They Chose Me (Draft 1)

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

                My breath rattles in and out. In and out. I sit in the corner farthest from the door in my prison room. Violet silently dropped me off with a sympathetic look on her face. I wish it was night, so I could go to bed. But at the same time I don’t, because who knows what nightmares will show up tonight? I shudder.

                My arm is sore from the injection. More like removal. All Leader Mason was injecting was more fear. I look up at my minute window, but my head pounds a bit more. I try to stand, but my head resists. If I’m already experiencing side effects of blood loss, how will I manage? The only reasoning I have is that Leader Mason did take out a great deal of blood in about two minutes.

                I squeeze my eyes when a picture of my blood trapped in the syringe appears. Lots of it. A shaky breath makes its appearance again. I put my head in between my knees.

                Time ticks and tocks until it’s time to leave

                The words of the poem come back to me. I don’t know how much time has passed, but it certainly has ticked to make my posterior sore. The door wordlessly cracks open, revealing Violet holding a tray of food standing in its wake. She rushes over when she sees me sitting there in the close corner and puts down the tray next to me. Slight edges of worry are apparent on her face and she sits down next to me.

                “Partner in crime, what is our next step?” Violet asks quietly, begging the cameras to try to hear a single word. I shake my head slightly in response.

                “Well, you’re going to need to escape somehow. But before that, we should have your blood taken at least two more times before we try to escape so we don’t get Leader Mason suspicious.” I shudder at the thought of having my blood taken again, but what choice do we have? Violet is right, though. I’ll have to endure my blood-taking a little more before I can leave. Maybe I can extract more information from Leader Mason.

                “Do you have any way of talking to Mary?” I ask, but Violet gives me a confused look, so I add, “The leader of my rebellion camp.”

                “I could try to find a way, but most interactions between ants and government workers are monitored. In Leader Mason’s office, he has a phone that’s unregulated. We could ask for another meeting and try to arrive early. I can ask someone for Leader Mason’s schedule and we can plan the meeting at a time where he’ll be arriving at his office. If we get there early enough, maybe we can have a very brief chat with her. As much as a horrible person he is, Leader Mason is usually on time.” Violet shrugs.

                “But we can’t just hold on to hope- I’ve done it too many times only to be disappointed. We have to plan further. So let’s say we do contact Mary. We could ask her if there’s any way she can meet with you. You can give her building plans and repeat the information Leader Mason told us she knows what she might be getting into. Then Mary will plan something, hopefully during your chat. Then we can initiate it,” I say softly still, since the cameras are always on. And I don’t just mean in my cell. I hope this works.