Chapter 70

Katherine revived to the sensation of Evan’s hand on her cheek, his arm around her shoulder and the warmth of his body pressed against her side.  She opened her eyes and saw that she was sitting on the floor next to her husband.  The room where she sat looked like her greatest decorating fears: cabinetry barely grasping at walls, belongings strewn like seed, and furniture arranged in no sensible formation.

“How long was I out?” she mumbled.

“Not long,” Evan smiled.

Katherine’s gaze found Drex making his way through the ruins, almost like he was trying to make sense of the pattern in randomized material.

“Lillian?”

Evan pointed to a sofa. Katherine could see the tips of the princess’ shoes sticking above the armrest. She nodded, relieved that Lillian had at least a moment to rest and regain some strength.  That thought spun up memories of how Katherine had arrived in this junkyard of a room: the soldiers.  She started to push herself off the floor.

“Where are the- ?”

Evan soothed her back to the floor.  “We’ve been keeping our eyes out.  So far, so good.”

Katherine nodded and relaxed a little.  Then, after a moment, she looked affectionately at Evan and placed her hand on his rough cheek.  “Thanks for leading us here.”  His brow furrowed, and his eyes searched hers.  “I’m serious.  I’m certain we’re still alive because of you.”  She felt his face grow warm as he broke with her eyes.  Evan readjusted his position on the floor.

“I’m going to check on Lillian,” Katherine said, patting his shoulder and rising to her feet.

The princess was asleep and taking in long, free breaths.  Good, Katherine thought.  She noticed a bit of color coming back to Lillian’s face.  There was no way to know how much the day’s retreat had regressed her progress, and there was no way to guess how long they could stay undetected.  But the longer, the better, was what Katherine repeated to herself.

Katherine sat on the edge of a nearby chair and surveyed the team.  Drex was still looking for something, but not aggressively.  Evan was now pressed against a wall next to a window.  He was staring at something going on outside.  She turned her attention to Drex.

“Can I help you look?”

“You can, but I don’t know what I’m looking for.”

“You don’t know what you’re looking for?” Katherine raised her eyebrows.

Without pausing his search, Drex replied, “Keetha was not the only rebel against Dol.  There are pockets of people who would enjoy seeing a return to a time of freedom.  Not as many pockets as are needed, but…” he shrugged.  “The upside is that we knew of each other somewhat, we have needed to be somewhat in contact with each other.  To coordinate efforts, you know.  Not accidentally lead the soldiers to them.  So, like the place we just left, there are a few such places throughout the city.  This is one of them.  Looks like our friends made it out before the soldiers became wise.  I’m looking to see if they left behind anything that might help us.”

“Like a note?”

Drex nodded, “But coded.  So, like I say, I don’t really know what I’m looking for.  Although…” his voice trailed off as he noticed the corner of yellow barely sticking out from a crack in the wall.  Gingerly, Drex picked and tugged at the corner until a full scrap of material was extracted.  Like a butterfly leaving a chrysalis, Katherine thought.  Drex scanned it.  He then sat on another chair, never taking his eyes off the material.

“Anything good?” Katherine asked.

“Don’t know yet,” Drex said.

Katherine turned her head back to Evan, still staring out the window.  “How about you?  Anything going on outside?”

“Don’t know,” Evan said.

“We are full of information,” Katherine smiled to herself.

“There’s a soldier who’s walked by twice.  Might be nothing.  Might be something.”

Katherine nodded.  She leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes.  When her brain clicked back on, Drex paced the floor, still pouring over the yellow material, Lillian still slept, and Evan still fixated on the window.  Had she been asleep at all?  Katherine noticed some shadows had moved and the light had a different mood.  She’d slept, but how long?  Not enough to have caused problems, she figured.

She rose from the chair and started to walk to Evan.  He held out his hand for her to stop.

“Soldiers?”

“I don’t know who they are,” he said.  “No uniforms.  Or at least not uniforms, I know.”  Drex stopped his pacing and turned his head.  Evan continued.  “I got one sitting on some steps across the street, I have a couple of others down the way trying to look invisible.  And, of course, the soldier has circled the block a half dozen times.  I think they think we’re here, but they aren’t confident.  So, they are slowly gathering forces in case we decide to make a break for it.  Like buzzards around a dying animal.”

“That’s odd behavior,” Drex mused, “even for Merlain soldiers.”

Evan broke his vigil at the window and looked at Drex, “You think something’s up?”

“I don’t know.”  He held up the yellow material.  “They left this message behind.  But I don’t know what it means for us.  Whoever was here was discovered.  They were able to make it out.  It says there’s a chute.  It doesn’t say where it goes.”

“It might be good to find it,” Evan said.

Drex nodded.  “Assuming the Merlain soldiers didn’t also find it.”

“Well,” Evan said, “that’s the way of it, isn’t it?”

“What would it look like, this chute?” Katherine said.

Drex blew out his cheeks and started to survey the space, “Obviously, it would be hidden.  But we could try vents-”

Evan cut him off with a gesture, then pointed outside.  “A vehicle just stopped up the block.  The two guys started talking with whoever’s inside.  Something’s going on.”  He turned to Drex, “Any ideas?”

“If they knew we were here, they would have just stormed in.  This slow build up…” Drex’s thoughts halted his speech and movement for a moment, then another, and then he scrambled to where a rifle lay amid the trash.  Drex lifted it up and searched the outside once, twice, then he found it.  “The weapons have trackers.  Everything we took.  They know the weapons are here, but they don’t know if we are.”  Drex nodded at his own words.  “Yes.  This makes sense.  They want to build forces, build pressure, so we react by giving up our position.  They don’t know we are here.  They don’t want to waste energy on the wrong location, so they wait till we make a mistake and show ourselves.”

Katherine spun her head to Lillian.  Still asleep.  “So, what do we do?” she asked with more desperation in her voice than she wanted to convey.  Drex held a finger to his lips before carefully checking for the escape chute.  He worked his way around the room’s vents and tapping the walls.  No luck.  So, he moved to the adjacent room.

“Should I wake her?” Katherine asked Evan.

He shrugged.  “Probably a good idea.  I would hate to wake up to the need to flee.”

Katherine sat next to Lillian, began to stroke her hair, and was comforted that her skin was back to its normal hue instead of the ghoulish white that she entered the house with.  Lillian’s eyelids began to flutter.  “It’s time to move again,” Katherine said.  “How are you feeling?”

Lillian wiped her dry lips with the back of her hand.  “If I am still able to draw breath, I’ll consider that a good sign.”  Katherine smiled, took a hand to pull, and placed her other hand behind Lillian’s back to sit her up.  “Drex is looking for a secret way out.  Soldiers are amassing outside.  We don’t need to leave yet, but when we do, I’m afraid it will happen suddenly.”  Lillian nodded.

Drex popped his head in the room.  “Got it,” was all he said.

Katherine looked at Lillian, “Like I said, suddenly.”  She helped Lillian get to her feet.  “How’s that?”  Lillian took a couple of breaths.  “Give me just a second.”  Then, “I’m good enough.”  Lillian began walking, with Katherine close by, toward the next room.

Katherine saw an appliance pulled away from the wall and a square hole in the floor not much wider than a person’s shoulders.  “I noticed some scrapes on the floor, pulled this thing out of the way, and here you go.”

“Here we go,” Evan said from behind Katherine.

Just then, they heard something land heavily on the roof upstairs, followed by several footsteps trying to be careful.

“And just in time,” Lillian smiled.  “Good work, Drex.”

“Right,” Drex said, “I’ll go first, ladies in the middle, and Evan bring up the rear.”

“I also booby-trapped the weapons to surprise our visitors when they break in.”  Katherine could see the pleased look on Evan’s face.  Was he having fun?

Drex dangled his legs into the hole and was gone in an instant.  All Katherine could see was his retreating light.  The chute didn’t look too steep, not unlike the playground slide when she was younger.  She sat down and had Lillian at her back.  Lillian wrapped her arms around Katherine’s middle, and, with a helpful push from Evan, she slid into the darkness hoping that what awaited them lead them closer to life and further from death, though, as always, she had her doubts.