Do What It Takes to Survive

(Gerard’s P.O.V.)

Hours later, I was still planning when a drop of water landed on my hand. It took me a few seconds to come to the conclusion that it was a tear. It wasn’t mine, so it must have been Lana’s.

“Are you awake?” I asked.

I felt her nod against me, so I stood up, still holding her, to turn on the light. She was the most pathetic thing I had ever seen. If anything, her bruises were worse, and there were tears streaming down her face. It made my chest ache.

I wiped her eyes and shook my head. “Quit crying,” I commanded. “Your tears will freeze.”

She ignored me.

“Come on! Crying won’t help anything.”

“I want to go home,” she said through heavy sobs.

I rubbed her back, trying to comfort her. “I know. I’m working on it, Lana. Let me think.”

She looked at me carefully, and she stopped crying. “Really? Or are you just saying that?”

“No, I mean it,” I assured her. “As soon as you’re feeling better… Well, I’ve still got a few kinks to work through. Give me at least a few more hours.”

“Okay,” she said.

Then we were silent once more.

When Randy came to let us out, we didn’t bother to get away from each other before he came in. It didn’t matter if he already knew. I watched him carefully. He locked the door to Lana’s bathroom before he locked our cell door. Good. He had those keys, at least.

Lana ate her bread silently, never looking at me. I had gotten used to the hunger a while ago; it wasn’t so bad. “I’m ready now,” I told her, trying to get her into a better mood.

She just stared at me blankly.

“I’ve got a plan,” I explained.

This caught her attention, but just when she seemed to perk up, she narrowed her eyes. “You’re not lying, are you?”

I frowned. “We’re not going to be able to do this if you don’t trust me. Do you want to bust out of here or not?”

“Of course I do!” she exclaimed.

I started to pull her into my lap, but she refused and sat next to me instead. Although that hurt, I guess it meant she was getting to be herself again. That was good, I think.

“Then do you want me to tell you the plan, or do it by myself and leave you here?” I asked frankly.

She rolled her eyes and replied, “Obviously I don’t want you to leave me here.”

“Good,” I said, smiling mischievously, “because I couldn’t do it without you anyway.”

“Then tell me,” she demanded, looking annoyed.

I smiled. Lana was back.

“What are you smiling at?”

“Nothing,” I said quickly. “Anyways, the first part is tricky. We have to overpower Randy and get his gun and keys.”

She shrugged. “There’s two of us and one of him.”

I laughed. “Let me rephrase that. We have to get his gun and keys without getting shot.”

Her eyebrows pulled together in frustration. “Oh, right. So how do we do that?”

I looked at her carefully. Which job could she do? Which one would be less likely to get us killed? Which one would be less likely to get her killed? These were two different questions entirely. “We can’t just attack him right away. We have to act casual. Then, when his back is facing me, I’ll grab his hands. You go for his gun.” I winced as I said the last part. I didn’t really want her to be the one going for the gun, but I didn’t think she was strong enough to keep a grip on his hands.

She raised her eyebrows. “Okay. Then what?”

“Then we lock Randy in here. I’m sure he has the key. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the key to the only door with a promise of escape,” I continued.

She nodded. “So if that door is locked, how do we get through it?”

“We wait,” I said vaguely. Seeing that she needed an explanation, I added, “They’ll notice he hasn’t come out, and someone will come to look for him. Probably Ron.”

Her eyes lit with understanding. “Then we do the same thing we did with Randy, but… Where do we put Ron? We can’t put him in with Randy.”

I smiled. “The bathroom doors lock. Not only from the inside, but from the outside, and Randy has the keys.”

She grinned back at me. “Perfect. And Ron will have unlocked our escape door to come in.”

I nodded. “Even if Mark or Jared locked it behind him, they’ll have to come in eventually. We would lock the third person in the other bathroom, and we could even lock the fourth in the center room if it came to that. There won’t be more than four.”

“You’re right,” she agreed. “Tattoo Face wouldn’t come in all by himself. He doesn’t do the dirty work.”

“Tattoo…” I trailed off. “Oh, you mean The Boss.” I only figured out who she was talking about when I saw the mixture of hatred and fear in her eyes.

“Whatever you want to call him,” she said impatiently.

“Yeah… but you’re correct. He doesn’t do the dirty work,” I agreed.

She frowned. “What happens after we make it through the door?”

“We’ll have to leave it up to fate,” I answered, scowling. Fate didn’t seem to favor me. “If we can even find our way out of the building, it might be night, or it might be day. It doesn’t really matter, though. This is our only chance. We can’t keep waiting for the perfect time… It just won’t come.”

She nodded determinedly. “And when do we do this?”

I sighed. “There’s no point in waiting. If you’re all rested, we’ll do it the next time Randy comes in.”

She opened her mouth as if she was about to protest, but then she closed it. “Very true. Okay then. I’m ready, I guess.”

Maybe six hours later I caught her shivering, so I yanked her into my lap. She tried to pull herself away, but I held on tight. “Don’t lie and say you aren’t cold,” I said confidently. “This is warmer. You know it’s true.”

She ignored me and pouted.

A few hours after that, she lifted her head from my chest and looked up at me with her hazel eyes that were not only completely innocent, but utterly beautiful. I had to admit it.

“What if this doesn’t work?” she asked, her voice very small.

I tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. “If it doesn’t work, they will kill us.”

She shuddered.

I don’t know how I was so calm. “They’re going to kill us anyways,” I pointed out. “We might as well go down fighting.”

“I know,” she said, “but I’m scared.”

“Me too,” I murmured.

It was then that I knew there was something I had to do, in case we died. Something I could not die without doing. If we didn’t die, I’d have to deal with the consequences later.

I needed to kiss Lana, if it was the last thing I did, because I had gone from hating her to loving her. I needed to kiss here, even though I knew it would only make her hate me even more.