Imprisoned (28 page)

I sat and tried to pretend the Enforcer sitting behind the desk wasn’t there. I closed my eyes and imagined my house in Fox Run. I pictured the nearby forest with the little wooden hut—the one with the secret tunnel that apparently brought me to this awful world. I imagined exiting the hut and running back to my house and finding my family inside, all so happy to see me. The idea intoxicated me and my desire to leave this place pounded inside me.
I had to get out of here
.

After a moment I opened my eyes and saw the Enforcer staring at me. I felt my face redden under his attention and looked past him to the wall, where my gaze settled on a cheerful poster showing an image of the globe, children holding hands circling it, and in bold letters “A healthy me is a healthy world.”

When I thought of the rest of the pledge—and it came to mind easily since I said it several times a day—I felt sick. The words came to mind, unbidden.
I pledge to always follow the rules and to take care of my body. I will strive to put the good of all above the desires of one. A healthy me is a healthy world.

How could anyone pledge to follow the rules in this world? They were terrible—definitely not in the best interests of the citizens. Of course it made sense to take care of our bodies, but why should I have to make a promise about it? And if putting the good of all above my own desires involved drugging unsuspecting people to make them easier to control, I could not get behind that idea either.

What is taking Madsen so long? I wondered as I sat there. As I waited, I realized I hadn’t eaten anything since the night before when Mrs. Reynolds had made me eat the four power bars. As I thought about eating those bars, I unconsciously licked my lips, a sudden craving for a bar beginning to sweep over me.

A small bead of sweat formed on my upper lip. I quickly wiped it away and squeezed my eyes close, willing my body to reject this desire for the drug I’d been given so freely. Opening my eyes, I looked at my hand and noticed a small tremor and vividly recalled my reaction the day before when I’d tried to avoid eating the power bar I’d been given.

My heart seemed to beat faster than normal and I found it hard to breathe. Fearful I would hyperventilate, I leaned over and tried to breathe slowly and deliberately. I could feel the eyes of the Enforcer on me, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was how awful I was feeling and a desire to get relief.

“Morgan,” Mr. Madsen said.

I lifted my head and looked at his grinning face. If I hadn’t felt so focused on feeling like crap, I would have wanted to wipe that smile off of his face.

“Follow me.”

When I stood, a wave of nausea crashed over me and I thought I was going to vomit right there in the waiting area, but I swallowed down the urge and walked behind him to his office.

He gestured for me to sit, which I did. He sat behind his desk this time—maybe he was afraid I’d hurl all over his neatly pressed clothes—and smiled at me. “You don’t look very good, Morgan. Is everything okay?”

I shook my head.

“What seems to be the problem?” He reached into his desk. “I believe you haven’t had a chance to eat breakfast. Would this help?” He held out a power bar.

Loathing him for offering me more of what was making me sick, but knowing a small amount would help me feel better, I snatched the bar from his hand and saw a satisfied grin lift the corners of his mouth. Though I wanted to pretend I didn’t really care about eating the bar, desperation to have my withdrawal symptoms ease pushed me to rip open the wrapper and take a large bite. I tried to ignore the look of pleasure on Madsen’s face as I consumed the entire thing.

“Now, isn’t that better?” he asked.

I didn’t answer, not wanting to confirm his certainty that I was indeed addicted to the drug they’d put in the bar.

“There are more where that came from, Morgan. In fact, I will give you as many as you want.”

My heart leapt with happiness at the promise, though my mind knew it was a bad idea.

“All you have to do is keep up your end of the bargain and share information with me.”

Oh, if he only knew the information I’d gleaned—Alyx and Austin’s little friendship, the escape plans that Billy, Piper and I had cooked up, Beth’s intimidation tactics to get more power bars for herself. But I would never tell. I refused to give him the satisfaction of winning.

I was beginning to feel better, thanks to the small dose I’d just downed. “I’m still working on it,” I said.

He frowned. “I’m disappointed in you, Morgan. I thought you would have come through for me by now.” He tapped a finger against his chin. “I seem to recall your desire to work on the grounds crew.” He tilted his head to the side. “Is that something you’d still like to do?”

I nodded. “Yes, I would.”

“Very good. Today is Wednesday. You have until tomorrow morning to give me some information. But if you don’t, all of these offers will be revoked and in their place will be . . . shall we say, another incentive.”

I felt a chill at his pronouncement. I didn’t want to think what other awful thing he had in mind. Instead, I pictured the tunnel that would take me out of this world and back to my home.

“Do we have an understanding?” he asked.

I nodded, having no intention of doing anything to help him out.

He stood. “Good.”

Then he led me back to the waiting area and a few minutes later an Enforcer brought me back to my floor. I had an hour until my second shift, so I decided to stop in and see Piper. I still needed to get the knife from her and I hoped that not only could I do it, but that Piper wasn’t so far gone that she would report me.

When she let me in to her room, I could see she’d been working on her homework.

“Did you do your homework, Morgan?”

I sat on her bed. “Not yet.”

“You should do it.”

“Why?” I put my hand on the covers, just above where I’d seen her hide the knife.

“Because we’re supposed to.”

Her statements continued to astonish me. This was not the same girl who just days ago had declared she had to get out of this place. I wondered why the drug seemed to affect her like it did, but decided it must be because by nature she was one who usually followed the rules and the drug just reinforced her natural desire to please the people in charge. “I’ll work on it later.”

“Okay.”

She sat at her desk and continued working, ignoring me. I moved to the floor, resting my back against the bed. Then, reaching one hand underneath, I felt around for the small tear in the fabric of the box springs. My fingers slid into the space and I felt around for the knife, but felt only the wooden frame. Scooting over, I continued to hunt for the knife, but it didn’t seem to be there.

Anxiety crept over me as I considered the idea that Piper had turned it in. Desperate now to find it—I knew there was no way for me to get another one—I lay on my back and didn’t even try to hide the fact that I was searching for it.

“It’s not there, Morgan.” Piper had turned around in her seat and was staring at me.

I sat up. “What?”

“The knife, silly. I know that’s what you’re looking for.”

“Where did you put it?”

She slid open a desk drawer, reached her hand in, and pulled out the knife. “It’s right here.”

“Why did you move it? Aren’t you afraid someone will find it there?”

“I’m going to give it back to Mrs. Coleman.”

“Why would you do that?”

“I promised to follow the rules, and stealing is breaking the rules.”

With every word she said, I could see my opportunity to escape slipping away. “What are you going to tell Mrs. Coleman?”

“I’m going to tell her I’m sorry that I took it.”

“But what about when she asks
why
you took it.”

“I’ll tell her we were going to run away, but that I changed my mind.”

Panic swelled in my chest. “No, you can’t do that.”

“Why not? I promised to follow the rules and lying is breaking the rules.”

I couldn’t believe how pliable she was, how easily the drugs had changed her. But then I reminded myself that she wasn’t at Camp Willowmoss because she had broken any rules, but because she was overweight. Of course that broke a rule, but she wasn’t a criminal like me. For all I knew, she had always been obedient and had just had a moment of panic on Saturday after slipping into the ditch of spiders. “What about if I give the knife to Mrs. Coleman?”

“But I’m the one who took it. I should give it back.”

“It’s okay. I’ll do it. You should let me help you.” I paused. “You should put the good of all above yourself. It will make me happy if you let me.”

She held it out to me. “Okay.”

I took it from her. “Thank you, Piper. You’re a good friend.”

She beamed, then turned back to her homework.

I stood and tucked the knife into my waistband. “I’d better go do my homework, too. I’ll see you later.”

“Okay. Bye, Morgan.”

She didn’t even look up when I left. I hurried back to my room. Alyx wasn’t there, so I pushed the bed away from the wall, then on the far side I slipped the knife into the box springs, hopeful I would be able to take it out soon and use it.

All during my second shift, I kept an eye on Piper, nervous that she would say something to Mrs. Coleman about the knife, but she never did—at least that I could tell. When the shift ended and it was time for lunch, I waited for her and we walked together to pick up our meal.

“What did Mrs. Coleman say when you gave her the knife?” Piper asked.

“Uh, she said thank you.”

“Did she ask why you took it?”

“No.”

“Oh.”

“I guess she didn’t care.”

“Okay.”

We picked up our trays and slid them along the rails and I hoped that would be the end of talk about the knife. After we were given our food, we went to our table. All three of our friends were there.

Piper gasped. “Billy, what happened to your face?”

He glanced at me as I slid into the seat next to him. “I fell.”

“Does it hurt?” Piper asked.

“No, it’s fine.”

Piper began eating her food and I looked at Billy.

“How are you feeling?” he asked in a low voice that only I could hear.

“Okay,
now
.” I took a bit of the vegetables. “What
really
happened to you?” I kept my voice low too.

“I guess some people don’t like it when they think you’re taking something that doesn’t belong to you.”

“Oh.” I felt my heart sink.

“But luckily,” he said, a grin on his face, “I used a little something called misdirection.”

“Wait. What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I got them.”

I couldn’t hold back my smile. “Yes.”

He looked proud of himself. “After I pocketed the matches, I heard someone coming, so I acted like I was going to take one of the tools. They ‘caught’ me stealing the tool, roughed me up, then told me not to be stupid.”

“Why didn’t you come to dinner?”

“As you can imagine, I felt like crap, so I stayed in my room.”

“Oh.” I took a bite of my liver. I leaned close to him and whispered, “I got the knife from Piper.”

“That’s great.”

“What are you two talking about over there?” Piper asked.

Billy looked at her. “Nothing interesting.”

Piper frowned, like she knew we were lying, but didn’t know how to say it without sounding rude.

Turning back to me, Billy said, “We have everything we need. When are we going to do it?”

I felt a tingle that this was actually going to happen—I was actually going to get out of here. “The sooner the better.”

“Let’s meet before classes and talk some more. I have some time then, don’t you?”

I thought about my schedule. “Yeah, I have half an hour between my final kitchen shift and class.”

“Okay.”

We finished our meal without talking about our plans. I noticed Alyx glancing at me throughout lunch and wondered what had happened the night before. I knew I must have said something to upset her—I remembered her slapping me—but I had no idea what I’d said.

The Enforcers wandered among us diners again, making sure we were eating our power bars. I’d been given two, which I hoped meant they were done playing with me and how my body was reacting to their drug. I feared my mind wouldn’t be as sharp as it needed to be—and it needed to be very sharp if Billy and I were going to pull off this escape—but I didn’t know how I could get away with not eating the drug-laced bars. I just had to hope that since I was also eating regular food, that the effects of the drug would be diluted.

After lunch I went to the kitchen to work my final shift, but all I could think about was our imminent escape. Eager to talk to Billy, the moment my shift ended I hurried to my room and got my school things, then went to the classroom floor.

As promised, Billy was there. We found a quiet spot in a corner to talk about our plans.

“I think we should do it tonight,” he said.

The idea thrilled and terrified me. “Me, too. I’m worried about Piper. She knows our plans, but that compliance drug seems to really have gotten to her. She was talking about how important it is to keep the rules—she even wanted to give the knife back to Mrs. Coleman and tell her why she’d taken it.”

“Oh, great.”

“I know. I convinced her to let me turn it in. I just hope she believes my lie that I did and doesn’t ask Mrs. Coleman if she got it.”

“Yeah. And since I got caught trying to steal something, it seems like some of the Enforcers are keeping a closer eye on me.”

I nodded. “I have to admit, I’m scared. But I think the longer we wait, the harder it will be.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“I think everyone’s sound asleep by midnight, so what if we start the fires then?”

“Okay. Where do you want to meet after we’re evacuated? And when should we cut out the chips?”

“I don’t know. What do you think?”

“Well, we don’t know where they’ll take us when we evacuate, so I think we’ll have to play it by ear. And I don’t want to cut out the chips too soon—I don’t know if there’s an alarm or something that goes off if it suddenly goes offline—but then again, we don’t want to wait too long because they’ll be able to track us.”