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“You drug us so you can have fun on the journey?" I asked, keeping my voice low.
"What do you want us to do, sit here and stare at you all for three hours?" She wriggled her fingernails at me. She was in the process of painting them a violent shade of orange.
“I guess not." I smiled back, though it seemed kinda wrong all the same.
"Anyway, most convicts aren't exactly excited about this journey. It's a kindness really." She shrugged.
"Everyone wins," I said sarcastically.
“I suppose so. It's not far now anyway." Laurie smiled wryly.
"What did you mean about him?" I jerked my head in the direction of the giant behind me who was thankfully still unconscious.
"There's no reason to be worried really, they won't let him near you. You're just messengers. He’s a lifer." Laurie screwed the top back on her nail polish and chucked it on the chair with her other things.
"You mean he killed someone?" I gasped, leaning across the gap between our seats so that I could hear Laurie's whispered response. She paused and glanced about before continuing.
"You remember those girls who went missing? It was all over the news. Anyway, they weren't found alive and they didn't die easy." She frowned over my head at him. "His name is Grey Sinclair." She paused again. "The Lawless Trials are too good for some people." Her eyes blazed with anger.
“Did you know one of the girls?" I asked, surprised by her reaction. It was her job to work with criminals, she must have come across murderers before.
"Not directly, but he took a girl who was my sister's neighbour. Just a bit too close to home for my liking."
I suppressed a shiver. The people we’d be mixing with down here had done some seriously bad shit and I couldn’t let myself forget it for a second. We just needed to keep our heads down and focus on getting through our term so that we could rejoin society away from people like Grey Sinclair and try to forget this had ever happened.
Some of the other convicts were stirring now too and I sank down into my seat so as not to draw their attention.
I looked at Taylor, wondering if he might wake soon too. His face was pressed to the window with his mouth hanging open and if I’d had a sharpie to hand I’d have gone to town drawing on his face in a heartbeat. I gave him a light shove, then a harder one but he didn't wake up. I glanced at Laurie who just shr
ugged.
"What if he's not awake when we get there?" I asked.
“We give him a shot of adrenalin, then he wakes up perky." She smiled wickedly like she wanted to do that and I snorted a laugh.
The train started on an incline and I was pushed back into my seat by the momentum. After a few minutes we spilled out of the tunnel and daylight streamed in through the window, blinding me.
I gasped as I was given a view of the outside world, leaning around Taylor to get a better look.
We cruised to a stop at a platform surrounded by tall metal fences topped with razor wire. There were yellow signs on the fence with little pictures of a stick man being hit by a lighting bolt just in case anyone got any ideas about trying to climb them. Which I absolutely wouldn’t be doing.
I peered past Taylor to get a look at the rest of the surrounding area but all I could see was a big, grey building on the other side of the fence and even more Wardens pacing the platform as they waited for us to exit the train.
The windows on the other side of the train revealed a brown wasteland that sloped upwards beyond another fence. I couldn't tell what was beyond the hill and I could have groaned in frustration. The only good thing about being sent out here was the desperate hope I held in my heart to see more of the world beyond The Wall and we weren’t even being gifted that.
I shook Taylor as hard as I could and he mumbled something unintelligible but didn’t wake up.
Laurie got up and unchained both of our leg manacles.
"I'm actually doing a round of guarding here for the next few months, so you won't be getting rid of me just yet," she explained.
"Great, it'll be nice to have a friendly face around," I said, feeling genuinely relieved by that news. I didn’t imagine there were many Wardens who were as approachable as her and having a friendly face amongst their ranks was a definite bonus.
She smiled and helped me to pull Taylor to his feet with a grunt of effort. He staggered, clearly still under the effects of the sedative and I cursed as he leaned most of his weight on me.
“Do you want a shot to wake you up?" I asked him and he nodded sleepily.
Laurie pulled a canister marked 'adrenalin' from her bag and took out a syringe with a wicked grin on her face.
