“There’s twenty of us and four of them,” I argue. For the sake of argument, I include Reed on their side, but when the time comes, he’ll hopefully be on ours. “If we figure this out together, we can beat them.”
Jacqueline throws off her blanket and sits up. “Haven’t you gotten us in enough trouble already? There’s no figuring this out. We’ll never get the chance. If they suspect for a second that we’ve really banded together to fight our way out, you know what they’ll do, Quinn?”
“What?”
“First, they’ll just keep us locked in our cells all day. Fuck the shirts — the real money comes from selling us, so that’s what they’ll do: find buyers, and not the rich ones from somewhere in the country. They’ll put us in boxes and send us to wherever they can to get rid of us. Then they’ll find new women to bring here and get the whole thing started again, only without a bunch of troublemakers fucking it all up. And that’s if we’re lucky. Maybe they’ll just beat one of us to death in front of everyone, in retaliation for Corbin. You ever think of that, Quinn?”
“They wouldn’t,” I mumble, lying to myself. Edwin strikes me as the type who’d be happy to get his jollies murdering one of us.
“And it won’t be too long before they replace Corbin,” Jacqueline continues. “Maybe instead of getting one new guard, they’ll get three, just to make sure they can handle us. Face it, Quinn. We’re not getting out of here.”
“So then what?” I ask, pacing back and forth. “You’re saying we should just obey them until we get sold off to the sponsors, one-by-one? You think we should just behave so we don’t get whipped until then? Maybe you can live with that, but I can’t. I’d rather be dead.”
Now Jacqueline gets out of bed and practically slams her body against her cell’s bars. Sticking her arm through to point at me, she growls, “What you do affects all of us, asshole, and we’re sick of suffering for a lost cause.”
I shake my head. “If you think we’re lost, why go on living? Why not just kill yourself? I say, as long as we’re alive, there’s something keeping us going. For me, it’s hope. Maybe it’s something else for you, but you’re still here. Why do you think that is?”
Jacqueline doesn’t answer. She looks at me for a bit, then nods and lies back down.
She knows what it is. She’s just not telling me.
That’s okay. I don’t have to know what it is, as long as she does.
—
The guards seem more relaxed the next morning, except for Reed. He’s back from his apparent day off yesterday, and he watches us intently through our shower and breakfast, constantly vigilant. Once we’ve finish eating, he marches toward me.
“Quinn, come with me.”
I set down my spoon and hold my hands up so he can release me from the cafeteria table and cuff my arms behind my back. He walks me out into the hall and picks up a black duffel bag left on the floor.
“What’s this?”
He doesn’t answer, but he opens up the bag and gets out another set of cuffs. He binds my ankles nearly together, then retrieves a chain and a handful of padlocks. He connects my wrists to my ankles with barely enough slack for me to stand up straight.
“Reed, what are you doing?”
“Be quiet,” he warns, taking out a roll of tape from his bag. He rips off a strip and stretches it across my lips, then adds three more, ensuring I can’t speak.
Fucking shit.
After yesterday’s relative peace, I’d forgotten that there would be consequences for killing Corbin. Maybe that’s what Reed was doing yesterday: preparing some awful new punishment for me to endure.
Once he’s satisfied, he grips my arm and starts walking, forcing me to keep pace. We head through the main corridor, and I’m surprised when we don’t stop at the dungeon. We’re going in the opposite direction of the auditorium, so where is he taking me?
After a while, I don’t even recognize where we are — I’ve never been to this part of the building, and that fucking scares me. I’ve spent the last several weeks of my life in the workshop, my cell and the dungeon, with few other places in between. I’d grown used to each of them, or as much as I could, under the circumstances — at least I didn’t fear them. But whatever Reed has planned, it could be anything.
We stop at a door at the end of the hall, and Reed looks up into a security camera fixed in the corner. After a moment, the door buzzes and Reed pushes it open.
Blinded by sharp, bright light but unable to shield my eyes, I look down to the ground.
Holy shit.
Grass.
My heart pounds, and I smile beneath the tape on my face.
We’re outdoors.