Taken By Surprise (Taken Trilogy Book 1)

by Jessica Frances

“Rest isn’t going to help me, Zoe. I don’t know how much use I’m going to be to you now. I feel like it’s close.”

  “We’ll stay with you.” I can’t imagine dying alone, but I also can’t imagine being in here alone when Drew passes away. I can’t deal with that on top of everything else.

  “Thank you. I want you to know I’m sorry we failed you. I only hope you can understand why we did this.”

  “We understand.” I speak for all of us, but I have no idea if the others feel the same. Having someone try to kill you isn’t something that many would understand or be able to forgive. “Do you mind staying?” I ask Charlie, hoping he’ll stay.

  “No, I’ll stay. It’ll work better for our cover anyway. I’ll get us a blanket.” Charlie leaves the room and I again feel embarrassed by his comment. I can’t believe our cover is that Charlie and I are having sex right now.

  “He’s a good guy. He was always there for you.”

  I feel uncomfortable by what Drew says. Is he trying to say something happened between us in his timeline?

  “He seems nice.” I can tell I sound nervous and I cough to hopefully mask it.

  “You can have your bed back, Zoe. It doesn’t really matter where I die.”

  I know having Drew die on my bed will freak me out, that there won’t be any way I’ll be able to sleep on it again, but I feel bad kicking him off. He has done a lot for us, sacrificed a lot and he doesn’t deserve to die on the floor.

  “No, it’s fine. You stay where you are.”

  “Thank you, Zoe. I’ve probably never said this to you, but you were always a good friend to me.”

  More tears fall down my face and I know I’m not ready to say goodbye to Drew. I’ve already lost Dana, I can’t lose him, too.

  Charlie walks back in just as I feel like I’ve hit rock bottom and move over to the bed where I take Drew’s hand in mine. It feels weak and bony. I hate to think what the rest of him is like now.

  “Please don’t leave me. I can’t take losing someone else right now.”

  “Zoe, remember. I’m still alive. I’m in Boston right now, my heart is beating fine and I’m breathing in the cold air. Don’t mourn me, please.”

  I look down at where my hand rests for a while before Charlie takes my other hand and pulls me over to the wall next to the door facing the bed. I lean my back against it and let my legs give out, sliding downwards until I land softly on the ground. Charlie is more graceful and once we’re next to each other, he places a blanket over our legs. He rests his warm hand around mine and I’m surprised by how natural that feels. If I didn’t know better, I would think he’d been taking my hand and comforting me my entire life. Even given our closeness, I resist the urge to rest my head on his shoulder.

  I listen to Drew raggedly breathing and I dread the moment when that sound goes away.

  It’s past midnight when Drew’s breathing gives out. We’ve sat in silence the whole time and fresh tears burst out when I know he’s gone. Charlie puts his arm around my shoulders and I cry into his chest. When I finally catch my breath, I feel like an idiot.

  “I’m sorry. You must think I’m some crazy person who can’t stop crying.”

  “Don’t be sorry. From what I gathered, you’ve been through a lot these past few days. I know what it’s like to lose someone close. I’m just a bit worried what everyone is going to think with you crying so much. Not much for our first time together.”

  I laugh abruptly, finding the joke funnier than it probably is. I haven’t even thought about that. If Martha or Stan walked past this room at all tonight, they would more than likely have heard me sobbing.

  “And now you’re laughing, you’re not doing my reputation any good around here,” Charlie jokes again and I laugh just as loudly, feeling a bit lighter.

  “Thank you for being here, Charlie. I know you don’t know me, but I get a good feeling about you.”

  “Well, I might not have superhuman instinct powers like you, but I get a good feeling about you, too.”

  I smile hearing his words and let my eyes close. Falling asleep sitting up isn’t all that comfortable, however being with Charlie, it’s definitely more bearable. As tired as I am, I’m not even sure that I’ll be able to get any sleep tonight. My mind is stuck on Dana and Drew. Regardless of whether Drew is still out there, somewhere, alive; technically, I have witnessed both Dana and Drew die and only days apart. That is too much for anyone to take, let alone someone as lost as me.

  “Goodnight, Zoe.” Charlie’s hand squeezes mine and I pull myself out of my depressing thoughts.

  “Night, Charlie.” I let my head rest on Charlie’s shoulder, deciding I don’t care if I’m being weird.

  Chapter Twenty-Three – The Morning After

  Wednesday, April 11th

  I awaken with the rising sun in my eyes, trying to squint away from it, when I notice that my entire body, apart from my head, is sore. I move further into my pillow as I try to remember why I’m lying uncomfortably on the hard ground. It’s then that the memories from last night hit me, my ‘pillow’ moves from under me and I hear a groan. I quickly sit up, realizing that I’ve been using Charlie’s arm as a pillow. I must have somehow in the night cuddled up next to him and slept on him. How embarrassing. Did I snore? Did I drool?

  They’re questions that never make it to my lips when I look up at my bed. While I can’t see Drew on there from this angle, I know that his lifeless body will be there, or at least, there’ll be a pile of ashes on my bed if what the others have been saying is true.

  I know I can’t put it off forever and my back is aching to be stretched out, so I stand up slowly and glance atop my bed. It’s full of ashes. There isn’t as much as I would expect, but then again, I don’t know exactly what I’d expected to see. My eyes catch movement in the corner and I look down, watching Charlie stretch and groan when he tries to move his neck and back. I can sympathize. I look back at my bed and then sense Charlie stand next to me as we both take in the same scene. Charlie moves his hand through his hair, bringing it backward and forward as I try to think of what we’re supposed to do.

  “Window?” Charlie suggests.

  “That seems… disrespectful.” I don’t want to just throw Drew out the window, but then again, what am I supposed to do? I can’t exactly take him with us. And if someone finds his ashes in here, how exactly can I explain that away? I don’t need those questions being asked and Drew wouldn’t want to cause us any problems. He died to keep us from this place.

  Unable to think of anything else, I nod at the window even though it’s not the way I would like to do it. I can always say some nice words; make it feel more respectful.

  Charlie moves over to the window and that’s when we reach another problem. The window won’t open.

  “I don’t think this is supposed to open.” Charlie examines the edges and I feel a panic begin to build up inside me. “We could break it, but they might think we’re trying to break out or something.”

  I pace, moving in small circles while trying to come up with a plan that works. I push away my stress and take deep breaths trying to clear my head. If Dana were here, she would know what to do. She probably would tell me some scene from a book she loved and it would hold the answer. I would roll my eyes, but in the end, I’d be grateful that she knew what to do. Instead, I don’t have her and it’s all on me to think of something.

  “Okay, we’ll just fold up the quilt and put him in the closet. We can think of something later.”

  “Can you hear that?” Charlie freezes mid-stride back to my bed.

  “Stan,” I gasp. We run to my bed and hastily fold up my quilt and shove it in my closet and force the door closed.

  We make it back next to the bed when Stan bursts open the door.

  “Good, you’re both up.” His eyes look wild and I subconsciously take a step closer to Charlie. “Just so you know, you blew the backup generator last night. Four freaking hours! Are you two kidding me?” A vein on the
left side of his forehead has popped out and it looks painful. “If you keep this up, my first order of business is to work solely on how to stop you causing blackouts during sex and trust me, you don’t want a group of scientists studying that. It’ll take all the romance out of it with them all watching or maybe you kids are into that, whatever. Just give it a break.” Stan slams the door shut and I swear the walls shake from the force. Charlie and I are both frozen in shock and embarrassment.

  Before we can utter a word Stan bursts back in.

  “Hurry up and get ready for your tests. Blackout, you’re up second and Third Eye, you’re third. Ha, that’s funny. Third.” Stan doesn’t sound amused, though, and he again slams the door. This time, I jump. Stan is definitely a scary guy.

  “Right, I better get ready.” Charlie walks over to the door and opens it.

  “Thanks again for last night,” I rush to say.

  “You don’t need to thank me. We both needed the… release.” Charlie winces at his choice of word, but it reminds me we’re back to being recorded.

  “Right, well, it was… fun.” I try to think of the opposite of what last night had been.

  “Yeah, we should do it again sometime.” Charlie leaves then before we can continue our awkward conversation any longer.

  ***

  I manage to have a quick shower and after fighting with myself to open up my closet, I get out some fresh clothes. Everything in there is similar and suitable for exercising in. I leave out most of my new clothes over the desk since I’m not too eager to have to keep opening up the closet and seeing the quilt folded away in there, knowing it holds Drew’s remains. When I finally make it to the lounge area, Will is sitting on the couch looking bored, Charlie is just walking out of the doctor’s room behind me and Rose is arguing with Stan.

  “You actually think I’m going to give you my blood? My DNA? Hell, no!” Rose is as angry as I’ve ever seen her. It looks like a good night’s sleep has done her no good.

  “Hacker, if I wanted your DNA, then I would just grab a loose strand of hair that I’m sure is on your pillow. If I wanted your blood, I would just need to wait for training to begin. You’re all bound to have scrapes and bruises from that. You don’t really have much choice in this, so I would suggest you cooperate.”

  “No.” Rose crosses her arms over her chest. “Also, why the hell do we have listening devices in our rooms?”

  Stan glares angrily at her. “Well, since you were all nearly murdered recently, we decided it might be nice to know if you’re in trouble straight away rather than finding your body in the morning,” he snaps at Rose.

  “You said we’re safe here.”

  Stan takes a deep breath. I can tell he’s close to his breaking point with this argument. “You are safe, this is merely a precaution.”

  “I think it’s creepy. I want it out of my room,” she demands.

  “And I want the latest design of rocket launcher. We don’t all get what we want, sweetie.”

  “Don’t call me sweetie,” Rose yells, making all of us wince.

  “Ms. Holloway, I’m ready for you now.” I look behind me and see the same doctor from yesterday, Harold, standing at the doorway, waiting.

  I leave Rose and Stan to their fight, hoping the boys won’t let it go too far and step into the doctor’s office. It’s not really an office, though. It’s twice the size of our lounge area and looks like something out of a doctor’s TV show; the ones that show you the emergency department. There are six beds along the wall, medical equipment everywhere and several desks that house microscopes and other things that look complicated and expensive. There is one place that’s hidden by a curtain, but I squash down on my curiosity when Harold asks me to sit down on one of the beds.

  He feels my pulse, takes my blood pressure and temperature and then knocks about my knees to see how my reflexes are. When it comes time to take my blood, I have psyched myself up into a panic.

  I hate needles. I had needed a blood test just a year ago and Dana held my hand through that. I still need my hand held, I still need Dana.

  While I think about how much I miss her, Harold jabs me in the arm without warning and I gasp in pain as he pulls until the vial is filled with blood.

  I look away from the needle and Harold and, even though I’m sitting on a bed, I begin to feel dizzy. I see double of Stan standing over by the doorway, watching me carefully. I see both his heads dip and then another sting on my arm. I groan and then my head falls back and hits the pillow. I feel strange and I know, deep down, something isn’t right. Numbness spreads up my arm and slowly my whole body sinks into the feeling. It’s addictive to not feel anything. I let my sadness ebb away and allow myself the relief of feeling numb. Soon I’m not even aware of that.

  ***

  I open my eyes and moan as the harsh light in the room invades my brain and makes it ache. I need to stop waking up this way. I turn my head to the side and immediately close my eyes. My body feels restricted. The fear of what that means forces me to open my eyes again. I let them adjust to the bright light slowly and notice that I’m in the same exact place as I had been when I went to sleep. The medical area. Did I faint?

  I hear a rustling noise and look over the end of my bed to see Harold sitting at one of the many desks, shuffling papers.

  “What happened?” I ask. I can remember the needle, but after that, my brain gets a bit foggy.

  I try to sit up and it takes all my energy to do so. My side hurts painfully and I gasp aloud from the shock of it.

  “Oh good, you’re up. When you feel up to it, you may go back to your own room.” Harold barely glances at me, clearly very interested in whatever is written on the pages in front of him.

  “What happened?” I ask him again. I feel wrong, my body feels wrong.

  Harold sighs as if my question is an inconvenience for him to have to bother to answer.

  “You had a bad reaction to the needle. Your body went into shock and you began having hallucinations.”

  “I did? I don’t remember…” I try to think back again, but I really can’t remember a thing. That has never happened to me before. Then again, I’ve always had Dana with me.

  “Yes, it’s rare, but it can happen. You’ll be fine now. Your body has woken from the shock.” Harold turns away and I frown as I try to step down from the bed and find my legs shaking with the effort to hold me up.

  “Why am I so tired?”

  Another loud, heavy sigh greets my answer. Harold could use some bedside manners.

  “Like I said, you had a bad reaction to the needle. It’s most likely your body’s way of recovering from the intrusion. You just need to give yourself a day of rest.”

  I twist my stomach as I turn and feel another stab of pain. I pull up my shirt and there is a large bruise forming over my right side and moving across my stomach. It’s painful to touch and my arm shakes as I hold up my shirt. Whether it’s from exhaustion or fear, I’m not sure because I’m feeling both emotions quite strongly.

  “What happened to me?” I ask yet again.

  Harold turns away from his paperwork and his eyes widen as he takes in my bruise. He moves closer to me and roughly grabs my side, causing me to wince in pain. My eyes water, but I keep the tears in.

  “You were thrashing earlier; perhaps you hurt yourself that way.” Harold examines it a while longer, painfully poking me in the side before he moves away and turns his back to me. “It doesn’t appear like you’ve done any internal damage. Just give yourself plenty of rest and drink lots of water. If you still have any problems, you may come back here and knock. I may not be here, but I’ll know you need me.”

  I nod in response and then realize he can’t see me with his back is turned to me “Okay,” I say aloud as I walk slowly to the door and open it. Looking down the corridor, I know I can easily just go back to my room and collapse on my bed; remembering Drew has just died on that bed, though, makes me rethink that idea. So I stumble left and collapse onto a
couch in the lounge area, briefly wondering where everyone else is and how much time has passed since I had gone in to see Harold. The clock on the wall by the TV is small and I have to squint to be able to read it. I’m sure it says it’s ten o’clock. I had gone in to see Harold just before eight so it’s been two hours.

  That seems like a long time to have fainted for. If I had been having hallucinations, what were they of? Did I see Dana?

  I turn myself around on the couch and hold my breath when I jolt the side that’s bruised. I wait impatiently for the pain to subside and then let my body relax into the couch. Sleep pulls at me straight away and, even if I wanted to fight it, I can’t. The urge to sleep is simply too strong.

  ***

  “Zoe? Zoe, wake up.”

  Someone touches my arm lightly and grudgingly my eyes open. Everything is blurry at first and it takes long seconds for my eyes to be able to focus.

  “Are you okay?” Charlie asks me, his face taking up my entire vision.

  I lean back and try to remember where I am. Charlie’s hair is damp and he’s wearing tracksuit pants and a t-shirt. I smell a waft of his body wash and I assume he must have recently showered. I feel a pull to move towards him, but luckily I’m too tired to move. I’m still lying down on the couch in the lounge area. I feel just as exhausted as when I first laid down here and wonder how long I’ve been asleep for. It feels like only a few seconds ago I closed my eyes.

  “What time is it?”

  “It’s six; time for dinner. What happened? You went to have your physical and then you just never came back.” Charlie stands back up straight and I get a better look of the room.

  “Stanley said you had a bad reaction to the needle. Are you okay?” Martha is standing next to Charlie now and crouches down so we’re face to face. I feel like her eyes are trying to burn a hole through mine.

  “I’m just really tired.” I quickly sit up and hold my hand out for Charlie to take. Being around Martha is making my skin crawl.

  Charlie takes my offered hand and helps pull me up.

  “Harold said you could experience some exhaustion. After dinner, you’re to go to bed immediately.”