Chapter 33

The car moved steadily forward. For a moment I thought maybe we’d already gone through the checkpoint and we were home free.

That’s when the car slowed to a stop.

My ears immediately perked when I heard male voices mumbling outside. While I couldn’t make out what they were saying, the tone sounded friendly. The car doors were being opened and then slammed shut. After the fourth door closed, I braced myself for the inevitable.

An audible click right above me caused me to flinch and a fresh wave of adrenaline shot through my veins. My mouth went dry as I heard footsteps approaching the back of the car. Two men chatted, one obviously Keanu, as their voices neared my location.

“Where are you headed?” An unfamiliar voice asked politely.

“Washington. Just going home for the weekend.” Keanu’s voice was calm and casual.

The men were standing just outside the trunk. I held my breath and closed my eyes, hoping this would be over soon and we’d be free.

The trunk lid groaned a little as it was fully opened. Praying that no part of me was visible from under the dark cloth, I waited, paralyzed.

“Which part of Washington you from?” The guard asked as I felt his eyes scanning the inside of the trunk. His voice was so loud now; I knew he was only inches away from me.

“Silver Spring.” Keanu’s voice cracked ever so slightly as the pressure mounted before him.

Finally, after several moments of intense praying, the trunk slammed shut and I heard the men walk away. I wanted to scream with joy that we’d done it!

We’re free baby! We’re free!

All we had left to do was drive off the base and join the world of the living again!

Feeling the car jiggle a little and a door slam, I knew Keanu had just gotten back into the driver’s seat. Excitement like I’d never known welled inside me.

Before this entire nightmare, I’d never thought what it must be like to be incarcerated, or worse, sitting on death row. To be a prisoner awaiting their last meal or walking the last mile toward the moment of their last breath.

Now I understood what anxieties and pains they must endure…and the appreciation of freedom. I’d only been captive for a short time compared to many inmates but I’d faced my worst fears and my own death head on, only to come out the other side a changed soul.

My perspectives had altered so drastically, I felt like a different person. Now being on the run, it crossed my mind that I would have to consider changing my name, which seemed appropriate now that I’d been reborn into a different light.

I had never been a materialistic person but whatever obsessions I used to have regarding my hair, make-up, clothes, etc. were virtually non-existent on my list of priorities now. Even school and my once precious Archeology were pressed so far back into the recesses of my former self, I didn’t care if I ever went back.

Amy. I would always miss Amy. I knew I could never see her again. It would too risky to associate myself with anyone I knew in my ‘former life’.

Even my grandmother, the wonderful soul who welcomed me into her life from the day she found me in the cave, would have to be left behind, filed into the memory banks of my past.

Someday, I knew that I would find a lesson in all of this, maybe even an appreciation, someday, a long time from now.

With the car moving slowly forward, inching us across the border of salvation, I suddenly heard a noise that would chill me to the bone.