Sam formulated the rough outline of his plan. It had taken him less than ten minutes to come up with the bare bones. His mind had always worked like that. It wasn’t the first time he had dreamed of running away and starting a new life somewhere else. He was rather dazed that he had to suddenly consider it seriously.
The plan, which consisted of three phases, had come to him quickly. That had been the easy part. Fleshing out the plan would be the challenge. Preparing the timeline would take some forethought. Establishing what they needed and how long it would take to gather felt like a whole other matter entirely.
Sam’s first telling took close to twenty minutes to diatribe. He kept it plain and to the point. He asked his listeners to save their questions until after he finished. Both Izzy and Ella nodded their ascent.
Phase one was the most detailed of the three so far. Also happened to be the most complicated. It started with hiding the girls away from any prying eyes. Their identities would soon be discovered by the authorities, and a manhunt would begin.
“I think you mean woman hunt,” Ella said. She was shushed by both Sam and Izzy at the same time. Ella mumbled something Sam couldn’t hear before returning to silence.
The two women couldn’t be hidden anywhere they were known to reside or associate with. Sam’s house was the biggest target of all. They would need to be moved. Izzy’s dorm room was also well out of the question.
Luckily for everyone, he had just the place. An old storage shed on the outskirts of the city that had belonged to his father. It had somehow passed down to him, much to Sam’s surprise. A further shock came when the company didn’t care to change the title holder. The shed was still under his dead father’s name. The storage company didn’t seem to care much about their units so long as the yearly rent came in on time.
It had been his haven in times past. He hid there when he needed some time to himself. It was nice to have a getaway nobody knew about. Even if he used it less and less every year. The shed had become a mix of man cave and workshop. It had all the amenities he could pack in. Seeing as he had spent a considerable amount of time there in his early twenties.
After the ladies were safely tucked into their hiding hole, he would spend the next few weeks slowly withdrawing a large sum of cash. Doing it in small bursts would keep the authorities from getting suspicious until it was far too late.
He would begin buying the supplies in tandem with the cash withdrawals. He would separate his purchases a bit more than his withdrawals. Sam wasn’t certain how long it would take to gather everything they required.
Neither girl took his last statement well. Their faces became scrunched, and they practically demanded a rough timeline without the need to utter a single word. Sam paused and then sighed after taking in their displeasure. He roughly estimated it would take two weeks to gather the supplies he needed without major suspicion. Both girls groaned at hearing they would be spending at least two weeks in a storage unit.
He could understand their concern. They would be living in a twelve-foot by twelve-foot box for the next two weeks. But being safe, he thought more than made up for it. He moved past their groans without acknowledging them.
Sam laid out his ploy to keep the police off his back. He would weave a tale of a man whose fiancé went rogue and broke off their engagement. He would feign ignorance of her terrorist plot. He was certain his story would be believed. He was a government employee and was in good standing with his bosses. That fact alone could pull a surprising amount of weight. He had seen it before.
the final act of phase one would require to police to become suspicious of him. Sam knew the police would not come after him unless he was still connected to Ella. So, he would have to sprinkle in clues that they might still be in contact. It was risky but required to give the trio their best chance at escape.
“We just have to make it believable.” Sam trailed off. He looked down at his hands. There was only one thing left to do. He grasped the gold band around his finger. It was the only part of his plan that gave him pause. Whether it was going on the run; Killing those who would hunt them, no matter how many; or leaving his life behind. Everything felt easy compared to this.
It took all his strength to pull the ring from his finger. It felt like he was removing a part of himself. He couldn’t tell if it was his own reluctance or snugness that kept the ring from easily sliding off. Ella teared up when she saw what he was doing. Her face crumpled and her face contracted in a pained grimace. A fear unlike Sam had ever seen filled her emerald eyes.
Meanwhile, Izzy tried to hide a wicked smile of glee. She did a poor job of it. Like the Grinch from the animated movie, the smile twisted until even any atheist would screech demon.
Sam stretched out his hand and took Ella’s. He turned her hand until it faced palm up. It was soft and pale white. He gently set the ring in it. He did so with no malice. It would have seemed casual had his hand not frozen multiple times in the attempt. It was as if his body was rejecting what his brain knew must be done.
“Keep ahold of this for me.” There was tightness in his chest but no tears spilled from his eyes.
“I’ll be taking it back when we’re safe.” A small smile spread across his face but did not reach his eyes. He looked so sad that no smile could ever hide it. He could be brave, but not in this moment. At this moment he was sacred. For only a single instant the boy from his youth let the mask slip.
Ella tightened her fist around the golden band that she had so recently slid on his finger. She took a deep breath and nodded her head.
“I will hold on to it for as long as it takes.” The confidence in her eyes soothed his fears.
“Nothing will stop me from sliding it back on that finger.” Her voice was so deadly serious that it made him think they had just signed a blood pact. A promise bound beyond time and space had been forged. A tingling started in his stomach and shot through his body landing in his brain. The intensity of his love had him feeling dizzy.
The couple quickly tried to recompose themselves. It took them a bit longer than either had expected. Sam stumbled as he tried to recall where he was in sharing his plan. He shook his head trying to clear it. After three long shakes he managed. Tricking the police. The words popped into his head and he knew where he had left off.
Once the police bought his story of ruined love. He would suggest watching his house to see if Ella came back. Keeping the police on his side would be the best way to fool them. He would intentionally become overly invested in the case. That would be the time to start faking some slip-ups. The police would surely catch on.
Sam would let their suspicion of him grow. He would orchestrate them like a conductor. Fanning their flames of suspicion until they were certain he was aiding his ex-fiancé. They would have no choice but to keep tabs on him. He would play the role of the broken man perfectly in the beginning. Keeping them guessing until it boiled over. They would be left with only one choice. They would raid his house while he was not home. Only then he would spring his trap.
“There is a half basement that is barely tall enough to stand in,” Sam said while pointing down. “It was designed for storage and will be the spark that ignites our flight south.”
Forty gallons of gasoline lay fuming under the floorboards of the house. He had kept it in case fuel prices were to suddenly rise out of control. No such event had occurred, but they would soon serve another purpose. When they were piled around the natural gas furnace the house would become a ticking time bomb.
“When the police come, I will send them up in flames.” A look of horror etched itself across Ella’s face, but Izzy continued her wicked smile.
Sam figured the adjustment to killing would be tough for both girls. He was pleased to see one of them at least share his view. They were in a war for survival. People would inevitably have to die. They could not escape let alone survive a month if they kept kid gloves on. The authorities weren’t going to go easy, so neither could they.
If they were caught it would mean torture and then death. No doubt flowed through Sam’s mind as he remembered the stories from work. Sam worked with a few old veterans of the city’s information division. They told of countless atrocities carried out on a weekly basis. That was small potatoes compared to the state or even federal divisions.
As their old lives burned and their immediate pursuers died. The trio would already be heading south to the Gulf. Thus, would start phase two of the plan. It was far less fleshed out and remained mostly concepts. He would have time to work out the logistics as he instigated phase one. There was little more to say about phase two.
Phase three was barely even an idea in his head. It was such a distant thought that It barely seemed worth considering. Phase three relied heavily on phases one and two panning out. So much so that he hadn’t devoted any time to planning it. Phase three contained only one sentence. Travel across the Gulf to the UNSA.
The United Nations of South America had poor relations with their northern neighbor. The United States had rebranded itself as the United Nations of North America and expanded to fulfill its name. The nations of South America had become wary of the new aggressor state to their north. It took less than a year for the states of South America to band together to deter attacks from their powerful northern neighbor.
The history and reasons for the animosity between the states of North and South didn’t mean much to Sam, Izzy, and Ella. What it did interest them was the South’s policy of no extradition. If they were caught in South America they would not be shipped back to the UNNA. A fact that made it their only viable option for refuge. Life wasn’t great in the UNSA but it was better than winding up dead in their home nation. With nothing else to say, Sam gaged his conspirators’ reactions.
The women’s faces lit up. They seemed to like the plan. Especially Izzy who looked as if she suddenly had pieced everything together. They both agreed his plan was good, but it was still lacking in key details. There was much to iron out. Not to mention the timetable was shoddy at best.
Sam found himself doing the one thing he seldom did. He asked for their opinions on how to improve the plan. He wouldn’t normally take suggestions let alone ask for them. But with a plan so big and intricate he doubted they could rely on his brain alone.
The trio spent the rest of the day talking and revising. Ella came up with several ideas to make their split more believable. One such idea was to have Sam stoke the neighbors with thoughts of their fight three days ago. Both knew it had been the talk of the neighborhood. It could be heard from several houses away. Letting the neighbors share their fight would hint at problems in their relationship and lend credibility to their break-up story.
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Sam agreed it was smart and wondered why he hadn’t thought of it. Getting the neighbors in on the scheme would lend far more authority than his word alone. He gave Ella an impressed smile as he made a mental note. Her face bloomed with a grin. It was stunning and flashed as the epitome of triumph.
It seemed like they discussed for only a handful of hours. However, morning quickly faded into evening. Before they knew it the sun was sinking across the opposite horizon. They had only paused their discussion to make meals and drink copious amounts of coffee.
A yawn spewed forth from Izzy. Like a contagion, it quickly spread to the other two. A series of yawns soon interrupted all talking. No more than a sentence or two could be uttered before the yawning strangled their thoughts in the crib.
Sam decided to call it. They could finish their discussion tomorrow. Trying to plan more would only lead to increasingly strange suggestions. They all needed sleep. The women far more than him.
Both Ella and Izzy demanded to shower. Sam threw his hands up confused why they thought he was against it. Izzy went first while Ella searched for a suitable set of clothes that would fit Izzy’s tiny frame. Sam was a little help. He was mostly focused on finding a few secret cameras to hide around the house. Knowing exactly when the officers were in his home was paramount to triggering the explosives.
After Izzy showered, Ella followed suit. Sam was so lost in fleshing out the plan he hadn’t noticed her leave. He sat for a short time writing. He plotted how to slowly withdraw cash when some movement caught his eye. A short shape moved through the open door and began snooping through the things on his dresser.
He let it continue for a few seconds before speaking. “Ella did you get shorter or am I imagining things?”
Izzy froze in place. She coughed an apology while stepping back to the door. “Wrong room.”
It was all Izzy managed to say before she ducked out and back down the stairs. What a snoop he thought. She had some nerve to enter a room without looking around first. If she was going to sneak around she should at least be good at it.
Sam hadn’t once looked up from his writing. Izzy’s intentions were so unbelievably plain that he wondered if he was going crazy. From the moment he had laid eyes on her, he had received little other than jealous looks or outright disgust. It didn’t bother him overly much, but he could feel it slowly getting on his nerves.
What bothered him more than anything was the looks she gave Ella. A mixture of pure adoration and intense longing. He struggled to comprehend how Ella hadn’t noticed. Either his fiancé’s mind was cloaked by the veil of friendship or there was more going on between the two than she let on. Either option would have to be confronted, but without certainty of which it was Sam opted for discretion.
The bedroom light flicked off and then on several times like a scene out of a cheap horror movie. Sam’s mind returned to reality and he looked toward the light switch. There Ella stood in nothing but a yellow towel. Sam’s eyebrows perked up as he scanned her from head to toe. The towel wasn’t overly revealing and he found that he liked it that way. Ella stepped forward and closed the bedroom door sealing them from the outside world.
Sam lay propped on his pillows dumbfounded. Ella had the gall to try to initiate sex while her ex slept one story below on their couch. Sam wasn’t sure what to make of that. With each step Ella took the towel began to fall away revealing increasingly more milk-white skin. A feeling churned in the area just below Sam’s navel. It was warm and gave off a pleasurable ache.
A series of images and their accompanying feelings flashed through his mind. The intensity of their previous fight; Ella hiding her intentions as she ran out the door; His empty bed that morning; Ella standing on the stoop with her ex-girlfriend in tow. The feelings that had overwhelmed him that morning reared once again. The anger, the betrayal, and finally the disgust.
His feelings of arousal burnt out just as quickly as they had ignited. Ella jumped on the bed and straddled him. Towel falling to the wayside. She moved to kiss him and he accepted it. Her hands slid down his chest but he stopped them before they reached the end of his rib cage. Ella’s whole body tensed as she pulled back. Shock plain on her face.
He gave her a tired smile as he said, “Not tonight baby.”
The words came out as exhausted as he could make them. Ella looked at him, tears welling in her eyes. Her disappointment was impossible to hide. He tried to pull her head onto his chest. She resisted before ultimately giving in. He kissed the top of her head.
“Are you still angry at me?” The question bounced inside Sam’s skull. A quick flare of anger burned in his heart before it died away.
“No, I’m just tired.” He let the words hang in the air.
When they received no response from Ella, he spoke to reassure her. “I want you close to me. I’m tired of sleeping alone.”
He tried his best to keep the hurt from his voice. He had slept alone for the last three nights. He had missed her for all three. It felt wrong to sleep alone. He wanted so badly to have everything go back to normal. He thought about giving in and letting go of his suspicion. The thought faded quicker than it had arrived.
Ella slid under the covers. She lay away from him as if uncertain where they stood. She knew he was still upset. The two were never completely over a fight until they had makeup sex. It had become the catalyst to determine if their fight was over. Sam hated that. Ella had used the lack of sex as a tactic to make him give up fights. Once he started standing his ground it had become the norm. He would have to address it all after they were safe. For now, the cycle would continue.
Sam grabbed ahold of Ella’s stomach and pulled her in close. He cuddled her. She let out a shrill giggle as he pulled her in and started to quickly peck her neck and back. He might be upset but that didn’t mean he was happy leaving her alone on the opposite side of the bed. She turned with need in her eyes and kissed him. It was long and perfect. He was still in love. Of that much he was certain.
She nestled into him. Burying her face in his bare chest. Everything felt right. Or at least mostly right. The barrier, which had stopped him from accepting Ella’s initiation, had felt like a twenty-foot stone wall. As they cuddled together the wall had shrunk low and felt far in the distance. It nevertheless remained.
It seemed less than a minute before Ella had fallen into sleep. He had felt tears on his chest before her breathing quieted into rest. As her soft breaths tickled his chest. Though she was fast asleep, Sam couldn’t help but remain wide-eyed and awake. His head spun. All the day’s events whirled like a vortex threatening to suck him into an endless series of what-ifs. As much as he tried to clear his mind it was useless.
An adage his mother had taught him popped into his mind. If you can’t stop thinking of all your problems, think of them one at a time until you’re satisfied enough to pick them up again tomorrow. He wasn’t sure if she had heard it from somewhere or made it up. It rang true either way and helped him much as a young man.
Sam thought back on his plan. It was well received, and he had been given more than one reassurance that it was genius. When he asked for suggestions, he was unsuspectingly bombarded with excellent ideas. It left him with the distinct impression that his conspirators matched his ability to plan.
Izzy wasn’t all that surprising. He had clocked her as being intelligent and opinionated the moment he started to converse with her. His fiancé was a different story. He had always known her to be an immutable rebel. She shot down his plans left and right without so much as a reason behind it. Her preference to wing everything she did was notorious in his eyes. He was often left exasperated by the utterly ridiculous way she fought against anything that had been uttered from his mouth.
Her battles against his plan for their lives had led to many arguments. Her willingness to engage with their current plan was hard to clock. He turned it through his mind. Why was it that she suddenly was on board with planning?
It had taken him all day to realize the reason. It felt so obvious when he had finally landed on why she was always so opposed to their planned future. It was because she was never included in his planning. He had always planned and then told, with little room for discussion.
Sam had always been the one who needed to take charge and come up with a solution to life’s many problems. There had never been anyone to help him, not even his mother. He thought the best way to tackle the hellscape was to rely solely on himself. It was shocking to find out he was wrong. He had found a partner who was just as capable as him. The one thing he had been missing all his life had been under his nose for close to two years. The sweetest revelation that had come to him was that they worked better together than they ever could apart.
The truth was liberating. It fostered hope for a brighter future, while simultaneously furthering the guilt that ate at his mind. It was painful how stupid he became around Ella. Every technique he had learned in his early life, wound up useless or detrimental when confronted with her. He felt like a cripple relearning to walk.
Their relationship was always rocky when they both refused to listen. They were two powerhouses who when disjointed destroyed each other. When they were on the same page it was all different. They could do anything. They need to sync together. To transform from two individuals, into two halves of one whole. The only way to do that in a relationship was to communicate. Sam vowed to do better.
Sam let out a deep breath as he resolved his first problem. But his tranquility was tainted by a feeling just on the outer edge of his mind. Suddenly, as if it had been prepared as an ambush, the lying and fighting between him and Ella reentered his mind like a gut punch. The topic of infidelity which had been brewing since the morning was back. Events had pushed it to the farthest corner of his mind. Now it was once again front and center.
He thought about Ella’s behavior and meeting Izzy. Several questions tumbled through his brain. He would need to get to the bottom of them before the dread, which had seeped into his bones, would leave him.
Izzy’s vindictive disclosure added only more questions and left him with even fewer answers. He thought through their conversation and tried to piece them into Ella’s behavior. Nothing seemed to fit. He felt himself getting frustrated with the conundrum. There was too little to work with to be so certain of the eventual outcome. Yet he still felt it would end in the one way he didn’t want. What that way would be, he had yet to decide.
He forced his thoughts to shift. The only problem that remained was his battle with the government. He had worked the mundane side of it for so long that he had forgotten what it truly was. An uncaring machine of oppression. It had been nearly thirty years since elections had been held. With the state of the world as it was, so dangerous and uncertain, he doubted an election would be held within his lifetime. Which might end sooner than he had previously imagined.
Sam thought back to his father. His father was the weakest man Sam had ever met. A raging alcoholic who could be easily pushed around by anyone he deemed stronger than him. A man whose sole feeling of control was obtained by beating his helpless wife and child until his insecurities vanished. They never did.
Sam couldn’t help but equate his father to the current governmental regime. A figure so hell-bent on obtaining control and his only method in doing so was through violence on the helpless. Sam had known only his father’s oppression from the moment he was born. When he finally broke free. The relief he felt was immense.
He finally began to dream of what life could be like from under the shadow of such a despicable man. He questioned what made a true man, and was dead set to find out. In doing so he had found a sense of self so profound and moving that he embraced every aspect of it. He used it as a shield to protect that weak boy who had been beaten many times before. He had become a man his mother was proud of. Even on her dying bed, she knew he had found what he was meant to be.
Sam had even discovered the love of his life through his freedom. A woman with which he planned to spend the rest of his days. His taste of freedom had been beyond sweet. So long had he lived with nothing over his head but his own sense of self that he had almost forgotten what it felt like to be that scared boy. It seemed nothing lasted forever. Even the good times. Anything that wasn’t like living with his father was part of the good times.
His father was back. Same as before. An unbearable and violent force set on his destruction merely for existing. A force so strong it could not be overcome only weathered. He hated the feeling of helplessness then and he hated it more now. It made him clench his teeth in frustration. Frustration was another feeling had so long sought to avoid. It was an extension of weakness. People only felt frustrated when they didn’t have power, and without power they were helpless.
A motion pulled him from his thoughts. Ella began to thrash in his arms. She moved with a strength he had never felt from her before. She was terrified. He held her tight willing his presence into her. Her body became slick with sweat. Before long they were both drenched. Nothing he did seemed to wake her. He was once again helpless. He could only sit and hold her.
Ella’s body jerked with a start. Her breathing was labored and she looked around as if she expected to be in danger. He could see the fear and regret on her face. Her eyes finally found him and reality. She started to sob. It was only to be expected. She had lived through and perpetuated a tragedy. Even if it were unknowingly, it would surely haunt her forever. Her whole body shook with the force of her sobs.
Sam pulled her close again kissing the top of her head.
“It’s over now,” He said, “I won’t let anything hurt you. Not now. Not ever.”
He had made that promise before, to his mother. He was unable to keep it then, but he would keep it now. It took him soothing her for another half an hour before she fell back asleep. His body was exhausted. His mind more so. Sleep found him awaiting its sweet embrace.