***
In the next training session, Rose is dismissed early to speak to Martha. I fear they know the lock had been picked and Rose is being questioned right now, but I bite down on my fear to stop myself openly freaking out. We don’t get the chance to see Rose before dinner and my body relaxes when she makes an appearance unscathed. Martha sits with us and annoyingly hangs around for most of the night. She watches another two movies with us and brings out popcorn and chocolate for us to eat. I suppose this is another one of her bonding ideas. Again, she is annoyed when we don’t show a lot of enthusiasm.
Rose excuses herself early and Will leaves soon after. I’m itching to join them so we can talk, however under Martha’s watchful eye, I just snuggle further into Charlie’s arms and pretend not to notice her watchful gaze.
What did those words I read mean? Do I have it wrong? Does she really want Charlie and me to be together? Why?
Halfway through the next movie, Stan interrupts us and steals Martha away. We turn off the TV and head straight into my room. Rose and Will are there already. Charlie turns the power off and Rose complains that we took too long.
“Who cares? What do we think about last night?” Charlie interrupts her protests.
“I think we definitely need to get the hell out of here,” Rose snaps. “Martha just told me I have to behave myself when all the experts get here and begin testing us. I think all that stuff from last night must have been their machines and stuff to work on us.”
I shiver.
“So do we go tonight?”
“As much as I want out of here, I do think Martha was suspicious of me. I think she suspects something was up with us last night. Maybe we should have a night off, go tomorrow night,” Rose concedes.
“Did you finish reading what Martha said about us before the laptop died?” I ask Charlie.
“No, but I get the feeling she is actually pleased about us, not at all like she is acting.”
“Yeah, why is that? What does it mean?”
“The bitch is ruthless, you heard the way she spoke to that guard,” Rose points out.
“The guard…” I think back to the sleeping guard and something clicks. “That guard is the same one who was guarding the door when Will and I escaped.”
“So?”
“So that must be his job; guard the room.”
“You think something important is in that room?” Rose asks.
“I saw him in that video, the one of Joel. When that man knocked on the door, the guard opened it. Martha said something about a prisoner being in there. Do you think it might be Joel? That he’s still alive and being held in there?” I ask.
“It’s a long shot,” Charlie says. I can tell he’s considering my words carefully.
“What do we do?” I look at Rose.
“I guess when we’re escaping, we don’t exactly have to sneak around. I can probably get us to that door and disable the guard. There is no harm in having a quick look inside.” She shrugs at me causally.
“And what if he is in there? He could be in any condition. How are we supposed to escape and also carry dead weight around?” Charlie questions us.
“I can carry him no problem,” Will offers.
“Seriously? We’re talking about staging a rescue for the guy that tried to kill Zoe?” Charlie looks at us all like we’re crazy.
“He’s still a human being. You heard what Martha said, they’re obviously getting ready to kill him. We can’t knowingly leave him to die. I won’t do that.” Rose crosses her arms.
“Well, I think that decision should be Zoe’s to make, not yours.” Charlie glares at her.
I think about what I want. If that is Joel in there, then Martha pretty much assured me he would be killed. He deserves to die for what he did to Dana. He still breathes air while he caused so much destruction. I can only imagine the hole he has left back home. Dana is important to a lot of people. He doesn’t deserve free air. Although I find I can’t sentence him to death, either. If Dana were here, she would help him. It wouldn’t matter to her what he had done, she would see someone needing help and she would give it.
“We have to try to help him,” I whisper. Even though it’s the right thing to do, I still find the words hard to say.
“Are you sure?” Charlie moves his hair back and forward while looking at me intently.
“Yes.”
“Why do they have him? They obviously went to the trouble of faking his death to get him, why? What does he know?” Rose asks me.
“They must think he was hired to kill me by the mole. They’re probably hoping he can identify who it is.” I think back at all the wounds Joel had. They must have tortured him for an answer he didn’t have.
“Okay, so say we find him and we get out of here, where do we go?” Charlie asks us.
“We need to go somewhere not connected to any of us. Getting out the front door will get us noticed. I think we should split up and divide their attention. We won’t have a lot of time, but I think we can manage to get two cars. We split up in different directions and meet at our new destination.” Rose has obviously already thought a lot about this.
“Should we leave the country? Canada isn’t far?” Charlie questions her.
“I think that’s too obvious, plus the border is likely to be guarded. We need to slip away.”
“To where?” I ask.
“I don’t know. Name a place you’ve never been and let’s see if any of us can agree,” Rose offers.
“Oregon?”
“My parents took me there when I was eight for a holiday.” Rose shoots that idea down.
“What about Montana?” I ask, hoping for a place that isn’t too warm.
“Nope, holiday when I was twelve.”
“Maybe you should suggest a place.” I roll my eyes at Rose.
“Fine.” Rose almost speaks several times, but suddenly stops before she can mention something each time. It’s at least a full two minutes before she thinks of a place she’s never been to. “How about Nebraska?”
I shrug, signaling I have never been there. The furthest I’ve traveled before this happened was New York. Everyone else shrugs, too.
“Okay, where in Nebraska?” Rose asks.
“I think we should meet somewhere big, a place we can’t confuse and a place with lots of exits,” Charlie suggests.
“What about a University? It’ll be big enough for us to hide if we need to and people our age are everywhere, we won’t look suspicious,” Rose offers.
“Good idea. What about the University of Nebraska in Lincoln? That’s meant to be pretty big.” It’s also the only college that I’ve heard of there.
“Perfect. Okay, so every College has a bookshop, we meet there.” Rose smiles.
“It goes without saying we can’t contact home, no matter how badly we want to.” Charlie looks at Rose. Apart from him, she has been the most vocal about wanting to contact her family.
“I know,” Rose sighs sadly.
“What do we do once we’re in Nebraska? We’ll have no money, no IDs, no nothing.”
“I might know someone who can fix that. Just get me to a computer and I’ll figure something out.” Rose shrugs at our stunned faces. There is no doubt in my mind that we would all be screwed if Rose wasn’t here. She knows how to pick locks, hack computers, break into cars and she’s brave and calm enough to keep us all in check. I’m in awe of how amazing she is.
“Same time tomorrow?” Will asks.
“I think we should aim for later. Maybe four, Stan and Martha will have to be asleep by then,” Rose states hopefully.
“Four it is. Come on, let’s get some sleep, big day tomorrow.” Charlie stands from where we’re all sitting and he holds out his hand to help me up.
“Since we know we’re leaving this time, take some clothes or something. It’ll help us when we’re on the road,” Rose whispers.
I nod that it’s a good idea and we all leave my room; Charlie and I heading in
to his room. After everything that’s happened the last few days, I’m so exhausted that as soon as my head hits the pillow, it takes me only moments to fall asleep.
Tomorrow will be a big day. Tomorrow is when we’ll escape from The Windmill. I know Charlie and I will make it, but what about Rose and Will? Is Joel still here and alive? Is he one of the shadows from my dream? Or is he dead and the prisoner is someone else entirely? I have a feeling I won’t like the answer we’ll get from opening that door tomorrow.
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