Episode 22

They were led to a room with two chairs and a table with two plates of bread, a tiny portion of over-cooked chicken breasts, and carrot sticks.  The strangeness of a meal cooked for prisoners was soon overcome by their hunger, and they sat down.  Connor set Miah down and sat across from her, and after a quick and thankful prayer, they ate. Miah hadn’t realized how hungry she had been until she took a bite of the chicken; though it wasn’t exceptionally good, to her hunger it was the most delicious thing she’d ever eaten.

There were three guards watching them, but it seemed too quiet. Connor felt as though they were trying to trick him into trying to escape; but he would not spring their trap. Instead, he looked around at the room. He saw a fire alarm on one wall and took note of this.  There was another door besides the one they had entered from, and he wondered where it led.

“That was so good,” Miah sighed, pushing her plate away and leaning her elbows on the table.

“Yeah,” he replied absentmindedly. “Miah, how are your feet feeling?”

She looked down at them. “My knees are bruised, but the cuts are healing…I must have twisted my ankles or something. They still hurt when I move them.”

“It’s too bad we don’t have ace bandages to wrap around them—they’d heal faster that way.”

Miah sighed and nodded. “What if you ask Gail if she could get us some?”

“That’s a good idea—I wonder if she would, though?”

“There’s no harm in asking. And she seems nice. I have a feeling that she was brought here and made to work on this experiment against her will—she knows it’s wrong.  You can tell it in her face,” she whispered, glancing at the guards to make sure they couldn't hear.

Connor sighed, looking around at the room. “I wonder how she can bear it to work here.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know...but if we do escape, I think we should bring her with us.”

He looked at her. “That would be more difficult than you think…difficult to coordinate…and then she’d just be in danger like the rest of us.  Besides the possibility that her 'nervous girl' is just an act, and she's trying to fool us into trusting her.”

“What??”

Connor looked at her as if to say that she must have been thinking the same thing.

“Well...possibly, yes, but…don’t you think she wants to get away from here?”

He nodded slowly, but added, “I’m not going to guarantee that we’ll be able to bring her, too. Things may end up differently.”

“Well, at least you’ll try, right?”

“Yeahhh.” Connor looked away. He couldn’t make another promise to her that he couldn’t keep.