He sat down. His plump body fell over the table as he leaned in.
“So. The memories we extrapolated show a crime that you committed. We, finally, have the proof. So, you will be handled by the Paragon. Your file will be sent and I am, finally, done with you.”
Wait. Officer Chase didn’t say anything about that.
The pill began to take affect. My lids began to feel very heavy and my stomach felt light, yet uncomfortable. My lids were heavy and I allowed them to close.
“This will not end well, Miss. Anderson, unless you begin to cooperate.” He sighed. “Officer Chase, take her to her cell. Make sure you shove those pills down her throat. I may have to instruct Dr. Cook to inject her each time instead.”
Black spots blurred my vision. My head hit the table.
As Chase placed me in the cell, lay me on the floor, the cold brought me to the moment. He’d make sure that I took the blue pills because he thought he protected me.
“Wait. You told me that my memories showed no crime and yet Mr. Parr told me that they now had proof.” I slurred my words. “If they’d lie about that, then they would lie about the pills. They’d lie about my disease. Did you see the results? They will make me take a pill to erase my memory of who I really am. I will be subjected to consequences for things I didn’t do.”
I fell unconscious.
In the night, a pinch made me wince and upon waking, and an officer hovered over me. He injected me with the medication. I would be sedated indefinitely. He watched me for a moment, pausing and then I fell back to sleep, unable to fight it. A tear rolled down my temple as I lay. This was over. I had no more control over anything. The darkness enveloped me once more.
“Saige, come on. Get up!” he whispered. The night had fallen. The walls whispered.
“What’s happening?” I couldn’t open my eyes. “Leave me. I’m tired.”
“No. Darlin’, we have to go,” he urged.
“No, leave me. I can’t. I’m exhausted.”
“It’s the pills. Don’t take another one.”
“You injected it.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“They will shove them down my throat. I can’t stop them.”
His lips brushed my ear as he tried to lift me. He wore no mask. “I know. I have to get you out of here,” he whispered. “I don’t trust these people. Pake. Cook. Everett and Bradley. The Paragon has instructed that they run tests tomorrow, just before Mr. Parr is to send you to them.”
“To the Paragon?”
“I’ve never seen them request an inmate. Ever. I think they are going to run their own kinds of tests. If they get their hands on you, I won’t be able to protect you. I think they may even kill you. I tested you. I took blood in the night. You don’t have the disease. I heard Mr. Parr on the phone. I don’t like what his responses were to the person on the other end.”
“What did he say?”
“I heard him ask, “What if she dies when I run those tests before sending her?’ And after a pause, Mr. Parr said, ‘I will have her sedated for transport. No, I won’t let you down, Sir. Yes, I know what will happen to me if I don’t succeed.’”
“When do they plan to send me?”
“Tests in the morning. Transport in the afternoon.”
“Come on Saige, we have to get you out of here.”
Chapter Fifteen
Weak and confused, I tried to take in the new sights. We traveled in directions I had yet to investigate and Jaxson turned into certain halls when corridors intercepted. After going through three doors where he had to use his badge to open, the walls became smooth, a contrast from the stone and concrete; painted rather than bare and damp.
Tiles replaced the cracked stone floors. As we passed through one large glass door, warmth enveloped my body for the first time in weeks. It felt like a wall of heat and it made my eyes close and my legs give way.
“Come on, Saige, I need you to try.” But I couldn’t. Weakness in my knees was the lasting effect of the drug. He dragged me along with him as I stumbled to move one leg after another. He lifted and carried me. He could cover more ground.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Out. I’m taking you out of here.”
“How? You can’t risk that,” I murmured. Darkness kept replacing the light as my mind felt foggy and disconnected.
“I need to save you.”
“Why now?”
“You are right. They are lying. I saw no evidence of a crime and yet Parr told you that they have proof. If the Paragon gets you…” He tried to readjust my body against his shoulder. It was difficult for him to move at this fast pace.
He stumbled, stopped to take a breath.
“Put me down. I will walk.”
He did. He panted and looked back to the corridor we had just come. “We have to go. Now. They will be coming.”
“What time is it?” I asked as I rubbed at my eyes.
“Very early. We have to go.”
We started again and I tried my hardest to keep up. I concentrated on moving my legs and used my hands to help me navigate. The walls felt so smooth and warm. It distracted me.
“But if I am a carrier…then I am going to infect everyone in your world. You said it yourself…” I said.
But when he said, "I took blood from you,” I blinked and tried to focus on him again. I struggled to keep up with him so I could hear what he said. He jogged down the corridor. “Come on, come on,” he urged.
“When did you take blood?”
He seemed frustrated by me. He grabbed my arm and ran. I managed to run along with him, wheezing.
“Look, you are not carrying a virus like they claim. And more than that, your blood is different from anyone's here. Antibodies and other things that make it different from mine. It proves that you are not from here. They were lying to me.” He rambled. “Now that they know that you are from another world, the Paragon wants you and Mr. Parr wouldn’t tell me what they were going to do with you. He said it wasn’t his problem.”
We came to a set of stairs. He paused to let me catch my breath. But not long enough, because then he descended stone steps. I followed, using the rusty, bent railing.
When we reached the bottom, he took my arm and moved along in the dim lit halls and then came to a door. He tried to open it and at first, I thought it was locked. But he used his shoulder to thrust it open and then closed it with a push once inside.
“Where are we going?”
“I answered you. Keep up.”
He hurried to a wall. It was a dead end.
“Wait. What are you doing?” I asked and yanked my arm out of his grasp. I looked back but it was dark on the other side of the room where the exit was. I realized that he held a pen light against the back of the room. He emptied the shelf. “What are you doing?”
“Help me.”
I began to move the jars and boxes and my mind slowly became clearer.
“Be careful to put them on the floor in the exact pattern you see them on the shelf. See how I am doing it? I need to put it back exactly how it was. Do you understand?”
I did. I removed the items. He panted. He looked panicked. His eyes darted about.
He kept moving items, never slowing. “I even looked into this so-called crime online. I can’t find news articles giving details about any recent murder. There’s more to this than we know. You have to go. But I have to figure out what this is all about.”
He pulled the shelf out and shifted a large piece of drywall that stood all the way to the ceiling. Behind it was a passage.
“I will stay and find out why they are doing this. If you aren’t carrying a disease and you have committed no crime, then there is another reason the Paragon want you…and it has something to do with the other world.”
“Why is this passage here?”
“Tunnels…If the prison ever had a riot, or something was going down, the guards could leave through here.”
“But then they know a
bout it.”
“Um, it wasn’t in the training. It’s something I learned about…something someone told me about when she worried that I would be hurt working here. The tunnels run under the city. This is a way into the tunnels. I don’t know who will remember this exists. I don’t know if it has ever been used.”
“You have to come, too. You have to…” If they learned about what he had done…
He ignored me. “I need you to go straight down the corridor until you reach the end. There will be a hole in the ground. Be careful not to fall into it. Climb down the ladder. You will then be in the tunnels. You’ll be safe while you are in there. No one uses the tunnels anymore…no need to. I put some care packages…”
“Care packages?”
“Bags of stuff. There is a bag at the bottom of the ladder. When you turn left, you will come to another room that was likely used by a homeless person long ago. I have put food and water there. Stay there until things quiet down.”
“I can’t do this on my own.”
I shivered as I stared into the darkness.
“I know you are scared. But you need to just figure this out. You do. I need to go back through the front doors so that I walk in at the beginning of my shift. I don’t have time to explain this all to you.”
“They will know it was you."
“They think I hate you. I have been beating you…they won’t suspect me.”
“No, they will know. They will watch the tapes and see the way you look at me.”
“No. I don’t look at you differently.”
“Yes, you do. And you saved me from being harmed by Pake in the shower. You fought with him to defend me…twice. There will be enough evidence that points to you. You have to come.”
“Let me see what I can do to cover our tracks. Stay under ground for as long as you can.” He pushed me into the passage and began to tug at the drywall piece. “Hurry,” he said, when he noticed that I remained.
I half-heartedly smiled at him and he paused, the drywall in his grasp, he said, “My name is Jaxson. Don’t call me Officer Chase. I don’t like hearing that name… from you.”
Just as the last of the light from his penlight was fading, I said, “Jaxson, thank you.”
He pursed his lip. He felt he didn’t deserve my appreciation. “Someone must know something…I will see what I can learn.”
I nodded, not that he could see me any longer as he replaced the drywall. The shelf scraped along the floor as he replaced it.
I listened as he put the jars and boxes back where they belonged. He knew I stood there because then he said, “Saige?”
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t know. I forgive you, Jaxson.” There I said it. I forgave him.
I clenched my jaw and cracked my neck. The tone in his voice was different. No longer soft and a different kind of fire fell beneath his words. “I will never forgive myself. I can’t make up for this.”
“You just did. You made up for it all.”
I heard more shuffling on the other side. “I want you to be safe. And it will likely not include me in your life. It, honestly, can’t involve me. I can’t…lose control again. I can’t. They might…”
“I know, Jaxson. But you are the only person I know here. What am I supposed to do?” Chills rose over my body. I faced the dark passage. I heard water dripping. Had he gone?
“You cannot resurface until it’s safe. Promise me.”
“I promise.”
I put my ear to the makeshift wall. I heard him finish with the jars and boxes. I heard him drag his feet along the ground, probably to cover foot prints in the dusty floor. I heard him open the door that sticks, and then he shut it behind him.
I rubbed the back of my neck as the darkness pressed against me. Confused, I stood alone.
Chapter Sixteen
The darkness was unforgiving. I ran my fingers over the wall, its rough edges reminded me of my cell. I followed along the damp, musty wall, feeling with my foot for a hole leading to a sub-basement of a tunnel with a ladder to climb down. The squeaks of rats echoed as the only signs of life in this dark passage. I listened for movement.
The sound of water dripping, echoing into a corridor below suggested I was near the hole. I tapped my foot, inching closer with each small step and I found an opening.
I knelt and slid my hand around the circumference of the hole until I could find the ladder. A metal rung just below the surface gave me passage and I moved my body to put my foot onto it, facing the tunnel.
I put my second foot on the rung below. I searched for a moment, not finding it, glancing out into the tunnel and thought I heard something. I paused…watched…nothing stirred. My mind was playing tricks on me and then I found the next rung. I waited like that for a moment. I listened for sounds echoing down the tunnel. I listened for the shelf to scrape and the drywall to be removed.
I climbed down the ladder and found the last rung. My foot dangled, reaching for the ground. I wondered how far it was to the bottom. I would likely have to jump. It was dark and I couldn’t see, no matter how much I focused. I closed my eyes and listened to my heart beat like a drum. I took a deep breath, and then let go. I landed with bent knee to prevent injury and then stopped to listen to my thud echo down the passage.
I touched my foot about to hoping to find the bag Jaxson said he tossed at the bottom of the ladder. I found something and reached down and felt the cloth. I opened the drawstrings and felt inside. Shoes! Socks! A soft wool of a sweater. I slipped them on. Immediately I felt warmer. For so long, the cuts on the bottom of my foot bled. Now they had a chance to heal.
When I found the flashlight, my heart did a dance. The dark had helped to play tricks on me. I flicked it on. Nothing happened. The flashlight didn’t work. I almost panicked but told myself to trust the darkness. The darkness meant no one wanted to be down here. The lack of sound meant that no one was here to hurt me and that no one was following me.
I reached in and to my relief, I found batteries. I fiddled with the flashlight, dropped the batteries and hurried to stop them from rolling. I sat on the cold stone and waited to hear if I had inadvertently stirred anyone’s suspicion.
I banged the battery door open and placed the batteries in, the correct way for the first time in my life of putting batteries into anything, and switched the light on. My hands shook and so did the light.
I searched the bag and found packets of dried fruit, beef jerky, nuts, seeds, apples and cereal bars. I opened a bottle of water and gulped it. I shoved the dried fruit into my mouth. The pang of hunger roared. The water tasted so good going down, too. I put the bag’s thin strap over my shoulder. I thought about Jaxson's sacrifice.
Putting distance between me and that ladder was important so I took step by step, holding my arm over my stomach and the other balanced against my hip. I ran my hands through my tangled hair. My hair was heavy and greasy and stuck against my cheek.
I traveled along, shuffling my feet against the dusty stone floor and feeling along the rough walls as I walked to keep from tripping on the uneven ground.
The passage was endless. The cold relentless.
I came to a dead end and flashed the light around and realized that I had to climb a ladder. I put the flashlight into my mouth and climbed.
With caution, I lifted the hatch at the top. More darkness. I pulled myself up and knelt down to close it up behind me. The air was warmer but it smelled of body odour and animal urine. The smell of mildew from the walls mixed with the other odours. The ground was slippery.
I walked further and found another bag of supplies. I opened it to another bottle of water and a box of crackers and granola bars. Trail mix. I sat on the stone floor, back to the wall and the cuts on my back stung. I ate some dried fruit and some nuts and then I guzzled the water.
I heard voices in the distance. Someone was angry and speaking loudly. I got up and quietly traveled closer to listen. I couldn’t make out t
he words. Stomping above me. My hands shook. Was this about me? Had they learned that I had gone missing? Were they looking for me? Was I beneath them?
Tremors in my hands and fingers made my joints tense. The sweat made me shiver and I gasped for air. A flight response overtook me and I hurried along at a crash against the floor.
I couldn’t allow myself to mentally shut down, but I needed to find a place to rest or hunker down to allow some time to pass.
A dim light coming from a distance down the tunnel caught my attention. I hurried down the corridor and came to a small open area with a grate to the sky.
The moonlight shone down and I let my eyes adjust. I shone the light around the walls and a bed was illuminated. Well, not a bed…a mattress. A dirty mattress on the ground with dirty bedding. A thin pillow. This is the place Jaxson had described.
I crawled under the blankets, switched off the flashlight. Motors of cars. Distant voices. It helped ease my mind to hear civilization.
My teeth began to chatter and I tucked the blanket under me. The bedding had a musty stench but compared to the cell, it was heaven. The mattress was lumpy, but better than the bed of hay on the cold, damp rock floor I had been used to. I smiled in the dim light. For the time being, I felt safe.
I must have fallen asleep, because a strange hissing sound woke me. My fingers wrapped the flashlight, my thumb pressed the on button. Eyes stared at me. At my gasp, the cat mewled at me. I froze in response.
We watched one another and I studied the burrs stuck to the cat’s black fur and his sulfurous yellow eyes with night-dark centres. Its thin, slinky body stretched out in a long, fluid stretch. The cat had no tail.
The cat snaked to the floor and glided towards a small puddle and lapped at the water. It stretched once more, mewled and then returned to the bed. In this lighting, it almost seemed like he was made of smoke.
The cat lay down at the end of the bed—his bed—its eyes on me. It curled its body into a ball and after some time of watching me with those glowing eyes, it closed them.
Switched and Fears Page 11
