“I can’t help it,” I admit. “I don’t feel so good.”
“You’ll feel worse if I put a hole in your head.”
He’s not wrong. I move a little faster, breathing heavier for the effort.
Wherever he’s taking me, it feels like it’s a million miles away.
“What would you have done if I’d eaten lunch?” I ask, remembering how he’d tried to get me to do that. “You’d have had to carry me.”
“Is that what you want? To be carried like a child?”
“No, but I don’t understand.”
“You don’t need to understand. You need to move.”
He prods me in the back with the gun.
I sigh and keep going, trying to be as quick as he wants me to be.
“I would have woken you if you’d eaten,” he admits, clearly not able to allow me to think he’s stupid. “The sedatives were for your boyfriends. I would have used cyanide if I knew you wouldn’t eat anything. You’re the reason they got the soft stuff.”
Oh my God. He would have killed my mates!
I feel sick at the thought of losing them.
I shiver as I move forward, knowing the person behind me is being possessed by a stone-cold psychopath. It’s not the detective’s fault. She’s being used by him. But if it comes down to it, and I can’t get away without hurting her to do it, I know what I need to do.
The life I had before I was rescued was pointless, but the life I have now is everything.
I’ll do whatever it takes to stay alive, and I’ll fight with everything I’ve got to get back to my mates.
Looking ahead, I see the end of the tunnel.
It stops, and there’s a metal ladder leading to some kind of hatch.
Wherever he’s taking me, it seems we’re almost there.
I move a little faster.
When we get close to the ladder, he prods my back with the gun again.
“Up.”
“I need a second to catch my breath,” I tell him, while I stare up at the hatch.
If I get up there first, could I do something to stop him from following?
Once the hatch is open, maybe.
“Up, or I give you to your owner with a hole in your head.”
I put my hand on one of the rungs, and I start to climb.
It’s harder than I expect, and I feel winded by the time I’m at the top.
“Turn the lever to the left.”
I look down. He’s on the ladder but there’s too much space between us to let me kick him.
