No Escape

The next day, four days after the earthquake, Shania was up and about a few times. She was pushed around in a wheelchair at first, and later, when she stood up on her feet for the first time since the quake, she was surprised at just how sore and weak she felt when a nurse took her for a short walk down the corridor after breakfast. She was walked again after lunch and found she was able to go a little longer, and longer still after dinner. After eating dinner, she assured Nurse Angie that she was able to walk around unassisted. Nurse Angie was reluctant at first, though she finally relented as long as Shania would agree to stay close to the wall and not go very far. “I promise, Angie. I’ll only go to the lounge and back, and only once,” Shania told her. “I just can’t stand to keep lying in this bed hour after hour, and as the doctor said, I have to start somewhere as far as getting my strength back.” “Okay, okay, you’ve convinced me. Just take it slow and easy and give a yell if you need help.” “I will,” Shania said, slowly pulling herself upright and out of bed. She steadied herself by leaning against the edge of the bed. When she was sure she would not be hit with a dizzy spell, she walked past her comatose roommate, who lay there with all kinds of tubes and monitors stemming from her. She stepped into the corridor and glanced both ways. To the right, a nurse was heading away from her as she pushed a patient in a wheelchair down to their room. To her left, a man in a business suit was speaking with another nurse at the nurses’ station. She headed towards the station, hoping to spot Lauren and surprise her with being somewhat functional, despite her slow pace and the cast her arm was in. The man who was talking to the nurse had red hair. She couldn’t see his face at first because his back was towards her. Shania took a few steps closer. The unfamiliar and very young brunette nurse laughed heartily at something the man said. Shania strained to hear the man’s voice. The nurse laughed again. She was now standing just a few yards behind the man, whose voice was growing more and more familiar by the minute. The station was on the opposite side of the corridor from where she’d been walking along, using the wall for support. She shakily crossed the corridor to get a better look at the man. Once she could see his profile, her heart began to beat faster. Still, she needed a closer look at the man’s face to be sure she was really seeing what she was seeing, to be sure she wasn’t dreaming or that her imagination hadn’t run wild. After all, she’d been hit on the head and knocked unconscious, so couldn’t that mean that her mind might very well be playing tricks on her? The man glanced briefly at Shania once she was no more than ten feet away from him. Although he didn’t appear to recognize her, she certainly recognized him! She turned around as quickly as she could without stumbling and ambled back towards her room. Her breathing was labored and her heart beat fiercely inside her rib cage. Waves of dizziness and nausea came over her, though she was determined to fight it. Calm down, she told herself, leaning against the wall just inside the doorway. You’re seeing things, only seeing things. Dead men don’t return to life. Hoffritz is dead, and Lauren’s not the only one who says so. The dead stay dead. They don’t come back to work, they don’t… No, I know what I saw! she screamed inside her mind. Her eyes scanned the room. Did she really want to be all alone in a room with nothing but a comatose patient for defense? Feeling vulnerable, she turned to leave the room. She’d rather face Hoffritz, dead or alive, where others were around to protect her, than face dealing with him alone while she was still weak and feeble. The instant she stepped into the doorway, however, someone appeared before her, almost toppling her over. She gave a yelp of surprise and fear. “Whoa, it’s just me, sweetie,” Lauren said. “Oh, oh, thank God!” stuttered Shania, trying to regain control of herself. “Sorry I scared you like that. You alright?” Shania shook her head, struggling to slow her breathing. It was then that Lauren realized she wasn’t the only one to spook Shania. “What’s wrong?” “He—he’s alive!” she stammered. “Shh, calm down. Who’s alive? Come on, let’s get you back into bed.” She guided her back to her bed. “Hoffritz. I saw him just now talking to a nurse at the station.” “No, sweetie, that’s not him. It was his twin brother you saw, though I can’t deny the spitting image is rather spooky.” Shania gazed at Lauren incredulously. “Twin brother?” Lauren nodded. “You didn’t know about him?” “No.” “If I’d known you didn’t know, I’d have made sure to tell you to keep you from freaking out like this. Now just relax.” Lauren glanced quickly towards the door, then back at her. Then she whispered, “Tonight’s the night.” “Huh?” “It’s time,” Lauren whispered. “Just do everything I tell you when I tell you to. Got it?” Shania nodded, smiling, her mood quickly changing to that of a hopeful one, though the thought of escaping made her nerves twang at the same time. “I know you can’t run fast, so at some point, I’m going to grab you and make for the door with you.” “When?” “When the coast is clear. The best exit is at the end of the west wing, so I’ll just have to use my best judgment as to the best timing. They do their rounds at the top of every hour. During the rest of the time, we just have to hope there’s no more activity than usual in that area. It’s basically going to be hit or miss, but if we storm out of here at around a quarter after, it’s more likely to be a hit.” “At a quarter after what hour?” “Well, I don’t want to wait till it gets too close to the end of my shift and lose our chance. I’m off the next two days, and by the time I get back, you could very well be out of here and over at Elmwood.” “Elmwood?” Lauren nodded. “It’s another psych hospital. They’re making accommodations there for those put out by the earthquake.” “How kind of them,” Shania said sarcastically. “Yes, and you’d be quite likely to end up over there because most of the adult ward was destroyed. That means we have to go tonight, or else God only knows how long it’ll be before you could get a chance to break out over there. They’re pretty tight over there as far as security goes. More so than they are here. Anyway, I wanted to make a run for it last night, but things were so busy around here, so we’ve got to go tonight.” “Okay,” said Shania, eyes twinkling with hope and with love for this woman who had come to care about her so much that she’d put her own self out just to save her. Lauren smiled lovingly at Shania, then said, “See you later, honey.” “See you.” She closed her eyes and settled back against her pillow to wait for the moment of escape. God, if you can hear me, she thought to herself, and if you care about me at all, please, please let us get out of here tonight! She opened her eyes. It was coming up on 9:00. Every minute that ticked by seemed to equal a dozen. She braced herself once it got close to a quarter after and almost felt like crying when Lauren didn’t come for her. She snatched up the paperback she was reading that stood beside the bed. Despite her efforts to lose herself in the story, she was unable to concentrate. Perhaps that was a good thing, though, since it would probably be best if she remained alert and ready for when the time came to make the escape. During her break, Lauren was puzzled as to why her pocketbook was not in her locker in the lounge until she remembered that she hadn’t brought it in that night. The less she had to carry out of this place in the end, the better. “Oh, no. Not again!” Lauren heard one of the nurses moan shortly afterward. Setting her cup of coffee down on the table, she headed towards the doorway of the lounge and peered out into the hall. Several nurses, along with one of the doctors, were heading towards the west wing. “It’s the Everly woman again, isn’t it?” asked a nurse. “Yes, she keeps pulling out her IV,” another nurse replied. “Some of these nutcases are hopeless,” someone else said. Great, thought Lauren. This is just what we need tonight. She sighed and followed the others towards the middle-left side of the west wing. “Miss Everly,” she heard the doctor saying, “you cannot continue to carry on like this.” At first, Lauren was unable to see past the nurses, but they soon moved, exposing a trembling girl who sat in bed with her arms wrapped tightly around her knees, slowly rocking back and forth. Her dirty blonde hair was disheveled, and her hazel eyes were somewhere far, far away. Just as the doctor went to place her stethoscope on the woman’s chest, her eyes suddenly snapped into focus and settled upon Lauren. “You!” she screamed, pointing directly at her. “You! I know what evil you have in mind! You’re the devil! Nothing but the devil!” Lauren was used to this kind of behavior. Tonight, however, in light of what she hoped to accomplish, it chilled her to the bone. She tried not to let it show as the doctor and nurses worked to calm the anorexic and schizophrenic woman down and secure her arms to the guardrails of her bed so that she wouldn’t be able to pull out the IV that fed her. Lauren turned, hoping they’d get the woman settled soon enough in a manner that wouldn’t call for them needing to place a nurse in the room all night. Shania looked at the clock. Twenty after 10:00. She felt her body sag as if it had been full of air and then suddenly deflated. In less than an hour, Lauren’s shift would end. If she couldn’t break out of the infirmary tonight, there was no saying how many months she could be trapped in Elmwood, away from Lauren, with Hoffritz still haunting her even from the grave. She wondered how much Hoffritz’s brother knew of the situation and what power he might have over her. Could he and Maureen both make life just as miserable for her as Hoffritz himself had? Could they influence her stay at either psych ward? Probably so, she realized dubiously. With Hoffritz gone, some other family member would likely take over the clinic. If there were no other shrinks in the family, certainly they’d hire one, though they’d still be the head boss. This no doubt meant that no matter what stories Maureen decided to make up about her to try to keep her locked up as long as the law would allow, she would be believed, even without proof. At five of 11:00, Shania tried to fight the sinking feeling that was settling in the pit of her stomach as she stared out into the corridor from where she lay. With the curtain pushed back against the wall, she had a clear view of it. A sudden blur of movement caught her eye. Lauren had glanced in on her for a second, then disappeared from view! Her heart took off on a run. Half a minute later, she appeared again. She entered the room and came over to her. “Let’s take a little walk and get you some exercise before bedtime,” she said with a wink. Shania hurriedly got out of bed and stepped into her hospital slippers. “Don’t forget your robe,” Lauren said, snatching it up off the back of a nearby chair and handing it to Shania. Although she had to drape it over the shoulder of the broken arm, it helped keep her warmer. With Shania clad in a standard-issue hospital gown and the robe, the two slowly made their way out into the corridor. Lauren guided her towards the west wing. They approached the nurses’ station when Sarah looked up at them. “What are you doing up so late, Shania?” she asked. “I-I’ve been a little depressed and I needed to talk to Lauren before she went home,” Shania said, hoping she sounded believable. “We’ll only be a few minutes. Just down the length of the west wing and back,” Lauren added. “Okay,” Sarah said with a nod, then returned her concentration to whatever papers were before her, blocked from view by the long, narrow countertop. The two carried on, heading further down the hall. “I can understand your depression,” Lauren said for show as they passed an orderly who gave them a quick nod along the way. “Shit,” she softly muttered a moment later as they entered the west wing. “What?” asked Shania in a whisper, just as she spotted a nurse sitting midway down the hall. “It’s good to see you’re getting your exercise,” said Lauren, loud enough for the nurse to hear. The nurse looked up from the book she was reading. It was an older nurse that Shania didn’t see much of, especially since she worked third shift. “Yes, it’s been hard, though,” Shania played along. “I’m so homesick, you know?” “I can understand that,” said Lauren, hand grazing the keys that were clipped to her belt loop. They were almost upon the nurse, who was eyeing them with curiosity. “I miss Mindy and having a normal life,” Shania went on. “And of course, the earthquake was terrifying, and it’s no fun being laid up with a broken arm.” “What are you two doing out and about this late?” asked the nurse now that they were just a few feet away. “Didn’t your shift end a few minutes ago?” “Yes, but Shania here is having a very hard time tonight. We’re just going to take a walk down to the end of the wing and back before I take off for the night.” The nurse studied them with steely gray eyes that matched her head of tightly curled hair. Shania could see that this was a mean, controlling kind of woman. She hoped the woman had no children. “Well, alright,” she said in a grudging sort of way. Shania and Lauren continued on. Shania’s heart now pounded so hard that she was afraid she was visibly trembling. Once they passed the nurse, Shania dared a glance behind her. The nurse was still eyeing them curiously. Nonetheless, they travelled slowly, not wanting to arouse suspicion until they absolutely had to. Shania knew, however, that even if the nurse returned to her book, she’d hear them exiting the building and probably see them too, from the corner of her eye. Her heart beat faster with each step that brought them closer to the door. When they reached it, Lauren whispered, “Step out as soon as I push it open.” She did, and then Lauren followed and scooped her up into her arms just as the door closed behind them. With Shania clinging tightly to Lauren, Lauren ran as fast as she could.