Page 131 of Death is Familiar

“Wait!” White yelled. “You need the code!”

My fingers worked as I punched in the number I’d seen Warden White use over a hundred times. It never changed. They never expected me to get this far. Not without my shock collar.

His jaw dropped as the door unlocked, and I pulled it open. “If you need to say good bye, Three, now’s the time.”

“Bye, Warden!” Three spun in a wide-armed circle.

Now, it was time for my good bye. I smiled.

I pressed.

“Jesus! Jesus, please. Stop. Oh stop! Good God!” He clutched his neck, body curled, knuckles bone white. “God. Ah! Make it stop! Make it⁠—”

I released the button. What? I couldn’t let him go without giving him a taste of his own medicine. Though I really would have preferred to have forced the collar onto Madame…

I tossed the remote at him through the bars. “I’d hide that before Madame gets here.” Ushering Three through the door, I followed, leaving just enough room for me to get the last word, “She’s a little trigger-happy.”

“Delil—"

I slammed the door shut behind us.

30

For the record, doing lunges and squats in my cell did nothing to prepare me for the two-story sprint up the stairs. The last time I ran, I hadn’t been carrying around quite so much passenger, or their baggage.

My bare feet smacked the uneven, pine-needled, ground as Three and I dashed through the small clearing. Though my feet were calloused from the rough cell floor, I really should have gotten Warden White to give us his shoes. It had been part of the original plan. But instead, I’d used the time to smash the light and shock White.

Time well used, I’d say.

“Keep heading for the tree line.” It was broad daylight as we sprinted, winded, for the forest.

“My feet!”

“Once we reach the bushes we’ll need to keep moving until sundown.” God, it sucked to talk and run. “We need to stay one step ahead.”

“But!”

“Either we keep going or you stay here.” I was already out of breath, and arguing with Three wasn’t helping.

Three huffed, but she doubled down, picking up the pace, arms pumping, as she shot through the bushes.

I knew I needed to keep my head down. To run and not look back. But my curiosity got the better of me.

As I crossed into the forest after Three, I glanced over my shoulder at what we were leaving behind. What we were escaping. I told myself I needed to know what the building looked like so I could identify it later.

But that wasn’t the whole truth. Part of it was morbid curiosity, like looking back at an explosion. I wanted the terrors I faced to look and feel as monstrous as what Three and I were subjected to. But⁠—

The cabin was small and made of logs, in a pleasant sun-dappled clearing. Utterly innocuous. No one would have guessed the horrors lying in wait beneath.

The pebbled driveway twisted out and away from the cabin, opposite our direction of travel.

Good. We needed to stay far the hell away from the road. Anyone coming after us would start there first. Forcing our eventual pursuers on foot evened the playing field, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it an advantage.

The next twenty-four hours were crucial. And we couldn’t behave in a way that they’d expect.

“What now, Two?” Three’s face was red, her breathing ragged.

“We keep moving.” Taking note of the sun’s placement in the sky, I hoped I’d calculated the time of day right. “We head north.”