***
Once Hope slipped over the first hill and was standing in the valley, she looked around for good measure then slipped out of her dress. Joshua would hunt to the North today which made her confident she wouldn’t be discovered. She may have found the courage to go ahead with the plan but the fear still lingered. If anyone in the village discovered her, Joshua would know what she planned to do and she would never get another opportunity like this again. If she wasn’t in exactly the right spot at exactly the right time, her cover story wouldn’t hold. She would most certainly be put to death.
She removed not only her clothing but her underclothing as well. There couldn’t be one shred of evidence she had been living in another community or civilization. There couldn’t be any evidence she had done anything at all.
Once she had stripped naked, she retrieved her underclothing and jumpsuit from inside the basket. When she had arrived at Joshua’s home and his mother insisted they keep her home a secret, Adah had immediately given her clothing to help disguise her origins. Hope didn’t know at the time how much this would impact her escape. She had folded her clothing and hazmat suit and concealed it under the bed. They discussed disposing of the items but decided it was less of a risk to keep them concealed than to destroy or discard them.
Her white undershirt was just as crisp and bright as it was when she put it on the morning of the accident—except for a small trickle of blood on the back. She could hardly comprehend how grateful she was she had never tried to launder this shirt. Next, she slipped into her jumpsuit and then her hazmat suit. She was rapidly approaching the point of no return. Even if Joshua or someone from the village saw her now, they would hide from the dome person as they were trained to do. She placed her helmet on her head but didn’t properly attach it. When it was attached the oxygen would flow, and she needed to conserve every bit of oxygen reserve she had.
It was the springtime when the accident occurred. Now it was fall, and the days were shorter. As the military craft ran on solar power, they would depart from the mountain later than they had on the day of the accident. There was no way to tell exactly how long she had laid on the ground before Joshua came for her. She calculated the time it would take him to walk from his location when he had heard the explosion and factored in a few extra minutes for hesitation and observation on his part. This meant her oxygen tank had been running for approximately an hour before she took off her helmet.
It took forty-five minutes to set up their equipment before they switched on the device which meant she needed to arrive exactly one hour and forty-five minutes after the time she would have disappeared. With the later sunrise, she hoped the vehicle would arrive at approximately that same window of time. Had she decided to do this earlier in the season her odds of success would have dropped substantially.
Hope walked to the clearing where they performed their regular experiments, and then she followed the path the vehicles drove down walking towards the mountain. She had to keep complete focus on the road ahead. As soon as she saw dust kicked up in the distance, she pulled her helmet down and felt the cool dry air discharged from the tank. The moment her oxygen was flowing properly in her helmet, she took the path at a run.
The vehicle was approaching in plain view and she waved her arms around while she ran. The vehicle slowed it’s speed as they saw her.
She yelled into her ear-peace. “Help! Help! I’ve been abandoned. Help! Save me!”
“Identify yourself,” the radio clicked through in her ear as the craft pulled to a stop over a hundred meters ahead of her. The two escorts jumped out of the craft with their guns drawn.
As it was clear they saw her as a threat, she immediately stopped running. Feeling winded, she hunched down with her hands on her knees.
“It’s Hope 986. Why the hell was I left here? Where’s Weston and our guards? I could have died!” The silence coming from the craft was unnerving. It could have been hormones, or fear, or maybe the gravity of everything she had lost and was yet again about to lose, was pressing down on her. She burst into tears and almost instantly fell to her knees. “I could have died. Why was I abandoned?”
The military personnel rushed towards her. This was it. This moment could be her death, or it would be the beginning of her new life. The men grabbed onto both of her arms and dragged her back into the truck.
There was a set of scientist in the back as expected. One soldier instantly flipped her around and replaced the oxygen tank on her back. Once the oxygen was flowing, they asked her for a thumbs up to signal she could breathe properly.
“We have to shut off your communication capabilities. You will not be permitted any other form of communication for any reason. Do you understand?”
“No! I don’t understand. I was abandoned and now I’m not allowed to speak or ask questions!”
“Disassemble her radio,” the one guard barked to the other. He ran into the truck and fiddled with the device until she heard a click in her ear. They couldn’t speak to her, but more importantly, she couldn’t say anything to the team of scientists. As she climbed into the truck, she was instantly relieved to see two completely strange faces. She didn’t know who they were, and more importantly, they didn’t know her or what project she had been working on.
The radio blackout had been expected, and she wished with every part of her being she had calculated this correctly. The odds were still terribly stacked against her living through this, but her baby would. Her intelligence was far greater than her captors, and the great value of her DNA gave her hope. They wouldn’t simply kill her without giving her a medical examination first. She was certain to head straight to the doctors before they interrogated her. They would find a life growing inside of her, and that life might be exactly what would save her own. They would wait for her baby to be born first, and that would give her more than enough time to plan their escape if her first plan didn’t work.
The vehicle pulled forward once again until it reached the clearing where instead of parking; it flipped around and drove back towards the mountain.
As she watched the hills and the land which had become her home disappear, she wept. She wept for Joshua and the life they would never have together, for Clint and his war efforts she would have to forgo, and for the joy of feeling a breeze rustle her hair or the rays of the sun beating down on her skin. That life was now gone regardless of if she lived or died.
Chapter 22
After a thorough medical examination, they brought her into a holding cell. The room was more dismal than she could have imagined. She questioned if it was truly the room itself, or if it was the mountain that was dismal. After living a life above ground it would be difficult to dwell in a space with no natural light. The room was brightly lit with stark fluorescent lights and white painted walls giving an eerie, sterile feeling. It appeared to have been freshly cleaned while she was in the clinic. There was a dampness in the room, showing at the corners of the floor, adding to the scent of bleach. She didn’t suppose it was common for anyone to be arrested or detained in the mountain. She speculated they had built this room before the dome.
Hope lay on the bed and closed her eyes. It was difficult to comprehend how much her life had changed in so little time. She wondered if Joshua even knew she was missing yet. He could still be out hunting, or even if he wasn’t, he could assume she had simply stepped out for some fresh air or a walk. Will he notice the chalkboard right away?
Her eyes filled with stinging tears as she thought of him. How could she have been so cruel to the man she loved? What if he tried to come to the mountain looking for her? The cruelest part of what she had done was he would never know if she lived or died. An oversight in her plan suddenly dawned on her; if he can’t be certain I’m dead, he may not be free to marry again.
He had been so concerned that she had a husband inside the dome. She had seen what a great concern it was for him in the eyes of God, but she overlooked it because it wasn’t a part of her mindset. Joshua
believed marriage was something God intended a person to do once. Although people sometimes got remarried after being widowed, she questioned if he could marry when there was no proof of her death. If they executed her for treason, then her child would grow up unaware of who either of its parents were or where they came from. Joshua would never know if he had been widowed, and he would never know the gender of his child or if it had survived.
She lay in bed and cried all the tears she possessed. She mourned her loving marriage which was now over, and the life she had enjoyed with her husband. She mourned for her unborn child who would never meet the father who would have loved them with all his heart. She mourned and grieved the pain Joshua was about to experience, the uncertainty, the unknowing, the desperation.
Once she ran out of tears, she rolled over onto her back and placed her hand gingerly on her stomach.
She had committed unforgivable acts. She betrayed the man she loved; she had put her own life in jeopardy. At least now she felt confident her baby would deliver safely. Whether or not that child knew where it came from, she was certain it would live. The thought gave a small glimmer of hope. She would give birth in a clean environment by medical professionals, not a petty woman with a grudge. She would see her baby delivered and get to hold it at least once.
***
It was difficult to comprehend what time it was when they came. Sitting in a white concealed box of a room with no clock and no sun to track its movements, it could have been the middle of the night for all she could perceive. She was lying in her bed sleeping when they arrived, which was probably to her advantage. Being jostled awake gave her genuine disorientation. Her life depended on the skill of deception and could use all the help she could get.
Two armed military personnel awoke her giving no detail; they instructed her to follow them and nothing more. She rose from her bed and walked with them into another room, close to where she was being held. The room contained one table with three chairs. The room was just as sterile white as her holding cell. It’s only decoration or adornment was a large mirror on the wall.
As she passed the mirror, she noticed her own reflection. In a strange way, she was relieved at how utterly terrible she looked and how red and swollen her eyes were. It was almost startling to see the dark circles under her eyes in contrast to the red and puffy surrounding tissue.
As she looked at her reflection, she wondered its purpose. Why would a mirror be necessary for an interrogation? It then struck her, she didn’t know how she knew, but this wasn’t a conventional mirror. It made absolutely no logical sense to have a mirror in this room which meant it served a different purpose. She imagined the reflection must be on her side alone, giving the opportunity for someone to observe her without being observed.
Panic coursed through her again. It would be easy for her to read the body language of the person interrogating her and adjust her behavior and answers accordingly. With the judge and jury being concealed from her, it added a whole new challenge to what lay ahead.
“Hope,” he said the instant he cracked open the door, “how nice to see you again, alive.”
It was showtime. She nearly breathed a small sigh of relief to see Cameron’s face, knowing it must be Lottie on the other side of the glass. Having her examined by a stranger would mean they involved a lot more people in her case. If Cameron and Lottie were handling this themselves, it would mean she had a greater chance of convincing them, that was if they weren’t keeping this concealed because they had already decided to execute her.
She blew out a heavy sigh and shook her head. “Yes, it’s nice to be alive, after being abandoned at the test site.” She strolled over to the table and took a seat, folding her hands casually on top of the table in front of her. “I still have not received an explanation as to how or why I was abandoned. And I certainly do hope Weston knows how unforgivable it is that he left his partner on the field.”
Cameron didn’t blink, he didn’t flinch; he showed no form of reaction to her words. He simply sat at the table and mirrored her casual posture of hands folded on the table in front of him.
“Hope, you have not been given a suitable explanation for your abandonment simply because we don’t understand it ourselves. I came here to speak with you to understand what happened that day of your last field test.”
She did her best impression of looking confused as she could muster and shook her head. “That day? You mean today. You came in to ask me what happened this morning, and why I was abandoned?”
Cameron’s body language didn’t break. He remained calm and neutral. “You think it was this morning you went on your field test?”
“Why the hell are you asking me that? Of course, it was today.” Her tone was sharp and condescending. She hoped she appeared to be completely convinced of her own lies. If they didn’t believe her story—which was the most likely scenario—she hoped they at least believed that she believed her story. If they rendered her temporarily insane, her prospects would be much brighter than if they labeled her a traitor.
Cameron nodded in response. “Alright then. Why don’t you tell me about what happened today?”
Hope shook her head and threw her hands up in the air. “I don’t know what you want me to say. We went to the test site like any other day. We set up our equipment and then turned the device on like any other test. Then all the sudden, I’m laying in the field completely abandoned.”
She leaned forward. “Not only were the truck and my companions gone, but there wasn’t even a speck of dust being kicked up on the road. I tried my radio several times and then walked down the road. I saw the truck approaching from a distance and thought Weston would be in that truck. I couldn’t understand why I had been left but when the truck pulled up, Weston wasn’t there and I wasn’t allowed to speak to anyone. It was almost as though it wasn’t our scheduled day to be in the field and they thought I was crazy when they had left me behind.”
Cameron nodded again and remained silent for a moment. She didn’t know if he was thinking about her story and how to proceed, or if Lottie was speaking to him from the other side of the mirror.
“What happened after you set up your equipment?”
Hope grunted as though she was infuriated by being asked practically the same question again. “We set up the equipment and were having issues with the data transmission. I walked over to the driver’s side of the vehicle to see if I could adjust the transmitter. Weston was working on the device and turned it on and then—”
She stopped talking and stared at the wall for a moment. She squinted and tapped her forehead as though she couldn’t quite remember what happened. “And then someone said through the radio, something about the readings being high or something—I’m sorry I don’t remember. It’s fuzzy somehow. They said something about the readings and there was a bright light and then—and then I don’t know. I don’t remember. There was a flash, and I think I woke up laying on my back. I got up, and they were gone. There wasn’t so much as a tire track where the vehicle had been.”
“I want to make sure I have this part clear, during the flash of light, you were standing on the opposing side of the vehicle to the device while the other three people were by the device? After you tinkered with the transmitter, you didn’t have time to walk back to the other side of the truck?”
“No. I was on the opposing side of the truck. I wasn’t with Weston and our escorts when the bright light flashed.”
He nodded and hesitated before proceeding. “I would like to repeat this back to you to make sure I understand. You set up your equipment, you had issues with the transmission of data, you went over to the opposing side of the truck to see if you could fix the transmission while Weston continued the test.”
Hope rolled her eyes. “You say that as though it would take more than one scientist to flip a bloody switch. Yes! Weston turned it on all by his little self.” She squinted. “If we weren’t a couple, I doubt they would send two of us for such a menial task.�
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Cameron allowed her to make her snide sarcastic remarks without disruption. As soon as she finished, he continued. “Once he turned the device on, you heard one of your teammates say from inside the mountain the data was reading unnaturally or differently, then the device gave off a bright light, which knocked you onto your back. It apparently knocks you unconscious because when you woke up, Weston and your guards had completely vanished.”
“Yes. Now can I have an explanation, please? Can I at least talk to Weston, or yell at him?” Not tearing up at the mention of Weston and pretending she didn’t know he was dead was the most difficult part of this lie. She felt as though she was disrespecting him or dishonoring him. He deserved more than for her to speak of him as though he was an imbecile.
“Are you hungry, Hope?”
She shrugged. “A little, yeah.”
“We will take a break then. A meal will be brought in for you.”
Beyond: Book Four of the State Series Page 22