What Remains Series (Book 4): Evasion
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I joined the others in line with my hands folded in front of me and my head down. Dillon was right. I hadn’t even been at the base for twenty-four hours but already, I knew I was in some kind of hell.
I told myself I’d give it two days. Two days to find out what happened to Polly and plan my escape. That would give me enough time to get back to the church and be with Maddie and Blake again.
Two. Days.
The good news was I wasn’t going to need it. As we walked down the hallway, I saw her.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Polly was standing at the front of a room dressed just like everyone else in the building. The line kept moving but my feet started to drag. I hadn’t gotten a good look but there was no doubt in my mind that it had been Polly.
Her hair had been pulled back into a tight ponytail. She’d looked thinner but healthy enough.
The room she was in had been lined with small desks, each filled with a small child, maybe five or six years old, each wearing their own tiny jumpsuit.
Polly hadn’t seen me. She hadn’t even looked up as we passed by the classroom.
My heart leaped into my throat but I couldn’t stop walking. I couldn’t even talk to her to tell her I was there. They wouldn’t allow it. I had to keep moving my feet… or did I?
I tripped myself and fell into the person in front of me. I fell to the ground and slid myself backward with my hand up in an apology.
“Sorry,” I said.
Ross looked back at me with a mix of anger and fear in his eyes. The guard stopped the line and the fear increased. Ross turned away and put his head back down.
Not a single person offered me their hand to help me up but I didn’t care. It gave me more time to look into the room.
The commotion caused the children to look out into the hallway. Polly’s eyes followed and met mine.
“Children!” she said.
I closed my eyes for a second at the familiar sound of her voice. I couldn’t keep them closed because I didn’t want to stop looking at her. If I did, maybe she’d vanish.
I hadn’t noticed at first but at the front of the room, there was a guard. Mr. Curly Mustache had his eyes glued to Polly.
“Polly,” I mouthed carefully. Absolutely no sound came out.
She was looking right into my eyes. There was no expression on her face and not even a twinkle of recognition. Had she been brainwashed?
She walked between the desks toward the door. Her jaw was tense and she looked annoyed.
I couldn’t look away from her even when someone grabbed me by the back of my jumpsuit and lifted me to my feet. It felt like my heart stopped when Polly shut the classroom door.
I wanted to burst into tears. My heart was ripping apart into pieces. She was right there. Only a few feet from me and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.
It had taken me too long to get to her.
It was too late.
“Walk,” the guard said jabbing the baton between my shoulder blade.
“Ouch!” I complained.
He grabbed the front of my jumpsuit and threw me across the hallway. My back slammed into the wall so hard I thought I heard it crack.
I tried to keep my balance but my body was too weak and I couldn’t stay upright. I fell to the ground.
My cheek was pressed against the cold tile floor. I stared at the door Polly had closed only moments ago. It was like when we were young and she’d been mad at me for borrowing something without asking. She’d close the door. Shut me out of her life to teach me a lesson.
I wanted to call for her but I couldn’t. Not only because it would have been a mistake but because I couldn’t find my voice.
The surrounding walls turned black and white. Everything became grainy like dust was falling from the sky in thick sheets.
Then everything turned to black.
Chapter Twenty-Four
My eyes popped open and I tried to sit up but my arms wouldn’t move. I was stuck.
Panic overwhelmed me and I jerked my arms vigorously. My head tilted and I saw I’d been tied to the rails of the bed.
“Calm down,” a woman said stepping into view. “You’re okay.”
“I’m tied up!” I snarled.
“Watch your tone, please. I can sedate you if I feel threatened,” she said.
The woman was beautiful and I was fairly certain she was wearing makeup. Her chocolate eyes were warm but the long white coat made her seem cold.
“I heard you had a fall,” she said looking down at me.
“Yes,” I said stopping myself before I called her a sir.
“Eating okay?”
I nodded. “Up until today.”
“How have you been sleeping?”
“Not well.” That was the truth. And I hadn’t been sleeping well before arriving at the base too. “Is there any chance you can untie me?”
“It’s really for my protection,” she said.
I shook my head. “Your protection? I’m not going to do anything to you.”
“You’d be surprised what people will do,” she said with a frown.
I exhaled loudly.
It looked like she was about to say something before the door opened. A guard walked in and stomped over to the doctor. He handed her a file and my pulse quickened.
“Here’s the file you requested on that one patient,” he said holding it out to her.
“Took you long enough,” she said. “I requested this shortly after eight.”
He shrugged. “It was buried. Someone had filed it incorrectly.”
“The office people aren’t trained well. I’ll let the trainer know,” she said slapping the folder before setting it down on the counter.
“Anything else, Doc?” the guard asked.
“That is all, thank you,” she said.
My body relaxed but only by a small percentage. If she’d asked for the file earlier, then it wouldn’t be a file that matched the number on my jumpsuit. A file that would alert her to the fact that I was someone else.
“I’m feeling much better,” I said in a sugary sweet voice. I needed to get out of the leather ties.
She walked over to the bed and looked down at me. “Since you missed mealtime, I requested food to be brought here for you.”
“I really appreciate that,” I said with a smile.
“I think you should rest for a bit more,” she said. “Everything seems fine but you really seem worn down. Has there been any new stress in your life recently?”
Uh… was she for real?
“Nothing new,” I replied.
The door opened again and the doctor rolled her eyes.
“Constant interruptions,” she mumbled.
A large woman waddled in pushing a cart. She folded her hands together and lowered her head before leaving the room.
“Ah,” the doctor said clapping her hands softly. “This should help you.”
I tried to move my hands, rattling the bars in the process. She turned and pulled a syringe from her breast pocket.
“This is if you try anything stupid,” she said. “Understand?”
“Perfectly.”
The doctor untied me before rolling the cart over the bed. She uncovered the plate and revealed a pile of white mush. There was a white plastic spoon on a thin, paper napkin.
I scooped up the slop and tried not to wince. It was cold but that wasn’t the worst part. The texture of the instant mashed potatoes was recognizable. I’d served it to Freddie on occasion when I hadn’t felt like making them from scratch. He never even seemed to notice the difference which didn’t say much for my mashed potato recipe.
There was a golden oil drizzled over the top but that wasn’t what gave it the awful powdery taste. It was as though vanilla protein powder had been blended into the mixture.
“Everything okay?” the doctor asked.
“Yes,” I said keeping my eyes down. Mostly so she didn’t see how difficult it was for me to eat the mush.
All I wanted was to get out of the room without vomiting and or drawing any more attention to myself. I had to start thinking of how I was going to get to Polly before they locked the doors at bedtime.
I finished eating, somehow managing to clean the plate. The doctor rolled the tray away and brought a small flashlight to each eye. She took my pulse and crossed her arms.
“Well, I guess if you think you’re ready to get back to work, I can discharge you,” she said.
“Thank you,” I said swinging my legs over the side of the bed. I folded my hands in my lap and kept my head down.
She clicked her tongue. “You don’t have to do that in here. This is the one place you can be yourself and speak freely. I can’t help if you aren’t honest with me.”
Did she know something? She must have seen me choking down every bite of the mush. Or maybe the jumpsuit gave me away. Maybe she already had my file… she’d gotten it before I’d woken up.
“All right,” she said grabbing my elbow and helping me to my feet. “Do you need me to call for a guard?”
“No, thank you,” I said giving her another look.
She smiled and handed me a pink piece of paper. “Take this. Hope I don’t see you again anytime soon.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“That just means I wish you good health,” she said waving her hand. “I’m sorry, I tried to lighten the mood but I’m just so not funny.”
“Oh,” I said giving her a smile.
I walked to the door and opened it slowly. I looked over my shoulder but she already had her face buried in the file the guard had brought to her.
It felt weird to be released on my own… like I was breaking a law of some kind and if I was spotted, I’d be in some kind of terrible trouble. But it gave me an opportunity that I had to take advantage of. Surely, I was supposed to head back out to work and provide them with the slip of paper but instead, I was going to go back down the hallway where I’d seen Polly.
My feet moved quickly as my eyes darted around. The halls were mostly empty but when anyone was near, I put my head down and clasped my hands together tightly with the piece of paper sticking out of the top.
I headed toward the corner. A door opened and a hand covered my mouth. Before I could do anything, I was pulled inside and the door closed.
Chapter Twenty-Five
My breaths came at me quickly. “I’ll scream.”
It was dark in the room but I imagined the man with the curly mustache peering at me. I pressed my hand to the wall behind me, searching for the doorknob.
“Stop it!” Polly hissed grabbing my hand off the back wall. The slip of paper had fallen out of my hand at some point. “What are you doing here?”
“Looking for you!”
She squeezed my hand into hers. “Well, that was silly, wasn’t it? Now we’re both stuck in here.”
I dropped her hand and wrapped my arms around her. I inhaled deeply and fought back the tears that were threatening to pour out of my eyes.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” I whispered.
“Me either,” she said hugging me back just as hard. She pulled back. “I’m afraid to ask but is Maddie okay?”
I nodded but quickly realized she probably couldn’t see me in the darkness. The words scratched my throat.
“Yes… she’s fine,” I said.
“Oh, God.” Polly’s voice lowered.
“She’s not here, too, is she?”
My head was moving side to side. “No.”
“Then where is she? With Freddie?”
“Freddie didn’t make it,” I said. “She’s with Blake.”
“Who the hell is Blake and why is my niece with him?”
I exhaled a quick breath. “Is there time to explain now?”
“I suppose not. I’d like to say if you trust him then I do, but well, Freddie.”
“I didn’t trust Freddie,” I said with a sigh. “Anyway, we need to get out of this place.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” Polly said. I could imagine her crossing her arms and her eyes rolling. “Sorry, but if there were a way out of this place, I’d be gone. Well, maybe not. There has been a small complication.”
“What kind of complication?” I asked.
She ignored my question. “Do you know what happened to Hoyt?”
I couldn’t answer. He was probably still alive but I couldn’t get into the details at least not until I figured out exactly how I wanted to break the news to her. She’d loved Hoyt with everything she was. He should be the one to confess. Why did I have to be the bad guy?
“Does Hoyt have something to do with the complication?” I asked carefully.
“Perhaps.”
“What’s going on, Polly,” I said looking over my shoulder at where the door would be… not that I could see it in the pitch-black darkness.
She let out a breath. “I’m pregnant. There are doctors here.”
“The baby is Hoyt’s?”
“Yes,” she replied. It had been one word but I could sense it had been filled with various emotions.
There was a long pause before I spoke. “How long have you known?”
“I found out a few days after arriving in New York with mom,” Polly said.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I am telling you,” she said. “You’re the first person I’m telling. It’s still early… there could be complications.”
I took her hand. “There are people out there. We’re with them. They can probably help you. In a few days, they’re traveling to a place that will be completely safe. We can go with them.”
“How do I know they are any better than this group?”
“How can they not be better? We’d only been with them a short time but they seem like good people… normal people,” I said.
“What if they’re not and you left your daughter there with them?”
I bit my cheek hard. “I couldn’t bring her here.”
“You didn’t answer me,” Polly said.
“About what?”
“About Hoyt.”
I let go of her hand and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her gently. “We need to focus on getting out of here.”
“You know something.” Even in the darkness, Polly could tell when I was hiding something. “And you still haven’t told me about this Blake person or how you got in here.”
“Seriously, Polly,” I groaned. “Once we’re out of here, I’ll have all the time in the world to answer all your questions.”
“We’ll never get out of here and once we leave this room, I’ll never be able to talk to you again,” Polly said. “You’ll never even get to meet your niece or nephew if this pregnancy even works out.”
“At night, we can hide and climb over the fence,” I said the words rolling off my tongue. “There are places to hide in the darkness and a forest not far off where I’ve stashed a flashlight. It’s a bit of a walk back to the others but we’ll make it. The only part I haven’t figured out is how to get out of the building.”
Polly sighed. “I haven’t been outside the building in quite some time. I don’t even remember what it’s like out there. For a long time, I was jealous of those who were chosen to work the fields.”
“Don’t be,” I said rubbing the back of my arm. “It’s hard work.”
“You’ve been outside?”
“I’m a farmer,” I said. “Just like the owner of this jumpsuit.”
“How did you even get that thing?” Polly asked.
I snorted. “From a guy who escaped. This is possible, Polly. I can get you out of here.”
“I can’t leave the building,” Polly said. “The guards will stop me.”
“Only if they see you,” I said.
Polly huffed. “It’s not easy to be sneaky in this place.�
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I held out my arms. “But yet here you are in a closet.”
“They’re probably already looking for me.”
“We can’t go until night,” I said.
“Too bad we’ll be locked in our rooms,” Polly said.
I tapped my finger to my chin. “Do they provide dinner?”
“Yes,” Polly said. “Same pile of crap they provide for lunch. Did you know that the guards and higher-level folks get to eat normal food?”
“I did not know that,” I said. “The woman in my room basically told me to sleep with the guards, though.”
“While I’ve managed to avoid it, I can’t say life here wouldn’t be easier if I gave in,” Polly said.
“What if we meet back here after dinner?” I asked.
Polly released a squeaky breath. “It’ll never work. Immediately after the meal, they’ll usher us back to our rooms. We’ll only have about an hour before the lights go out.”
“An hour of sitting there and not talking?” I asked remembering how reluctant Ned and Courtney had seemed to talk to me.
“It’s reflection time. You’re supposed to sit quietly and think about how you can be better tomorrow.”
I chewed my lip. “How long do we have before they lock the doors?”
“As soon as everyone on the block is in their room.”
“Would they know if someone wasn’t in their room?” I asked. Dillon must have sneaked away somehow before the doors locked.
It took Polly at least a minute to answer. “I don’t know. They don’t do like a roll call or anything like that.”
“I’ve been here like twenty-four hours and no one really asked me who I was, well, except for the people I share a room with and the guy who knew the owner of my jumpsuit.”
“But you’re new… I’ve been here for much longer. A bit more recognizable,” Polly said. “Someone might speak up if they notice I’m not where I should be. Like they probably already have. Then again, a lot of people are too afraid to say anything.”
I dropped to my knees and started searching the floor for the small piece of pink paper I’d been given. “What are the pink slips for?”