My appetite improved halfway through the party, and I ate a little bit of everything on the table, finally satiating my craving for chocolate.
The party wound down after 1 AM. All of our friends said their goodbyes and wished me luck. Envy and hope surfaced in their eyes. Everyone yearned for the time when they could be free to live the life of their choosing.
For a moment, I longed for the false peace that accompanied their ignorance. They all had such hope—the hope I tore from my closest friends, who now had to stay here knowing that their future would not be the one promised. I pushed away the twinge of guilt that crept into my heart. They needed to know. I needed to know. We couldn't escape the truth by remaining blind to it. Now that the truth had been forced on us, maybe we could find a way out of this mess.
What would they do to me once the baby was born? Would they keep using my body for more and more pregnancies, until I became a useless shell? Then what? Kill me? Being a Rent-A-Kid prisoner seemed a much better life compared to a future as a baby factory, all the while knowing that my children were here, rented out like property, awaiting the same fate as me.
I couldn't let that happen. I wouldn't let that happen.
'Neither will I,' Drake said.
We arrived at my room with Gar right behind us. Would I be locked in tonight to keep me from trying to escape?
Where would I go? How would I save Drake? I had too many questions, no answers, and no idea what to do.
Lucy and Luke came in, and we all sat on my bed, with me in the middle. I lived in the manner in which my many personas would have expected to live: in luxury. No doubt, my new quarters would not be this fine. After all, my new role didn't require me to be comfortable and at ease in wealth, did it? I just had to ovulate properly.
"What do we do?" I spoke out loud in our made-up language, but English in my mind. Confusing, but I didn't know who might be spying on us.
"You should try to escape tonight," Luke said. "We could help you get out. There's a fence by the north field that had a short last night. We could get through that."
"You don't think they're monitoring those too? And what about the brick walls past the fence? And whatever is beyond that? And the guards, and the trackers in our arms?"
Lucy fought tears. "You can't let them take you, Sam."
My body numbed. "What else can I do right now? We can't escape with so many people watching. And I can't leave Drake, wherever he is. They'll probably put us in the same facility, right? I mean, if they're using him to breed, then we should be able to find each other. Maybe we can escape from there, and then we can get help for you guys."
'I will do everything I can to get us out of here, Sam. I swear it. I need to get off these drugs, and I think I know a way. If you're brought here, you can help. We can do this. But if there's any way for you to escape before getting here, you have to take it!'
"I'm not leaving you alone there. I'll find a way to get us both out, and we'll find a way to save the rest."
"I have to go. I have to get evidence of what's happening here." I scooted off the bed and went to my backpack. Inside, hidden in a secret pouch, lay a tiny camera. I'd kept it out of impulse, though it was against rules.
I palmed it and brought it back to the bed with me. "Look discreetly at my hand. I have a camera that I stole from my last job."
Luke's eyes widened. "You stole a camera?"
I nodded. "It has pictures of me and Tommy on it. I gave him the pictures I had, and I just wanted to keep these."
"How were you ever planning on developing them?" Lucy asked.
"I wasn't thinking about all of that. I just had to have something to prove I knew him."
Lucy sighed. "So you want us to take pictures of this place?"
"Yes, I have artwork depicting everything and everyone here, but I doubt that will count as hard evidence. Especially get pictures of the kids with obvious para-powers."
Luke scratched his head. "Assuming we can get those pictures without getting caught, what would we do with them?"
"We need to find a way of getting this to Drake's friend." I gave them Brad's email and phone number, and handed Luke the camera. "Get this to him. Tell him everything we've told you and everything you've experienced. At least someone on the outside will know that we exist and need help."
A knock at the door startled us all. Luke slipped the camera into his pocket.
The door opened. "It's time to go," Gar said to me.
"I thought I was leaving in the morning?" Panic rose in my chest. This was too real, too fast.
'Relax, we'll find a way to get out.'
I wondered what it would be like to meet Drake in person. He filled my imagination—his voice, his scent, the feel of his skin. He'd taken up residence inside my body, somehow. Would that change when we really could touch, when I could actually smell him and feel him for real?