Hideaway

Chapter 4: We stick together

I knew that our plan for finding freedom may have had a few flaws in it, but I didn't care. I was so desperate. I knew nothing could hold us back unless we let it. And I definitely knew we had to stick together. That variable in the plan was the key to success. It was like a math problem. An addition problem. If some of it is missing, there is no way to figure out the answer. Without that single variable, we would not succeed. Or rather I would not succeed. I wanted this more than anyone else and I knew that. No one could want this more than me. I considered that. What if someone else wanted it more. I knew that was a possibility. If this failed, my life would be over.

Now we had to hide our suitcases. This would be tricky because there were very few places in the orphanage where it couldn't be discovered. There were only about three. There were six of us. If the orphanage owner found fully packed suitcases hidden poorly away. We'd be caught for sure and get in huge trouble. I pushed that thought far into the back of my head so I could think optimistically. Three of us got the best spots and that was me, Bruce, and Hannah because we found them first. The other three weren't so lucky. They had to hide their's under their beds. It wasn't a huge problem, but they would be harder to get to when the time came. We said, "Oh well." and moved on. Now we realized we had skipped lunch and were terribly hungry. I knew I had money in my suitcase. It was one of the few things important to this mission that they had allowed me to take to the orphanage. Besides, with the money we could probably buy something nice to eat. Even a salad would taste terrific compared to what we had been eating. We didn't even know what it was. Even though we were hungry, we got to work. My stomach grumbled the whole time like an angry pack of wolves. I was starving. I didn't even get three meals a day here. Skipping one would mean great discomfort and my friends were showing signs that they weren't very content either. I silently promised them I would get them a meal tonight. It was the least I could do to thank them for helping me. They could've said no. They didn't and I was grateful for that.

Soon, work was finished. We had some time to kill before nightfall. That would be when we would drug the orphanage owner. It may have seemed rude at the time, but we knew it must be done. We got the water ready to bring to owner by putting it on a tray along with some flowers and a note that said: Thank You!!! Georgie said it was deceiving which was indeed true and I concluded that Georgie was a goody goody and Zest had been trying to toughen him up. His attempts were futile. Georgie and Zest were getting a bit of a connection. They were going to be good friends and good and bad combined could have some unexpected outcomes. We had even more time to waste so we sat down on the beds and sighed. We were exhausted. We all looked at each other and I asked, "What will life be like outside of the orphanage?' We didn't know. Especially since kids like Christina and Hannah had been here for years. People who hadn't didn't know either. I couldn't even imagine. I looked up at the clock and realized we had talked for hours and it was about time we brought the water down to the owner. We were excited.

That excitement soon faded after we came downstairs to see the owner pull a suitcase out from behind one of the old torn up sofas. We were shocked! That was one of the good hiding places! She studied it and then looked up to see us watching her. 'Well don't be shy," she said. "Come out." We immediately crept slowly towards. Something hindered us from doing so, but we did it. "What's that you have in your hands Bruce," She asked. He started sweating and was totally giving us away before Zest stepped in and said, "It's a present. For you. For being so nice to us." She seemed surprised. Probably because she had never gotten a single present in her life. She seemed to contemplate the situation. She then stopped her deep thought and said, "Why thank you." She was distracted and put down the suitcase. She then took the tray and sniffed the flower, which we had simply picked from outside. "Roses," She exclaimed. "How did you know I liked roses?" We didn't know. We were just extremely lucky. She had now forgotten completely about the suitcase. Then she took a huge gulp of the water, looked very sick and finally, passed out.

Now we knew we had to act fast. Because Christina had emptied so much into the glass, it would work very fast, but only last for a few minutes. We all got our suitcases. They were very heavy and hard to carry because they had bare essentials in them. This was it. We were finally going to bust out. This took about three minutes. We burst through the door and ran towards the sidewalk when we were halted by a voice. The owners voice. Cranky, angry, and old. She looked through the window.

"STOP!!!!!! You'll die out there!!" Like she even cared. Then I turned to her and said, "We don't care. We're free from you." She had never been confronted like this before. She was silent. Then turned away. She really didn't care. We ran down the road towards freedom.