Chapter 2
A boat ticket?
For seven years, I'd dreamed of leaving this place.
But now, with the ticket in my hand, all I felt was a chill running down my spine.
"Why?" I asked, my voice trembling.
William leaned against the door, gasping for breath.
Outside, the hallway echoed with chaotic footsteps and furious shouting.
His eyes were fixed on me, voice low and urgent. "Go. Take the kids and go.
"They're coming to wipe this place out tomorrow. No one's getting out alive."
Wiped out.
No one was getting out alive.
Those words struck my chest like an icy sledgehammer.
I understood.
I understood everything.
No wonder the atmosphere in The Compound had been so strange today.
No wonder he smelled like gunpowder.
So this was it. The end was coming.
I hugged Andrew and Rachel tightly, tears streaming down my face.
The kids squirmed a little, uncomfortable from my tight grip, and started to whimper.
I quickly loosened my hold and gently patted their backs.
We had to go.
We had no choice. We had to go.
For my kids.
I looked up at William, my voice trembling as I asked the question I'd been dreading. "What about you?"
He wiped the blood from his face, smearing blood, sweat, and dirt together, making him look even more menacing.
But then, against all odds, he smiled.
It was the first time I'd seen him smile in seven years.
It wasn't cold, it wasn't mocking.
It was a smile of relief, a kind of freedom.
He said it again, like the word itself was some kind of joke only he understood. "Me?
"I'm going to fight to give our kids a future that's free from all this."
A future free from all this.
Did people like us even deserve a future?
Let alone a clean one?
My chest tightened painfully.
He wasn't what you'd call a good man.
He was a demon, a butcher, his hands soaked in blood.
He was never a good husband to me.
He beat me, cursed at me, never saw me as a person.
But right then, I found myself looking at him.
Looking at the man who was willing to stay behind and face death, so his kids could have a shot at life.
I couldn't bring myself to hate him.
I clung to the last shred of hope and asked, "There are people everywhere outside. How are we supposed to get out?"
Maybe this was only a nightmare.
"Remember the dog tunnel out back by the hill?" William asked.
I stiffened.
That dog tunnel.
I'd found it in secret when I first arrived at The Compound.
I'd dreamed of escaping through it more times than I could count.
But every time, William was always watching. And every attempt ended in failure.
How did he know about it?
He looked right through me, his tone matter-of-fact. "I've always known.
"I had someone keep that tunnel open, only for today."
Tears welled up in my eyes again, spilling over.
Turns out he knew it all.
He knew I was planning to run.
He'd been expecting this day all along.
He growled, his patience wearing thin. "Stop crying.
"Crying won't save you. Move it."
He strode over, grabbed the heavy suitcase in one hand, and with the other, roughly dragged me up from the floor. "Move."
He shoved me toward the window, his hand forcefully pushing against my back.
The storage room window was small, and below it was a steep slope.
Outside, gunfire was already starting up.
It was getting closer and closer.
William's face turned ashen.
He threw open the window and tossed the suitcase out first.
Then he gently lifted Rachel from my arms.
She was fast asleep, but the sudden movement woke her, and she let out a couple of grumpy little whimpers.
William held her stiffly, his movements awkward, almost robotic.
He leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to her forehead.
Then he handed Rachel out through the window. "Catch her."
I scrambled out the window, landing on the slick, muddy ground.
Shaking, I took Rachel into my arms.
Andrew was next.
William gave him a quick kiss on the forehead, like he did with Rachel.
Once I had both kids in my arms, he leaned out the window. "Run east. Don't look back.
"Someone will be waiting for you at the dock. The boat's called The Sea Serpent.
"Once you're on board, you'll be safe."
He spoke like he was leaving his final instructions, as if this was goodbye for good. "And remember. Don't ever tell them they had a father like me."
With that, he pulled back into the room without another word.
I didn't know where the courage came from, but I cried out his name. "William."
He froze, then turned to look at me.
In the darkness, his eyes were shadowed, impossible to read.
"Stay alive," I whispered, barely able to get the words out.
He froze for a second, then that same crooked, bitter smile pulled at his lips. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Quit nagging."
He closed the window.
And like that, he closed the door on the seven years of hell we'd been through together.
The gunfire grew more and more intense.
It sounded like fireworks going off all at once on New Year's Eve.
Only, these fireworks meant death.
I didn't dare stop for even a second.
With one child in my arms and the heavy suitcase in my other hand, I stumbled toward the back hill, every step a struggle.
Maybe it was the suffocating tension, but the kids were surprisingly quiet.
They didn't cry or fuss.
They buried their little faces in my chest, clinging to me for comfort.
Their weight was a sweet burden.
But now, it was the thing that made every step of my escape feel heavier.
The suitcase felt impossibly heavy.
Dragging it along the muddy hillside trail, every step was a battle.
I almost lost my footing and went down more than once.
I gritted my teeth and wound the suitcase strap tight around my wrist.
It wasn't long before the strap bit into my skin, carving bloody welts across my wrist.