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Chapter 23

Marley slipped on her heavy, black wool coat that was laying over the back of Nan's chair next to her hospital bed. Marley sat up painfully, her head pounding violently. She had eaten food, although most of it didn't stay down, and now she was getting out of the hospital wing.

Three Days

Three Days to make a plan

Three Days to get Nan out

Three Days

The smart thing to do was to stay in the wing until she was fully recovered mentally and physically, but she didn't have time.

Time was the main difficulty in Marley's plan. Despite the constant dred of death and torture, which she knew was inevitable for her, she needed to get Nan out. Her big talk with Nan about how she wanted to get out just as much as Nan wasn't a full lie. Marley did want to get out, but she knew that Nan had a better chance of surviving than her. So while she did think that she had three days to get out, she knew that truthfully, she had three days to get Nan out.

Marley slipped on her black flats and smuggled a few bottles of morphine from Nan's cupboard. She then made her way out of the wing, looking over her back towards the empty room.

"See you at supper Nan." Marley stated.

"Yep. See ya." Nan answered from the surgery room. Marley smirked a little and walked out, towards her room. Nan gave her the 'day off' from work. This, although it looked like it was a medical thing, was actually an excuse to give her more time to get her plan together.

Marley made her way to her room, walking towards the elevator. She hated having to go down beneath the building. It made her feel truly trapped in this Hell hole. The doors slid open and there waited her guard. Marley painfully shuffled into the steel death trap and the doors slammed shut behind her. Marley jumped a bit and walked to the side wall. She didn't want this to be the day that her guard decided to 'deal' with her. Any other day and it wouldn't worry her but she didn't have the time to recover again. She needed to be as strong as she could so she could save Nan. She counted to fourteen, knowing that the doors would slide open and she could escape.

4...5...6...

"So, Marley, how was your PT test?"

8...9...10...

She jumped. "Uh... fine. Good." Marley looked towards the door, seeing if it could open a little sooner than expected. She knew that she wouldn't have enough time to get out today. She looked down and pulled out the napkin she put in her pocket the day before. She then grabbed the black pen she always had and jotted down a note.

12...13...14...

The door slid open and Marley quickly stepped out, but she felt a hand grip onto her upper arm. She quickly dropped the note on the ground, hoping the guard didn't  notice. Her fresh bruises along her arms ached as his hand wrapped around her slender arm. Marley yanked her arm away and looked at her guard.

"Just fine?"

"Yes. Just fine." Marley answered in a stoic tone.

"Then what happened to your head?" The guard asked, roughly touching the back of Marley's head where her stitches were. Marley yelped and fell down, gripping onto her guard's arm for support.

"I... slipped on the log and hit my head." Marley lied.

"Uh huh. Okay." The guard pulled Marley up and walked her down to her room. "Don't fall again though. That would be a shame."

Marley tried to yank her arm out of her guard's grip but he held on tighter, pulling up and lifting her off the ground, her toes dragging on the ground. "You are going to bruise my arm even worse."