“I know, babe.”
God, how I wish I could reassure her that everything will be fine. Just hold on a little longer. We’re getting out of here, we’re going to be fine. It’s just a matter of time now. I can’t wait to see my guys again and I don’t even want to imagine what it must be like for Meggy.
“Kellan’s been grumpy all the time you’ve been gone away. Wanted to tear the city down brick by brick and look for you,” I yell, wishing I could see her face.
“Quiet,” the girl next to me hisses again. “Seriously, they take it out on all of us if one of us acts up. I’m not getting hurt again because you can’t seem to shut up.”
“Don’t worry,” I reply out of automatism, letting my head fall back against the back wall of the cage, closing my eyes for a second. “We’ll be safe before you know it.”
Someone in the cage on the other side of me starts moving. It’s a guy who looks fairly decent compared to all of the people in here. His clothes are semi clean and he feels out of place. He stretches his arms over his head, bends left and right, and then opens the door of his cage.
What in the everloving fuck is going on? I push against the door of my own cage, but mine doesn’t give. He walks out, watches me through one squinted eye and walks to the door where Parker disappeared through. There was a spy pretending to be kidnapped here? What the hell?
I can’t get over the fact in what kind of bizarre world I’ve ended up in. I expect something like this to happen in one of the action movies the guys make me watch, not to unfold before my eyes. It’s like the end scene of ‘Saw’. Didn’t see that coming, didn’t see this coming. I find I’m having a hard time swallowing. What’s going to happen next?
“Yo Park, new one knows something,” I hear him say before the door falls shut behind him ,and I’m left behind with a racing heart and my anxiety levels spiking.
He’s onto me. Are they going to kill us all now? What’s happening? People in the cages around me start shifting nervously as well, all eyes focused on me. It feels like someone is squeezing my throat and I can’t get any air.
Fuck! I’m never doing anything dangerous after this again. Never, ever, ever. The girl in the cage next to me who told me to be quiet is looking at me with eyes so wide I’m afraid they might fall out. I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t know what’s going to happen.
And before I can get into a full panic attack, a lot of noise comes from outside. There’s yelling and things falling over, and when I hear the sound of what’s clearly a gunshot, I pull my knees up and wrap my arms around my knees, making myself as tiny as possible.
Trying to disappear seems like a very appropriate response. Like I haven’t been living in a movie enough the last few months, I’ve now heard a real gunshot. Is that how this is going down? Us all dead by a bullet? Fuck, I really don’t want to die. I’ve got too much living left to do. After the whole bridge ordeal I haven’t had enough time, I need more.
Before I can fully grasp what’s happening, police come barging into the room. They make themselves known by yelling that they’re from the police, but I keep sitting in my little ball of safety.
“Miss Pike?” someone says from somewhere in front of my cage. Still, I’m not looking up. I really want to hide from reality, thank you very much. “Morgan?” the same voice tries again.
Very slowly, I lift my head, only brave enough to look up with one eye, to see officer Vargas crouching down outside of the bars in front of me. There’s another cop doing something with an angle cutter making sparks appear, and I get back in my ball again.
“It’s okay,” Vargas says. “We’re getting you out.”
“There was a gunshot,” I whisper. Jesus, I feel so pathetic in that moment. Meggy has been held here against her will for so much longer than me. And here I am, falling apart after hearing one meager gunshot.
“Yes, there was a gunshot. Nobody is hurt. We have mister Rosso in custody. Some other people who were here as well. You did an amazing job at helping us find this place.” His tone is so quiet and calm, it’s starting to have an effect on me. “We’re now working on getting everybody out as quickly as possible.”
“All of us?” I ask softly.
He nods, his kind eyes focused on me.
“Meggy’s here somewhere,” I tell him. And somehow saying her name out loud makes me come to life. I lift my head and loosen the grip on my legs a little. “Meggy!” I yell. “We’re getting out of here! The police are here!”
“‘Bout time!” my feisty little friend yells, and I can hear some of her spirit has come back. The officer that’s demolishing my cage is finished, and opens the door.
I get up with the speed of light and fly out of the iron barred thing. Never again, thank you. Not even in Dominium will a cage ever have any effect on me other than fear. I’ve been here for like five minutes and I’m done with it already.
Officer Vargas squeezes my shoulder. “You can go outside, your guys are behind the tape, waiting for you to get out. At least, they were when I left them. Didn’t seem like they were going to be held back by some tape.” He’s smirking as he tells me.
My heart does some kind of happy jumping thing when I think about them, but they’ll have to wait just for a moment, though.
“Hell no,” I say as I speed past the officer. I run along all the cages, looking in them, searching for my little red-headed energizer bunny. “Meggy?” I yell.
“Polo!” she yells back, and I can’t hold back a laugh. I try not to count all the cages I pass, and I most certainly try not to look too closely at the state some of the people in there are in.
“Marco!”
“Polo!” she yells somewhere down the line.