Distant whispers—it’s hard to tell if it comes from inside or outside of me—distract me. It doesn’t sound nasty and gets louder as if someone turns up the volume of a radio. Someone is coming. Is it someone who could help me get out of here?
“Look at her. Is that vomit at the side of her head?” I don’t recognize the female voice. At least, she doesn’t sound hostile, more disgusted. Vomit? That must be the taste and smell I noticed earlier. The woman wipes my face and hands with a wet, warm cloth and removes the source of the putrid smell next to my head. Then they remove a cover and pull a fresh sheet over me.
“Can you pull your side a bit tighter under the mattress?”
A door opens and another female voice says, “How are you getting along? All good?”
“She’s still out cold. This one is no problem. How about her partner?”
“He’s not a problem anymore. Peter clubbed him over the head when he found him trying to leave the room. Now he’s got a big bump on his head and is out. He’s talking in his delirium, calling out for this one here. What’s so special about her?”
“Nothing that I can see. Ray wants us to make sure they are both awake for tonight.”
I can’t panic. I can’t panic. Where is the Tribe? I need them to help me understand what happened. My recall has large bits missing as if someone has ripped crucial pages out of a book.
“Work would be so much easier if we’d put them together. How either of them can be a danger to us, is a mystery to me. Look at her.” The woman giggles lifts my arm and lets it flop back onto the mattress.
“He’s always super careful, almost paranoid, don’t you think?”
“Well, that didn’t help him last year, did it? Sebastian had to take the fall for him.”
“We’re done. She’s still out cold. I don’t think we need to give her another dose.”
Think. Think. Think. I try to make sense out of their chatter. I must be at Gateway. By the sound of it, something is going down tonight and Scottie and I are the special guests? Going by what I know from Maddie’s experiences, I’d rather pass.
As my head clears up, more pictures flutter in. Ah, I understand. Simon Baker lured Scottie and Elise to Gateways.
Chocolates.
My stomach does a backflip. There was something in the chocolates.
So when they convicted Sebastian Feldman, they got the wrong guy? Or at least they didn’t get the whole stinking lot. Is Raymond the puppeteer or is there someone else in the background pulling all the strings?
The nurses leave without giving me another injection. I strain my ears, but I can’t hear a key turning. That’s my chance. If they left the door unlocked, I have a good chance to get out of here. I rub my face and open my eyes. There is no time to lose. I have to get out of here and do so quickly.
Easier said than done. My body is still heavy and numb. I have to wake it up. After a while of rubbing, poking, and squeezing my legs and my arms, the blood is circulating better. I spread my fingers and make a fist, pushing my arms back and forth, and stretch and flex my legs. With every minute I feel more awake.
I do sit-ups in bed hoping that the dizzy feeling goes away.
Carefully, one leg at a time, I slide to the edge of my bed and try to sit up. It takes three attempts, but then I’m sitting. My head is still swirling around as if I’m sitting in a swing carousel.
I reach to the bottle with water that sits on my nightstand, take a gulp, and splash some over my face. My throat is parched. I take another gulp. This water tastes like ambrosia, not that I know what ambrosia tastes like, but this water tastes like heaven, sweet, clear, and fresh.
My legs feel as if they’re not connected to my body. I lean forward to get my center of gravity above my feet and push off the bed. I change my weight from one leg to the other, pressing down into the floor as hard as I can. Then I take a deep breath and walk on the spot. I hold on to the bed and stretch my legs doing lunges.
With every step, I have more and more control over the body. It’s no problem to walk over to the basin and I splash more water on my face. The mirror tells me I look like a ghost with enormous raccoon-like rings under my eyes. How long have I been here? I bet it’s more than just one day.
Bastards. We all underestimated them. But not anymore!
I’m looking for my clothes but I can’t find any. The hospital gown I’m wearing will have to do. The sideboard on the wall has a box of medical supplies with plasters, bandages, syringes, and scissors. I take the scissors and stick the plaster into my pocket and wrap a bandage around my midriff to hold the sides of the nightgown together. I don’t need to expose my womanly bits and pieces trying to flee.
There is no try. You either do or you don’t.
Amadeus? I need you! Now I know for sure that I will escape. First, though, I need to get Scottie and then we run. It is that simple. No rocket science, really.
Everything is quiet when I open the door. There is not a single sound. No bells, no phones, no people, no nothing. This isn’t a real hospital. It’s a bit scary that I don’t know the lay of the land here, but I can’t change that. I’m prepared as best as I can. I close the door behind me. To my right is a long corridor with lots
