Page 58 of Protecting Bree
“Yes!” Julie added. “We’re slowing down.”
The truck they were in had slowed down before, and nothing came of it. At one point, they’d slowed for what seemed a considerable amount of time, inching along, then stopping briefly.
All three women got excited, thinking they were very likely at a border crossing. They tried shouting, praying someone would hear them and inspect the truck. But a cacophony of honking horns from other vehicles had already driven the chickens into a squawking frenzy.
No one heard them. No one checked the back of the truck. And soon they were speeding along again. It felt like it took an hour, though the entire process was probably only fifteen or twenty minutes.
But now, Bree couldn’t stop the spike of adrenalinefrom coursing through her body. She wrapped her hand tighter around her makeshift weapon. They had to be ready for anything.
“Look, I’ve been thinking. We can’t do anything from inside these cages,” Fiona said quickly. “We have to get out somehow. If someone does come for us, we have to do whatever it takes to convince them to let us out.”
Bree nodded. She agreed.
“Fake an illness?” Julie asked.
“Do we think they’d care?” Fiona countered.
“Hmm, probably not. But maybe? I mean, I’m guessing they want us well enough to…you know,” Julie said quietly.
Bree didn’t want to think aboutyou know, but she couldn’t help it. She couldn’t think of any scenario where their captors would open all three of their cages. “Really, only one of us needs to escape. That person can free the other two.”
“I don’t know. The padlocks on these cages aren’t going to be easy to get open, especially if there’s more than one asshole who comes for us. Even if they’re carrying the keys to the locks, we have to find them, figure out which goes to which lock, then unlock the damn things,” Julie said pessimistically.
“I’ll do it,” Bree told the others.
“Do what?” Fiona asked.
“Get them to open my cage.”
“How?” Julie asked.
Bree had no idea. She just knew it was her responsibility to get her friends out of this. She still felt as if it was her fault they were here in the first place. If she’d gone east, away from Riverton and Smiley, Julie and Fiona wouldn’t be locked in cages inside this horrible truck.
All three women held their breaths as the truck slowed even further. The floor rumbled under them as it crept along. Bree prayed this was different from other times when they’d slowed down. She’d lost track of how often that had happened. It was impossible to gauge time in this truck. She didn’t know how long they were inside before waking up in the cages. Since then, it felt like they’d been trapped for days, but she knew it was actually just a matter of hours.
In any case, she realized it couldn’t have been too long, because without water at least, they wouldn’t be in as good of shape as they were.
Still, they were all beginning to feel the effects of lack of sustenance. And Bree had gotten over the humiliation of smelling like pee and sitting in her own waste. All around them was nothing but chicken shit. It wasn’t as if she could smell herself through all that stink, although if she could, she’d probably be horrified.
She had the thought that maybe her condition would make their captors keep their distance. Being dirty and disgusting might be the best thing for them right now.
The truck came to a jerking halt, making Bree fall forward and knock her head against the bars of the cage once more.
“Ow!” Fiona complained. “Asshole needs to learn how to drive.”
The chickens around them obviously agreed, because they all began to cluck in agitation.
Several minutes went by, and Bree held her breath. She still had no plan. If someone came for them, she’d have to think of something. Fast.
Then a loud clanking noise sounded from the rear ofthe truck, making the chickens flap their wings in the too-crowded cages and the noise level in the enclosed space once more increase to a painful level.
The light that suddenly shone through the open door at the other end of the truck almost hurt Bree’s eyes. It was artificial, coming from streetlights of some sort, shining dimly in the darkness beyond the open door. Which was probably good, because after being in the gloomy truck with only red light for so long, the three of them would probably be blinded if they saw sunlight right now.
As it was, Bree had to blink rapidly to try to get her eyes to adjust. She saw a blurry form climb into the back and walk between the stacked chicken cages. He had a respirator over his nose and mouth so he could breathe. Asshole. Ofcoursehe had a respirator, but he didn’t give a shit if she, Julie, or Fiona could breathe.
“Time to go,” he announced, his voice muffled from behind the mask.
Bree took stock of the man. He wasn’t big. Maybe around Fiona’s height. And he was skinny, not hugely muscular. It was obvious he didn’t consider any of them a threat, which she hoped would be his downfall.
