Chapter Five
Zag
“Wiggle it.”
“I can’t.”
“Try harder.”
Tess scoffed, and her legs clenched around my neck. “I don’t think I could try harder.”
I knew she was trying as best she could. I wanted her to keep trying because for the past five minutes that Tess had been on my shoulders; she hadn’t stuttered once.
“Can you get your fingers wedged in the crack?”
“No, but I’m sure I can wedge my fingers somewhere else,” she growled.
A laugh erupted from my lips. “I don’t know if I want you to do that, Tess. The crack by the window is the only one I want you thinking about.”
“Well,” Tess grunted, “this crack ain’t cracking.”
“Can you pry the nails on the boards?” We had to find a way to get that window cleared.
“Do you think I have fingernails made of steel, Zag?” She shifted on my shoulders. “Put me down.”
I swung away from the window and crouched down to let her off my shoulders. “Getting that window open is the only plan I have, Tess. We need to work harder on it.” My eyes were getting better in the dark, but it wasn’t like I could see clearly. Tess moved away from me and sat on the floor that we had slept on.
I looked up at the window we had been trying to get open.
“Maybe you can try to overtake him when he brings us our lunch tomorrow?” Tess suggested. “You’re bigger than he is.”
I was, but that didn’t matter when it came to the explosives he had strapped to his chest. “Overtake him, babe?” I laughed. “Maybe you didn’t see all the C4 he had strapped to him today? There isn’t anything that can overtake Malcom when he has his dynamite vest on.”
“That’s new,” she mumbled. “He normally just has a gun.”
“That’s because he knows a gun isn’t going to stop me.” I turned back to Tess. “Dynamite makes me hesitate.”
“As it should any sane man.” She sighed heavily. “Maybe we can find something that we can use on the window?” she suggested.
I had crawled, walked, and searched this whole area. I hadn’t found anything that could remotely help us to escape. I ran my fingers through my hair. “I’ll search again. Maybe I missed something.”
“I’ll c-c-check the room we’ve been using as t-t-the bathroom.”
And her stutter was back. I guess I would have to keep her very occupied if she wasn’t going to stutter. Maybe I could just keep her on my shoulders the whole time.
I curled my lip at the thought of the bathroom. “I doubt you are going to find anything in there.” For days Tess had been using what I assumed was a closet with no door on it as the bathroom. Malcom had at least been nice enough to leave a few buckets in the closet.
The one good thing about having one meal a day and barely any water was the fact neither of us went to the bathroom often.
“You never know,” she muttered.
“Be careful around the buckets.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Tess called.
I searched around the room in hopes I could find something that could help us.
The longer Tess and I were trapped down here, the more my hatred for Malcom grew.