A fierce instinct suddenly enveloped me. No matter what, I had to live. I had to bring this life into this world. I had to get out of here.
Placing my hands softly onto my stomach, I caressed the area where my baby was growing. Sitting there on the floor of a dark closet, my life had no longer become my own. It wasn’t just about my survival anymore. It was ours.
As I stared down at my stomach, hands folded gently over my womb, I suddenly became aware of Keanu’s large warm hand encompassing mine. Looking up to meet his big brown eyes and soft smile, I realized something disturbing.
He doesn’t know about Meyers. He thinks it’s his baby.
Chapter 9
After wetting my hair to convince the guard that I’d indeed had a shower, Keanu led me back to my cell. Coming into my room with me, Keanu leaned over and gave me a tender kiss on my swollen cheek.
An awkward silence enveloped us as we stood before one another.
As soon-to-be parents, we should have been nervously, or even excitedly, discussing the logistics of our situation. Baby names, cribs and night-feedings should have been our main concern.
In a normal world anyways.
Mine was not that of a normal world. Trapped and condemned a prisoner, uncertain of my fate, I had few options. My ‘foreign’ DNA had labeled me an instant threat to a paranoid society.
DNA.
Something so small and insignificant. Untraceable, yet the tainted material in which had marked me as the outsider.
Caressing my belly, a soft smile twitched at my lips as I thought of the tiny heartbeat existing deep within my womb. This little person needed me. My body cradled this new soul, feeding it the nutrients it needed to live. I was giving someone life.
For the first time in months, I was happy. I envisioned myself holding this new little bundle of warmth in pink blankets. I saw myself holding a little girl. Rocking her to sleep, singing a soft lullaby and running my hand through the soft downy hairs upon her head, I vowed to keep her safe. I would hold her tight and kiss away any tears that may fall upon her angelic face.
Keanu watched my face with interest. He wore the same goofy grin that I suspected was on my face.
“I’ll stop by later, okay?” Squeezing my hand lightly, he turned and knocked on the door for the guard to let him out. Watching him leave, I felt a warm sensation wash over me. I wasn’t sure I loved him, but I cared very much for him…especially if he was the father.
A pain tore at my chest as I thought about the fact that this beautiful creature may not be his. I didn’t care. Even if it was Meyers’ child, I wasn’t going to let that notion destroy my vision, she was also mine.
My baby. My blood.
Blood!
It hadn’t occurred to me up until this point that this baby would inherit my blood, my DNA! Sitting down on my cot, I put my face into my hands. I had doomed this tiny being to my own fate! My marred DNA was coursing through her veins, leaving her with the same hazardous genetic material! They would take her from me and use her as a new experimental test subject!
Ironically, this little person had given me the one thing I desired most in the world since entering this nightmare—I was not alone. I was no longer the only one.
That’s what Agent Evans meant!
Before this, I was resigned to die here, in this unmarked grave of existence, but everything had changed. It wasn’t just my life anymore. She had to live.
That was the defining moment. That’s when I knew for a fact that I had to get out of here.
A plan.
That’s all I needed to figure out was a plan of escape. The last time had been too random, too spontaneous. I had to think of something concrete and foolproof—if that was possible.
Think Cassia think!
Wracking my brain, I realized that the only time that I could even make an attempt was during my daily trip to the shower. Now I just had to figure out how to get past the guard. He never watched me shower, that was the only few moments a day when I wasn’t supervised.
How do I slip away from him?
A diversion.
I needed a distraction when I was in the shower to make him leave, even for just a moment. Lying down on the uncomfortable cot, I closed my eyes and searched my mind for an answer.
I’m sure a light bulb popped up over my head when the idea struck me. Giggling, I was excited to put my plan into action.
Glancing over at the mirror with a grin and one eyebrow raised, I couldn’t wait until tomorrow.
Shuffling through the searing sand, the tender flesh between my toes protested against the hot granules grinding in. Wiping the beads of sweat from my brow, I pushed my reluctant body forward through the arid desert.
Ripples of heat waves danced in front of me as though seducing me into the fire. A relentless sun glared down from a cloudless blue sky.
Trudging past a large, fleshy cactus, a speckled salamander skittered from the base, startled from his meager shade.
Water.
I would’ve sold my soul for even one drop. Even the most important things in life become second when faced with a scorching ocean of sand.
She needs water.
Caressing my swollen belly, I felt the tiny life inside of me cry for rehydration.
Thankfully, in dreams, time moves more swiftly than in reality.
Swallowed by a mountainous cliff in the distance, the sun released its tyrannical hold on the Sedona desert for the day. Oranges, yellows and reds settled into the horizon like a fiery rainbow.
My white nightgown, drenched with sweat from the heat of the day, betrayed me as it absorbed the cool night air. Shivering, I scanned the darkening landscape for shelter. As with every dream, I see a shimmer of light in the distance. Beckoning me with its seductive warmth, I am captive to the call like a moth to a flame.
Entering the mouth of the cave, I’m immediately drawn to the symbols adorning the walls.
II. Roman numeral two.
Come, rest by the fire.
A familiar voice urges me. My eyes dart around the secluded cave, searching for the owner.
She is coming. It whispers like a distant prayer driven by the wind.
“Who?” My voice sounds hollow as it reverberates within the large cavern.
Instantaneously, as though my word was a trigger, a sharp pain tears through my belly. Lying down on the cave floor, I pant as I feel my child moving out of my womb.
Screaming, the dream ends, as it always has, in a blinding flash of white light.
Sitting straight up on the white cot, my breath came in short, uncontrolled spurts.
Coughing, I fought to regain rhythm. Pulling the thin, white sheet off of the cot and wrapping it around myself, I realized my teeth were chattering. My bones and muscles ached like I’d run ten miles the day before and my stomach churned with irritation. Nausea overwhelmed me, forcing me to run for the toilet a couple of feet away. Clinging to the sides of the bowl, I wretched violently.
Shaking and sweating, I waited to see if I was done. Since it was the first time in my life I’d ever thrown up, I was overwhelmed with the sensations of illness. My head spun and my body quaked with shivers as I crawled back to the cot.
Curling up on the tiny bed, I closed my eyes and sighed. My plan of escape was going to have to wait.
“I’m not sure, but it looks like she has an internal infection.” The medic stood over me, holding his stethoscope in his hand. “She’ll need an aggressive round of antibiotics.”