Through the Windshield Glass (26 page)

Kinga was
screaming at Danny and Katelyn but they weren't listening to her. Danny had
managed to grab one of the women and Katelyn was attempting to sedate her.
Kinga threw her hands in the air and proceeded to rip open the curtain at the
end of the hall. I realized that's where Maria should have been and it made
Kinga even more upset when she realized that Maria was missing.

　
"Where is Perdita?"
Kinga screeched. Danny and Katelyn had just wrestled the last patient back into
his bed and Michael and I were still standing at the door in complete awe of
what we had just witnessed. We realized too late that we should have moved a long
time ago. Kinga whirled around intending to yell at Danny and Katelyn some
more; instead, she found Michael and I standing like deer in the headlights.

"What are
you two doing here?" Kinga questioned. I
　
was
more afraid of her then than I had ever been before.
　
Thankfully, Michael's body was the only thing that
was paralyzed; his brain was still in working order.

"Ira
wanted to come talk to Katelyn.
　
She
still hasn't really gotten the hang of the doors yet so I was helping her find
the infirmary."

It was a
beautiful lie, most definitely better than anything I could have come up with
at that point, plus Kinga trusted Michael. Yet, even though Michael met Kinga's
eyes unwaveringly, I realized she still didn't believe him.

"You and
Ira just happened to run into each other at eleven thirty at night while she
was aimlessly wandering around looking for a nurse?" Kinga asked
skeptically. She was standing as she had when she questioned me in the
luxurious hall. Feet apart, hands behind her back, and eyes full of concrete.

I waited for
Michael to shift uncomfortably or avert his eyes, or even to come up with a
different more believable story, but he did none of these things,
"Insomniacs tend to roam at night. It was purely coincidence that we ran
into each other."

Kinga still
looked more than skeptical, she turned her gaze to me, "And why were you
looking for Katelyn?"

My mind flew
between thirty different lies in the space of about two and a half seconds, I
finally came up with one and I put as much false honesty into it as I could
muster, "I wanted to see Perdita. I've gotten so used to her being in my
room that I couldn't sleep without her there."

The side of
Kinga's mouth twitched a little and I wondered if she had almost smiled at my
misfortune or if she had been refraining herself from calling me a child for
needing a roommate to sleep. However, the expression was gone in an instant and
Kinga began to pace with a thoughtful look on her face.

"I have a
proposition for you," Kinga said, then she turned to face me again and I
knew it was less of a proposition and more of a command with a heavy
consequence attached for disobedience, "If you find Aida and Perdita you
may take care of Perdita once again; she seemed to be doing better in your
untrained hands than here."

Katelyn glared
at Kinga's back. From where I was I could see a sheen of sweat on Katelyn's
forehead. Her nearly black hair was sticking out at odd angles from her once
sleek ponytail and she looked like she hadn't slept in days. I took a chance
and decided to bargain for one more thing with Kinga.

"I will
find the two of them
if
you get Katelyn and Danny some more help in
here. I'm surprised both of them are still standing," I said.

Kinga turned to
look at the two nurses behind her and seemed to really notice their appearance
for the first time, "Done. Now go find those two before I change my
mind."

Michael and I
didn't need to be told twice, both of us marched out of the door without
looking back. I had finally found Kinga’s weakness, Leigh was going to more of
an asset than I had thought.

Chapter Thirty-five

I breathed a
sigh of relief when I was sure Kinga was safely away from us. I was about to
look to Michael to see where he wanted to start looking first when I was hit
from behind by something fast, small, and definitely alive.

"Wha--"
I started to say. I looked down and saw two thin arms wrapped tightly around my
middle. They were attached to Leigh.

"Where
were you?" I asked.

Leigh broke
away and looked up at me with a big grin on her face, "I was in your room
with Maria. When I realized she wasn't in the infirmary I knew that I had to
leave fast before Kinga found me. So I went to your room, I knocked on the door
and Maria let me in."

"How did
you know we were here?" Michael asked.

"After a
while I went to check your room," Leigh said to Michael, "You weren't
there so I figured you were with Alice and I thought you might be trying to
find me since you already had Maria. I knew you'd think to look for me here so
I came."

I stood in awe
of the little girl's genius. My thoughts were so garbled at that moment that I
wouldn't have been able to spell my own name had I been asked to and yet Leigh
had managed to read both Michael and I perfectly; and not only that, she had
timed everything perfectly.

"You are a
genius, Leigh," I said.

Leigh blushed,
"No, I just knew what you guys would do because it's the same thing I
would have done."

Michael
suddenly perked up as if he had heard something, "We should go, everyone
else will be meeting us soon and we need to get Leigh and Maria ready to
go."

"I get to
come with you?" Leigh squealed excitedly. She wrapped her little arms
around Michael
　
and squealed
again.

"Yes, but
you need to be quiet," Michael whispered, "You stay with Alice in her
room while I go to yours and get some clothes for you, okay?"

"Okay,"
Leigh whispered. She was still grinning from ear to ear as she took my hand and
led me to my own room. I turned my head to wish Michael good luck, but he was
already gone.

I sat quietly
mulling over everything that had just happened while Leigh jabbered excitedly.
She carefully brushed Maria’s hair as I finally got up and stuffed a few
changes of clothes for Maria into my bag. It took Michael an eternity to get
Leigh’s clothes, but finally he knocked on the door. I opened it to see Michael
holding two drawstring backpacks; one was a very vivid pink.

"I really
hope that one is for Leigh," I said pointing to the garish bag.

"Very
funny," Michael said. He handed the pink bag to Leigh and hefted the much
more conservative black one onto his shoulder.

"Do you
have a bag for Maria?" Michael asked.

I held up my
own bag, "Taken care of.”

Michael nodded
and looked at my ceiling, "Time," he said to it.

My room blacked
out and stars appeared on the ceiling, something I hadn't seen it do before.
The starlight illuminated Michael's face. It erased all signs of age and he
looked to be no older than a fourteen year old boy instead of a heavy-laden
man. Michael gazed at the stars, nodded, and asked the ceiling to light up
again.

"We have
one hour until we meet to leave. You should try to sleep." Michael turned
to leave, but I caught his arm.

"I'm not
going to be able to sleep," I admitted. I looked at him meaningfully and I
could see that he was remembering my dream almost as vividly as I was.

"Okay,"
Michael said, "Should we go over the plan again?"

"No,"
I said. I shook my head and sat down on my bed. Leigh and Maria were sitting in
a corner quietly working on Maria's speech.

"Alice,"
Michael said, "I know what it's like to have Daman do that to you, but you
can't dwell on it. The more you think about him the easier it will be for him
to find you and if he finds you he finds all of us."

"Yes,
Yoda," I said sarcastically. I had forgotten that Michael had died before
the time of
Star Wars
so the reference was totally lost on him.
However, he did realize that it was meant to be insulting and we lapsed into an
hour's worth of awkward silence. Even Leigh and Maria didn't say anything, as
it got closer to the time we were supposed to leave.

Finally,
Michael checked the stars again and deemed it time to leave. I had expected to
follow him through another confusing labyrinth of doors, but instead he just
opened my bedroom door and we were already facing the stairs that led up to
outside.

"Why aren't
we covering our tracks?" I asked.

"I don't
care if Kinga follows us this time," Michael said, "In fact I want
her to follow us because then she will see for herself what she has been
denying for so long."

"But what
if she catches us before we reach Daman?" I questioned.

"Then she
catches us, but once we're out of this compound she no longer has any control
over us. Outside of here we are in Daman's territory and we abide by his laws.
However few there may be."

I shuddered to
think what kind of horrendous laws Daman had put into place since beginning his
rule.

"Are we
going to wait here for everyone else?" I inquired.

Michael shook
his head, "No, they are most likely already waiting for us outside."

I turned back
and helped Leigh with her bag before slinging mine over my own shoulder,
"Let's go then," I said, "If I'm going to be bait I might as
well be punctual bait."

Michael didn't
like my joke.

He was right
though; everyone was waiting up top for us. They all nodded respectfully at
Michael but no words were said. As soon as Leigh came up the stairs after Maria
they just started walking, but not the way I had suspected. They were walking
right into the forest.

"Isn't
Daman the other way?" I finally asked after we had gone a few hundred
yards into the trees.

"Yes,"
Avery said. That was all I got. No one offered any other explanation, they just
kept walking. I looked to Michael but he either didn't notice, or was
pretending not to.

I looked behind
me to see Leigh holding Maria's hand and guiding her through the trees. Maria
had her free hand clamped tightly over her eyes and was whimpering slightly, I
had forgotten that even in life she was terrified of the dark. She wouldn't
even watch scary movies with me unless the sun was still up, and even then we
had to watch some kind of lighthearted movie when it was done.

I waited for
Leigh and Maria to catch up and I took Maria's other hand gently away from her
face. She kept her eyes squeezed shut, but at least I knew that Leigh would
have some help maneuvering around the roots of the trees. She smiled gratefully
up at me and I realized that despite how tired I was, Leigh must be even worse.
I doubted she had slept at all and now she was doing her best to keep up with a
whole group of long-legged adults.

"Are you
going to be able to make it?" I whispered to Leigh.

She nodded and
kept walking. It was unlike her to be so quiet and it made me worried. Leigh
knew how dire our circumstance was, even if she didn’t fully comprehend why and
I didn’t like that her optimism was absent.

Chapter Thirty-six

Two hours of
walking, many bruises, scrapes, and falls later, we arrived in a clearing. I
looked at the group around me, none of them looked even close to as bad as I
felt. Bridgette least of all, she had her hair tied in a ponytail and although
she was only wearing dark black jeans and a simple grey tee shirt she looked
like she was modeling couture. Roman stood protectively behind her and looked
as if he was just dying to rip someone open. I looked to Michael who was standing
on a fallen tree.

"I think
we're far enough away now that we can speak. I don't know if everyone knows
each other or not so let's start with introductions. You all know me and my
story, so we'll start to my left."

I thought it
was odd we were doing introductions. Did anyone really care? I couldn’t
understand how knowing everyone’s stories would help us in the long run. Avery
was to Michael's left so he introduced himself, quickly refreshed us on how he
died and gestured for Max to go, "I'm Maxine, but don't you dare call me
that. I go by Max. I don't know how I died. I just went to sleep one day and
woke up here."

Then it came to
the siblings, the two brothers introduced themselves as Arthur and Roan, and
they had both died protecting their sister Scarlett. Scarlett had died at the
hands of a malicious suitor who had attempted to kidnap her. She was quiet and
didn't meet anyone's eyes as she spoke. I wondered why she was even here. Her
brothers were big enough, but she wouldn't be any help against anything much
bigger than a dog.

Michael spoke
up in her defense when he saw that I wasn't the only one who looked a little
skeptical, "Scarlett is the one who came up with the idea to use memories
to attack Daman. She did the same to her attacker when he arrived here."

None of us
asked what exactly she had done, but there was a new respect for the tiny girl
who couldn't have been any older than myself. I was even a little afraid of
her, I did not want to be on the receiving end of her revenge tactics.

Next came Bridgette
when Roman chivalrously insisted that she go first, "I'm Bridgette, I
drowned." There was no further explanation offered as to the circumstances
under which Bridgette had died.

Roman went next
and explained that he'd been poisoned a long time ago. Around the same time
that Gregor had died.

Gregor had
simply died in his old age. Everyone already knew me and how I had come to be
among them, the only mystery left was Maria. I explained for her.

"Maria was
duped into committing suicide by Daman posing as her mother, Wendy, or as you
know her, Cassidy. Maria’s here because we believe that Daman is going to
attempt to infiltrate the compound and he might try to use Maria as bait to get
me to betray you all." I said.