Page 78 of The Captive Missing

Crawling over to them, Val twisted the cap off and chugged at the cool rush of liquid. No water had ever tasted quite so good. It was fresh and sweet, like a song that ran over her tongue instead of into her ears. About halfway through the bag of salty chips, Val realized what the guard had done. She had given Val this food out of her own lunch.

The small act of kindness was almost more than she could bear. When she finished with the meager meal, she took a few steps towards the thin mattress that was shoved into the corner. Collapsing down onto it, she fell into a fitful sleep.

* * *

“Get up.”

The command was firm, but otherworldly. It snaked itself into Val’s sleeping brain, stirring her mind to reach for wakefulness. She didn’t want to wake up though, not yet. Her body was heavy, so heavy, and her thoughts were long and drawn out. But then someone was shoving at her shoulder, and the command came again, closer.

“Get up.”

It was a man’s voice, a deep one. The kind you would expect from someone large. When Val opened her eyes, she squinted up into a formidable figure. It was a different guard. The woman was gone. Her shift must have ended, Val thought.

Sitting up, Val felt dizzy, like she’d only been out a few hours, no more. Was it morning already?

“What’s going on?” Val questioned, standing as he had indicated. “Are you moving me back to Breeding?”

“Let’s go.”

The guard took hold of Val’s elbow and she stumbled slightly while trying to step into the high heels from the day before. He took her out of Isolation, down the maze of corridors and back out into the courtyard. It was dark, so dark, and nearly pitch black without even a hint of moon in the sky. No one else was about, it was the dead of night still.

Val’s stomach began to trip uncertainly, they never moved anyone at this hour. The only tales she had heard about night transfers were murmurs about the missing. Ben had said he witnessed it. Cambric security came for you while everyone else slept and the guard shift was low. They took you from your cell and you never returned.

Had Shane called in from the city? Had he finally had enough of her? Of the trouble she was causing? Was this his way of getting back at Jason for the attack?

Terror at what came next had Val yanking back her arm and struggling. The guard only tightened his grip on her and drug her along faster. He held her wriggling forearm under the scanner, passed through the apartment buildings and down the back corridor that ran to the parking garage.

Val’s pulse jumped and she cried out, causing him to clamp a hand heavily over her mouth. He carried her now, writhing against him until they slammed out a side door and onto that long strip of grass that bordered the high brick wall. It was the one where she had watched the lone rabbit eat. Where everything had seemed so peaceful.

Kicking out with her feet, she lost both of her shoes. The dewy cold wet of the lawn soaked into her stockings. There were no other guards around, all the lights from the surrounding buildings were off. The rolling door of the garage was locked down tight.

Heart bursting inside her chest, Val realized in that moment just how much she wanted to live. She didn’t want to die here, at the hands of Cambric. They came to a stop at the imposing iron gate.

“Listen-” The guard hissed. “You have less than a minute to make it through the gate and into the tree line, then the camera starts recording again.”

“What?” The shock of it had Val’s body going slack. “You’re not going to kill me?”

“You all freak out like this.” The guard set her on her feet, then began pushing her through the bars of the gate. “You see that big tree right there? On the other side of the road? Run past it and keep on going until you come to another road, then stop. Wait there.”

“You’re letting me go?”

“Forty-five seconds.”

“What about Charlie? I can’t leave him here, please you have to go get him,” Val pleaded.

“If this was him instead of you, would you want him to run or miss his chance?”

Val’s heart ached but she was already on the free side of the fence, looking back into the face of the guard who offered her escape.

“Thirty seconds.”

Squeezing her eyes shut for the briefest moment, she made her choice. She turned her back on the guard and ran.

As fast as she could go, she headed for the tree line. Her bare feet slapped over gravel, tearing holes in the bottoms of her stockings. The rocks stabbed at the souls of her feet, but it was like an afterthought, she barely felt the pain. Arms pumping, adrenaline shot into every inch of her body so that she tingled all over.

Crossing the two-lane highway, she leapt from the pavement back onto dirt. The trees were so close now that she could see the tops swaying slighting in the breeze. She tripped over a bush and stumbled, then shoved up and kept going.

Lungs burning, throat tight, she dove into the cover of an old growth forest. She ran past the tree the guard had pointed out. She ran and she ran and she did not stop. She couldn’t stop. She wouldn’t. Not for anything in the world.

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