Week 18
Sunday, 8
Leah
propped herself against the nearest door and pretended to rummage in her bag as the guy she hoped was Tommy sauntered past with a dopey looking Labrador dog. It could not stop wagging its tail and she felt the breeze it created as it trotted past, panting. Why do I have to be a cat person, she wondered, watching them enter the lift out of the corner of her eye. As soon as the doors closed and she heard the contraption move downwards, Leah hastened over and pressed the button on the wall.
Taking
the lift down to the ground floor, she stepped out into the corridor and then exited the back door leading out to the grounds at the back of the facility. Blinking in the bright sunlight, she closed the door quietly and followed the gravel path that wove between the grassy areas. A few guards dotted the perimeter of the fence, all armed, watching over the average Joes, as she had heard the non-guards being called. Forever under scrutiny.
Leah
took in the cameras perched on the top of the fence, each guard and then the other inmates. Some people stood in groups talking and enjoying the sun while others just wandered around on their own. A girl lay down reading a book and she almost envied her serenity. Within moments, Leah caught sight of the dog, running for a ball thrown by his owner.
How to do this
?
Opening her rucksack, she removed her book and sat down on the nearest wooden bench. Placing her bag on the ground between her feet, she flicked to a page and pushed a stray hair behind one ear. The light bounced off the white paper and the black words swirled together as she processed her thoughts.
Best that it is done quickly, but how to say it?
Reaching into her jean pocket,
Leah breathed a sigh of relief to find the thing still there. For a second she hadn’t remembered picking it up. Now or never, she told herself. Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she wandered in the direction of the fence, pretending to read. Meandering closer to the barking animal, she focused on the words as they swam, plunging off the page into the fresh air. Leah breathed it in, having almost forgotten she had not been outside for a week. She welcomed it, inhaling deeply as the words were swept away.
“Hey!”
Leah glanced up in mock surprise. “Oh?”
“Careful. I didn’t want you to get jumped on.”
Taking in Tommy’s appearance, Leah momentarily concluded that she wouldn’t have minded before erasing the thought immediately. She forced a look of awkward clumsiness. “Thanks! I didn’t even notice him, so wrapped up in my book.”
“Must be a good ‘un then cos
his barking could wake the dead… erm, I mean…”
Leah laughed. “No offence taken.” Closing her book, she placed it
back in her bag. “What’s his name?”
“Bob,” Tommy replied. “He won’t bite you or anything. Soft as
sh… well, he’s a softy.”
She bent down and the Labrador immediately
tried to lick her face. Chuckling, she rubbed his ears and focused on his eyes. “I’m going to tell you something, Tommy, and I don’t want you to look surprised. Don’t look at the guards either. Just keep talking or even laugh, but don’t look surprised.”
“How do you…?”
Leah peeked up at him quickly with a tense expression before patting the dog and ruffling his ears again. “There’s a good boy – down boy! Tommy, I came here to talk to you. Just pretend I’m flirting or something, can you?”
Tommy moved closer, so that he could speak more quietly. “Is this a joke?”
“No,” she replied, “and don’t react, but I can’t speak to you inside. I don’t trust it. There are cameras and I think the place might be bugged. I can’t risk it. Good boy!” she added louder, and then more quietly, “Marla is alive and she’s safe. Good boy!”
All the breath seemed to depart Tommy’s body
, and then an inexplicable anger surged up to replace it. “What the fu…?”
Leah cautioned him with a look. “I have a note from her and I’m going to slip it behind his collar here. You can read it and you’ll know I’m
telling the truth. We can speak again, but not about anything important inside the building. I’m pretty sure they’re watching you and Ellen. I’m going to go now.”
Tommy stared in bewilderment as she stood up and patted Bob once more. When the dog jumped up and attempted to lick her face again, she laughed as though everything was normal. “He’s lovely,” she said loudly. “Hope to see you guys around again. I love dogs. I so miss mine. He was a Poodle. My name’s Leah. I just got out of quarantine,” she said with a huge smile.
“I’m Tommy,” he replied, but he could not force a smile. Bending down, he fastened Bob’s lead to his collar, and watched Leah walk back to the bench and sit down. As she opened her book, he turned his attention to his dog, eager to discover what she had hidden, if anything. “Come on, Bob,” he said. “Walkies is over, boy.”
Leading
his dog towards the back entrance of the building, Tommy ignored Leah as best he could before he reached the door and opened it. Inside, he stood still for a second, trying to gather his wits.
What if she is alive?
He hadn’t allowed himself to believe otherwise.
There was no body…
He tried to get a grip.
Come on, Tommy, something always told you this place isn’t quite right… she knew it.
Still, he couldn’t bring himself to think her name.
“Come o
n,” he said to Bob, walking his companion towards the lift. As it rose up the building, he was tempted to check the dog’s collar, but he resisted. He had to wait.
What if the girl is right and there are cameras in my room?
Was it possible, feasible even? Not in the bathroom, he reasoned; they would never put a camera there. They would probably stop at bugging the rooms, if anything. He examined the box as the doors opened.
Are they really watching me?
It was countless minutes
before he entered his room and closed the door. Setting Bob free, Tommy hung up the lead on a hook by the door and bent down. “Come on, Bob, stay still, no wriggling. It isn’t a game,” he said plainly, dipping his fingers behind the collar. They hit something rough and he pulled it out. The piece of folded, beige paper felt weightless and yet his heart hung heavy. Taking a deep breath, Tommy stepped into the bathroom and pushed the door closed. From the other side, he heard Bob scratch the wood. Unfolding the note with trembling fingers, he felt a rush of pure adrenalin. It was her writing; it was her. Sitting down on the tiled floor, Tommy rubbed his forehead as he read.
Tommy, it’s me, Marla.
I’m fine. I hope you and Ellen are okay. I miss you.
I checked the basement
and found a secret lab – Jakob’s. You were right not to like him – don’t trust him. I found Robert in there and what they had done to him you wouldn’t believe. There were also survivors from the church who had turned, but they were kept for experiments, for want of a better word.
Jakob found me.
One of his men said there are cameras in the building. They saw me go through the labs and down to the basement. I was locked in a cell in the facility. I don’t know where, but I think they are beneath the basement.
Some guards
told me that you and Ellen had been told I was dead, and then they took me into Amesbury where they left me. For some reason they gave me my gun. They said someone had a soft spot for me – I have no idea who. Caballero must know what’s going on. It was a crazy thing for me to check the basement. I’m sorry I took the risk
Luckily, I was found by people I trust.
Do you remember Nick, the man with the skins on his blanket? He saved my life. Doug and Leah are two of them, and they’ve come into the facility to tell you this and get you out. You and Ellen must leave. It isn’t safe. They are experimenting on people, human as well as the dead. It’s insane, Tommy, and I wish we could get everyone out of the building.
A man I’ve met said his brother (a soldier) was murdered and he blames Will Acre. He also said two patients who had the dreams went missing. I’m so worried about Ellen.
We have a plan and Leah or Doug will tell you.
Hope to see you soon. Take care. Love, Marla.
Tommy leaned back and stared up at the ceiling, trying to gather the thoughts that swirled around his mind in waves, sinking and rising.
Experiments? Not safe?
Well, he had guessed something was not right here, but this was worse than he had ever imagined. Yet she was alive; this was evidence. She had written it, for sure. A lump formed in his throat and his pulse raced. He held his head and rested his back against the bathroom door.
She wants us to leave, to go to a safe place. Where is safe? Leah and Doug…
The girl’s name was Leah.
He wondered what
other people Marla had met since leaving and then began to imagine how awful her circumstances must have been until he thought it would drive him crazy. Making the assumption that she had not been injured as she would have mentioned it, he thanked his blessings and turned back to the letter again. He reread it about eight more times until the words sank in perfectly and then he stared at the curves of each word. She was alive.
Marla.
He wanted to hold on to the letter, this piece of hope, and keep it with him until he saw her again, but he recognised the risk in that.
With a sigh
, Tommy began to tear up the paper into increasingly smaller pieces, until he could grasp them in one hand. Then he put the first piece into his mouth and swallowed.
Monday, 9
Tommy followed Ellen out into the yard space behind the facility. Taking a seat on the nearest wooden bench, he waited until she had walked a distance away from anyone else. She stood with her back to him, oblivious, staring out across the green fields beyond the wire fencing into infinity. He could guess her thoughts by her stance and imagined the dream-like, far-off expression in her eyes that he had seen a hundred times since she learnt of her sister’s death. She would be thinking of Marla in this instant; he had no doubt of it. He had no idea how to tell her that what she had believed these past weeks was actually wrong.
Tommy
noticed the positions of the various guards; some smoking, some talking, others observing the average Joes or nothing at all. He knew his time was numbered here now and he had no desire to help protect the place any longer, but that was something else; a discussion for another day. Right now there was only one thing to say. Drawing in a deep breath, he stood and made his way towards Ellen. The gravel crunched beneath his boots and she turned. Her initial look of apprehension immediately switched into a smile.
“Hi, Tommy,”
she said. “Isn’t this beautiful, the last rays of the day? I love this time and the sky turns to a golden egg-yolk colour, almost like it’s dripping from the clouds.”
He smiled back at her and
then followed her line of sight. “It is,” he replied, having never had many words to describe the sinking sun. “I need to speak to you about something, but just continue to look happy and imagine I’m talking about the sun or my dog…”
“
I don’t under…”
“Just humour me
, Ellen,” Tommy cut in, “and quit gawking at me. Just look at the sun setting with me and don’t look at my face. Look ahead and don’t react to anything I say, other than laugh or something. Do the opposite of what you feel.”
“Tommy, quit acting weird,” she answered, although she obeyed in staring up at the
streaks of gold.
“I’ve reason to believe t
his place is bugged and that we’re being watched.”
“Seriously?” she asked, but hushed and
set a smile upon her lips.
He nodded. “
I’m positive, and you must believe me and be careful. Ever since that day when Marla was left in the library…”
Ellen fixed her eyes on the clouds. “Please don’t speak of her. It’s too difficult…” Her voice broke off and she bit her lip.
“I know. I’m sorry. It was for me, too…”
“Was?”
“Please look straight ahead and don’t react to what I’m saying. I’m sure we are being watched… well, maybe everyone is.”
“Why would they?”
He sighed. “That’s the big question: exactly what
is
going on here? And there was me thinking the biggest threat was the freak show outside.”
“Tommy,
it’s probably paranoia… cabin fever…”
“Don’t look at me, but there are two people here. They’ve just arrived from
Amesbury. Now don’t turn or react… what I’m about to tell you I wouldn’t have believed either, but I read her letter and it was her writing…”
“Her?”
“Marla. She’s alive,” Tommy said softly.
Ellen coughed and put her hand to her mouth.
Tears rushed to the corners of her eyes and she swallowed hard, willing them back. Focusing straight ahead, she coughed again. “Why are you saying these things, Tommy?”
“Because it’s true. One of the
se two people, a woman, followed me out here. She warned me this place could be bugged and rigged with cameras, besides the ones we can see. That’s how they got Marla… they saw her on the cameras.”
“I don’t understand, Tommy. Why are you saying this?”
He sighed. “Because it’s true.”
Ellen sniffed and blinked back her tears, wary of wiping her face and suddenly conscious of the other people in the yard. She
peered up at the nearest camera on top of the fence and then back at the golden sky. Unable to comprehend what her friend was saying, she stayed quiet.
“The woman from
Amesbury gave me a letter, which I read later in my room. It was from Marla, Ellen, there is no doubt about it. She really is alive. I didn’t want to believe anything else, I admit, and I was living on false hope, but I am in no doubt now that she is alive.”
“This is cruel,” mumbled Ellen. “How can you be sure? Maybe the woman is lying.” She wiped her eye hurriedly and then attempted a laugh to conceal her emotions from others.
“The writing is Marla’s. She’s in Amesbury right now. When she went into the basement, she found bodies… not only of the dead but of the living. The scientists are experimenting on them.”
Ellen looked swiftly at Tommy and he nodded. “Why?”
she asked. “I don’t understand.”
“I know. Neither do I. She
was caught red-handed by Jakob.”
“Jakob?”
“Yes, she says not to trust him. She was locked in a cell in this place before being taken to Amesbury, where she was dumped on the street.”
Ellen swallowed down the lump forming in her throat
, and the rising mixture of tension and panic that thumped in her chest. “Oh my God, Tommy…” She bit her tongue, fighting to hold back her emotions before tears streamed down her face.
“But s
he’s safe. She says that. The two people came here to warn us and get us out. It isn’t safe here, Ellen.”
“I can’t believe she’s alive…” Ellen sniffed and coughed again. “I need to go in. I feel like I’m going to explode.”
Tommy nodded and placed his arm around her shoulder. Then he pretended to point something out in the distance. “I’m sorry I had to tell you out here. I didn’t know what else to do. Try not to cry. Inside, be really careful and don’t tell anyone about this, not even our friends. I don’t know if our rooms are bugged. I’m assuming the bathrooms aren’t. Try to go about everything as normal. Don’t think about the cameras and stuff, but know they might be there. I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Ellen, but we have to get out of here.”
“
Can’t we just ask for transfers to other places? I could ask to be with my mum and Marla could come…”
“You could try, but
I don’t know if they’d really let us out of there. As for Marla…”
“W
ho do you mean by ‘they’? The administrator, Caballero or the government? Who is controlling things here, because I don’t get it; I really don’t. This is meant to be a safe place… why would they be experimenting on people when the problem is the dead out there?”
Tommy laughed and shook his head, and pretended to point again. “I honestly don’t know. I don’t understand either. I’m just
glad your sister is alive and I think we need to get out of here as soon as we can. She won’t ever abandon you, Ellen.”
Ellen coughed again. “I know. This is so much to take in, Tommy. I’m so happy, but I feel sick a
t the same time and frightened. I wish we hadn’t come here and just stayed on the boat.”
He gazed into the dying light, wondering how they
could possibly walk out of this place. “I wish that too.”