“And Corby?”
“Ethan shot him. He shot Will, too, which wasn’t fair at all. Will had a clear shot at me and he never took it. He deserved to win.”
“Mac has been trained to win; fair doesn’t always come into it.”
“I guess.” I do feel bad for Will, but secretly I’m thrilled to have a day of rest tomorrow. I wish Charlie could have it off, too. “Where is Rose?”
“She went to bed an hour or so ago. I tried talking to her, but she just ignored me.”
“I think she’ll be okay. We just need to keep her distracted. We spoke a bit about what we need to do to get out of here, I think that helped. She needs to know we’re doing something.” I take a bite of steak, ignoring the queasy feeling that comes with thinking about attempting an escape from this place. It is not going to be easy.
“Well, as long as she can stay focused. The Rose we know wouldn’t have gotten knocked out of this thing, she would have won it. We need her at a hundred percent,” Charlie says and then takes the last bite of his food, leaning back afterwards and sighing contently.
I eat until I am so full I feel like I might throw up. I redden, imagining myself hurling in front of all these people here and in front of Charlie. I’m reminded of my fake dream last night. The one where I told Charlie I was pregnant. I definitely don’t want to have kids, or at least, not anytime soon. Those dreams are obviously false, but when I’m seeing it they feel so real. Charlie’s excitement when I told him felt electric and I swear, even if I would have closed my eyes in the fake dream, I’d have felt his excitement just from being in the same room as them.
“Zoe, are you okay?”
“Do you want to have kids?”
“What?” Charlie’s mouth drops open in shock.
“No, I didn’t mean—No!” I push my plate away from me, feeling quite sick now. I’ve nearly finished it anyway. “I just meant in general, like one day.”
“Oh, I guess so. I don’t know.” Charlie is still looking pale and a small part of me is disappointed in his reaction. In my fake dream, Charlie was excited. I know just by looking at Charlie’s face that he would probably faint if I actually were. “Are you worried that you might be pregnant?” His eyes dart around us as he lowers his voice.
“No! I mean we’ve been…” I’m about to state we’ve been careful, but that isn’t true. “Oh, my God.” The thought that Charlie and I haven’t been using protection hasn’t even entered my mind until now. How stupid could we be? What if I am pregnant? I can’t be pregnant in this place! That is not an option.
“Zoe?” He reaches out and takes my hand.
“I want to go see Doctor Pratt.” I’m shaking.
“Okay.” Charlie bounces quickly to his feet and he’s around the table in no time. He helps me up when my legs feel unstable and holds my hand as he walks me through the hallway and towards the stairs.
“You know, if you are… we will figure it out. I mean,don’t—”
“Charlie, stop. I know we’ve been stupid, but I’m sure I’m fine. I just want to be certain and then go to bed.”
Charlie nods that he agrees.
We stay in silence the entire way down the stairs. When we enter medical, I see Will is lying down in one of the beds that are out in the open. He is just finishing up his plate of food, in a change of clothes.
“Hey,” he greets us. I feel my cheeks redden further.
“How are you feeling?” I ask, veering us towards him.
“I feel fine. The doctor only needed to give me two stitches and even then she said it wasn’t likely necessary. My wound is almost completely healed.”
“That’s great, Will.” I smile at him and try to discreetly look around. I notice Doctor Pratt exiting a door at the other end of this large area. I know I should grab her now. “Excuse me a second.” I don’t look at Charlie as I leave the boys and rush over to her.
“Doctor Pratt,” I call out. She stops and looks at me in surprise.
“Ms. Holloway, are you all right?”
“Yes. No. Can I talk to you in private?”
She leads me to a different room that is empty. “What can I do for you?”
I feel incredibly embarrassed and stupid. “Charlie and I… we… I might need a pregnancy test,” I finally blurt it out.
“Oh.” Doctor Pratt looks surprised by my request, but her expression quickly goes back to neutral. “Okay, just wait here for a moment.” She leaves and thankfully is back in seconds. She hands me a packet and I’m grateful I need to pee anyway. “There’s a bathroom two doors down from here, use that and that will give you a quick answer. Although, to be sure, I’ll take a blood test.”
“Do you have to report this?” I worry what Stan and Martha will do if they find out.
“I’m supposed to…” Doctor Pratt eyes me carefully. “I can perhaps forget to mention it, if you can promise me you won’t say anything to anyone. I can get into a lot of trouble otherwise.”
“Of course, thank you so much.” I’m eternally grateful to her. I take the pregnancy test and quickly leave, rushing into the bathroom to read the instructions. It appears standard, although I’ve never had to do this before. I wait impatiently for the words to show and I nearly fall over in relief when I see the words “Not Pregnant”. I place the test back in the box, wash my hands and then face. I look beyond pale. I note that the bruise Stan gave me has gone down a lot and, while it’s still noticeable, it’s shrinking and dulling in color. My neck is also still darkly bruised and sore thanks to Corby.
I leave the bathroom and almost bump into Charlie who’s waiting outside.
“We’re fine.” I smile at him and he hugs me hard to him, surprising me.
“Good. I love you and I definitely see a future with you, I just don’t want to rush that when we’re stuck in here,” he explains.
“Same.” I take his hand and lead him back into the room with Doctor Pratt.
“How did it go?” she asks me kindly, eyeing Charlie.
“Fine, I’m not pregnant.”
“That’s good. I’ll take a blood test anyway to confirm.” Doctor Pratt pats her hand on the bed and I pull Charlie along with me. I might not have Dana here to hold my hand, but I can take advantage of having Charlie here with me.
I close my eyes and Charlie squeezes my hand tightly while my blood is taken.
“All done. I’ll let you know as soon as I get the results back. I’m surprised contraception hasn’t been discussed with you both. We of course have condoms that you can have access to as you wish. There are also other options, although I suggest always using condoms during intercourse.” Doctor Pratt speaks softly and I feel myself getting further embarrassed.
“Other options are going on the pill, however that isn’t something we recommend in this line of work. You have the option to get an IUC or you might know it as a Mirena. That is used the most by the women here. Another option is a CIC, which requires an injection every twelve weeks.”
A needle? No way!
“Do I have to decide right now?” My voice sounds small and as though I’ve had to pull it from the back of my throat.
“Of course not, just have a think about it. We can go over the risks and decide what is best for you when you’re ready.”
I nod, feeling both shocked and relieved.
Charlie takes hold of my hand again and pulls me along with him towards the door. “Thank you, doctor,” he politely says.
As we walk out the door, Charlie discreetly moves the condoms he’s been given into his pocket. We say a quick goodbye to Will and remain silent until we make it back to our room. I quickly leave to go brush my teeth and Charlie does the same.
I make it back before him, leave the lights off and climb into bed, feeling frozen. The weather here has mostly been mild during the day, but still freezing overnight. I miss Charlie’s warmth, hugging myself while I wait for him to return.
I only have to wait moments before he walks through the door and qui
ckly closes it again. He climbs into bed next to me and wraps his arms around me, his front curving around my back. I let his warmth soak over me and I relax.
“Do you want to talk about…?” Charlie trails off.
“No. Unless you want to?” I hope he doesn’t.
“No.” He speaks quickly, leaving me worried he is more freaked out than he is letting on. I have no idea how to talk through this, though, so I keep quiet.
“Good night, Charlie,” I murmur, knowing even given my worry I won’t have any trouble falling asleep tonight. I’m emotionally drained after a long day.
“Night.” Charlie’s arms squeeze me tightly and I feel his lips kiss my hair before his arms go lax.
Chapter 11 – THE PLAN
March 3rd
I wake up with Charlie and decide to get up with him for breakfast. I can always go back to sleep afterwards. I sit at our table, feeling lighter than any other morning here, knowing I can go back to sleep after this without having to worry about training.
“So, what do you have planned for today?” Charlie asks me in-between bites of his cereal.
I look at Will—who doesn’t even have a scratch on him from yesterday—and Rose who are sitting opposite us. Rose is looking pale and thin. She’s still beautiful, but the situation is wearing down on her and, as a result, she isn’t her usually confident, natural self. She is again picking at her food and, if I hadn’t been told so often about my own bad eating habits, I might have mentioned something to her now. Instead, I don’t. Will is scarfing his food like he hasn’t eaten in days and again I notice he’s grown. He’s getting stronger and fitter being here.
“I don’t know. I might—” I stop speaking, seeing Martha walking towards us as the room quiets. At the tables around us I see a collective rising as everyone straightens their backs.
“Good morning, everyone.” She nods at us, which none of us respond to. “Rose, may I have a word in private with you?” Her eyes narrow at Rose and her expression shows none of the obviously fake kindness in her voice.
“I doubt I have a choice,” Rose bites back, but she sounds defeated, not her usual fiery self. She stands and the rest of us gaze at each other worriedly as she walks away slowly.
“What was that about?”
“Martha said something to me about having to talk with her regularly. It’s probably just that,” I suggest.
“I can guess what they’ll be talking about, why she’s doing worse now with more training than how she was doing at The Windmill,” Charlie points out.
“We have to get out of here soon. I have a whole day to myself, so it might be time to check out the security.”
“No, they’ll be watching you. It’s too dangerous.” Charlie moves his hand over my leg under the table, his hand squeezing around my thigh protectively.
“I’ll just be casually looking around. They won’t hurt me.”
“Oh, yeah? What about Corby who tried to kill you?”
A stab of panic hits my chest remembering that moment, but I swallow it down. Any sign of weakness in front of Charlie will result in him never agreeing to this.
“I’ll take Ethan; he has the day off, too.”
“You think he’ll help us escape?” Will asks wearily. It’s easy to see that he doesn’t think he’ll want any part in helping us.
I don’t know why, but the thought of getting Ethan involved in this makes me feel uneasy. No, he won’t be getting anywhere near this. “I’m not asking him to help, I’ll ask him to show me around.”
“He’s new here, too,” Charlie points out.
I shrug in response. “Then we can figure this place out together.”
Charlie still eyes me worriedly, but I think I see something else, too. I’m not sure what it is because he looks away before I can try and figure it out.
“Promise me you’ll be okay?”
“Yes, I promise.”
“Listen, I trust Mac, I do. But at the end of the day, remember that he does work for P.A.G.E.. He might not understand what he’s truly doing, but he trusts Stan and Martha. He’ll always put them first.”
“Okay.” I feel disheartened hearing this. He is right of course. “Does that mean you don’t trust him anymore?”
“I do when it comes to protecting you, but if it’s between us and P.A.G.E., then no.”
I nod to signal that I agree.
“Do you think Doctor Pratt kept last night to herself?” I ask Charlie, aware that Will is within hearing distance.
“I don’t know. Are you worried she’ll talk?”
“I think she was being honest when she said she wouldn’t say anything, I just wonder if maybe we can get her to help us get these things out of our arms.” I trail my finger along the small scar on my arm, one that we all now have.
“She might be willing to hold back telling Stan and Martha about yesterday, but something like taking our tracking devices out is completely different. I mean, how will she do it? Can she even do it? What if something goes wrong?” Charlie shakes his head at me.
“You’re not inspiring a lot of confidence here, and if we can’t even trust a doctor to do this properly, then how can we do this?”
“I didn’t say we couldn’t trust any doctor, just not one under Stan’s thumb. We get out of here and then we worry about the tracking device.”
“Then they’ll be able to track—”
“Then we make sure they can’t. I’ll keep them disabled until we can get a proper doctor to help us.”
I shake my head at him. “Are you insane? How do we explain that? We’ll sound like we’re the crazy ones, and if you’re causing a blackout everywhere, then it’s going to make a doctor’s job a lot harder, and a lot easier to track us.”
Charlie sighs in annoyance. “We can figure something out.”
“Our only option is to take these things out here.”
“Then we might be screwed,” Charlie retorts in anger, his eyes softening immediately when he looks at me. “Sorry, we’ll think of something. Maybe you’re right. Maybe Doctor Pratt will help us.” I hear the doubt in his words.
“She has to, or if not, then maybe we can make her, or one of the other doctors.” I envision us holding a gun to her as she works. I hate myself for thinking that could be an option, though.
“Like I said, we have plenty of time to figure this out. Look, taking a look around today might not be the best idea. We need to take this slow.”
“When will we get a better chance? Those mock missions only happen once a month, which means our next window is in a month’s time, and that is if one of us wins again. Taking a look won’t get me into trouble.”
“I don’t like this.”
“Of course you don’t.” I roll my eyes at him, trying to inspire some faith in my overconfidence. Instead, Charlie looks annoyed.
“You told me to stay away from Corby because you were scared of him and you were worried I wouldn’t be able to take him. You were afraid that you might lose me.”
“Yeah…” I worry he is trying to tell me he isn’t going to keep that promise he made to me anymore.
“Well, I’m asking the same of you. I don’t like this, you going off on your own scares me and I can’t take losing you. If you get caught or they think you’re being suspicious, they might take you away. Or maybe you’ll get hurt. They could shoot first and ask questions later.”
“I’m not going to get—”
“Please? We either do this together as a group, or not at all.”
“You know Will and I went off on our own at The Windmill and found that laptop, which was important. It got us information on The Core and our situation.”
“You were also attacked by guards and knocked out. At The Windmill, they weren’t there to harm us. Here, they are.”
I look at Will for support, since he has been silent through this whole exchange. “Will?”
He gives me a look as if he’s eaten something rotten. “I think Charlie is rig—”
>
“Seriously?” I cut him off, annoyed that I’m being ganged up on. This is our best chance.
“Promise me you won’t do anything while we’re not with you.”
I take a deep breath, ready to say I can’t when I think of a better answer. “I promise I’ll try and wait for a better time.” I use the same wording that Charlie did when he told me he would try to keep away from Corby.
He narrows his eyes at me, but his partner interrupts any further discussion. It’s time to begin training. He gets up and gives me a quick kiss goodbye.
“Please, Zoe,” he quietly begs me, obviously knowing that my promise doesn’t exactly mean I won’t go take a look around today.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m thinking I might try to catch up on some sleep today. I haven’t exactly been sleeping entirely through the night,” I tease, hoping to distract him. It works. He smiles back at me and I can tell he doesn’t want to leave me now, and for an entirely different reason this time.
He hesitates a moment longer before he slowly walks away from me, looking back towards me several times. They’re all heading down to the circuit where Shane and Stan will be there to do whatever it is they do. Ethan told me they often still work in pairs; it’s just not up to them what they do. I’m not looking forward to what I’ll be doing tomorrow.
I notice Ethan standing up and following the thinning crowd heading outside. I quickly get up and race over to him, grabbing his arm.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to training, obviously.”
“But it’s your day off. Don’t you want to take it easy?”
“Like I told you yesterday, I get bored. I like training.”
“Oh, come on, take today off with me. We can go exploring,” I suggest.
“We’re not allowed to leave this place without written consent—”
“I’m not saying we should leave this place, I’m saying we should explore it,” I beg.
“I don’t know…” He looks down at me suspiciously. Soon everyone has left except us.
“Come on, maybe we’ll get to see Doctor Pratt on our travels?” I tease.
“Why do I feel like you’re keeping something from me?” He watches me carefully.
Taken By Choice (Taken Trilogy Book 3) Page 12
