The Color of Jade (Jade Series Book 1) (35 page)

“Let’s go,” Denny said. He tapped his stick against the steel bars. Confused about where we headed, I hesitated and searched his eyes for reassurance.  “Casey sent for you. Come on, it’s okay.”

My breaths quickened as I stood. The cold, cement floor sent iciness through me as my bare feet padded across the floor. I glanced back over my shoulder at Olivia and Charles and she gave me a weak smile.

Denny held my arm gently, but his grip made me uncomfortable as he walked me out of C-block and down the hall. Metal bars clanged behind us but only registered faintly in the back of my mind, consumed only with worry about where he wanted to take me. We came to a shower room,
the shower room
. I gasped and immediately my heart raced out of my chest.

“No! I don’t want to go in there! Please!” I pleaded with Denny. The terrors of icy water that shot from the fire hose with enough force to slice skin like daggers, flooded into my mind.

He grabbed my other arm and I couldn’t move as Denny held me with very little effort against the wall. I frantically searched his eyes as he searched mine. “Trust me…You’re going to be fine.” I trusted no one. Trust was a luxury I couldn’t afford, but I needed to try.

A ragged sigh escaped me.

Once inside the room I looked around. There wasn’t a fire hose anywhere, with Megan the only one in the room. Her medium length hair looked auburn under the lights. She looked fragile, thin, all except a small bump in her belly and I guessed she might be pregnant.

“I thought you might want to take a shower and get out of that awful shirt. I brought you something clean to wear.”

I looked down at myself. My shirt smudged with dirt and still stained with the blood from my nose when Damian hit me after the escape. My skin, just as filthy. My wrists scabbed with rope burns and marred with bruises but covered with a dingy grey. My hand floated absently up to my head and I ran my fingers through my grimy hair. Besides the torture by fire hose, I hadn’t showered since I left the compound.

I looked back at Denny and watched as Casey walked in through the door. He smiled and somehow, I suddenly felt okay.

“You’ll be okay.” Denny tried to convince me and I looked to Casey for reassurance.

“The only person in here will be Megan, and I’m going to stand right outside the door,” Casey added as they both walked out and shut the door and I stood there for a minute in front of Megan.

“Here… you’re shaking. Come sit on the chair.”

She brought the chair under the shower so I could sit. The shirt slipped easily off my shoulders and I tossed it over to the side as I wrapped myself in the towel. The old rusty knobs squeaked as Megan turned on the shower and adjusted the temperature. I turned to face her. My arm quivered from my lack of strength as I held out my hand to test the water. Megan glanced my way and smiled with warm, golden brown eyes, and then suddenly shock filled her eyes as she gasped.

“Jade, you’re marked!”

I looked down at the ugly tattoo on my chest. My jaw quivered slightly as I clenched my teeth. I would never be able to escape the memory of Damian. “Yeah, don’t remind me,” I said, as I sat on the chair with the towel still wrapped around me.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean…  I was just surprised to see it.”

“It’s okay.  Why is it such a shock?”

“Not everyone gets one…right there,” she said, and handed me a bar of soap. I glanced over my shoulder with quizzical eyes but hesitant to ask why, unsure if I really wanted to know the full meaning behind the tattoo.

“Don’t tell anyone, please,” I pleaded, my voice threatened to give away how much it really bothered me.

“I won’t.”

Water ran through my hair and despite of its warmth, still sent an icy shudder through my veins. The tingly crawl of goose bumps ravaged my body as the spray from the shower pelted my skin. My heart quickened as I forced slow, measured breaths from my lungs to calm myself.

“Are you cold?” She asked. My cheeks felt hot but the hair on my arms stood on end as a chill ran up my spine.

“No.” I answered back too quickly. My voice a breathless whisper as I lathered soap in my hands. I glanced up at Megan, unsure if she was aware of my internal turmoil. She smiled as water spilled in a sheet down my face. My chest grew tight. I didn’t realize I held my breath, then I released it at once and offered her a forged smile back. I looked away and rubbed soap absently over my skin as she massaged shampoo gently into my hair.

Breathe… just breathe… In… Out… In.

My eyes grew heavy and I let them drift closed. The water and my anxiety drained my energy and I felt weak, like if I were sick with the flu. I searched for something, anything through the cobwebs in my mind that could distract me from memories of the razor sharp spray, pinpricking pain and Damian with a high-pressured fire hose in his hands.

Megan.

Thoughts of her slightly swollen belly entered my mind. The first thing I noticed about her when I walked in. If she wasn’t so thin otherwise, I might not have even noticed. She reminded me suddenly of the kids and the babies in Morrison’s compound.

“You’re pregnant?” She was still just a kid herself, in that aspect, I was too. A shudder ran through me.

“Yeah… four and a half months,” she smiled. She rubbed the little bump with a soapy hand and covered it completely with her palms.

“Do you want to be?”

“I’m okay with it, now.”

“Sorry for asking, but, did you choose to be?”

“No, it’s one of Morrison’s rules.”

I looked at Megan confused. “What do you mean?”

“It’s a right he’s given to the men to re-populate, to re-build. He wants followers who will answer to him. Some of the girls won't even have the chance to see their babies. If you are married and a faithful follower, you can keep your child, but if you’re not he has them raised and educated by other women. I didn’t have any say in it, I didn’t have a choice.”

“Are you and Casey married?”

“No.”

The shower stopped and Megan handed me another towel. My knees trembled as I stood for a second to wrap it around me. I let the other one slap against the tile floor around my feet then sat back on the chair. Cold air wrapped around me like frozen fingers and a different kind of chill crawled over my body. I shook uncontrollably as I rubbed droplets of water off my skin. Megan towel dried my hair then ran the comb through it. Slowly, I pulled on the oversized shirt and sweats she brought me. The thin cotton and fuzzy insides of the sweats, just enough to warm my skin. I stood with my arms folded across the front of me.

My insides still buzzed with internal trembling from the cold but the panic inside me, gone replaced by a calmness I hadn’t felt in a long time. My heart slowed to a normal pace, my breaths, as heavy as the dank air that I brought into my chest.

“You look much better,” she smiled, but it quickly faded. “But you look worn out... Let me grab Casey and we’ll get you back.”

I reached for her hand as she turned to leave and looked up at her.  “I’m not in a hurry…Thank you, Megan. You don’t know how much this means to me.”

“That’s okay.”

“Why are you here at the jail?” I asked. We walked together towards the door.

“My aunt makes me work. In exchange, Morrison gives her food for us. I met Casey here. That is the only good thing about this place.”

The shower room door snapped open and a wave of stale air blew in from the hall. I walked out and found Casey and Denny patiently waiting.

“Thanks, Casey.”

“Sure. We’ve got to get you feeling better,” he smiled, Megan walked over to him and slipped her arms through his. He gave a wave of his hand and they headed down the long hallway.

Denny leaned back with one foot propped against the wall and arms folded across his chest. He glanced at me then looked at his watch as he tapped his finger against it.

“I just about fell asleep. I thought for a minute I was back at home waiting in line behind my sisters for the bathroom.”  His unexpected comment brought a laugh and I smiled at him.

“Did I take too long?”

“Na, you take as long as you need.”

“You aren’t as mean as you want people to believe, Denny.”

“Don’t tell anyone,” he said, as we walked down the hall then he gave me a playful wink. His lively smile exposed dimples in his cheeks.

“Why do you work for Morrison?” I asked, surprised at my own abruptness but he didn’t seem to fit the description of the Militia.

“When the virus hit, I was an inmate here. Morrison seized the jail days after the disaster. They took over but didn’t let anyone out. After about three months, he started making deals with the inmates. If they worked for him, he would release them.  I jumped on the opportunity, but had no idea what I walked into. To make sure you don’t run off, he threatens you with your family.  I have a wife. She stays with my mom and sister in a grouped off housing area on the other end of the city, patrolled by guards.”

“Why did you get put in jail?”

“I got into a fight and put a man in the hospital… It was stupid. He had it coming but I should have walked away,” he sighed, his glance looked distant as if he reflected on the incident. “I had been in jail maybe a week and was waiting to see the judge to be released.”

“You’re working on the wrong side Denny. You should be working with my brother.”

“Who says I’m not.”

I looked at him stunned as we returned to C-block. I wanted to ask if he knew Kane, but I couldn’t risk saying anything more. He opened my cell and I went inside as he stared intently at me.

“Gage
is
coming and we’ll get you out, Jade,” he said, in a hushed tone. “Just hang on.”

“What?” I asked, softly through the echo as the bars slammed shut. “How do you know Gage?”

My heart pounded as I searched his eyes. I clung to the bars and gripped them tight. The keys jingled in Denny’s hands as he locked me in.

“I know Gage and Kane. I’ve talked to them both. They
are
coming. It’s only a matter of time now,” he said, barely above a whisper. “That’s why we moved you here with the others.”

My thoughts jumped instantly to Trey, locked somewhere alone, in a different part of the jail and my heart quickened, as I suddenly feared for him. Denny must have recognized the worry on my face because he immediately added.

“I saw Trey yesterday…”

“You did!” I practically jumped out of my skin.

“Yeah… I passed on some information. It won't be long,” Denny paused for his words to sink in. A brief smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “He’s doing fine and I told him you were okay.”

I nodded my head as I pressed against the bars and he gave me another wink and a smile.

“Don’t give up... Not much longer.”

“Thank you.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t worry about it,” Denny said. He turned and walked away. The danger he placed himself in scared me, he risked his life, his family's life. They lived under Morrison’s thumb and still… My thoughts trailed off to Gage. What were they planning?

***

“Feel better?”

I sat up from the mattress and looked over towards Charles. Once an annoyance, turned into a friendship and I looked forward to our conversations. If anything, it made the time pass. We had to be careful what we said and couldn’t talk too much to avoid the unwanted attention of the guards. But it was a nice break from the inside of my mind to have someone to talk to.

“Yeah. It felt good to clean up. The water was warm… but not that warm.”

“That’s because this place is running on a generator. That’s why the lights are always dim if they are on at all.”

“That’s how it was at the compound… I wonder why Morrison is so against electricity, and heat.”

“He’s not.  I’m sure he has huge supplies of fuel stored somewhere for his own use.”

I looked at Charles confused. I remembered winter, people went cold and hungry after the virus hit and even though our fireplace was constantly lit, that winter was rough and quite miserable for us, especially Emery.

“In order to start this country over, Morrison had to shut everything down, to paralyze the nation. Then he can gradually rebuild the resources under his command. He doesn’t want everyone to have all the conveniences that we are all used to. He wants everyone to depend on him to get it re-established, that’s how he will stay in control. We’ll get it back, years from now.”

“If we ever get out.”

“You’ll get out. All of us will someday,” Charles said, as he glanced at Olivia with optimism that I wasn't sure he convinced himself of.

“I hope so,” I paused, shortly and turned to Olivia.

“Mayor?”

“Jade, just call me Olivia,” she said, her muted grey eyes smiled as she looked at me. I remembered, my parents liked her and I could see why with her genuine concern for the people and her intelligence, visible in her confident poise.

“Okay… Olivia. Morrison had kids locked up in the compound. I have no idea if they made it out with the raid, have you heard?”