I Am the Color Blue

Best Laid Plans

After inspecting the wooden planks Eleanor was trying to break, my plan is concrete. Well, I've poured the concrete and it's drying, so any single thing could make a huge footprint right in the middle of it.

Soon, I have all the room's occupants sitting in what probably resembled a circle, but I honestly can't see. Me, Hanna, Marc, Eleanor; Zara and Alex, whom I met shortly after I met Eleanor. Zara was quiet, and it very well may be that the only word I heard out of her mouth was her name. Alex is exactly the opposite, and not as bad as Hanna and Marc made him seem. He was talkative and polite, at least for as long as I knew him.

I am not as confident in this plan as I may seem.

But I figure Eleanor was the jumpstart of my plan, because seeing her hammer away at those wooden boards really lit a lightbulb in my head. If only I could reach two sticks from outside the little window, I could make a fire. I could make a fire and get us out of here. But it all depended on whether or not Eleanor knew what was actually behind the planks. Which is precisely what I am going to ask her.

"Okay. I-I have kind of a plan. But I'm not too sure of it," I begin. But no-one says anything. They don't have anything to say. "Eleanor," I say.

"Yeah?" she says, somewhat caught off guard.

"You know those wooden planks?" I ask her.

"Yeah..."

"Do you know what's behind them?"

She pauses a minute. "No....actually I don't. Trying to break them just....kills some time, I guess."

"Well, we're going to find out."

Silence echoes to and from all corners of the room. It feels like one single wave of sound being catapulted back and forth over and over again. I feel as if I have to break the silence once again, so I tell them of my plan, in all details.

I explain that we have to make the window look as if it's closed so Ike won't remember that it's really open. I explain about the wood from outside, and finding out what's behind the boards. Come on, it has to be a secret if it's boarded up. And some secrets are meant to be discovered.

Now, I'm not trying to pretend any of this is going to work. Or that anything we find out will help our predicament at all. We're all relying on uncertainty--a very risky thing to do in this world.

"I'm definitely in," Marc says, reaching from next to me on my left to hold my hand. I'm not sure whether I should hold his back, or not, so I don't. He holds on for a few seconds, clears his throat, and the conversation resumes--even if it had never really stopped.

"I guess I am, too," adds Alex, slowly agreeing.

"Me too," Hanna chimes in. Now if I can only get Zara to agree....

"Zara?" I ask her, the anticipation clear in my voice.

"No," she says quietly. "Sorry, but....I don't think it's going to work," she says, timidly. I'm surprised she's even speaking her mind as much as she is now. I can hear a sort of collaborative sigh from everyone else, as they let out the breath they've been holding while she decided.

"What does it matter if it works or not?" I say, getting irritated. I'm ready for a motivational speech. "Ike won't hurt us. I heard him say so himself, when he was talking to the old man out in the lobby. He's not going to kill us because we're too important to him. So what if he catches us? We're practically invincible!"

No matter what I say, Zara just won't agree. Finally, I just have to give up. "You can just be our lookout."

~~~~~

"You don't see anyone, do you?" I ask Alex. Being the shortest one, (albeit the one with the longest arms, so he says) he's the one half-shoved out the tiny window. And for no apparant reason I am the one holding him up.

"No, I think we're good. I can almost reach the bush."

"Make sure the wood's nice and dry before you grab it or we won't be able to make a fire," Hanna calls to him.

"I know," he says.

"Hurry up! You're getting heavy!" I shift around trying to somehow relieve the weight from my shoulders, but his feet are digging into my weaved fingers.

"Sorry! Here, just lift me up a little more and I can reach it." I try to bend my arms to give him an extra lift but he's too heavy. Finally, I snap them up into a bent position and I hear a bang. "Ow!" screams Alex. "That was my head. Hitting the stone. Thanks."

"Sorry! Can you reach it?" I dare look up. The window's not wide enough for him to fit his whole body through, or else we would have just climbed right up through it to get out. No, it's about 6 inches by 6 inches, and Alex only fits through up till his shoulderblade.

"Yeah, got it!" he says, just as I hear a snap.

"Okay," I say. "I'm going to slowly let you down now."

"Wait!" he says. I stiffen. "I still need another twig!" I groan. I'm pretty sure if it takes him as long to reach this twig as it did the other one, he'll be on the ground on top of me before he reaches it. Hanna, Marc, and Eleanor are watching patiently from afar.

"Guys, I hear footsteps," says Zara.

"What?!?!"

"Footsteps! Down the hallway," Zara repeats herself.

I start to hear them, too. "Lindsay--" Alex begins to say but doesn't get to finish, because he's already on the ground. I miraculously was able to dodge his falling body. My heart is pounding rapidly in my chest as I hurry as fast as I can away from the window, even with my leg hurt. I swear Ike can hear it beat, even from outside, as the door opens.

Alex and I have just enough time to get away from the window and look nonchalant before Ike's flashlight flicks on. The same glaring eyes, staring us down. They wander up to the window, realizing it's not closed. He walks solemnly over to it, the hint of a smile on his face, and shuts it, shoving a key into a tiny keyhole to lock it shut.

He opens his mouth as if to speak, but no sound comes out. He inhales a deep breath and shuts off his flashlight. But while it was on I gave him a nice, long look. He seems paler than before, his hair a fairer blonde even than his skin. Not a fleck of color stain his eyes, and he doesn't speak anymore. I can't hear his heavy breathing like I could back when he kidnapped me, or when I attacked him. Something is definitely not right.

The door shuts, harder than usual, and his other key fumbles around before finding the lock and jabbing the key into it. His footsteps fade away down the hallway and finally, our hearts stop beating at dangerously fast rates. I take a huge gulping breath and lean my head back against the ice-cold wall.

"Are you okay?" I ask Alex.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he says.

"So I guess our plan is ruined...." I say, looking up into the darkness where the window is now shut and locked tight.

"Not exactly," he says, handing me some twigs. I smile and give him a huge hug, one of pure joy and relief. And he hugs me back.