Taken By Surprise

by Jessica Frances

  Chapter Thirty-Two – The Extra Man

  Thursday, April 19th

  We don’t wait for Rose to pick the lock, there isn’t time. Will crashes through it like he did before and we sprint down the hallway, only slowing down to be quieter as we approach the corridor that the guard will be down.

  When we stop, I realize Rose never explained to us what she plans to do. She doesn’t wait around to give us a heads up, either. She just throws her bag to Will and rounds the corner. Her bag is as big as mine while the boys have used pillow cases tied up at the end to house their own clothes.

  I hold my breath, straining to hear what she is going to do.

  “Hello there.”

  “Ma’am, what are you doing out here?” There is panic in the guard’s voice.

  It’s completely dark here because of the blackout and my eyes are taking longer than normal to adjust to the darkness. A light shines against the wall and I assume the guard has a flashlight pointed at Rose.

  “Ma’am? Are you saying I’m old?” Rose giggles and I can picture her moving her hair around her finger, perhaps even giving him a blinding smile. Rose is beautiful and there’s no doubt she has made a lot of guys in her time do whatever she wants.

  “No, of course not. You shouldn’t be here, miss.” The guard now sounds nervous.

  “Miss? I don’t know if I like that one any better.”

  “Please, we’ll both get into trouble—”

  “Shh, it’ll be okay. I won’t tell if you don’t.” Rose’s footsteps stop and I assume she has reached the guard.

  “I’ll have to escort you back to your rooms and report this to Agent Goodings.”

  “I don’t know if that is even possible…”

  “Why?”

  I hear a grunt and then a loud noise like someone heavily collapsing onto the ground. Both Charlie and Will rush around the corner with me close behind.

  “…because you’re going to be out cold for a while.” Rose rolls her eyes at the man and quickly grabs a key that’s sitting along his belt.

  She opens up the door and I peek inside, feeling uneasy about having the guard just lying on the ground.

  My eyes have begun adjusting to the darkness and I see a figure passed out on a cot. The desk from the video we had watched is directly in the center of the room. Paying more attention to the figure on the small cot, I know its Joel. I can’t tell if he’s breathing and I’m not brave enough to go in and check. I notice one of his legs is chained to the wall. I can only assume that there definitely isn’t a key for that. Joel is mostly covered in complete darkness that my eyes can’t penetrate so I can’t see how injured he is, but I suddenly hear a wheeze as he breathes in slowly. He’s alive.

  Will passes me and pulls at the chain around Joel’s leg. The metal that had looked sturdy and unmovable before starts to pull apart and soon it’s big enough to move Joel’s leg out of it. Will picks Joel up and chucks him over his shoulder like he is nothing more than a light bag and moves back out of the cell. I make sure to step away so I don’t have to be near him. Knowing how close I am to him right now feels like a slap in the face. I forget to breathe as an image of Dana hits me so hard that I want to curl up in a ball and cry forever.

  “We have to go.” Charlie takes my hand and pulls me along. Rose and Will have already been sucked up by the darkness. If I have to guess I’d say we’re well over the hundred and fifty second mark. Halfway through our time. We have to hurry.

  I shake the image of Dana away and try to focus.

  At the stairs Charlie and I are surprised by the guard that is patrolling there. He’s rushing down the stairs after Will and Rose as we come crashing into the doorway. The guard tackles Charlie and they fall down one flight of stairs in a giant blur of black.

  “Charlie!” I gasp, rushing down to the bottom to see them both lying in a heap. Charlie is on top of the guard and as I lean down I feel a warm substance pooling around them. A strong urge to vomit emerges, but I swallow down on it, knowing my concern for Charlie is more important. I shake Charlie trying to rouse him. He doesn’t answer me.

  “Charlie!” I grab hold of his shoulder and dig my nails into his skin.

  “Ouch…” Charlie groans and I pull him up, forgetting to be careful in case he has any broken bones.

  I wrap him up into a hug and he groans again. “Zoe…”

  I let go, moving away from him and grab his arm as he tries to stand up straight.

  “Are you okay?”

  “No…” Charlie leans on me as we pass the dead guard. I refuse to look at him or think about the blood surrounding him. The last thing I need is to start freaking out right now; well, any more than I already am.

  I grab Will’s bag, feeling the extra weight is too much, but ignore it and help Charlie down the stairs. He hugs his side carefully, but thankfully his legs appear to not be injured. As we move down another floor we start to pick up the pace a bit. Will and Rose are nowhere to be seen and I know they must have made it outside by now.

  We make it to the entrance when the power is turned back on. Three hundred seconds is up.

  I turn to the side and see a guard running towards us. They know we’re trying to escape now.

  “STOP!” he yells at us, running our way. Charlie tenses beside me and moves to step in front.

  Charlie meets him head on, however the guard pulls out a gun and points it at Charlie’s face.

  “Move and I will shoot you.”

  Charlie stops and I feel my heart drop. I watch in horror as the guard then hits him over the head with the butt of his gun and he collapses to the ground in pain. I rush to him, my eyesight blurring as tears take over my vision.

  “Please…” I beg the guard, hoping he will feel pity for us, hoping he will just let us go.

  “Get up,” he demands of me, his voice harsh and strict.

  I stand, watching him train his gun on me.

  “Step away from him.”

  I step towards the guard, making sure I stand directly in front of Charlie. It hadn’t been what the guard meant, but he doesn’t say anything about it.

  “Now, how about I have some fun with you before I call this in?” The guard sneers at me and my body shakes when he moves his gun down and takes a step towards me. It’s as far as he gets. Will tackles him from behind and they both crash down onto the ground. Will lashes out with a punch to the guard’s stomach, causing him to double over in pain before Will hits him in the head, knocking him out cold.

  I rush over to Charlie who is trying to sit up and Will helps me to get him to stand.

  “Come on, Rose already has two cars waiting.”

  Will moves forward just as an alarm booms, piercing my ears and making me hold my hands up to block out the sound. We sprint towards the exit with Will steering Charlie.

  When we get to Rose, she passes me some keys.

  “I took them from the guard upstairs, this is his car. Take it and run. Don’t forget where we’re meeting.”

  Rose has obviously hotwired, or whatever you have to do to steal a car these days, another vehicle. Will helps me get Charlie into the passenger side of a dark SUV. A quick look at the back shows Joel passed out there. I throw Charlie’s and my bags with him and fasten the seatbelt before taking a quick look back at The Windmill and witnessing several guards piling out towards us. I put the keys in the ignition and start it up. We’re in luck because this car has a full tank of gas.

  “Are you okay?” I watch Charlie wincing and holding onto his left side.

  “Fine, just go.”

  I frown at him, but put my foot on the accelerator and we fly forward. The pedals are touchy so I ease off and look back to make sure Rose and Will get moving, too. In my future dream, I’d only seen Charlie and me, so I want to make sure those shadows are Will and Rose. They have to get out of here, too.

  A few seconds later, their car starts and they are speeding towards us in no time. I put my foot down further and feel a
drenaline pulse through my veins. Once we get to the end of the long dirt driveway I slam through the wire fence blocking our way out to the road. I take a sharp turn to the left, deciding randomly that’s the way we’ll go, while fearing we might roll over with how hard we’re turning. We manage to stay on all four wheels, though, and continue speeding along. I look behind and see Rose and Will have turned right. It’s then I also see four cars following us. At the turn, two turn our way and two follow Rose and Will.

  I’m shaking with the knowledge that we’re completely in over our heads.

  “Are you okay to drive?” Charlie points at my shaking arms, my tight grip on the wheel anchoring them out in the open and therefore making it obvious I’m shaking. I wish I could wrap my arms around myself. I wish we weren’t speeding along in a car with only my driving skills to try and evade the guards following us.

  “Well, you most likely have a concussion and who knows what else, Joel is passed out, so I think I might be the most okay to drive right now,” I snap just as I hear thunder in the skies as rain starts to fall.

  “Seriously!” I yell angrily. I’m already driving dangerously enough without adding rain to the roads.

  One of the cars behind us starts to gain on our car and, before I know it, they run into the back of us.

  “What the hell?” Charlie gasps in pain from the car jolting and he turns around slowly to look behind us.

  I try my hardest to keep the wheel steady even though I’m shaking badly now. I put my foot further down on the peddle, seeing our car getting up to impossible speeds.

  “Charlie, I’m scared.”

  “We’re going to get out of this.” Charlie turns back around and puts his hand over my arm.

  I look back through the rear view mirror and see that both cars chasing us are starting to slow down. They’re still right behind us, but they don’t look like they will be ramming us again.

  “What are they doing now?”

  “Maybe they’ve been told not to harm us?”

  “They harmed you, though.”

  “These injuries aren’t deadly. Crashing at this speed would be deadly.”

  “Not really what I need to hear right now.”

  “Right, sorry.”

  “This was such a bad idea.” Why did they have to know we were trying to escape? Why couldn’t they have simply gone on being none the wiser and Stan going in to wake us up is how we’re discovered? We could have had a four hour head start then.

  We ride in tense silence for a couple of minutes before we see lights ahead in the distance.

  “Look up ahead. I think we’re about to hit a town.”

  “Should I slow down?” I ask, my foot stubbornly staying flat on the accelerator.

  “Wait until you get closer. They’re probably going to want to stop us before we arrive there.”

  “Stop us how?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I grip the steering wheel harder, feeling my hands go white from the lack of blood.

  A large bang sounds then and I nearly jump out of the seat in shock. I look at the rear view mirror and see that one of the cars behind us has a head and arm sticking out of it with a gun aimed at our car.

  “What the hell are they doing?” I scream.

  Another shot, I swerve.

  “I think they’re trying to shoot out our tires.”

  “What do I do?” Panic floods my body. My heart rate is dangerously fast, my head pounds and my hands feel sweaty.

  “Just keep going.”

  I swerve the car from side to side, hoping to at the very least make it harder for them to shoot anything. What if they miss and shoot through the car?

  “Should you keep your head down, just in case?” I worry that a stray bullet might hit Charlie. How cruel that would be to lose him in the same way I lost Dana.

  “They’re not going to shoot at us, Zoe.”

  “They are right now!” I yell at him.

  “Not at us, at the tires.”

  “I’m pretty sure that if they shoot out a tire, I’ll lose control of the car and, like you said, we’re going to be in some serious trouble if that happens.”

  “They’re probably hoping we give up.”

  “Maybe we should? This is getting more dangerous than I imagined.”

  “The hard part is done. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

  “You shouldn’t promise things you have no control over,” I snap at him again, feeling myself giving into the stress of the situation.

  “We’re coming up to an intersection,” Charlie decides to state the obvious.

  We’re approaching a town that looks asleep. Every shop is closed and no one is on the streets. It makes me feel a bit better because it means there are no pedestrians to worry about.

  I barely slow down and while the light is red I speed through and turn left, managing to not overturn the car. I feel like we may have gone up on two wheels, but that seems unlikely, or so I hope. I do a right turn and a quick left, feeling like I’m driving incredibly recklessly. The speed feels quicker now as we are turning corners with buildings and obstacles around. We finally manage to get a turn ahead of the cars following us.

  I see a driveway with a garage door open and an empty space and without thinking about it, I fly into it and switch the car off.

  “What are you doing?” Charlie demands.

  “Shh!” I duck down even though it’s too dark to see us and wish for my heart beat to quiet down.

  I sneak a look behind us and within seconds, two cars are speeding past.

  “Shit, that was lucky,” Charlie mutters.

  My breathing quickens and my adrenaline is still pumping through my veins. Tears start to roll down my face and I feel light-headed.

  “Zoe?”

  I try to speak, but nothing comes out. Even though, for the moment, the threat is over, I feel worse now than before, as though everything is hitting me all at once now that the adrenaline is slowly seeping out of my body.

  “It’s okay.” Charlie reaches out and pulls me into him, hugging me tightly.

  I cry into his shoulder; it’s a release I desperately need. I don’t know how long we sit hugging, but his shirt is wet when I finally pull back.

  “You okay now?” Charlie wipes away the remaining tears that fall and I nod, wishing I had a tissue on me.

  “Good, now I think we should keep moving and not in this car.”

  “I don’t know how to break into a car.” My nose is now blocked from crying so much and my voice sounds different, stuffy.

  “Me, neither, but this is a country town; I doubt many lock their cars and if the movies have it right, they’ll have car keys somewhere in there.”

  “Is it safe to go out looking for one, though?”

  Charlie looks around us for a moment and then smiles. “The guy who owns this garage, who leaves his garage door wide open all night, think he also leaves his keys in his car?”

  We have driven into a double garage and next to us sits an old, beat up looking car.

  “Think that drives?”

  “Only one way to find out.” Charlie opens up the door and the interior light of the car comes on.

  “Wait!” I pull him back before he can step out of the car.

  “What is it?”

  “Let me see your side, you could have broken something.” I try to touch Charlie’s side, but he pulls away before I can lift his shirt.

  “I’m fine, Zoe. I promise. Come on, we should hurry in case they double back.”

  Charlie gets out of our car then and moves over to the car sitting next to us. It turns out it isn’t locked and within seconds of searching he finds the keys.

  He turns on the ignition to make sure it works and it roars to life. He quickly shuts it off and we listen in case we have woken anyone up. After a full minute of silence I take a deep breath and look at the dial. It’s low on gas, but it has enough to make it out of this town and hopefully into the next.
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  I move over to my bag and grab out some of the money Rose has given us all.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m leaving this guy some money.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we’re about to steal his car,” I state obviously.

  “So? He’ll get it back when we leave it in the next town.”

  “Not the point, we’re inconveniencing him.”

  Charlie shakes his head at me, but doesn’t say anything further. He opens the backdoor of the old car and turns around to open the SUV’s backdoor where Joel is currently passed out.

  “Give me a hand, would you?”

  I put down some money on the workbench that is in the garage and walk over to help lift Joel up. I frown at seeing Charlie struggle to hold Joel’s weight, but I hold off nagging him about it like I want to.

  Seeing Joel up close as I’m holding his shoulders makes me feel uneasy. I want to get as far away from him as possible, although I know the feeling is different than what I have previously felt with him. Before, I wanted to get away from him and I didn’t know why. Now, I know why I want to get away from him, looking at him only reminds me that I have lost Dana.

  In the light coming from the stars and moon, I see the blood covering him and the dirt as well as the bruises seem to mix so it’s hard to tell where one starts and one finishes.

  I get into the backseat of this new car with Joel, dragging him along as I go and, as I place him down carefully, I also discover a large, black spider crawling over the back seat. I yelp and fall backwards, opening the other side door and falling out of it.

  “What is it?” Charlie sounds alert.

  “There’s a spider!” I stand and point towards the backseat as my toes curl in my shoes.

  Charlie reaches into the back, one hand on his side and the other reaches out to the spider.

  “What are you doing? Grab something to hit it with first!”

  It’s too late, though, Charlie already has the horrible, black spider in his hand.

  “Charlie, if you bring that thing any closer to me, I will kill you.” I’m already backing as far away from him as I can. Dana used to think it was funny to chase me around with whatever awful insect she had to scare me with. I did not find it amusing at all.

  “It’s just a spider, Zoe. It hasn’t done anything to you.”

  “I don’t care, just get it away from me.” My body feels cold all over.

  “Okay, fine.” Charlie rolls his eyes at me while smiling and walks out of the garage where he bends down by a bush in order to, I hope, let the spider go; or even better, to step on it.

  “That thing better not come back in here.”

  “Well, since it’s more scared of you than you are of it, I think it’ll stay away.”

  “Good. Should you check for any more spiders?” I question, feeling nervous at the thought of one crawling over me while I sit in the car, driving.

  “I doubt there’ll be anymore and we don’t really have time. Soon the sun will be up and we need to be gone by then.”

  I look reluctantly at the driver’s seat, but grab my bag and Charlie’s pillowcase, chucking them in the back with Joel before I then sit down, placing my hands on the wheel.

  In the dead silence of the last part of night, I start up the car and wince as it roars to life. I make quick work of reversing out of the garage and pulling out into the road.

  For the first hour, I feel like every headlight is going to be one of the cars that have been chasing us and that they have found us, yet they never are. It doesn’t help that black SUVs are quite popular these days. Driving then becomes boring, and then the sun rising to shine in my eyes becomes annoying. I don’t have any sunglasses, so I just try to make the best out of my sun visor and my hand when that doesn’t work.

  It’s a few hours later that I start to hear groaning from the backseat.

  “Joel?”

  I pull over to the side of the road and look over at Charlie. He’s still sleeping, his head resting on the window. I put the car in park and turn around to look at Joel.

  “Joel, are you okay?”

  I hear him mumble something without his eyes opening.

  “Joel, it’s okay. You’re safe now.” I move to put my hand over his, but stop halfway, looking at his broken and bloodied hands. Those hands pulled the trigger that killed Dana. Those hands held a gun that murdered my best friend.

  I wait as he falls back into his deep sleep and then move my hand back, watching his chest rise up and down slowly. The bruises on his face already look old and worn. I wonder how many more his clothing is hiding from view. What have they done to him? When he wakes up, will he be normal? Doesn’t torture make people go crazy?

  “What’s going on?” Charlie speaks from next to me and I turn my head to the side to look at him.

  “Joel started to stir. How are you feeling?” I gaze worriedly at him, his clothing is also hiding an injury that he won’t let me see.

  “Like sleeping while sitting up isn’t very restful.”

  “I meant your side.”

  “It’s fine. We should keep moving. How long have I been out for?”

  “Only a few hours.” I’d stopped already to get gas, doing so while also making sure I was hidden from any cameras. I saw a sign that said we were approaching Bowman, North Dakota. We aren’t too far off from Nebraska, except we aren’t really heading in the right direction.

  “Want me to take over for a while? You look exhausted.”

  “Thanks, you sure know how to make a girl feel special.” I roll my eyes at him, however I’m grateful to have someone to talk to after hours of silence. Unfortunately, the radio doesn’t even work.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want some more sleep?” He had stayed up until we broke out this morning while I’d fallen asleep. With no alarms, we couldn’t risk falling asleep and sleeping through our four a.m. deadline.

  “I’m fine.”

  I watch him carefully, thinking that he might be telling the truth. There is more color in his face and he seems to be moving easier than before.

  “All right, I think my legs are starting to get cramps in them from being stiff for so long, a break would be nice.”

  Charlie gets out of the car and moves around to my side while I simply undo my seatbelt and move along the bench seat. I’ve never been in a car that doesn’t have individual seats for the front and I’m beginning to see the advantages of having a seat that just goes from one side to the other.

  Charlie takes the car out of park and starts driving. There isn’t much traffic on the road and I hope it stays that way because more cars means more witnesses. We have no idea whether the guy we took the car from will report it missing or stolen and anyone who sees it at this point is liable to be able to report their sighting.

  My eyes start to close on their own now that there is no stress on my shoulders to keep alert and drive. I let my head rest on the window and for a good twenty seconds it’s bliss. Then Charlie hits a bump in the road, causing my head to bounce off the window and then back into it. A few seconds later it does it again. In fact, any movement the car makes means my body moves with it and hits the window.

  “How did you sleep in here with your head hitting the window every five seconds?” I complain.

  “I was dead to the world, Zoe. I wasn’t snoring, though, was I?”

  “Not that I could hear over this noisy car.”

  “Good. Come here, it’s open road and dead at that.” He holds his arm out and I undo my seatbelt to move towards him. Within seconds, I’m drifting off to sleep with my head resting on his right shoulder while I inhale his familiar scent.