Nausea assaulted my stomach at the seemingly impossible task ahead of us. But what choice did we have? We had to get out of this place.
I had to get out of this place.
And while I willed my panic and fear under control, my heartbeat seemed to take a new rhythm; it beat steadily in my chest, whispering a promise of hope, beating a melody of determination. Hendrix. Hendrix. Hendrix.
If I could just get back to him, everything would be alright.
Chapter Four
Darkness. Every window had been checked, double checked and blackout drapes pulled. The doors had all been padlocked from the inside and my bedroom door had been padlocked from the outside.
At least I was alone.
I had no idea what time it was, or if it was close to midnight, but I hadn’t heard Kane moving around in a while. I hoped that meant he was asleep. Just like Tyler warned, my hands were cuffed to the metal bedframe above my head. Kane offered to pull the blanket up, but surprisingly I declined.
Ok, not so surprisingly.
As I focused on trying to get the handcuff key out of bra, I thought back to the day and what it would be like to be imprisoned here forever.
After Tyler left us, Kane gave me a tour of his house- highlighting all the areas I was allowed to make myself home in and brushing past the doors he didn’t want me exploring. I would be free to roam around the town, house, and school, wherever I wanted during the day, but at night I was to return to him.
So much freedom seemed easy enough to abuse, but the militant style of the guards around this place was insane.
I wondered how long Tyler and Miller had been plotting to escape. Because obviously, this was no easy task.
After Kane promised to have more clothes brought over in my size and we had a fast lunch of homemade bread and salted meats, he showed me more of the town.
It was like Children of the Corn. Only instead of just the kids being brainwashed and crazy, it was like every, single human being here had been injected with the insanity. They worshipped Matthias Allen and treated his beliefs like religion. There were signs posted all over the place with wacky political jargon and reminders of how to live communally.
People lived in relative peace, with complaints or issues brought in front of Matthias first thing in the morning- which was why Kane took us directly to the school building. The school building itself didn’t have any residential dorms or anything, but remained kind of a jail/meeting-place/office for Matthias. The gym and fields were also used to train their guards and if I had to make an educated guess, I would have said that’s where they also kept their food supplies and weaponry.
Kane never said that, even after I asked him specifically, but if I was planning this place, that’s where I would put it.
I was even taken to the two entrances to the town by road- one north of town and one south. I watched as a middle aged man and wife seemed to stumble upon the guards. There feet were bare and bloody and they were obviously malnourished. The guards looked them over and made them strip in the middle of the road. After they searched them for bites or infection marks at gun point, they handed them simple black outfits that reminded me nurse’s scrubs- or convict jumpsuits. They were handcuffed behind the back, just like we were and then led off by another set of guards toward the school building. They could barely walk and their faces screamed for mercy and water, but they managed.
“What will happen to them?” I asked Kane quietly as we stood leaning against one of the building fronts on the main street.
“They’ll be asked to sign a loyalty contract and then sent to the medical facilities.” He shrugged, bored with the explanation.
“And then?” I pressed.
“They’ll be put on a six month mandatory probation where they have to live in community dorms and are watched twenty-four seven. At that time they can choose their job and they go to work.”
“And if they’re good little boys and girls?” I asked dryly.
“Then the constant surveillance ends and the next six months are spent in relaxed probation.” Kane turned to look at me, drinking in my features with an increasingly hungry gaze.
I ignored the simultaneous chills and beading of sweat that raced across my body while I struggled not to gag in revulsion and asked my next question, “What is relaxed probation?”
“They are given a residence but are susceptible to random searches and interrogations. Their job performance is monitored very carefully and their living stipend just barely covers their needs.”
“And after that?”
“Then they become voting members of society.” He smiled slowly at me. “It’s really very humane. You have it in your head that we’re monsters, but we’re simply trying to protect a town full of people.”