ruse.
These and all my life’s mistakes and regrets threatened to overwhelm me, but then hope came my way in the form of the sound of someone going ‘psst.’ At first, I didn’t think I had heard anything until it happened again.
“Pssst,” the sound came from the window.
I opened my eyes and the room was only mildly tumbling now. I looked to the window into the darkness outside and saw a pair of shiny white eyes staring at me through the bars on my window. Sitting up took a lot of effort and I resisted the urge to toss my cookies after being hit with a wave of nausea which forced me to close my eyes for a few seconds. I reopened them and looked to the window to see that the eyes were still there.
“Hurry up and get over here before the next guard comes by,” a voice said from outside the window in a sharp whisper.
I wobbled as I stood and took the two steps from my bed to the window and nearly stumbled, only stopping myself from falling by grabbings the bars. In my condition, the best I could say was, “What?” I wasn’t sure this voice and eyes weren’t a product of having my brain scrambled.
“Grant, what’s wrong with you?” the voice asked.
“They whacked me in the head,” I said.
“Who are you?”
“It’s Chuck, you idiot.”
“Chuck, you’re here?” I asked, the words coming out slowly. I was having trouble comprehending where Chuck had come from. We had last seen him jumping off the bus miles away.
“You need to get your head on straight,” he whispered. “I don’t have much time. How did they take all of you?”
“They drugged us and locked us in these rooms,” I said. “These people are crazier than shithouse rats.”
“Yeah, I sort of guess that,” he said. “I’ve been watching them since I got here.”
“They worship the devil and they threw Mo into a pit of zombies.”
“What?”
“They said he was a sacrifice to their Dark Lord. They said it would appease him and keep the rest of the undead at bay.”
“I knew it was bad when I saw them dragging you across the field, but this is worse than I thought. ”
“Ya think?!”
“Calm down, princess,” he said and didn’t speak for a few seconds. “The whole shootout on the highway was an act.”
“I sort of got there already,” I said, then added, “but just a little too late.”
“I shot one of their guys hiding in the woods shooting at you.”
“So, that was you?”
“Yes.”
“What took you so long to get here?” I asked.
“You rode, I walked.”
“What are you going to do to get us out of here?” I asked.
“Nothing for now. The place is too heavily guarded.”
“I have a feeling that we don’t have a lot of time,” I said. “Their leader, Jeb, has a whole shitload of crazy behind his eyes. It’s only a matter of time before he takes another one us to the pit.”
“I know, I know,” he said. “I just need some time to get something setup.”
“We may not have time. It’s only a matter of time before they start feeding us to the zombies.”
“Well, you need to make time. The guard is going to be coming around any time now. I need to get out of here. You hold tight here.”
“Like I’m going anywhere.”
With that he stepped back into the darkness and faded away like a shadow as I stood there holding onto the bars and staring into the darkness. He was so quiet that I began to suspect that the whole incident was a product of my addled brain.
A minute later, the giant came walking by with a rifle over his shoulder. He looked my way and wiggled a finger at me, chiding me for even looking out my window. I stepped back and took a seat on the bed and waited. What I was waiting for, I didn’t know. Sometimes you have to surrender yourself to fate, I guess. I was always terrible at doing that and really wanted to punch someone, but there was no one close enough to hit, so I sat and stewed until I finally decided to lay back down.
Surprisingly, I fell back asleep, which I