Dark Sky

15 - What Lies Above

Chapter Fifteen

Being locked up was boring.

With nothing to do but stare at the ceiling, laying on the bed in the dim daylight, Leila was completely fed up.

She was amazed at how difficult it was to escape from a child's bedroom and she had tried several times. She must be in the only room left in the world that still had glass in the window. Double glazed, tough and locked.

She had launched the heaviest object she could find at it, but the glass paper weight just bounced off the pane like a ball. Other than furniture it was the only object in the room that looked sturdy enough to do the job. It was not.

Other than the chair the rest of the furniture was too heavy for her to lift and the chair was reserved for anyone who came through the door.

She had given up after several attempts with the paper weight and collapsed in frustration on the bed. She had laid here for a while deep in her own thoughts as she stared in silence at the cracked ceiling above.

Leila wondered over and over if she was ever going to see anyone she knew again. Was she going to meet anyone who wasn't an ass infact. So far Joe had been the only one who wasn't.

He was gone.

The vision of him lying motionless on the farm house floor flashed through her head again and she felt a tear well in her eye.

But that was crazy, she thought. She hadn't even shed a tear for her family who were almost certainly dead, so why did someone she barely knew have this effect?

"Probably because my family is only presumed dead." Leila thought wiping her eye. She knew Joe was gone, she had seen it.

A feeling of depression was quickly descending on her and she was beginning to wish she hadn't survived the apocalypse. She hadn't felt real sadness when she had been with Joe, there was a feeling of hope when he was around. Now all she had to look forward to was thugs and loneliness. Everyone she had ever known was gone and that was the stark reality of what was waiting for her.

The only thing keeping her set on escape was the thought of what her kidnappers had planned, it was probably worse than anything she would have to face out in the world on her own. She didn't want to be a slave to power hungry thugs.

Things looked a bit bleak, the end of the world had only begun a few days ago. Fires still burned, she had seen the orange glows at night and already she was someone's prisoner. If she managed to escape from here she was going to have to learn to trust nobody. Survival it appeared depended on looking after yourself and not others.

How long was she going to have to wait?

Someone had to come and open the bedroom door soon. Or were they just going to leave her here until she starved to death?

No. They would have just killed her at the farmhouse if that was the case, she thought. They needed her for something, that's why she was still alive and by that theory she knew the door would open eventually.

It was just a question of when.

Not too long, Leila hoped. She might just go crazy if she had to stare at that ceiling any longer.

Now she began to think about what was on the other side of the ceiling and slowly a realisation washed over her, there may be a way out after all.

"The attic!" She shrieked.

All she had to do was break through and then let herself out of the hatch on the landing. She would be free from her prison and then she would have to get out of town with out being caught.