“What’s wrong with them?” he asked, innocently.
“They’re just weird. Let’s go. Now where is the spot you walked the mark from again?”
Rob had slipped out of the truck a couple of minutes after Lucy had gone in to get her paperwork signed. Once the truck was inside of the fence, nobody really paid much attention. Rob had stashed his gear and was wearing his regular clothing, minus guns, since he’d ‘picked up’ Lucy. He was in blue jeans, a flannel shirt, a ball cap, and cowboy boots. It also helped that he looked like the other half a dozen truckers who were unloading or dropping and hooking trailers at the small distribution center.
He made sure he didn’t bump into Lucy, and walked up to one of the black-clad guards.
“Hey, is there a bathroom and a place for me to get some coffee? It’s been a long day.”
The guard looked at him and sighed, then nodded and pointed. “That’s our unofficial break room. I have a fresh pot on, and there’s a half bath in there. Just don’t make a habit of it, the other guys get bent out of shape if we let the truck apes shit up their place.”
“Nothing changes.” Rob grinned. “Drivers are truck apes and that makes you boys unloading…”
“Dock monkeys.” The guard grinned back. “Hurry up. This place is going into lockdown in 20 minutes. After that, nobody in or out unless that shit outside gets better suddenly.”
“Will do, thanks,” Rob said, seeing Lucy out of the corner of his eye.
Lucy was getting her paperwork signed and was arguing with a man on a forklift. She didn't notice him as he slipped through the door and shut it behind him. Rob saw three figures headed to his hiding spot. He tensed, then gasped. Walking right towards him was a woman who could have bench pressed Rob. She was leading a familiar looking man in their direction, but he couldn’t mistake the smaller figure walking behind them.
The man appeared to have his hands tied behind his back, and Rob had no idea if the woman was with Angelica or not. Then again, Angelica wasn’t restrained, and was following both. He could only guess she had worked out her own escape plan. Right then and there, Rob said a quick prayer. He had planned on getting inside and waiting for the perfect moment to get her and make their escape. Now? It was both more and less difficult than before.
“Now get your ass in there… ok, Mr. Governor, it’s safe. Oh,” the big woman said as she saw Rob stand up from where he’d been crouched.
“Thank you,” the governor said, oblivious to the look of fear on Bailey’s face. Nobody was supposed to be in here.
“You got to be shitting me,” Angelica said, then pushed past both of them and launched herself into the air.
Rob caught her as she wrapped her arms and legs around him, giving him a full body hug. Although he outweighed her by an order of magnitude, he wasn’t expecting it and both crashed to the ground, almost knocking over a table, and making a huge racket. He tried to push her back so he could tell her to keep it quiet, but she crushed his mouth with a kiss and rolled with him as he tried to roll over. The fall had almost knocked the breath out of him. Finally, she gave up and let him breathe.
“We gotta get out of here, everybody heard that,” he said, his voice hoarse from fear and something more basic.
“They were supposed to be tuning me up,” the governor said to them. “They probably expect some noise from in here.”
“Which guard? It looks like we have one walking this way?” Bailey said, then paused. “Wait, the guards from the door are talking to him.”
“Then we don’t have long, “Rob said. “They told me I could use the break room as well. Angel, what was your way out?”
“Not mine,” she said, pointing at the big woman, “It was hers. My original plan was to sneak out in the back of a truck and figure out it from there.”
“Follow me,” she ordered, and everybody did.
“I noticed that there’s a tool crib right behind here that their maintenance guys use. Now, if this drop ceiling is like every other place the government puts up in a hurry, there’s a big void above us,” Angelica explained as Bailey put the toilet seat down and stood up on it, pushing up on the tiles. “Then we go over the false wall, grab some bolt cutters from the tool crib, and cut a hole in the fence and disappear.”
“Just that easy?” Rob asked, grinning.
“Just about,” Bailey said, pulling herself up the concrete wall and into the open void above. “Let me see if the other side has anybody in it.”
After a moment, they could hear her moving up there and her feet disappeared. There was more movement and a knocking on the door outside. The rest of them squeezed into the bathroom, locking it.
“Hurry,” Angelica hissed.
“Give me your hand,” Bailey said, her big arm shooting down from the yawning hole above.
Angelica got on the stool and jumped, barely brushing her fingers against the bigger woman’s. Rob grunted, then picked her up until Bailey grabbed her by the forearm and yanked her up. A moment later they heard shoes hitting concrete somewhere on the other side and her arm came down again.
“I don’t need help,” Rob told her.
“The governor will,” she said. “Give him a boost like you did Angel and I can sling him over to the other side.”
Rob did, straining a little bit. The governor had gone soft in the middle and, although he’d once been a big football player, he hadn’t lost the weight and the muscle had turned into flab. Both grunted as they got him over the other side, then it was Rob’s turn. He put his hands on the wall and pulled himself up as
