When one escapes from confinement, the mental image of running away from it is usually associated.
Running breathlessly, always looking back to make sure one was not being followed while trotting ahead expanding the distance between the two.
Valora had this in mind. Like all visionary foresight, it never equals the reality.
She was locked tight immobile in a closed-spaced compartment with two of them, stuck together.
Their bodies were bent to accommodate to the space that was given. The air was trapped and protruding. Steel walls surrounding, enclosing them like a pack of sardines.
They couldn't move. Their limbs were stiff and numb. The urge to complain cancelled out with the goal set in her head. Only moving of the van rumbling down the road was felt.
Valora shut her eyes, escaping to what happened before. When she left Phoenix to his solicitous affliction, instead of being happy at his misery. She only perceived a hollow pang inside her.
The amount of resistance she endured not to go back, not to walk in on him jerking himself and hear the echo of his cries of sweet rapture only she knew. It eroded away turning into unbearable pain.
Heading down back to Andrea, who wore a smug look on her face. Valora rolled her eyes at her but she didn't forget to whisper a small word of thanks.
Finally, dawn christened the sky. The trio headed by Andrea took them to the kitchen. No one noticed anything strange. Everything had the same old happenings. It was after all a regular beginning of another day at the Atlanta Prison-house.
Valora looked upon the compartment of the van that Rodney had installed and to say the praise it received was not enough.
On the surface, it looked like locker as the ones you see in college lockers. On opening it, the hollow storage space made for exactly three people to fit in. When closed, the locker doors camouflaged with painted sheet metal floor of the van.
It had some kind of ventilation to provide for the flow of air. The vents took the form in three horizontal angled slats. On the bottom of the lock door, it was equipped with a lock.
One by one they fitted in. The two of them lied flat on their back. It looked uncomfortable and stacked in. Valora got in last.
With a heavy push, she was smacked against Cathy. No one dared to complain. It was all done for liberating from this desolate glomming prison house.
Andrea nodded at them and with one last look, she closed the locker door and trapping them into darkness.
Andrea's job wasn't done yet. She had to be the one to make sure they reached the harbor in time to signal the guards of their escape.
Leading them, she would guide the group in wild goose chase. The guards under Andrea's leadership would circle the whole island giving them plenty of time to get on the ship and before they could figure it out be on their way to the mainland.
Rodney and Andrea would keep in contact briefing them of each's whereabouts. If caught, she would throw the burnt phone into the sea as decided before. She by then would vanish and get on the next boarding ship. Naomi was worried about her but Andrea entrusted her to not.
At first, the turmoil and racing of hearts couldn't be stopped. They were all on the edge.
The wild inconsistency of their capture ran in all their minds. If they get caught, the efforts was all for nothing.
The token of instability rocked in them.
They had been on a nervous lockdown which released like a somber relief when they heard the roaring of water against the shore. They must be near the harbour. They rocked over what felt like bumps. Grinding noise of tires against the rubble vibrates through them.
When the two long blasts was heard, it indicted that the ship was leaving deport. Naomi was the first to release a breath but Valora couldn't. At least not yet.
The van's engine stopped, accompanied with the slam of the front vehicle door that made her nerves jump. Thumping of footsteps echoed outside and they could discern Rodney or someone opening the latch of the back door of the van.
The thudding continued and with a few clicks, the chamber door opened revealing Rodney's smiling.
Valora instantly smelled the sea.
"Are we clear?" Cathy queried.
"Yes and no."
They all froze. "What does that mean?"
"Why don't you guys get yourselves out first?"
Apprehensively they did. Stretching their limbs, Valora demanded. "Tell us."
"So the good news is you are off the coast. Safe and clear. Bad news is the Andrea's phone got cut because she threw her cell phone into the sea and.."
Naomi snapped. "And what?"
"Warden found out."
Valora's senses tumulted. "What do you mean he has found out?"
"He knows you three are gone but I don't think he knows Andrea is on this though." Okay, that was a huge relief. As long as Andrea was safe, nothing else mattered.
"How do you know that?" Cathy asked this time.
"Last she mentioned that Phoenix was on the search party, scouring the grounds. He doesn't believe you all left by the ships. He still thinks you are all on the island. At least for now."
"But he'd know soon and then he will try to alert the captain on this ship. They'd likely to search the whole ship." Naomi grunted out.
"Till then we keep a low profile." Cathy agreed.
"How much longer is our destination?"
"Only about six hours till we get to Portmagee."
Six long hours! That was enough time for a search warrant to be issued. Panicking was going to help, they had to be in hiding till they reach the pier of Portmagee.
Luckily, they had the compartment but in worst case scenarios, the people on the ship could search the van. Since it was the only vehicle leaving the prison. The connection could be fairly drawn.
Knowing the ways things work, Phoenix would be inclined to call the police quarters of Portmagee. They would wait for them at the pier. The first thing they would do is go for the van.
This is where Naomi comes in. The emergency supplies. A full organized time planner and executioner. She arranged for them wetsuits equipped with gloves and booties.
The material was called Neoprene, which is a rubbery, water resistant material that is designed to insulate you in water. It had nitrogen bubbles embedded in the material itself, which allows it to insulate them in cold temperatures.
Once they docked close to the pier, they would jump off the rails of the ship and swim to the shore.
With time in her hand, Valora's barrier where she kept Phoenix was aiming to be freed in her head. She of course, didn't allow it.
Not yet. So many not yets. The string of waiting was foreboding.
It ate at her stomach, the hunger of what was happening back on the island, what was...Phoenix doing? Would he come for her?
Questions, questions with no given solution. A glut that had no aid. It reduced to the back of her mind. She wouldn't not think of him.
Forthwith they had other things to stress about. To remain in hiding till the next six hours pass. When the reach the shore-they'd cross that next bridge when they come to it.
Just a note to self: Mustn't get caught.
YOU ARE READING
Venomously Yours,
Romance"So serious all the time. Ever smiled?" No reaction. "Ever laughed, warden?" Not even a tilt of lip. He simply sat there. Looking at her blandly that she was so close to getting up and shaking him to feel. To feel something. Still, she didn't g...
