The Sleeping Prison

Chapter 9

Leo dozed in and out of consciousness for a day. One second she was aware of everything and one shedding even know what she was. The doctors had come and using their high tech medical equipment they had come to the conclusion that I simply had a fever. Wow, all that fancy stuff and that is what you come to, she had thought. She probably had baffled the doctors as much as she had baffled herself.
Now the next day she felt better but still felt exhausted.
She was told to come to lunch that day with her monster of a betrothed, joy she thought.
Eli was good at taking care of her but she wished that she hadn't. She hated being taken care of.
When it was time to go to lunch she got up and wrapped a silk robe around herself. Great more silk.
When she went down to the large, unessiary room ment for lunches. Sitting at the end of the table was Hector. He stared at her in absolute shock.
"Good heavens girl! Why didn't you dress nicer, don't you want me to think you are beautiful?" She scoffed.
"First of all, I was sick for a whole day. Second, I don't care how I look. Third, I don't like my clothes and I don't like you."
"That will change. Come, eat with me, we have much to discuss."
She did not want to obey but what choice did she have? Stand there and give him the satisfaction of looking stupid?
She sat in the chair farthest from him and put her feet up on the table in defiance.
He rolled his eyes and shrugged. He's learning, she thought. She beamed.
"Your father, he is willing to give you more rein. You will able to freely move around town. I'm sure you'll be happy doing that," he said and her hopes spiked then he said "of course under supervision." Her hopes dropped again.
She just wanted out of this prison.
She thought about her fevered delusions. Were they delusions?
She was quite as their meals came, Hector was rambling on with some stupid nonsense that she didn't care about. She fiddled with her food occasionally throwing a pea or piece of food around Hectors feet or by the servants feet so they step on it. Hey, what could she say? She was bored.
When lunch was over she went back to her room. When she got back she changed into the most casual thing she could find.
She was going out.
•••
The next day at the Weeping Willow camp, not a name he chose, was't much different from the first. Only difference was we woke up there.
They had decided to do a night watch system the night before. After the soldiers came Luke, the most we rested took first watch and then Grace, Hannah, James, Will, and Julian.
Julian was up before sunrise the last watch. He didn't sleep well despite his exhaustion, he had been plagued with images of Leo.
Leo sleeping in a hospital gown surrounded in white walls and a white bed and white sheets. White, a color associated with purity but also something so sad too.
He was glad to be awake because then he didn't have to try to hide how he felt from the others or be strong for them or try to hide his nightmares. He could be open because no one was there to see.
He climbed up into the willow and sat in the spot he always had. He could almost feel her warmth as the sun rose over the horizon.
It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
Only here were sunrises really pretty. Everywhere else it was always turned awful from the falling apart buildings or the smog in the sky that the filters can't filter fast enough. The human population was cut down by 98% when the apocalypse hit. The eastern continent was completely uninhabitable to human life and the west wasn't much better. Some people escaped from the east and made a home similar to what they had before here. They all kept their nationality. There is about 2 million of us left in the Americans.
Julian wasn't sure his nationality but he was him.
He sat in the tree and watched the sunrise dreaming Leo was there to see what he saw. She probably wouldn't care though, no matter how beautiful. She would probably push him off the tree when he wasn't paying attention or put a spider down his shirt. Those were the moments when he almost questioned why he loved her.
"Julian?" Hannah called from the ground. "Julian where are you?"
"Up here!" He called down.
"I should have known you'd be up there..."
"I've always liked it up here," he said. "It's where I met Leo."
"Oh... that's why you like it up here so much and you spend so much time here."
"Yeah," he looked at the little blue bird nest. He hopped down from the tree, he could remember all the times he fell and hurt himself doing this.
He went to the rock where they hid Leo's clothes and pulled them out. She had a sweatshirt in there, a pair of jeans, a black tank top, another pair of overalls, three t-shirts, and her uniform. He brought them to the bags and put them in his bag which they had divided supplies before.
"She'll want these when she gets back, she probably hates what she is wearing now."
Hannah was silent. She stood looking at the tree.
"You know it's a wonder that you found her and became friends. All in this tree. Amazing..." she sounded wishful. "Ya know I've really never had a best friend like that. Not like James and Will or you and Leo. I have Luke and as much as I love him it isn't the same, I don't know how Grace goes on with no one close to her."
Julian felt guilty, he had tried for years to love Leo like a sister but he couldn't. She was his best friend and he knew that, but he also knew that she loved him like a brother. Not the way he loved her.
He sighed, it wasn't worth it, despite what he felt he had to save her first, he had to stay focused.
"Once we set up camp here and everything is... normal. I'm out of here, I'm going to get Leo. I don't care what happens to me but I can't lose her."
He expected Hannah to object but she didn't. "Ok. But your not going alone. I'm going with you... and not just for Leo, my sister was taken too."
"Your sister... I remember. I met her right... I don't remember her name."
"Elizabeth, but we call her Eli." She sounded wishful, like someone who had had something their whole life but always took it for granted. When her eyes refocused she said "we should probably wake the others."
"Yeah..."
That day was relatively uneventful, more work. The cave had been made larger and the support beams were up. Fear caught in Julian's thoughts when he thought of Leo. What were they doing to her? Is she ok? What did she do wrong?
The hard labor was a good way to stop thinking about his best friend. It was a good way to work off some of his fear and anger.
Once dinner came they were all beat, it was times like this that he really did see what fear and panic they all hid behind their faces.
Hannah for her sister, James and Will for each other, Luke for Hannah, Grace for well I don't know, she held her fear loosely but it was clear, and it wasn't the fear for her life. Julian obviously for Leo.
He stared down at the fire, the beautiful flames licking the recently dark sky. A light smear of smoke lingered just above the fire in the light. He stayed there long after the others left thinking.
•••
Vance hated base camp, it was strict there, there was no free time, and the food tasted and looked like someone had eaten it already then because it was so awful they puked it back up.
Tonight he was "off" which meant he had extra time to sleep. It was a rare blessing that you had 30 minutes to sleep extra. He walked through the camp, it was so new to him since they moved so fast. The set up was way different than it had been before.
He walked down a unfamiliar path, the tents opened and they became more extravagant. He must have walked into the Generals area. He spread up his pace.
Until he was almost through the line of tents when he heard a strangled cry. Then another and another. He saw where it was coming from. A tent at the end of the row, possibly the hospital.
But how could a hospital have so many patients when they hadn't been in battle yet?
He crept up to the tent and peaked in.
It was the most gruesome and awful thing. On the tables where men in white uniforms, soldiers like him, but they had IVs in their arm with a gruesome black liquid. It sluggishly moves through the tubes. The men on the tables faces were twisted in pain and their entire were taught with pain.
But that wasn't even that bad compared to the shackles that held them down. They were obviously to tight and dig into his fellow soldiers wrist bringing blood to the white clothing.
He could only stare for a second the walked into the tent, a cage was hidden behind the front wall but he saw it now, 3 men stood there with wild looks in their eyes. One of them was the boy he had turned in last night. They were all shackled to the ground with many chains.
"Well, isn't this interesting?" A voice said from behind him.