Breaking Their Hold

For Melissa, time seemed to be taking forever to reach midnight, when Nurse Phillips would come to check on her and make sure she was quite asleep. Melissa couldn't help but feel the icy fingers of fear wrapping themselves around her pounding heart like vines. She was terrified. She knew the old woman would know something was happening. She knew she would. Phillips was a smart, cunning woman. She wouldn't be head nurse of Haverly Hospital if she wasn't. She always knew when Melissa was lying.

But you got away with getting her to open your window for you, didn't you? She told herself mentally, trying to calm herself down. The beating of her heart wouldn't calm down, though; it was like a caged bird beating itself against the bars of its cage, trying to get free.

She suddenly heard the lock on the metal door, and she turned over in her bed, closing her eyes hastily and forcing herself to take deep, slow breaths. Everything in Jimmy and Pierre's plan hinged on her success at fooling the old nurse; if she didn't, not only would she be caught, but the others would be as well. And they'd suffer punishments just as bad as she, if not worse.

She listened to the click, clack of the nurse's hard-soled black shoes as she walked over to Melissa's bed, and felt the woman peering down at her intimidatingly, as though daring her to not be asleep as she was supposed to be. The nurse chuckled evilly, and turned around to leave, the room now so tense that Melissa could hardly stand it.

"Enjoy your dreams, Ms. Baker," The nurse said coldly as the metal door opened. "I'm sure Presient Schlagger won't let you have such restful nights."

In that instant, Melissa wanted to do nothing more than scream in fear. There was no way this plan of Pierre's was going to work. They were teenagers, who had never done anything more than sneak out of their homes on occasion when they'd been in elementary school. Teenagers who knew nothing of how to survive on their own. They had no money to buy food with, and even if they had, they didn't have Government sanctioned ID cards which would allow them to buy the food in the first place. If they didn't have an ID card, they would be found immediately.

"Mel! Get your ass over here!" Matt's voice called from the window, his voice an urgent whisper. Melissa immediately got up; she didn't want to let Matt, Pierre, or Jimmy down. Already, the woman who looked strikingly like Melissa herself was hoisted onto Matt's shoulders. Melissa stood aside, letting the woman use her hand to pull her into the small room quietly. She took one look at Melissa, sadness and anger both mixed in her eyes; a similar, though not identical, shade of green.

"I'm Sophia," She said, shaking Melissa's hand quickly. "I'm from the Canadian government, and here to help you."

"What? You don't--" Melissa started. Sophia shook her head, pulling her dark clothes off of her body.

"We don't have time to discuss me now, Melissa. I've already been given all the information about you that I need. I know your birthday, your brother's birthday, and everything else that I'll need to make this work. All we need to do now is get you out of here."

"But what about Zacky and everyone else? Do they--"

"They were not on the list of people Schlagger is planning on taking," Sophia cut her off. "Take your clothes off; we need to switch them."

Melissa nodded, and pulled the white, Hospital-sanctioned clothes off of her body, handing them to Sophia and grabbing Sophia's clothes, pulling them onto her body. She winced when she realized that, though she and the woman standing before her were similar in size, Melissa had lost a lot of weight; so much so that this woman's clothes practically hung on her.

"Okay. Go! Listen to Pierre; he knows what he's doing, he's done it before. He'll take you to Canada, where you'll be safe. When you reach Quebec, Pierre is going to introduce you to the Prime Minister. You will tell him everything that has happened to you here at Haverly Hospital since you've been institutionalized. What happens then will depend on how the Prime Minister sees things, but it is expected that he is going to demand that Schlagger be handed over to the Global Council of Goodwill for punishment, or he'll have Canada wage war on this country until Schlagger is taken care of."

"But what if--"

"There's no time for what ifs." Sophia told her, pushing Melissa towards the window. "Now go! Get as far as you can tonight, and only travel at night. Pierre, you know what to do. You know the Safe Zones."

Pierre nodded, and Sophia looked down at them, sticking her feet out of the window. She saw Jimmy grab them steadily in his hands, and she slid out the window, Matt supporting her back so that she would slide out without hitting the ground. Jimmy and Matt let her stand on her own two feet once she was out of the window, and she met Jimmy's gaze. There was an intensity in the blue orbs that she hadn't seen in a long time. He hugged her tightly, kissing her hair.

"Let's go." He told her, grabbing her hand and trying to move. She refused, and looked at him.

"Where's Zacky? And Brian? What aobut Johnny?"

Jimmy sighed, and looked at Pierre, not sure of how to explain things.

"They won't be able to come with us," Pierre explained quickly. "The only three of you that were on the list were Matthew Sanders, James Sullivan, and yourself. We couldn't risk taking Zacky and the others without making it too difficult to get out. In a few months' time, we'll get them out. I promise."

"Does he--"

"He told me today to give you this," Jimmy whispered, handing her a letter. "But we have to go, Mel. Before it's too late a safe distance away before morning."

Melissa nodded, and grabbed a backpack that Matt handed her. Pierre walked over to her hastily, and started taking quietly.

"We have six hours to move as far as we can, but we're at least an hour away from the fences. Take this," He whispered, handing her a small, pistol-looking gun. Her eyes widened, and he sighed. "Melissa, you need to realize something. Nobody is getting out of here without someone dying. If a guard needs to be killed in order to save you, so be it. He made his choices; he knew the consequences."

Melissa gulped, and nodded. She couldn't argue with Pierre; she knew he was right. She took the gun shakily, and put it into her pocket.

"Now, all of us have these, and one of us will do the shooting if we have to," Pierre told her. "But you need to be able to shoot without question, okay? If it's someone you don't recognize, and they seem like danger, shoot."

Melissa nodded again, and Pierre gave her a reassuring smile, patting her shoulder.

"Okay, guys. Let's go." He said, as they began their way towards the outter perimeters of the Hospital. Melissa had never seen the outside of it; she was terrified. It looked like the pictures she'd seen of Auschwitz when Adolf Hitler had been the dictator of Germany.

She just prayed they could all make it out of this alive.