by Logan Keys
“What type of prisoners?” Bart asked, interested in all the gory details.
Colton put a blanket over his head to block out the noise and went to sleep. Bart had said he’d stay awake for the first shift, even though they probably didn’t need anything like that. No one was likely to be out to rob an old broke down shack of a house.
**
Colton woke to a high keening sound. At first he thought it was the wind. His eyes opened, and big brown ones stared down at him. “Hey, Rex,” he said around his dry mouth. He petted the soft fur as the dog whined some more. “What are you doing outside? What’s the matter, buddy?”
Colton’s hand came away wet. He tried to see it through the darkness, but the moon wasn’t out tonight. It was sticky and warm. Colton sat up and clicked on his flashlight. Blood. His hand was covered in blood. He told himself not to panic, that maybe one of the dog’s wounds from before had opened up. The ones from the accident. “Hey boy, what happened?”
Colton shined the light over on Bart who was asleep on his side. Rick, too, was asleep, bundled deep into his sack so that all Colton could see was his outline. He got to his feet and made his way up to the house. Quietly he entered, but when he got to the room where Brittany and the kids had been, they were gone.
“Brittany?” he called, alarm bells going off in his mind. “Brittany!”
“Colton,” he heard a small voice say.
Colton turned into an old bedroom and the voice came again. It was in the closet. “What’s going on?” he threw open the termite infested door to find Lily and Benton huddled inside. “What’s wrong? Where’s Brittany?”
“The bad man got her,” Lily said, her face soaked in tears.
“Benton,” Colton said bending down. “Tell me what happened!”
Benton’s face crumpled. “He took her!” he howled, gripping Colton tightly. “He tried to hurt us but Rex bit him, so he hurt Rex, too!”
Colton pulled the kids to him and lifted Lily into his arms, holding Benton’s hand. He ran them out of the house calling Brittany the whole way, but no one answered.
He rushed into the barn where Bart sat up, rubbing sleep from his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“Brittany!” he shouted. “She’s gone!”
“What?”
Colton ran over to Rick and pulled his shoulder, only it was a pillow that fell out of the sleeping bag and nothing more. The bag deflated once it was knocked over, and there was no one there. “He has her!” Colton said, setting Lily down, pacing. He put his hands through his hair. “Why didn’t I see it before? He wasn’t transporting any prisoners. It was all a lie!”
“Slow down,” Bart said, getting to his feet. “What do you mean?”
Bart hadn’t grasped the terrible situation, yet. Colton rounded to face him, his expression making Bart stare back in surprise.
“He has her. Rick has her. If that’s even his name! He wasn’t with the police; he was the prisoner! He’s the prisoner that got away. And now he has Brittany!”
Chapter Twelve
Staten Island, New York
Michelle dug through the boxes in the garage. She’d had to open the garage door so she could see, and the freezing wind had been blowing through as she searched for the nice dishware Carry had said would be packed in a box marked “Thanksgiving.” Bob had also thought they might have a humidifier in the garage and said it might be in a box labeled “Meds and Misc.”
Carry’s breathing had become labored, and she had a tinge of blue around her lips. Dragging her into the freeze to go to a hospital that might or might not be able to see her wasn’t an option, but her fever was climbing, as was the baby’s.
Still, ever the hostess, Carry wanted Michelle to start planning something for Thursday, the day after next: Thanksgiving.
Michelle knew Bob was itching to return to the hospital, maybe to get something else to treat the sick with, like Tamiflu and some nebulizers, but she would help if she could just find the right box…
“I’ve waited all afternoon for one of you to come outside,” a chilling voice said from behind Michelle.
She slowly turned to find a pinch-faced, haggard looking Reese; hair shoved messily under a hat, cold weather clothes swaddled around her thin frame, and a red, running nose underneath eyes that blazed with fury. But that was all cursory to the fact that Reese was pointing a gun at Michelle. “Don’t make a sound,” Reese snapped as Michelle raised her hands. “You’re going to come with me. Show me where Cameron is. My men are missing, and I think they found our clever scientist in his hidey hole and are probably hatching a plan against me.” Reese coughed. “Do it,” she snapped, “or I break up this little shindig here.”
Michelle kept her hands up, her breath fogging into the cold. “You’re sick, aren’t you?”
“Shut up. Walk over to the car. Don’t call for help or I start shooting.”
“All right. All right.” Michelle took her time, though. She walked as slowly as she could, hoping Bob would find them, but then again, she hoped no one other than Bob would…
The door to the house inside of the garage opened.
“Maria,” Michelle said, and Reese put the gun away quickly but gave Michelle a meaningful look.
“Um, I’ll be back inside in a minute!” Michelle tried to sound normal and the woman asked something in Spanish that had the tone of “Are you all right?” Maria looked concerned, but obviously not as much as she would have been had she seen the gun. Michelle smiled at her, nodding that she was fine, and Maria turned around and went back inside.
“Get in the car,” Reese said firmly, and Michelle obeyed quickly. Thoughts of that young mother being shot were imprinted in her brain. Her heart was racing. She didn’t need anyone else hurt because of her stupid choice to get mixed up in Cybercorp’s mess. She knew Reese was a desperate woman. And desperate women did desperate things.
They got into the car, and Michelle frowned over at the driver’s seat where Reese sat now, gun in her pocket. She started the car but looked like she hadn’t driven in years.
“Where’s your driver?” Michelle asked.
Reese put the car into drive and then hit the gas too hard, making the wheels spin in place before catching. When they finally gained purchase, the Buick lurched forward into the snow, not equipped for it whatsoever.
“Everyone’s gone,” Reese said so quietly that Michelle thought maybe she misheard her.
“What do you mean gone?”
“My staff is with their families…trying to survive, I guess. Then my two main guys disappeared. I think they went to find Cameron. I’m not sure.”
They fishtailed down the street, bumping roughly over patches of thick snow. Michelle put on her seat belt just before Reese slammed on the brakes at the stop sign. The car kept going, though, traveling several feet before coming to a complete stop. “Where is he?” Reese demanded.
“Downtown,” Michelle said, watching the side mirror and Bob’s house get smaller in the distance.
Michelle gave directions willingly and they only got momentarily stuck a few times, which was a miracle. A few roads were impassable so they took a lot of detours. The worst was the bridge, as it was covered in black ice.
Reese steered around the warning signs, and the unmanned blockades that tried to keep people off of the dangerous bridge. The Buick slid along from one side of the bridge to the other, making Michelle sweat and Reese curse. The woman was mad. She was going to kill them both.
Gas. Brake. Gas. Brake.
Slide. Skid. Crunch.
They hit the partition more times than Michelle could count.
Reese was driven beyond caring, though, and she was taking Michelle with her.
**
Somehow they managed to make it to their destination without dying. Michelle motioned for Reese to park. “Here,” she said, smiling.
Reese whipped around to face Michelle. “This is the hospital.”
“It is,” Michelle answered.
“No. But you’re sick and so is Bob’s wife. I won’t show you where he is unless you help me get medicine first.”
“Tell me where he is!” Reese shouted, but then succumbed to a coughing fit. She pulled the gun out. “I don’t have time for this nonsense!”
Michelle was well and truly afraid, so she didn’t know where she got the bravery to reach for the door, unbuckle, and get of the car. Reese in response scrambled out of the driver’s side of the Buick.
“If you shoot me,” Michelle said, keeping her voice low, “then you will never find Cameron. Bob won’t be caught off guard like I was and you know it.”
Reese stared at Michelle, keeping her gun hidden, but it didn’t matter, no one was around. In fact, Michelle just noticed the lot was empty. “But if you help me get the medicine I need, then I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”
Reese pocketed the gun. “Let’s go.” She trudged towards the hospital. Then she spun on Michelle. “If you try anything—”
“I know. I know…”
They got to the doors and found them closed. It was pitch black inside. A few minutes later a man wearing nursing scrubs came by with his hands full of supplies and a pen light hooked around his pinky finger. Reese pounded so loudly on the glass, Michelle flinched.
“Excuse me,” he said, opening the doors. “It’s closed. Sorry.”
“Where is everyone?” Michelle asked.
“We moved them. No power anymore.”
Michelle didn’t want to think about what that meant for everyone who was very sick having to be brought out into the cold.
“Hey!” he shouted at Reese as she stepped inside and walked through the hallway like she owned the place. “You’re not supposed to be in here!”
Reese kept going and Michelle sent him an apologetic look before following Reese to the pharmacy area. The man shouted again but when they didn’t respond, he ran off down the hall, the light on his pinky bouncing off the floors and walls.
Reese waved a hand. “Well?” she said.
Michelle sighed, and then shrugged and climbed over the counter. It was hard to see anything in the darkness, but she searched through boxes until she found Tamiflu, then she grabbed a bottle of amoxicillin, Tylenol, and children’s Tylenol. She glanced around wildly hearing footsteps rushing in her direction, feeling panicked that it might be someone coming to stop them. “I need a nebulizer for the baby!” she shouted, dumping all of what she’d collected into a nearby bag before running to the back.
She found a little purple hippopotamus breathing treatment machine, mask, and the medicine that went with it. Michelle grabbed that and rushed back. Reese was standing there with her hands up. A police officer and the nurse from before were watching her, and the policeman had a gun trained on Reese. “We’re locking this building up and you need to put that stuff back and come with me.”
Reese smiled. “Officer…?”
“Granger,” he replied, not smiling back.
“Officer Granger, a friend of mine runs this hospital, Frank Myer, and he’s told me we could grab this medicine for a sick child. You wouldn’t want to stop us from helping a sick child, would you?”
“Lady, there are shit tons of sick children right now.” He spoke into his radio clipped to his Kevlar. “We got two women over here stealing from the pharmacy.”
Michelle’s heart sank. It was bad enough to think that Reese would shoot her after she showed her where Cameron was, but she had planned to try to escape. Now, even though she would be free from Reese, she had to set down the medicine that Carry and baby Garcia needed and walk away.
Reese reached into her pocket and Michelle imagined her shooting the cop and the man with him. The blood on her hands was too much to bear. She pointed at Reese, screaming, “She’s got a gun!”
The cop trained his weapon on Reese. “Hands above your head! Hands above your head!” he shouted, and the command echoed in the empty, dark hospital.
Reese curled her lip, clearly unused to taking orders. “I was reaching for my phone, you idiot.” Michelle wasn’t sure who was the idiot, or if they all appeared to be idiots to Reese. “I was going to show you Frank’s number.”
“None of our phones work, lady.”
“It’s Reese Leeward, or Miss Leeward, if you prefer.”
He rolled his eyes, clearly not putting together who she was, or rather, probably not caring at this point. “Where’s the weapon?”
“In her pocket,” Michelle provided.
He walked over and started patting Reese down. He pulled the gun out, nodding to Michelle in thanks.
Officer Granger started handcuffing Reese. “Do you know who I am?” she snapped, and he smiled.
“You could be the president and I’d still have to take you in. Unless you have a permit for the concealed weapon and are a licensed pharmacist?”
She gritted her teeth. Once he had her secure he came over to Michelle. “She made me do it. She held me hostage.” But even to her own ears it sounded crazy.
Granger narrowed his eyes on her. “She took you hostage to steal medicine?”
“No. That was my idea.” Michelle sighed and put her hands behind her back.
As he put them into the back of his car, Reese asked, “Don’t you have worse criminals to worry about?”
“Not for kidnapping, theft, and illegal firearms. Nope. Not at the moment. Everyone is too cold today to commit murder, it seems.”
“You happy now?” Reese asked Michelle.
Michelle wasn’t happy. The thought of going to jail was twisting her stomach into knots. But still she bluffed. “Considering I was held hostage before, this is a slight improvement.”
The drive was slow and laborious with the officer stopping at a few radio calls. There was a break in, and then after finding the place empty, there was a fire at another location. The fire trucks were there already, and he had to arrest a man who’d started it in the apartment building by trying to build a bonfire in his bathtub. “I was just trying to keep warm!” the man said, his face coated with ash, his eyes desperate. The officer put him in back with them and his radio went off again. “Car’s full.”
He drove them to the station but passed it, parking at another building. They’d made a temporary holding facility and Michelle and Reese were put into a huge room with both men and women. Two officers stood at the doors with shotguns. From the look of it, people were breaking the law faster than they could keep up with. It was a very basic booking, a woman taking down their names and addresses.
Reese told Michelle, “I’ll get us out of here if you tell me where Cameron is.”
Michelle snorted. “How do I know you’ll get me out if you already have his location?”
“You’ll just have to trust me.”
“No.”
Reese’s face was haggard and she coughed, making everyone stay clear of them, which was good because it was obvious many of those being held had done more than try to get medicine at a closed hospital.
“Okay,” Michelle said finally, trying to stay warm in the cold room. “If you really know the guy running the hospital, then you can get us the meds we need, right?”
“Perhaps.”
“If we can find a way out of here, and you get me the meds, I’ll tell you where Cameron is. Deal?”
Reese curled her lip at Michelle’s offered hand but nodded her agreement. Michelle wiped her hand on her pants, hoping she wouldn’t catch what Reese had by sitting so close. Apparently, her flu shot had been doing its job because she’d been around Carry and smothered that baby Garcia with love and hugs without getting sick herself.
Reese squared her shoulders and put on her best “I own the world” expression. Then she walked up to the officers at the door. “Why haven’t I been asked if I’d like my one call?”
“Phones are down.”
“Then I’d like to se
nd word to my attorney.”
“How?” The guard on the left was incredulous. “Go sit down.”
“I’m sure someone in your office has the ability to go and fetch him. He might even be hovering around somewhere since you seem to be violating every one of these…nice people’s rights.”
“Yeah,” some random guy said from behind, flashing a gold tooth and winking at Reese. “We have rights.”
Reese rolled her eyes. “I’d like my attorney here. Now. Or you need to let me go.”
The second officer pointed a finger almost touching her in the chest, and Reese backed away as if he had clearly offended her. “Ma’am, no one is going anywhere. It’s already a mess out there, and you knuckleheads are breaking the law on top of it.”
“Excuse me?” Reese snapped, and Michelle had to hide her smile. She doubted Reese had ever been mistaken for a “knucklehead” a day in her life.
“Go sit down,” the officer on the other side of the wall said, his face brooking no room for argument.
Reese had the wisdom to back off. The officer looked tired of this. Tired of everything. He probably just wanted to be home with his family while the world came apart. Reese went back and sat on the bench. Everyone moved away as more coughing wracked her frame. “Here.” Michelle handed her a kerchief. Reese didn’t even say thank you but just merely wiped her nose. A privileged woman brought so low? Michelle couldn’t say she didn’t enjoy watching it.
She just didn’t want to be stuck with it.
**
Another hour of waiting and the place had turned too cold for comfort. Reese was laying on her side, coughing and hacking. “I’m going to die in a prison cell.”
Michelle snorted. “This isn’t prison. And it’s more than you deserve. You think you can just do anything still, like getting us out of here, but you can’t. Plus, you’re the one whose shields caused all of this mess. Prison is too good for you.” Michelle choked on anger thinking that right now, somewhere in middle America, people were stuck—trapped beneath rubble—while people in New York were freezing to death.
Reese sat up and watched her emotions as if Michelle were a strange looking bug and not a person with feelings.
