“Okay, buddy,” Garrett said as he patted my hand. “I have a good friend at the hospital, and I’m going to let him know that you’re on your way. He will take excellent care of you, okay?”
I nodded and through my blanket, I squeezed his hand as much as I could. Garrett smiled and told me to hang in there. As the medics started to strap me down to the gurney, I panicked and pissed myself. I sat up and mumbled, “No,” and shook my head.
“Hey, hey, buddy. Try to relax,” Garrett was right beside me and held his hand on top of mine to calm me down. “They have to make sure you’re safe and won’t get jarred around too much,” Garrett calmly said.
I still panicked and shook my head. Garrett looked at the medics and then asked the female officer to walk along the other side of the gurney.
“Guys, you can’t strap him down. Roz and I will accompany you to the ambulance with him. But you can’t strap him down,” Garrett told the medics.
As we moved through the house where I had been captive, I closed my eyes as the familiar stench of alcohol and stale cigarettes assaulted my senses. I didn’t want to see any more of it, not even from this view. In the front room, where Eli traded me for money I heard officers talking over walkie talkies.
“Losche, is this the one from the cage?” someone quietly asked, and I could sense him near the gurney.
“Yes. Roz and I are accompanying him out with the medics.”
“How old is this one?” the man asked.
“No clue. He can’t really talk right now,” Garrett said in a hushed tone.
“Jesus,” the man mumbled.
I assumed he looked at my hideous face. It had been years since I’d actually seen my face in the mirror. I was always able to see the front of my body and see the damage.
The front door must have been opened because I could feel the heavy humid air spilling into the house.
“Here, take the umbrella,” the man urged.
Umbrella? Rain?
I opened my eyes and strained to crane my neck to try to see out the front door. It was dark outside, and faintly I could see a light drizzle.No.
“Relax, buddy,” Garrett began. “You won’t get wet. I have an umbrella and will hold it over you, okay?”
With panicked eyes, I looked at him. He didn’t understand, I was sure, but I couldn’t really explain it to him either. Through my blanket, I tried to clutch his hand, but he told me to relax, and he promised that he wouldn’t let go of my hand. As I felt the gurney move over the metal plate of the front door, I could feel the pressure of the humidity pressing down on my chest.
I could hear a raucous of walkie talkie noise and assumed there were more agents and police officers nearby. Over the voice of a medic calling out his observations of me, I could hear raindrops pelting the nylon umbrella. I kept my eyes tightly closed, just in case the wind came up and blew rain onto my face.
They were moving with my gurney at a slow pace down the sidewalk. The wheels would slowly dip as they went over each crack in the concrete. The humid air was almost suffocating, and I began to panic again that I couldn’t get enough air.
“Hang tight, buddy. We’re almost at the ambulance,” Garrett soothed. I moved my hand slightly so I could try to grip one of his fingers that I felt over my blanket.
“We’ll get you some oxygen as soon as we’re in the ambulance,” one of the medics said.
I opened my eyes when the gurney stopped. Garrett still held the umbrella over my head, and the medics opened the door.
“You take care, sweetheart,” the female officer, Roz, encouraged as she patted my arm over the blanket.
Garrett pulled out his phone and then held it up to his ear. He smiled at me and rubbed his hand over my beige blanket.
“Sam, it’s Garrett. We found another one, and he’s on his way in. Please take care of him yourself. We found him in a dark room in a cage… Thank you, my friend,” Garrett said and pulled the phone away from his head just as the medics loaded me into the ambulance.
I lifted my head and looked down the length of my body when Garrett touched my blanket-covered feet.
“Buddy, my friend’s name is Dr. Sam Chisholm. He knows you’re coming, and he will take care of you personally,” Garrett said and then backed away from the ambulance doors.
“’Ank ‘ou,” I mumbled my attempt at telling him thank you before closing my eyes again.
10
