Page 79 of The Captive Missing

Chapter 23

By the time she found the other road, a stabbing sharp pain had erupted along her right side. Holding both hands to the spot on her waist, she wheezed, trying to suck in enough oxygen to get satisfaction.

She didn’t know how far she had run, or for how long. The dark asphalt roadway had appeared out of nowhere. One minute she was dodging tree branches and jumping roots, the next her feet were jarring over the smooth surface. By the time her mind registered that she could stop, she had reached the middle of the deserted highway.

It was dark all around her, there were no street lights and no traffic. Cambric was positioned in a rural area, one surrounded by forest and large plots of privately owned land. Val’s legs began to tremble, muscles twitching with overexertion. In the far off distance, the sound of a car motor rumbled its way towards her.

Limping lamely, Val made a feeble attempt to clear the road. She didn’t know who was coming, or what was going on. Maybe Cambric had been alerted to her release. Maybe they were coming for her.

Before she made it back to the safety of the trees, she was caught briefly in the sweep of headlights. Holding up a hand to stave off the blinding glare, she bit at her lip. Her knees throbbed, her feet ached, and her breath still came in too shallow gasps.

The car slowed. Eventually it came to a stop. The driver side window rolled down and a man hung his head out.

“You alright there, Miss?”

Val rotated to face him, but it was hard to see details in the flood of sudden light. Certainly, he could see her better than she could see him. The car itself was an older model sedan with four doors. The paint was dark in color, though she couldn’t say whether it was navy blue or black. No words came to mind. She didn’t know what to do next.

“I’d be happy to help get you where you need to go,” the man continued. “Of course, that would mean you’d have to be patient with me. I’m an old timer.”

Be patient. The instruction clanged like a bell in her head. That’s what Agent Finn had told her. That she would have to be patient. It was code.

Nodding then, Val quickened her steps over to the car. She settled herself inside the front passenger seat and before she had even fastened her belt, the car pulled away.

“I wasn’t sure at first because you aren’t dressed in the same uniform as the rest.”

The man slid a glance her way. His hands were gnarled from decades of hard use, the skin wrinkled and thin as they clutched at the oversized steering wheel. The silver hair on his head peeked out from under a blue ball cap. It was clean and appeared new except that she recognized the style as being quite old. His clothing was pressed and spotless. The car smelled of lemon, without a speck of dust anywhere.

Val’s breathing began to even out, and the pain in her side melted into a persistent throb. She closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the leather rest. So much had happened, so much change in such a short span of time. The shock of it all numbed her senses.

“Most of you at least have shoes.” The man leaned over to look down at Val’s feet.

“I’m so sorry,” Val said, realizing that her torn feet were leaving spots of blood and dirt all over the man’s clean floor mat.

“Please, don’t apologize.” The man was cheerful. “We must’ve gotten you out just in time. I wasn’t scheduled for another pick-up until next week.”

“Pick-up?” Val’s mind raced. “You’ve seen others? Other captives from Cambric?”

“Oh, yes.” The man nodded, navigating the backroads with practiced care. “I’ve been driving for the underground for at least three years now. Keeps me young.”

Val blinked, then thought about what he was saying. About picking up others, others who normally had shoes and wore uniforms. Then it dawned on her. He was talking about the missing captives. The ones that had disappeared in the night, never to return. They weren’t being hauled off and killed, they were being snuck out.

“How many have there been? Where am I going? Who are you?” The questions tumbled out of her, one on top of another.

“Slow down, Dear.” The man patted at her hand gently. “It doesn’t quite work like that. I’ll drive you to a safe house where you’ll get a warm meal and a change of clothes. They’ll remove that tracking thing you all get, and then someone else takes over from there.”

Val nodded, mind racing in a million directions at once. This wasn’t one single rescue orchestrated by Agent Finn. This was an organized group that had moved hundreds of illegal captives without anyone finding out. Be patient, he had said, but there was something else.

Holding her breath, Val counted to four and worked to think back to the bathroom with Finn. Be patient and trust the process. The process of getting out. The process set up by unknown people for an ultimately unknown reason.

If Val let herself feel hope in that moment, it was only because she had come to trust Agent Finn. Throughout all of their dealings together, he had eventually worked to her benefit in the end. Underneath his hardline exterior that claimed only to see black and white, lay a man who saw the truth in its many shades of gray. She would do as he asked.

Without any more questions, she let the old man drive her on.

* * *

Val didn’t know it at the time, but that night would be the first of many spent at the mercy of strangers. The underground, as they all called it, was actually a series of homes willing to hide and transport illegally freed captives. Each house was connected only by the knowledge of the one person delivering her and then the next one receiving her.

Some offered Val their names, and others only smiled, offering silence and rest instead. Val stayed in average-looking houses in sleepy towns and tiny apartments with not much room to spare. She stayed in a remote cabin with a family of ten, and in a suburban mansion with a lone woman who cooked a lavish meal.

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