Ruth began swearing again, in a shocked, barely audible tone this time.
I needed escape, escape, escape . . .
My thoughts sped backwards. All the way back to when I was a child. A desperate, flashing show reel of images, sounds, memories.
I heard the words my father used to sing to me—when I’d had nightmares and couldn’t sleep. Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.” Dad would grab his guitar and sing that. I concentrated hard on Dad’s voice.
But I couldn’t keep hold.
The memories were already fading to black.
67. Constance
JENNIFER REFUSED TO LET ME LOOK through the glass panel, even though she, Gray and Sethi had. She’d already pulled Gray back—Gray suddenly disoriented and struggling to breathe.
What was in that room? Gray had rigidly shaken his head when I’d spoken Kara’s name.
I could do nothing but follow the others as we retraced our steps and took the tunnel to the right.
My limbs felt cold even though the air wasn’t. The passage ahead seemed desolate, like walking through a place not on the Earth. It was ancient, empty . . . dead.
I turned sharply then, certain someone was following me. I had Sethi shine his flashlight into the darkness. But there was no one we could see. He went back to check but still nothing.
I was hearing things that didn’t exist. Shadows and ghosts.
The passages began bending and twisting in all directions. We were in a maze. I’d lost all sense of which way we were headed. Seconds ticked away like beats of a drum in my head.
Jennifer stopped, as if she’d tuned into my thoughts. “We’re going around in circles. It’s crazy, but I think the passages are going around each room.”
“I think Jen’s right,” said Sethi. “You can trust her on things like this. My expertise is out in the water. Jen’s is in orienteering on land. She’s been orienteering for years. Preparing herself for this day.”
I nodded, the drum beats in my head growing louder. “We need to find our way. We have to find Kara and Evie.”
We had no time to waste. Gray was still walking stiffly, not looking at any of us. I guessed he still hadn’t processed what he’d witnessed.
Voices boomed along the tunnel, drowning out the sound of my imaginary drum beats and making my heart jump.
Get back to the infirmary, came a male voice. We didn’t finish your transfusion.
I’m fine, said a woman, her voice high and dismissive. I need to find her before the others do. She stabbed me. That goes against the rules, and that means she dies.
Brother Sage won’t agree, said the man.
The woman laughed. Why should she get special rules? He won’t know who did it. I’ll be back in the infirmary straight after.
“This way,” said Sethi under his breath.
Trying to stay as silent as possible, we moved along the passage in the opposite direction.
The passage ended in a wide open space that led to a dormitory—the room enormous and hexagonal in shape. A dozen or more double beds were set up among closed-circuit screens—bottles of wine on the bedside tables. Flickering lamps dimly lit the room.
Placing our backpacks behind a cupboard so that we didn’t knock over any of the bottles of wine, we began searching the room. At least, Jennifer and Sethi were searching. I didn’t know what they were looking for.
The TV screens flicked from showing the various hallways to scenes of a room. I stared in horror. The screens showed black-and-white images of people hung up on a wall. People being tortured. Just like the pictures in Rico’s book.
Gasping for air, a series of shivers ran vertically through my body. My limbs started shaking, every muscle caught tight.
Sethi glanced at me and then tilted his chin at Jennifer. “Gray and I will go see if there is another way out.”
Jennifer nodded, gently grasping my shoulders and taking me over to sit on a bed. “Be strong for your daughter, Constance. You have to be.”
I flinched beneath Jennifer’s hands at the sound of voices coming this way. Five or more men. Saviours.
Sethi and Gray were across the other side of the room. Jennifer inhaled sharply, jumping up to tug me backwards into the dark hallway.
The men strode straight past us into the dormitory, with only a split second to spare. “Hey, what are you doing here?” one of them called.
I froze. They’d seen either Sethi or Gray or both of them.
“There’s too many of them for us to take on,” Jennifer whispered.
Swallowing, I pressed my back against the wall. “What do we do?”