by Kristen Day
“How do we get her out?” I asked Michael. It was a stupid question; Michael was already working the belts off Maria and removing the IV from her arm as I asked it. As he undid the last buckle I half expected sirens to go off but nothing happened.
Michael wrapped Maria in the blanket she’d been lying on top of and picked her up as though she were a child.
“Let’s go,” Michael breathed. Rebecca stirred in her slumber as we started walking, but other than that the room remained morbidly silent.
When we exited the infirmary I realized how little I had been breathing. Spots danced in front of my eyes as I tried to get my oxygen levels back to normal. For the first time I missed not needing to breathe.
I followed as Michael went through door after door.
“Why are you using so many doors?” I asked finally, “Wouldn’t it be easier to just use one?”
“Easier yes, sneakier no,” Michael said as he shifted Maria’s weight and opened another door, “Remember how I told you that you can’t use a door if someone else is already using it?”
“Yes,” I replied slowly.
“The more doors I use the more others can’t, if someone were following us it would be easy for them to know where we were going if we only used one door. But when we use more doors it becomes exponentially harder to follow a definite path.” Michael explained. He opened one more door and we stepped through into my room.
“That kind of makes my head hurt,” I admitted.
Michael laughed, “Don’t think about it too hard, it only makes it worse.” He set Maria down on my bed. She continued to imitate a dead body while Michael turned his back and I changed her in to more travel appropriate clothing.
When I was finished with Maria I turned to Michael and asked how he planned to get Leigh.
“That could be a little bit harder since we don’t know where she is,” Michael said, “We’ll try her room first, but knowing her she’ll be out even if Kinga locked her in.”
I didn’t even want to know how one might go about locking the doors in this place; my head was still reeling from trying to comprehend everything else Michael had told me.
“Will Maria be okay here? Should I stay with her to make sure no one finds her?” I asked.
Michael shook his head, “No, the room doesn’t belong to her, so as long as we leave her in here no one but you can get in.”
I nodded like I understood completely even though I didn’t.
I led the way through the doors this time with a little help from Michael on choosing which ones to use. Eventually, we ended up outside a door that Michael said was Leigh’s. It looked different than any other door I had seen so far. It was brown wood like the ones that used to be in my house, but it was decorated with hand painted flowers and carved with the name ‘Aida’.
I turned the knob on the door and stepped inside. The room was dark of course, but there was the soft glow of moonlight about the room. I made a mental note to ask Leigh how to do that later. Michael went to the bed to see if Leigh was there while I looked around the room.
It was decorated much like my own room; the furniture was nearly identical except for the hand painted flowers on each of the pieces. Unlike my room though, the room seemed to breathe life. The walls were decorated with drawings obviously done by Leigh. The majority of the pictures depicted someone, who could only be Michael, doing various things like playing tag with Leigh, teaching Leigh how to dance, and one even showed him singing.
There were pictures of Kinga too, but they were not nearly as flattering as Michael’s. Something told me Leigh had only drawn them to keep Kinga happy.
“She loves drawing,” Michael said from right behind me. I jumped and whirled around expecting to see Daman. Michael’s voice had sounded so similar to his brother’s it had almost caused me to faint.
“I—I can see that,” I said.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” Michael said, “Leigh isn’t here. She stuffed pillows under her blankets and left a note telling Kinga that she decided to run away with Maria.”
“She’s going back to the infirmary,” I whispered. I groaned aloud, I had hoped I’d never have to enter that place at night again, and here I was already crushing those hopes less than an hour later.
Michael nodded, “We should go quickly, it seemed like we got in and out of there too easily. I can’t believe that Kinga won’t have some kind of guard around there.”
I took a deep breath and turned to the door again, I was halfway there when the knob rattled. Without thinking, Michael and I both darted under the bed. I pulled my right foot under with me just as the door opened.
Light spilled in from the hall outside and illuminated Michael’s face. He looked astonished and I couldn’t comprehend why until I saw the feet that were approaching the bed. They were much too large to be Leigh’s, which meant that someone had been able to open the door even though we were inside.
I didn’t breathe as the feet came to a stop near my feet were at the head of the bed. I didn’t have a clear view so I couldn’t tell who it was, at least not until she screamed, “Aida!”
Michael and I looked at each other in alarm, “Kinga,” we both mouthed.
Kinga’s feet sprinted from the room; she didn’t even bother to close the door behind her.
Simultaneously, Michael and I scrambled out from under the bed. We stood and stared at each other in horror; then, without a word we raced from the room following Kinga's path.
Michael wrenched open the first door he came to. We nearly ran into Kinga who was staring uncomprehendingly at the infirmary. It was pure chaos.
Rebecca was running around screaming for James and begging for her child. The other four like her were pulling on their hair, ripping sheets from the beds and taking turns tackling the frantic Danny and Katelyn who were attempting, but failing, to keep order.
I looked around but there was no sign of Leigh. I hoped she had already come and gone when she realized Maria wasn't here, but something told me she was still hanging around just in case.
Kinga was screaming at Danny and Katelyn but they weren't listening to her. Danny had managed to grab one of the women and Katelyn was attempting to sedate her. Kinga threw her hands in the air and proceeded to rip open the curtain at the end of the hall. I realized that's where Maria should have been and it made Kinga even more upset when she realized that Maria was missing.
"Where is Perdita?" Kinga screeched. Danny and Katelyn had just wrestled the last patient back into his bed and Michael and I were still standing at the door in complete awe of what we had just witnessed. We realized too late that we should have moved a long time ago. Kinga whirled around intending to yell at Danny and Katelyn some more; instead, she found Michael and I standing like deer in the headlights.
"What are you two doing here?" Kinga questioned. I was more afraid of her then than I had ever been before. Thankfully, Michael's body was the only thing that was paralyzed; his brain was still in working order.
"Ira wanted to come talk to Katelyn. She still hasn't really gotten the hang of the doors yet so I was helping her find the infirmary."
It was a beautiful lie, most definitely better than anything I could have come up with at that point, plus Kinga trusted Michael. Yet, even though Michael met Kinga's eyes unwaveringly, I realized she still didn't believe him.
"You and Ira just happened to run into each other at eleven thirty at night while she was aimlessly wandering around looking for a nurse?" Kinga asked skeptically. She was standing as she had when she questioned me in the luxurious hall. Feet apart, hands behind her back, and eyes full of concrete.
I waited for Michael to shift uncomfortably or avert his eyes, or even to come up with a different more believable story, but he did none of these things, "Insomniacs tend to roam at night. It was purely coincidence that we ran into each other."
Kinga still looked more than skeptical, she turned her gaze to me, "And why were you looking for Katelyn?"
>
My mind flew between thirty different lies in the space of about two and a half seconds, I finally came up with one and I put as much false honesty into it as I could muster, "I wanted to see Perdita. I've gotten so used to her being in my room that I couldn't sleep without her there."
The side of Kinga's mouth twitched a little and I wondered if she had almost smiled at my misfortune or if she had been refraining herself from calling me a child for needing a roommate to sleep. However, the expression was gone in an instant and Kinga began to pace with a thoughtful look on her face.
"I have a proposition for you," Kinga said, then she turned to face me again and I knew it was less of a proposition and more of a command with a heavy consequence attached for disobedience, "If you find Aida and Perdita you may take care of Perdita once again; she seemed to be doing better in your untrained hands than here."
Katelyn glared at Kinga's back. From where I was I could see a sheen of sweat on Katelyn's forehead. Her nearly black hair was sticking out at odd angles from her once sleek ponytail and she looked like she hadn't slept in days. I took a chance and decided to bargain for one more thing with Kinga.
"I will find the two of them if you get Katelyn and Danny some more help in here. I'm surprised both of them are still standing," I said.
Kinga turned to look at the two nurses behind her and seemed to really notice their appearance for the first time, "Done. Now go find those two before I change my mind."
Michael and I didn't need to be told twice, both of us marched out of the door without looking back. I had finally found Kinga’s weakness, Leigh was going to more of an asset than I had thought.
Chapter Thirty-five
I breathed a sigh of relief when I was sure Kinga was safely away from us. I was about to look to Michael to see where he wanted to start looking first when I was hit from behind by something fast, small, and definitely alive.
"Wha--" I started to say. I looked down and saw two thin arms wrapped tightly around my middle. They were attached to Leigh.
"Where were you?" I asked.
Leigh broke away and looked up at me with a big grin on her face, "I was in your room with Maria. When I realized she wasn't in the infirmary I knew that I had to leave fast before Kinga found me. So I went to your room, I knocked on the door and Maria let me in."
"How did you know we were here?" Michael asked.
"After a while I went to check your room," Leigh said to Michael, "You weren't there so I figured you were with Alice and I thought you might be trying to find me since you already had Maria. I knew you'd think to look for me here so I came."
I stood in awe of the little girl's genius. My thoughts were so garbled at that moment that I wouldn't have been able to spell my own name had I been asked to and yet Leigh had managed to read both Michael and I perfectly; and not only that, she had timed everything perfectly.
"You are a genius, Leigh," I said.
Leigh blushed, "No, I just knew what you guys would do because it's the same thing I would have done."
Michael suddenly perked up as if he had heard something, "We should go, everyone else will be meeting us soon and we need to get Leigh and Maria ready to go."
"I get to come with you?" Leigh squealed excitedly. She wrapped her little arms around Michael and squealed again.
"Yes, but you need to be quiet," Michael whispered, "You stay with Alice in her room while I go to yours and get some clothes for you, okay?"
"Okay," Leigh whispered. She was still grinning from ear to ear as she took my hand and led me to my own room. I turned my head to wish Michael good luck, but he was already gone.
I sat quietly mulling over everything that had just happened while Leigh jabbered excitedly. She carefully brushed Maria’s hair as I finally got up and stuffed a few changes of clothes for Maria into my bag. It took Michael an eternity to get Leigh’s clothes, but finally he knocked on the door. I opened it to see Michael holding two drawstring backpacks; one was a very vivid pink.
"I really hope that one is for Leigh," I said pointing to the garish bag.
"Very funny," Michael said. He handed the pink bag to Leigh and hefted the much more conservative black one onto his shoulder.
"Do you have a bag for Maria?" Michael asked.
I held up my own bag, "Taken care of.”
Michael nodded and looked at my ceiling, "Time," he said to it.
My room blacked out and stars appeared on the ceiling, something I hadn't seen it do before. The starlight illuminated Michael's face. It erased all signs of age and he looked to be no older than a fourteen year old boy instead of a heavy-laden man. Michael gazed at the stars, nodded, and asked the ceiling to light up again.
"We have one hour until we meet to leave. You should try to sleep." Michael turned to leave, but I caught his arm.
"I'm not going to be able to sleep," I admitted. I looked at him meaningfully and I could see that he was remembering my dream almost as vividly as I was.
"Okay," Michael said, "Should we go over the plan again?"
"No," I said. I shook my head and sat down on my bed. Leigh and Maria were sitting in a corner quietly working on Maria's speech.
"Alice," Michael said, "I know what it's like to have Daman do that to you, but you can't dwell on it. The more you think about him the easier it will be for him to find you and if he finds you he finds all of us."
"Yes, Yoda," I said sarcastically. I had forgotten that Michael had died before the time of Star Wars so the reference was totally lost on him. However, he did realize that it was meant to be insulting and we lapsed into an hour's worth of awkward silence. Even Leigh and Maria didn't say anything, as it got closer to the time we were supposed to leave.
Finally, Michael checked the stars again and deemed it time to leave. I had expected to follow him through another confusing labyrinth of doors, but instead he just opened my bedroom door and we were already facing the stairs that led up to outside.
"Why aren't we covering our tracks?" I asked.
"I don't care if Kinga follows us this time," Michael said, "In fact I want her to follow us because then she will see for herself what she has been denying for so long."
"But what if she catches us before we reach Daman?" I questioned.
"Then she catches us, but once we're out of this compound she no longer has any control over us. Outside of here we are in Daman's territory and we abide by his laws. However few there may be."
I shuddered to think what kind of horrendous laws Daman had put into place since beginning his rule.
"Are we going to wait here for everyone else?" I inquired.
Michael shook his head, "No, they are most likely already waiting for us outside."
I turned back and helped Leigh with her bag before slinging mine over my own shoulder, "Let's go then," I said, "If I'm going to be bait I might as well be punctual bait."
Michael didn't like my joke.
He was right though; everyone was waiting up top for us. They all nodded respectfully at Michael but no words were said. As soon as Leigh came up the stairs after Maria they just started walking, but not the way I had suspected. They were walking right into the forest.
"Isn't Daman the other way?" I finally asked after we had gone a few hundred yards into the trees.
"Yes," Avery said. That was all I got. No one offered any other explanation, they just kept walking. I looked to Michael but he either didn't notice, or was pretending not to.
I looked behind me to see Leigh holding Maria's hand and guiding her through the trees. Maria had her free hand clamped tightly over her eyes and was whimpering slightly, I had forgotten that even in life she was terrified of the dark. She wouldn't even watch scary movies with me unless the sun was still up, and even then we had to watch some kind of lighthearted movie when it was done.
I waited for Leigh and Maria to catch up and I took Maria's other hand gently away from her face. She kept her eyes squeezed shut, but at least I knew that Leigh would have some hel
p maneuvering around the roots of the trees. She smiled gratefully up at me and I realized that despite how tired I was, Leigh must be even worse. I doubted she had slept at all and now she was doing her best to keep up with a whole group of long-legged adults.
"Are you going to be able to make it?" I whispered to Leigh.
She nodded and kept walking. It was unlike her to be so quiet and it made me worried. Leigh knew how dire our circumstance was, even if she didn’t fully comprehend why and I didn’t like that her optimism was absent.
Chapter Thirty-six
Two hours of walking, many bruises, scrapes, and falls later, we arrived in a clearing. I looked at the group around me, none of them looked even close to as bad as I felt. Bridgette least of all, she had her hair tied in a ponytail and although she was only wearing dark black jeans and a simple grey tee shirt she looked like she was modeling couture. Roman stood protectively behind her and looked as if he was just dying to rip someone open. I looked to Michael who was standing on a fallen tree.
"I think we're far enough away now that we can speak. I don't know if everyone knows each other or not so let's start with introductions. You all know me and my story, so we'll start to my left."
I thought it was odd we were doing introductions. Did anyone really care? I couldn’t understand how knowing everyone’s stories would help us in the long run. Avery was to Michael's left so he introduced himself, quickly refreshed us on how he died and gestured for Max to go, "I'm Maxine, but don't you dare call me that. I go by Max. I don't know how I died. I just went to sleep one day and woke up here."
Then it came to the siblings, the two brothers introduced themselves as Arthur and Roan, and they had both died protecting their sister Scarlett. Scarlett had died at the hands of a malicious suitor who had attempted to kidnap her. She was quiet and didn't meet anyone's eyes as she spoke. I wondered why she was even here. Her brothers were big enough, but she wouldn't be any help against anything much bigger than a dog.