On the Run: The Texas Files ✔

Chapter 41: The Haste at the End

It's been hours. I've been lying face down in the holding cell for hours.

I've been receiving dressing changes and morphine every six hours, I'd estimate. It has happened four times, so I've been in here at least two days total. Of course, I still have no idea what's going on with the time. When they sedate me, I could be out for hours or days, but I have absolutely no idea.

I'm relieved to be getting steady morphine injections. Unfortunately, whoever is doing it is injecting me right in the same place on my arm. I have a pretty large bruise forming there now.

They've been feeding me regularly. They bring food every 4 hours, I think. It's always the same thing: a single hard-boiled egg, a peanut butter sandwich, and two bottles of water. I'm still hoarding half a sandwich and a bottle of water every time food comes because I don't want to go hungry if they just decide to stop feeding me.

I try to distract myself by planning how to escape. I can't think about Parker being here.

But my thoughts always come back to him. Parker is in the facility. I wonder what they've been doing to him. Are they feeding him? Are they shocking him? I don't even want to think about that.

I have to get out of here. I need to make sure he's okay. That's one thing that the Parker in my head was right about: I would trade anything to make sure he's safe.

I still have some questions, though. Did he find me or did they find him? What are they planning to use him for? I kind of know the answer to the latter, but I don't want to think about it. Because they're going to use him to get to me. They're going to do to him what they do in my nightmares.

They're going to shock him until I give them the answer they want, except that I don't know the answers they need, so they just keep upping the voltage on the machine, which eventually kills him, leaving me screaming.

I won't have it. I won't.

I don't have a plan yet, but I need to think of something, fast.

I can't fight the sedation, however, if I still have some pain-free time from my morphine injections, I could disarm the person coming in to give me the sedative. But they have to travel in packs, right? They're probably expecting me to buck back.

But of course, they may not know that I'm not in absolute agony all the time because the person giving me morphine has to be sneaking it in.

Not everyone in this facility would approve of me having morphine. They have voiced in the past that they don't actually care what happens to me.

Pain can be such a powerful motivator. That's why they've never drugged me before.

So, the person who's giving me the pain medication has to be new here, or they know me personally and feel sorry for me.

That doesn't leave many people, especially those who actually know how to give an injection properly without killing me.

The only people who know everything, and could possibly get in here, are Andrew and Parker. And even Andrew is a stretch. He's important to me, of course, because he's my brother and I love him, but they have never used him before now.

And why would now be so important?

Breaking my concentration, the locks start to unhinge at the door. I close my eyes and steady my breathing to make it seem like I'm asleep. Footsteps approach me. The person picks me up, but they don't inject anything into my body.

No sedative? Something is going on...

I remain still and keep my breathing even as much as I can. They put me in a hospital bed. I can tell because it's padded and they end up putting me on my back. They then stick another needle in my arm and leave it there.