julius by the elbow. They both made it into the infirmary without further incident.
A World Darkly (Wrath of the Old Gods Book 3) Page 21