CHAPTER 33 - A FRIENDLY VISIT

They take me back to my cage after the ‘treatments’ of the day. The cold cement floor feels like heaven after the fiery veins of setting 2. I gratefully lie down on it and close my eyes. An escape will be about speed and endurance. First I’ll have to get out of the basement. That in itself shouldn’t be too hard, I still don’t have a forcefield on my cage, the only challenge will be how quickly they can generate a force field. If they can do that in less time than it’ll take me to get to the door and up in the school, I’m done for. Of course, once up there it’s a matter of either hiding like Brody or getting through the barrier and getting to the mainland. With Brody’s help, I might be able to do the first long enough to get some food and rebuild my strength, but he needed my help to hide out on Wednesdays, and I also have to find him before I could ask for help. With Pam gone the only other person I could ask to hide me is Miriam - or possibly Lilli, but that’d be putting them in danger too, I don’t know what the punishment for hiding an Unassigned is.

Alternatively, I could look for allies here. It’d be dangerous, asking someone out of control for help, and of course, there’s the question of whether or not they could actually help, and what to do after the escape. Professor Holt made it clear that Unassigneds are dangerous, and I can’t justify letting one out without having a plan to keep others out of harm's way. I don’t have a destination planned, no safe house to go where no one would be in danger, plus while there might be someone in here who could help in an escape once I’d gotten them out of their cage, how would I know who to choose? How could I justify helping one and leaving the rest because they don’t serve my purpose? And how could I keep anyone from tracking us? I could make my way from the mainland without using my ability and could possibly remain relatively hard to track, but could these people refrain from using theirs? No, my best bet is to make my own way, get off this island. If I can somehow make contact with the family I might be able to convince them to lead a break out from here. Could that be uncle Howard’s plan too? Getting the family involved? It’s a long shot, any Langdale interference would show our hand and put a target on our back. He’s good at reading people, knowing what to say, how to convince people, and he did say he used to be a lawyer, but still, could he do it? Could he convince the family to risk their own lives for out of control children? Or is it possible he’s already failed?

“Put him in here,” the lab coat says. “And I want a full report by noon.”

“Yes, sir,” a catcher answers, but there’s a hint of annoyance in the voice. There’s a noise beside me, like iron against iron, like rusty, unwilling hinges. I open my eyes but stay still and listen. Someone is entering the cage on my left, but my back’s turned. I listen to the Catchers and the Lab-coat retreat.

“How are you doing Britt?” the newcomer asks. I recognize the deep, hollow voice, but I refuse to accept it.

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“Oh, you know, same old same old.”

“That’s always the way with you. How about her?” I suspect he indicates towards me. I raise my head up and look at him. I wasn’t mistaken. “You are awake,” he comments. I want to tell him off for being here, for getting caught after all this time, but I don’t know if it’s smart to acknowledge that we know each other. Instead, I just stare at him.

“You know her?” the girl across from me asks, Britt I assume.

“She’s the reason I’m here,” Brody answers. That can’t be… Does he blame me for getting him caught by getting caught myself?

“I knew she was a bad seed,” Britt agrees.

“She’s alright,” Brody argues. She looks at him for a second, considering his words as if he’s some sort of authority figure here.

“Whatever,” she decides and turns her back on both of us.

“What did you do to get on her bad side?” he turns to me and asks.

“She listens to gossip,” I explain.

“She’s not one you want to hate you.”

“Why, you afraid she’ll hurt me?” There’s a sort of grunt sound from her cage when she hears the sarcasm in my voice.

“You think you could take me, little princess Langdale?” she teases.

“Princess Langdale?” Brody asks.

“You didn’t know? She’s a Langdale, a purist. She doesn’t think scum like us should be allowed to live.” Brody looks at me.

“Mr. Lab-Coat has a big mouth,” I explain.

“And you haven’t considered correcting him?”

“Didn’t seem all that important – and it’s not like anyone would listen anyway.” He just looks at me as if defending my honor should have been the first thing on my list of chores. Then he shakes his head as if the elitist pure-blood is too stupid to be worth the bother of explaining it to her.

“Did you do as Howard told you?” he asks instead.

“You mean ‘nothing’? Yeah, I’ve done plenty of nothing.” I can’t tell if the look on his face is impressed of doubtful.

“Give me your hand,” he requests. I put my hand through the bars separating us. “You don’t have a force field,” he says in astonishment. “They haven’t mapped out your ability yet.”

“What difference does it make?” Britt asks, her back still turned to us. “They’ll get it soon enough, and it’s not like she can go anywhere. She’s torturing herself for no good reason.”

“You don’t know what I know,” Brody fires back.

“What, the pure-blooded freak has a way out?”

“She’s not a pure-blooded freak,” he defends me. “And if she did have a way out, I’m sure it wouldn’t be good enough for you.” That gets her attention. She turns around and faces him, she even looks me over, probably trying to judge whether or not I could really get out.

“No one ever gets out,” she repeats her welcome from my first day here.

“We’ll see,” Brody tells her. “That’s what I came to tell you,” He turns to me. “Howard says to be ready, it’s all in place.” What is? Why does he keep calling him Howard, as if they were suddenly close? I don’t understand what he’s on about, but I don’t say that out loud. Instead, I just nod like I’m right there with him, understanding and feeling sure of everything.

So far what uncle Howard has said was to trust him, and now both Brody and myself are locked in the basement with so-called ‘Doctors’. For some reason though, I accept that he really does have a plan – the question is just what kind of plan, and how good. Then again, I don’t really have much of an alternative anyway, I might as well see what he has up his sleeve.