Hunter looked behind her, “You just got that from the lavatory sign.”
“Did not.”
Hunter sighed, “Let me see how they fixed you up.”
“They’ve got tubes running in me from everywhere.”
“You’ve got one, an IV, in your arm.”
“Well, it felt like hundreds.”
She checked the wound on the back of his neck, “And they have a small drainage tube back there. It drains to a pouch at your waist.”
“Okay, okay.”
“I’ll get you when they say.”
“Hunter, really. Get me out of here.”
“I will. Now heal up.”
She left, with the nurse at the nurse’s station giving her a look when she walked by. Outside the hospital, she drove the Cherokee to a Stripes convenience store on Pulliam, two blocks off of North Bell Street. and bought peanuts, water, and two large Snickers bars to keep herself going. Not healthy, but it would carry her for a while.
Working out in a grid from Goodfellow base was methodical and boring, and she checked miles of streets until it grew so dark she couldn’t make out much out on the vehicles parked away from streetlights. At four AM, she parked at another Stripes store on Pulliam, rubbed her eyes to ease the burning tiredness in them, and curled up to nap for an hour or two, when she would continue the search. She dozed off, worrying about Kelly and Anita.
~**~
Kelly woke at five, too nervous to sleep because she and the other children would be gone today. Kelly overheard Nadine mention it to Suretta late last night. How it would happen, whether by being driven or flown, she didn’t know, but it would happen.
She slid out from the others and crept through the house, stopping long enough to slip on her tennis shoes. The kidnappers left on the hallway lights, so she could see the interior of the house very well. Everyone slept, including Suretta and Nadine. She moved to the far wall away from them and edged along it to the kitchen. She found a paring knife, put it in her back jeans pocket, and then tried the outside kitchen door. It appeared to be locked from the outside. She left the kitchen and passed down the hall to go into another room.
Nothing caught her eye until she checked the small closet. She stepped inside and looked up at the ceiling, where access to the attic showed in a framed area of the ceiling where the sheetrock had been cut out in a rectangle and the wooden frame held the piece in place afterward, to be removed when access was needed.
What Kelly wanted was that access, but she was too short to reach it. She studied the small area, which was a space made only for hanging a few clothes on a rod that was now gone. This was one of the closets her mother showed her in a house before they moved. Her mother told her it was from the early part of the twentieth century. Just enough space to hang a few shirts and a few pairs of pants. “That’s all people had back then,” she’d said. Kelly felt a twinge of longing, remembering her mom and their talks.
“Suck it up,” Kelly said to herself. Putting one foot against a closet wall and her back against the other side made her stretch her toes, but she could do it. She gave herself a little hop with the down leg and lifted it fast so she had both legs on the opposite wall. She rolled her shoulders and moved up, then she baby-stepped her feet higher.
A hand touched the back of her leg and Kelly almost yelled. Her heart hammered in her chest like someone beating on it with a closed fist.
Anita said, “Are you playing like you’re Spider Man?”
Kelly exhaled, “What are you doing up?”
“I woke up and saw you going. I followed you.”
“You need to go back to bed.”
“Uh-uh, not till you do, Kelly. You’re my friend.”
They heard a sudden noise in the house, and Suretta’s angry yell at someone. People scurried and the sounds of their footsteps told Kelly they hunted for her.
Kelly said to Anita, “Be quiet.” She worked her way higher up the walls until she put a hand on the attic entrance and pushed. It didn’t move.
Urgent voices sounded in the house as they hunted for Kelly and Anita.
Anita looked worried, peering out the door of the closet.
Kelly said, “It’s okay. Stay right there.” Anita nodded.