Republic of Omisha

Chapter 5: Kalea

  Kalea noticed that Eliza didn't seem right. She was off but not in a tired way instead she seemed overwhelmed. Kalea know that she had to keep Eliza focused and as calm as possible because Kalea recognizes the look in her eye. Eliza can feel her PTSD flaring up. An anxiety attack burned under the surface.

Kalea gripped Eliza's hand tightly as she lead her through the crowd. She glanced back to Helena and her Father a handful of times and they did as she suspected. They followed Kalea's lead without question. They held each other and her Father was to preoccupied in holding his wife to bother trying to grasp his daughters' hands. He was a shell of a man. Kalea knew this and that's why she lead the through the tight, brightly lit corridors. The place was like a maze. Any room could hold a hidden door. Kalea already knew where one was. They briskly walked calmly to the far side of the building and turned right sharply. They were following a solid wall, but they appeared to be doubling back on themselves. Kalea peered into some rooms but didn't slow her feet to enter one. She knew the one that she was looking for. One room looked like the desert with real plants. Another looked like a fancy ballroom from the late 1800s.

Kalea abruptly stopped and ducked into a room that looked like a study and opened a door that you would assume to be a closet. It opened to an extravagant bedroom with a raised bed frame and a laced canopy. At first the bed looked normal, but Kalea saw that the bed frame under the bed skirt was a wiry metal frame that didn't match the rest of the hand carved wood frame that supported the canopy. She lifted the bed skirt and easily squeezed under the bed and ripped the metal vent effortlessly from the wall.

Kalea turned to Eliza and spoke in hushed tones. "There's a vent big enough for us to squeeze through under the bed. Eliza fist." She saw Helena and her Father watch her attentively.