by T. H. Moore
“Maybe you were pardoned and I somehow missed it,” Charles fired back. “You think looking away from me will wash away the blood on your hands? The memories we’ve created can’t be erased. We’ve both etched our place in history.” Charles sneered, satisfied that he had undone her. Quickly he returned to trying to free himself.
“Shut up!” she screamed, shaking her head from side to side as if trying to rid herself of her memories.
A long period of silence ensued. Then finally, she spoke.
“I can admit I harbor no remorse for what I did to my husband and his whore,” she said in a voice just above a whisper. “But what I did to that child inside of her was unforgiveable, and for that, I’ve reserved my place in hell. I can admit my wrongdoings, but what about you? You’re a hollow vessel. Even when faced with imminent death, you refuse to honor your countless victims. You hold on just to spite the warden or the governor. It’s like a game to you, the abomination you’ve created.”
Charles leaned his head back, exposing his throat to the sky. “We all have choices to make when standing at life’s crossroads,” he said in a soft tone. “Choices that determine whether the next stage of our lives will be tormented or blessed. I choose the blessings.” He cocked his head to one side. “Then we have you. It would have been much easier for me to use my hands to cut your throat rather than to muffle your scream in Kristoff’s lair. Had I not chosen the latter, I wouldn’t have had this very distinct pleasure of hearing a vapid trophy wife judge me when it wasn’t so long ago that she herself had thrown such a murderous tantrum when her storybook marriage turned out to be fiction.”
Elaina narrowed her eyes and said nothing.
For the next few sun-soaked hours, they didn’t speak. The heat sapped their energy, and by nightfall, they took momentary solace in the relief from the sun. But just as the sergeant had warned, with the moon and stars also came frigid temperatures. Within minutes, they were shivering as hypothermia encroached.
“I’m afraid, Charles,” Elaina confessed as she broke another lengthy silence. “I don’t want to die. Not like this.” When Charles didn’t respond, she hollered, “Say something!”
“What do you want me to say?” he murmured, still gazing up at the sky. “That our death will be quick and painless? That death will be easy? Or that we should discuss all our missteps and pray for forgiveness? It would all be for nothing.” He glanced over and saw her tremors and heard her sob.
A few moments later, she looked back over at Charles. “I’m sorry for what I said earlier.”
“No, you’re not,” he said. “Don’t insult me with your lies.”
“I just don’t understand it,” she said. “We both know this is the end. I can’t bring back the people I murdered, but you can. You can bring back the children you’ve enslaved. You can bring peace to those parents and make their families whole again. You still have that power.”
“Why would I help tear down what will be mine again?” Charles asked.
“What?” she shrieked. “Have you gone mad? There’s no escape. Only penance, and through that, forgiveness. Charles, pray with me, confess your sins, and beg that Eloah’s grace is bestowed upon you and saves your soul.”
“Fuck Eloah!” he screamed to the heavens. “Do you hear me up there, you bitch? Fuck you!” Then he turned his head and glared at Elaina. “You go ahead and waste away the final moments of your life, if you desire. The last chapter of my life will not be written here.”
The night was crisp and cold with a mass of shining stars twinkling overhead. Charles continued to struggle with his restraints with as much tenacity as he could muster until exhaustion took hold of him and he lost consciousness.
~~~
A vehicle drove up and stopped in front of them, the squeaking brakes waking Charles. The piercing white headlights forced his eyes away from the car. He looked over at Elaina, who was shaking in her sleep.
Officer Hamilton emerged from the vehicle and headed toward her. He bent over her and yanked down her underwear.
“Wake up,” he ordered.
Elaina opened her eyes and looked at the officer standing over her.
“What a failure,” he said. “You were placed out here to get information, not sleep.”
Charles saw horror flood her face as the officer spilled her secret. He put his hand into her underwear and closed his eyes before opening them and looking at Charles.
“So now you know, Inmate Gravo,” he announced, looking as though he was pleased to be bringing such news to Charles. “Her beating and rape was staged so they could plant a wire in her bra.” Hamilton slid his hand around her breast and moaned before he turned the strap around to show Charles the small black transmitting device stitched into the elastic. “It was a setup, and she screwed it up,” he said as Elaina began to sob again. “They promised her privileges if she could extract any information out of you regarding the governor’s son. She would’ve had her own cell, bed, and three square meals as the warden’s personal trustee.” He stood and dusted off his hands. “What a shame.” He sneered as he reached into his pocket and retrieved a set of keys.
“Please, I didn’t have enough time,” Elaina begged as she began to cry again. “I can’t go back there. You know what happened to me before, Charles.”
He could tell that it was more than fear, that she felt shame for having betrayed him. For the first time, he felt himself soften toward her.
“Blah, blah, blah. I couldn’t care less.” Hamilton chuckled. “All I’m concerned about right now is getting between those nice thighs of yours.”
“Please don’t do this,” she pleaded as he used his knife to saw at the ropes wrapped around her ankles. “I’ll do anything. Just don’t send me back to K-City. Please!”
“I bet you’ll do anything,” the officer said, smiling. “I don’t doubt that for a moment.”
The rope’s tension gave way, and he removed the knotted rope that remained around her ankles. She sighed, her body awash with relief. She brought her legs up for circulation while he put the knife back into his utility belt. He leaned forward and forced open Elaina’s trembling legs, rubbing them.
“Take a good look, pedophile,” the officer taunted, glancing over at Charles as his hand moved between Elaina’s legs. “You’re not going to want to miss this.”
Hamilton unbuttoned his pants with his free hand. His hips were deep between Elaina’s bare thighs as he pulled down his zipper.
Then, in one quick movement, she arched her back to launch her legs at the officer’s throat. Her powerful thighs clamped around the base of his neck while she intertwined her ankles to secure her grip. The officer grabbed at her thighs, pulling at them, but her grip was too strong. As she pulled harder at the ropes still tied to her wrists, Elaina squeezed with every ounce of effort she had left in her.
“Take a good look? Isn’t that what you said, officer Hamilton?” Elaina grunted as the officer began to flounder in a panic. “I told you. I’d kill the next man who touched me, didn’t I?”
Charles watched as Hamilton’s eyes bulged as if they would burst from his face, and his mouth hung open. Charles could see his tongue thrusting from inside as he made harsh gagging noises, trying to suck in air.
Elaina shook her body and whipped the officer onto his side and held him there until he went limp. Even then, she maintained the grip until she knew unequivocally he was dead.
After she savored the victory for a moment, she rolled backwards towards the spiked ropes that led to her hands. She positioned herself in between them, crouching into a squatted position. Elaina swayed back and forth until the ground around one of them gave way. Once liberated, she grabbed the buck knife from the dead man and cut herself free.
Charles whistled in appreciation. “Very nicely done. I’m impressed.”
She ignored him as she retrieved her underwear and h
er prison uniform and dressed. Then she knelt at his left wrist with the buck knife, and hesitated.
“You do understand, right? You understand that I was trying to get you to talk about the governor out of survival, not malice?”
He just stared at her.
She closed the knife and leaned closer. “I need to know that you understand,” she urged. “I won’t cut you free just to have to fight you, too. I’m not going back. If I let you go, you and I work together. Agreed?”
Charles examined her eyes for any trace of insincerity, and nodded in the affirmative. She stared right back into his eyes to decipher any deceit, then sawed away at the ropes. As soon as he was loose, he hurried to dress and looked over at the van.
“Toss me the keys,” he instructed. “We’ll drive it as far as the gas in the tank will take us, then walk the rest of the way there. It’ll give us a good head start.”
“There?” Elaina asked as she went to retrieve the keys. “You sound like you know where we’re headed.”
“Darwin. There’s a port there. Once we get there, we’re just a boat ride away from leaving this continent.”
Elaina snatched the keys off the man’s belt, then gave him a swift kick in the face before heading toward the van. When Charles held out his hand, she cocked her head at him.
“Why do I have to give you the keys?” she asked.
“That’s rich,” Charles said before letting out a small chuckle. “You don’t trust me?” He sighed. “Fine. You drive and I’ll navigate. When you get tired, we’ll switch.”
“Okay,” Elaina said as they walked together toward the vehicle. She looked at the keys. Attached to them was a plastic fob bearing a few symbols. She pressed one of the buttons, and the front headlights lit up and the van unlocked.
She climbed into the driver’s seat and pulled on her seat belt. An automated voice notified her that she had thirty seconds to enter the access code before the self-destruct sequence was initiated.
“Fuck!” Charles hissed. “Why does everything have to be so goddamn hard?”
He searched the lifeless guard for codes while Elaina rummaged through the compartments of the vehicle.
The fifteen-second warning soon delivered.
“Goddammit!” Charles shouted as he ripped at Hamilton’s clothes.
Elaina glanced around once more and grabbed an armful of loose supplies from the van. Then she dashed toward the tree after Charles. Under cover of the tree, they peered back at the van, not sure what to expect.
There was a harsh shudder, and a loud pop under the hood, followed by black smoke. The two of them ducked back behind the tree to brace for a big explosion, but none followed.
Once he was reasonably sure it was safe, Charles eased back toward the van, found a flashlight, and popped the hood of the smoking vehicle.
“What are you doing?” Elaina called, coming out from behind the tree.
Charles didn’t answer, but eased his hand under the hood to open the safety latch. When he lifted the hood, a fat, black cloud of smoke billowed out. Charles fanned at the smoke and squinted to see through the beam of the flashlight into the engine. When the smoke cleared, he saw a small box attached to the engine block of the van. All the wires were melted, and there was a fist-sized hole in the side of the engine block.
“Can you fix it?” she asked hopefully.
“Hell no.” He slammed the hood down. “We’re not going anywhere in that van. The engine’s useless.”
He returned to where Elaina was rummaging through the pockets of the dead officer.
“You couldn’t have just choked him until he passed out?” he asked angrily. “You had to kill him? We could have forced him to give us the code first. Did you ever think of that?”
She turned to glare up at him. “Right, that’s what I should’ve been thinking about seconds after he was about to shove his cock in me. I should’ve known the van was booby trapped. Should’ve known we’d need a fucking code.” She paused and looked him in the eye. “Tell me, what were you thinking about just before Kristoff shoved his cock in your ass?”
Charles tightened his lips and turned away.
“That’s what I thought,” Elaina said.
~~~
With only one half-full, twenty-ounce bottle of water, they walked through the night and into the next morning, taking very few breaks. They were energized by their freedom and anxious to place as much distance between them and the slain officer as possible.
As the sun rose in the sky, Charles removed his prison shirt and used it to create shade over his head. Elaina tied her hair into a thick bun. She was lagging and unable to maintain Charles’s brisk pace. He looked back at her and sighed. She spent a lot of energy in killing Hamilton.
“Twenty minutes of rest, and then we start again” he offered.
He took advantage of their respite to survey the landscape and examine the position of the sun. Bent down on one knee, Charles drew a crude map of the continent in the ground with his finger, placing an “X” in the middle. Then he placed another “X” at the northwest corner. With his index and middle finger, in even strides, he walked his two fingers from the first marking to the second.
Elaina came over to inspect what he was doing, and collapsed into the sand. She was sweating profusely.
“I don’t mean to tell you how to live your life,” he said. “But if you wrap your head with your shirt, it’ll help keep your body temperature down.”
“I’m fine with my shirt on,” she snapped as she got up on her knees to view the map.
Charles shrugged and continued to perform his improvised mapping.
“If you’re so concerned, maybe we should be searching for food and water,” she argued. “From the looks of your map, this port city called Darwin has to be hundreds of miles away—”
“A thousand miles.”
Her weary face fell.
“Give or take,” Charles added.
“We’re going to die out here!” she said, her voice thick with panic.
“We’re not going to die,” he said with unnatural calm. “We’ve put a good distance between us and K-City and like the warden boasted, they’re not going to come looking for us. We keep moving, find water, food, and maybe some shelter. Come on. Let’s go.” He didn’t wait for her to respond but started walking.
“You can’t be serious!” she screamed. “We just sat down!”
He didn’t answer. With every stride, he moved farther away from her. She yelled, but he kept on. After another few seconds, she launched herself up off the ground and ran after him.
When he heard the pounding of her boots, Charles looked back over his shoulder. She eventually closed the gap between them, but now she was out of breath, coated in a new layer of sweat, and her skin was ashen.
He stopped in his tracks, turned, and shoved a finger in her face. “Don’t ever run like that again unless you actually want to die,” he declared. “If I’m in sight, you’re still fine. A few seconds of running, and look at how much you’re sweating. That’s water you can’t afford to lose.”
“Okay, but let’s get one thing straight,” she said in the sternest voice she could gather. “You are not my father.” She past him, walking with purpose and looking strong despite her obvious fatigue.
“If it won’t kill you, maybe just say thank you,” Charles said, unable to restrain himself from smirking.
Elaina smiled but didn’t let him see it. “Since you know everything, I’ve been meaning to ask you how is it you’re able to navigate direction by the sun, speak different languages, and talk of this place as if you were born here instead of another country thousands of miles away—”
“A little less than seven thousand miles,” he told her.
“You see, there it is again. You’re full of random knowledge that most people wouldn’t know.”
Charles kept his face forward and changed the subject. “Last time I checked, you also spoke more than one language. What I know and how I know it isn’t your concern. What is important is that, first, we keep moving—not running—north by northwest. Second, our priority is water and then food. We can survive three weeks without food, but it will only take three days for us to die of thirst.” He paused to reconsider. “Then again, out here, we might last two and a half days at best.”
Charles glanced at Elaina and saw that her expression was a mixture of awe and confusion. He also noticed that a few beads of perspiration had accumulated on her upper lip, which ignited another basic thirst in him.
Elaina saw him looking at her, took off her shirt, and wrapped it around her matted blond hair. Charles didn’t mind the myriad bruises and bite marks covering Elaina’s torso. He let a flash of pity slide across his face.
Elaina caught it and shot him a piercing look. “They look worse than they are, so keep your pity and get us to Darwin, I want off this continent.”
Chapter 17
FOR TWO DAYS, ELAINA KEPT up Charles’s pace, both occasionally stumbling from exhaustion. Despite Charles’s optimism and advanced intellect, they hadn’t found a single drop of water. The bottle they had taken from the prison van was empty.
During their morning push, Charles studied Elaina’s body. Her dead stare, cracked lips, and silence told him that she was already far into dehydration. Her face was ruby red from sun blisters. He knew that neither of them would last much longer.
A moment later, Elaina began to stray sideways. Charles turned back to help her, but it was too late. She fell to the hot ground, the fall snapping her back into consciousness just as her face blasted into the hot sand and dirt. Blood trickled from her bottom lip.
Charles held out a hand to help her up. Instinctively she reached for it until she caught herself and smacked his hand away. Through stubborn determination, she struggled to her feet, only to teeter over again. Charles attempted to help her again, but she resisted. He ignored her, plucking her up by her arm. She was burning up. He placed his fingers on her carotid artery to check her pulse.
