SAFE (13 page)

The
next blow came from the left and I quickly moved my hand in front of his, then
shoved my arm outward, deflecting his punch to the side of me.

“It
worked,” I said, smiling. “Okay, what’s next?”

For hours that night, James helped me work on basic
defense moves I could easily use. My frame was small, so instead of focusing on
anything that needed a lot of body weight, I focused on simpler moves.

“There
are six places on a person’s body that are considerably vulnerable,” he said.
“The nose, eyes, throat, groin, knee, and shins.”

I
repeated each to myself, staring as James pointed to them on his body.

“If
someone comes up and attacks you from behind, throw your head backwards into
their face. If you hit them hard enough, they’ll let go and grab towards the pain,
giving you ample time to either run or turn around to attack them back. Now
let’s say the person is too tall for your head to reach them—in that case, use
the back of your foot and kick them as hard as you can against their shin.
There’s a tender bone which runs from top to bottom, starting just below the
knee.”

He
continued talking, showing me more examples, such as a side kick into the knee
joint, or if I was prepared to block a punch, then I was to try and grab the
attacker’s wrist and force them into an elbow lock position (this one was more advanced
than I’d probably be able to do).

Lucan
sat back and observed the whole charade. Throughout, I couldn’t help thinking
about what James had done. The first day we met, and our first kiss, was an entire
sham. Because of him, many people were dead. I wrestled with the thought; I
knew he didn’t know his actions would lead to such horrendous consequences. However,
as much as my mind was telling me to hate him, my heart couldn’t help but love
him. No matter what happened, I would always have the good memories and the flowers
he planted for me.

“I’m
not feeling good and it’s getting really late, maybe we should just call it a
night,” I said. I felt that I had learned all I was able to in a short period of
time. Plus, it wasn’t helping that my feelings were all over the place,
confused. I hoped by the morning that everything would seem less complicated. James
told me I did a good job and I gave him a look as if I appreciated it, like
everything was normal, but we both knew things would never be the same.

The next morning, for the first time, I awoke before
either of them. Lucan and James both snored—first Lucan, then James, then Lucan,
and so on—like a horrible, never-ending song I just wanted to end. I bent over
and rubbed my ankle, happy that it was finally healed, and stretched my arms
out to the side. They had never been this sore before. The fighting lesson from
last night stretched every muscle in my body. Raising my arm was tough to do
without feeling like I was being tortured. It wasn’t a surprise. I was not an
athletic person, though I had no idea how out of shape I really was until now.

When
this was all over, I vowed to run more often.

I
laid down and looked up, breathing in the sweet, fresh, morning air. Clouds
began to roll in, layering the sky, resembling different shades of cotton
candy. The urge of really needing to go to the bathroom rose to the forefront
of my thoughts. I hated having Lucan and James wait while I did my business in
the woods. It was slightly embarrassing and I was glad I’d finally woken before
them. I wanted to pee in peace.

“Come
on,” I whispered to the dog.

She
and I sauntered quietly through the dirt and leaves until we were well covered
by shrubs, blocking me completely from the campsite. After, the dog followed me
back to the site. Neither of the guys was snoring anymore, but they were still
dead to the world. I stretched my muscles and carefully rolled my ankle around,
getting the blood flowing more. The fire died completely during the night, but
the ashes were still warm. I hovered my palms over the heat, reheating my cold
fingertips.

After
another thirty minutes, the guys were still asleep and I was bored, anxious to
get moving.

“Hey
you two, wake up,” I said.

A
few seconds passed and neither of them moved.

“Hey,”
I said a little louder.

Nothing,
no movement, not even a wiggle.

I
walked over and shoved James with my foot. “Hey, wake up!” I shouted.

He
didn’t budge.

I
quickly bent over and saw three tiny darts sticking out the front of his shoulder.
I yanked them out and held them in my hand. A small amount of green juice
remained in one of the shafts.

“James!”
I yelled, shaking him back and forth, causing him to fall over flat on his
back. His hand hit the ground next to my foot. I placed my ear up to his mouth,
and felt his breath brush against my cheek. For a second I thought he was dead
but, fortunately, I was wrong. He was alive.

I
turned around and ran over to Lucan. He also had three darts sticking out of
his upper leg. I yanked them out too. The dog growled behind me and that’s when
I realized I wasn’t alone.

I
turned around just in time to see an individual, hooded and masked, standing
with a triple-barrel gun pointed at me. Before I could move, he fired—shooting
a single dart straight into my stomach. I pulled it free from my shirt, more
green juice oozed out onto my palm, and I instantly blacked out.

When I woke up, my muscles were weak and my eyes
blurry, woozy from whatever I had been shot with. At first, the only image I saw
was a jumbled mess of colors seeping into one another. After a few more
minutes, my vision became clearer. I was sitting in the middle of a room with
wooden, slatted walls. I couldn’t see anyone in the room in the direction I
faced, nor could I find James or Lucan.

As
I became more alert, I tried moving my arms, but couldn’t. I was tied up. I
wiggled my body and tugged on my wrists—but it was useless. My legs were strapped
to the bottom of a chair and my arms were in excruciating pain from my wrists
being tied so tightly. Rope tied securely around my waist as well.

I
twisted and squirmed, feeling the tight, sticky force around my wrists. It was not
budging. I began rocking the chair from side to side, in hopes I could fall
over and break free.

“I
wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a voice said from behind me. Her. It was a
woman. Her voice had an accent I had never heard before. Where I lived,
everyone spoke the same and there had never been any newcomers. “You might very
well break your arms if you fall too hard.”

I
looked down at my arms, and decided that not breaking a bone might be a good
idea. “Who are you?” I asked.

“Who
I am doesn’t matter. What does matter is you can’t escape, so I wouldn’t try.”
She stayed behind me and all I could hear was her breathing amidst of a couple
clicking sounds.

“Why
am I here?” I asked.

“You’re
here because I want you to be,” she replied.

“What
did you do with my friends?”

“Oh,
don’t worry,” she said (click click breath click).
“Your friends are
fine for now. And I’m sure they’re wondering where you are.”

Hearing
that Lucan and James were alive made me feel better, but not much. There was
something she wasn’t telling me.

“Can
I speak to them, please?” I asked.

“Nope.”
Her footsteps came closer and I felt her breath on my ear. She whispered, “Now
this might hurt a little, so stay still.”

A
needle jabbed into my lower arm. “Don’t move,” she warned again.

“What
are you doing?” I asked as she pulled the needle from my arm.

“There
we go.” Within my peripheral vision, she tapped the glass vial filled with my
blood.

I
shook my head with confusion. “Why do you need my blood?”

“I
took some blood from your friends as well—before you came back to the site
after your morning break. I’ll be right back.” A door behind me closed.

I
began whipping my head left and right, managing to jumble the chair around for a
better idea of where I was. But what I saw didn’t help much. The place looked like
nothing I’d seen back inside the perimeter, so I didn’t think I was in there.
The vial of blood she took, caused me to remember my pack and the vials I had
hidden. I scanned the room, but didn’t see my pack anywhere.

The
walls had old memorabilia nailed to them. A ratty version of an American flag
hung on the far right and in front of me was a yellow, faded calendar with the
year 2022 on top. It was one hundred and four years out of date. A man in a pressed
camouflaged uniform sat on the top picture over the month of OCTOBER. The words
ARMY STRONG were written on the bottom as it dangled from a nail through the
tiny pinhole. Underneath the calendar was a cardboard box with a hand-drawn
black square and pictures of people dangling in the center. To the side of the
box was a stick with silver tape wrapped around it and the words TV REMOTE
written boldly down the middle. Below the American flag was a large computer
screen, black and turned off.

I
wasn’t sure what to make of everything. Were Lucan and James in another room
tied up? What was she planning to do with us and how did they not hear her
coming?

My
wrists were completely numb now. I was no longer in pain so I hopped the chair
around some more until I spotted a pen sitting on the desk near the computer
screen. Inch by inch, I moved the chair. Five minutes passed and I barely managed
to move a foot.

Two
things that didn’t mix—giving up and myself.

 After
thirty minutes, I was only a few inches away from grabbing the pen. I kept
wiggling and moving, shoving my body to the side. Closer now, but the edge of
the table was higher than I judged. I leaned forward as much as I could and
bent my arms behind me, my fingers finally tapping the pen. I shoved my hands
back more. My fingers failed to work accurately due to a lack of blood supply.

After
two more attempts, I reached the pen, hugging it tight inside my fist.

My
chest looked like a balloon deflating. I clicked the top of the pen, flipped it
around with my fingers, and pointed the sharp end towards the tape around my
wrists.

I
heard a noise overhead and looked up. A door from the roof swung open and a person
lowered inside. As feet thudded against the floor, the stranger took off a
black mask. It was a woman with long, jet-black hair. She unzipped a green vest.
Underneath it, she wore a tight black tee tucked into dark pants, complimenting
her olive skin. Her face was flawless from any lines or wrinkles—and vines. I
wondered if she had paint on her skin like the Lowers.

“Now,
how did you get all the way over here? Give me that.” Her voice matched the one
prior. She snatched the pen away from my defenseless hands and dragged my
chair, with me in it, back to my earlier location—away from the desk.

I
began crying, “Please, just let me go. If you’re scared of me saying anything
about you being here, I won’t. I swear!”

“Oh
honey, I’m not worried about that. I’m supposed to be here. It’s you and your
friends who should be worried. Not me.” A smug smile spread across her face.

“Then
why
am I here?” My emotions turned from fear to anger.

The woman walked around and bent down directly in
front of my face. “You’re here because I want to have a little fun with the
three of you—my ‘objectives’. I’ve been here for two hundred and eight-five
days.” Her words were precise; she stood back up and pulled her hair perfectly
out of her face into a rubber band. Her long, black ponytail was heavy and
thick, pointing towards the ground. “You three are the first ones to ever try
escaping. Forgive me, but if I’m going to spend the next four years alone
completing this stupid contract, then I want to have a little fun before I kill
you.”

The
word
kill
made me feel like an unsuspected animal caught by a sadistic
psychopath, taunting and poking me for their amusement. I wasn’t sure what she
was capable of or who she was, but one thing was for sure, she’d been alone way
too long. Her head twitched a little as she looked silently at me.

She
walked back around; I could no longer see her and heard the door open and close.
The quickness of it made me question if she had really left. Before long, I
felt her presence again and she tossed some carrots onto a small table in front
of me. The orange vegetables were freshly covered with brown dirt, large green
spruces sticking out the top.  

“I
need you to keep your strength up.” She walked over, grabbed a carrot, and then
shoved the end into my mouth. I refused to bite down—for all I knew, they were
filled with something toxic. The large end hung from out of my mouth as I gave
her a death glare, refusing to follow her order.

“You
will eat, one way or another, but this way is much nicer, so I suggest you do
as I say. Though the other way is fine with me too,” she grinned.

I
took a bite. Immediately.

“That’s
better,” she said.

It
went on like this for hours; her making sly remarks with the answer of what she
planned to do with me hidden nonchalantly in her words. Anytime she came near,
I flinched in response, not knowing whether she would feed me, talk to me, or
examine my skin and hair—occasionally taking blood samples.

I
wasn’t sure who she thought I was or what I possessed that made her so
interested in me. In between her insane chit chat, I’d hear the door open and
close and then some more clicking sounds, which I assumed came from the giant
screen on the desk behind me. I really wanted to see what she was looking at
and never once did she talk about Lucan or James after mentioning them the
first time. So either they were dead or securely tied up somewhere, keeping her
from fussing about them.

I
tried asking her questions, but never received a clear answer. She told me
eventually I’d understand the reasoning for her keeping me here. One time she
used the term
bait
and I speculated why. I was obviously going to be
someone’s dinner or game or something. Who knew?

Finally,
after a couple more hours, she did answer two important questions that I asked repeatedly.

 “Why
are you here? Where are you from?”

She
walked around, plopped down on the floor in front of me, and then proceeded to
talk while spreading gun parts across the ground, connecting the pieces to one
another.

“My
family was originally from Connecticut, or at least what was left of it. Anyway,
that doesn’t matter anymore—they’re dead. It’s a harsh world out there. Kill or
be killed,” she laughed. “That’s what my mother said the night before she died.”

“And
you’re here because?” I asked again.

“I’m
here because I’m good at what I do. I was a sniper back home. I worked for the
Government, but a private contract became available through various resources
by an independent company. Once I complete four more years here on this
pathetic island, I’ll receive my last monetary installment, which will set me
up for life. I’ll never have to work again if I don’t want to.”

“What
Government?” I asked.

“That’s
just what I call it. I mean, yes, it is the government but really it is just a
bunch of men with guns and too much power. After the world basically ended, so
did a lot of things. The current government at the time shattered into many
different branches, which were ran by newly formed governments, most
unsanctioned, discontinuing their diplomatic comradeship with one another. I
was born into my line of work by my father. He was a sniper and so was his
father before that. One night he left on a mission, didn’t return, leaving me
to fend for my brothers and sisters. Then my mom got sick, siblings grew up, and
the branch of government I had been working for stopped being punctual with
their payments. One day, I decided I was
done
. That’s when I came across
the opportunity to live here. My job is to make sure nobody leaves from this
side of the island. It is a kill-on-sight contract and if I fail, then I
forfeit all the money.” She stopped in the middle of piecing together the gun
and raised her face towards me. “And-I-will-not-do-that,” she said precisely.

Everything
she had just answered wasn’t a huge surprise with how I imagined the rest of
the world being, except for their actually being people with forms of
government.

“Shh,”
she said. “Do you feel that?”

I
held still but I felt nothing and heard nothing. I couldn’t hear anything down
here. We were underground. It was one thing I figured out since the door had opened
from the roof.

She
stood up and walked over, putting her hands along the wall, fingers spread out,
grasping the sides as if she were feeling for something.

“Am
I the only one still alive? I mean, if that’s what your contract calls for.”

“Shhh,”
she said again.

Then
she ran passed me and I instantly heard clicking sounds again.

“Where
are they?” she spoke aloud.

“Who?”
I asked back.

“Your
friends, you idiot.”

So
they are alive? But where?

I
hobbled the chair back and forth, knowing she was still in the room, but not
caring anymore since she was planning to kill me anyway. Plus, I was bait for
something, alive for a reason, which meant pushing the envelope wouldn’t hurt.
I heard more clicking in between the legs of my chair chattering against the
floor. I struggled to move.

In
a monotone voice, she began speaking again, “I’ve been working every angle, but
they’re literally gone. I thought they’d come back into view, but—”

I
had a good rhythm going with the chair, rocking side to side, and finally
turned 180 degrees. The woman’s back hunched over while she tapped (the
clicking sound) on the screen in front of her. And she hadn’t noticed I was in
a position to see what she was doing. I hobbled over to the right a few inches
more and stretched my neck, enabling me to glance directly above her shoulder.
A dozen small squares connected, creating one large display on the screen, and
each small video was a picture of trees, fields and…the grave—the massive grave
we passed yesterday. That’s when I realized she had watched us the entire time.
But if she didn’t know where they were, James and Lucan, then her cameras apparently
didn’t cover every square inch of this side of the island.  

She
leaned over and grabbed her green vest, zipping it up quickly, not once looking
in my direction. She then opened the door and pulled herself quickly through
the top. The door slapped shut behind her, for minutes I sat unmoving—scared frozen.
What would she do to me if I made another move? What if her use for me has run
out? What if she has me somewhere I can’t escape even if I do manage to get out
the door?

 I
shook my head, forcing myself back to the reality of my current situation and
spotted the same pen from earlier on the desk. I took a deep breath and used my
body, jiggling the chair closer, covering the short distance to the pen much
faster this time. Adrenaline pumped,
something
was happening outside, and
I didn’t know what that
something
was. I needed to hurry.

I
leaned my body forward and used my weak fingers to grab the pen. I turned the
tip around, jabbed at the tape blindly, and finally felt the victory of a
pierced hole. I jabbed again and again, until I finally stabbed it enough times,
tearing my hands free.

I
rubbed my sticky wrists and looked up at the door, which was still closed. I
didn’t know how much longer I had. I began trying to untie the massive knot
from behind my chair—that job was harder than the tape. No matter which way I
pulled and tugged, I could not untie it. I looked around for a knife.
Surely,
Miss Crazy has a knife somewhere
. I looked underneath the desk the best I
could and around the edges of the floor. If there was a knife, I couldn’t find
it.

“Damn
it!” I yelled.

I
tried untying the knot again and used the pen to stab at the fibers. I knew the
chance of the pen actually doing anything was minimal, but I had to try
something. Then I heard the door above slowly creak open. I braced myself for
whatever punishment was coming my way and closed my eyes.

“Penny!”
Lucan jumped down next to me, “Sorry we didn’t rescue you sooner. We waited to
make sure there wasn’t anyone else coming.”

I
smiled big, knowing I would be okay. “Lucan! Oh my… I really thought y’all were
dead until she said... You’re okay? What about James?” I held my breath, hoping
he was okay too.

“Of
course he’s fine—he’s out there handling the girl.”

“She
was planning on killing me and both of you. I’m not sure why she kidnapped me
or didn’t kill us back there. Wait—”
How did they know I was here in the
first place?
“Y’all were asleep. She shot you with some type of
tranquilizer and—”

“Ya,
lucky for us, those things didn’t last long. James woke up first and then I
did. We followed her trail here; we were only a few minutes behind you. A good
thing too. She has this underground cave thing hidden well. It would’ve been
hard to find you if we waited much longer.”

“How
in the world could you guys not hear her or us down here for that matter?” I
asked.

“That’s
why she’s still alive; we have some questions for her.” He finished unwrapping
the rope from around my waist and I quickly realized why I had no chance of
untying it myself. It was one long piece connecting my feet and intertwining
with the back of the chair—all the way up around my waist and back down through
the legs of the chair. I bent over, rubbing my ankles and arching my back, hearing
it pop and dislodge from the uncomfortable position I had been in for far too
long. My body felt like a crinkled piece of paper trying to flatten itself back
out.

“Here,
come on,” Lucan said, reaching up for the door.

I
looked over and spotted a large, hand-drawn map on the wall opposite of me. It was
a black and white diagram of a land with water all the way around. I reached
over, grabbed it from the wall, and quickly folded it up as Lucan jumped out
the door. Then he reached down and pulled me up. The sunlight had started to
dim and the long, treacherous day was ending. I opened the map as my feet landed
on the ground.

Light
gleamed from the door and I studied the map quickly. A long, curved line
labeled
perimeter
was drawn wide around the center and the rest looked
like terrain with pictures of a few hundred crosses inside a clearing. The
grave. It was a drawn map of our Land and the terrain we hiked through. An
X
was placed with the label
hutch
above it. “This must be where we are,” I
said, pointing to the location. I looked over the edge of the map, but neither Lucan
nor James was nearby.

“Lucan!”
I yelled.

“Turn
around, we’re right here,” James replied. I was jumpy.

The
girl had been tied against a nearby tree and both of the guys stood in front of
her with their arms folded. She wouldn’t look at them and I felt a little less nervous
by seeing her in such a vulnerable state.

I
folded the map and approached her. “What are we going to do with her?” I asked.
Her green vest was off, tossed to the side, and her legs resembled a sprawled
out V along the ground.

“That’s
why we couldn’t hear her.” James pointed at the vest lying on the ground. “It’s
padded with some type of soundproof material. As soon as I took it off, I heard
her heart. That room she had you in must be lined with the same stuff.”

“She
said she was put here to kill anyone trying to escape on this side of the
perimeter.” I told Lucan and James the rest of what she told me as I eyed her.

James
kicked her boot. “Is that right?” he asked.

She
didn’t say a word and refused to acknowledge our presence, looking off to the
side. Licking her lips.

James
ordered Lucan to hand him a knife and he reluctantly did so. Then James held it
up to the girl’s throat. “I asked you a question. Were you put here to kill
us?” he asked, pressing the knife against her toned skin.

Again,
she said nothing.

“Fine.”
James turned away and motioned for us to gather to the side.