That Friday, AJ and I went to the same place as the bonfire had been the previous week, at the running track. Sure enough the same group was there again, this time with a few more people than last time. We started discussing plans for how we were going to take down General Ross.
It was a pretty simple plan. A group would distract the soldiers by starting fires in a handful of empty buildings around the base. That would scatter them and cause enough commotion while another group would corner General Ross and capture him. After that he would be given a choice, either relinquish power or be banished.
"He'll really have no choice," Anna exclaimed with a smile, triumphantly. We were sitting by the fire again, several others around us making typical "party noises" like laughing and talking loudly. It was a cover so no one could hear what we were actually talking about if a soldier or someone were to walk by. Our chatter would blend in with the other "young people partying on a Friday night".
"Okay, but I'm still not sure if I'm okay with banishing him. Isn't that pretty much the same as sentencing him to death," I asked as Doofus came up to me with his ball, wanting me to roll it for him again. He was on a leash attached to the bottom of my chair. We had brought him so he wasn't cooped up in the room for a night, but we still had to abide by the leash rules.
"At least he'll get a fighting chance out there. And it's just giving him a taste of his own medicine," she said.
I bit my lip and turned to AJ. He was next to me, but had been rather quiet the entire conversation. He looked deep in thought, staring at the fire.
"Alright," I finally said. "I can get behind the banishment. But I need to make one thing clear. I am not okay with anyone being killed by our hands in any way though. I have to be sure that this revolution means that things will be better. I will not support one murderous leader being traded out for another."
Anna leaned over and put her hand on top of mine. The fire light danced off her face making it switch back and forth from shadowy to full of life. "I promise Claire, that is the last thing I want to happen. I, sorry, we are nothing like Ross and will do everything in our power to ensure that no one gets hurt during this."
I nodded and AJ piped in. "How are we going to ensure our safety though? General Ross doesn't seem like the kinda guy that would just throw his hands up if we punched him around a bit."
"I'm glad you asked," Anna said. "We'll be getting some guns from the soldiers' armory." My eyes widened and I opened my mouth to protest, but she held up her hand. "I know what that sounds like, but we'll only be using it as a scare tactic. Ross and the soldiers only have to think we'll shoot them. That way no one will get hurt. And it'll give us the advantage since the soldiers inside the base don't have guns, they only use them when they're guarding the gates."
"What if the ones at the gates come in and fight us? And it's not like they'll just let us toss Ross out the main gates without turning their guns at us," I stated.
Anna nodded and said, "Yeah, that's the main part of our plan that we're still trying to work out."
I looked into the fire and said, "What about during shift changes?"
Anna shook her head, "We've already thought of that. The problem is they overlap. So while shift one is finishing up, shift two will already be out there so the gates are never left unguarded."
AJ looked away from the fire finally and at Anna. "What if we had someone on the inside? One of the soldiers who would be willing to help us out?"
"Yeah, great plan except how do we find someone willing to do that," Anna asked with a slight scoff.
AJ shrugged. "We'll just have to keep an eye out for any soldiers that might seem unhappy with the way things are."
Anna leaned back in her chair and eyed AJ. "Alright, we'll do that then. Next week we'll be meeting at Aaron's place. We're growing in numbers and I'm worried the soldiers will start getting suspicious if we keep meeting up like this every week."
The rest of the evening AJ and I played along with everyone else having fun and making noise so Anna could discuss plans with others. We did genuinely have fun, but there was this underlying tone of "act as normal and loud as possible" that made it a bit stressful. Once everyone had had a chance to talk with Anna, we put out the fire and headed home.
On the walk home, AJ and I talked some more about his suggestion to find a soldier who would be willing to help our cause. We realized that we didn't really know any of the soldiers and that would make it hard to find someone. I had never really bothered talking to the soldiers much because they all seemed very no nonsense and when I had tried to have a conversation, they had either cut it short or flat out ignored me.
We agreed that we needed to talk to some soldiers and make some friends.
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Over the next week, I tried to make conversation with soldiers that came by work or when I was walking on the street. To count, 3 had completely ignored me when I tried to talk, 4 had said hi back to me but hadn't bothered responding when I continued on the conversation, and 1 had talked to me for a bit but ended the conversation before I could really talk about anything. I had started to become disheartened.
I walked into work on that Monday morning and sat down with a sigh. I looked at the papers, but they were the same from the week before, so the new ones hadn't been dropped off yet. Anna came in and I greeted her like we always did. She sighed when she saw that she also did not have the weekly paperwork on her desk either.
We sat down and began talking as we normally did, mostly about our weekend and any news with our respective partners. We made an effort to keep things as "business as usual" as we could to keep things from being suspicious. This mostly meant carrying on with our jokes and talking about our personal life at home.
About 15 minutes after we arrived a disgruntled looking soldier came into the room carrying a pile of papers. I recognized him as the soldier that had escorted AJ and I on the first day we arrived on base. I remembered how friendly he had been with Nurse Sarah.
"Hey, we were wondering when those would get here," Anna said, taking the papers from him.
"Yeah, sorry about that. They got held up in the main office," he responded with a sheepish smile.
I said a silent prayer to the universe in my head. "They always seem to be screwing things up," I said with a chuckle. "It's Dave, right? I remember you from my first day."
"Yep, that's me. I remember you. You guys came in with that dog."
I nodded and glanced at Anna, who received my look and knew exactly what I was asking her to do. She dramatically looked through the papers and handed me mine saying, "Jeez, the numbers are different again this week. I don't know what to believe anymore."
I did my best to look sad as I took the papers and said, "Yeah, tell me about it." I turned back to Dave who was awkwardly shuffling his hands. "Dave, can I ask you something?"
He looked a little stunned, but nodded. "Do you know how many people aren't being counted on the list?"
Dave looked down at his feet. "I really don't know. I honestly thought everyone was being counted until that gathering..." He trailed off. It was obvious he had some inner turmoil about the subject.
Anna went up to Dave and put her hand on his shoulder. I could see her inner leader emerging like it does during our meetings on Fridays. "It's not fair, is it? It makes me wonder if we'll be taken care of once we get old or if we get sick. When will General Ross deem any of us as undeserving of human decency?"
Dave didn't say anything, but he was definitely interested in what Anna was saying. She walked with him to the door that he had come in, talking the entire time. I didn't bother following and just let Anna do her thing. If anyone could convince Dave to join us, it would be her. Or maybe Stella, but she wasn't there.
I turned around and got started on my work. Sure enough the numbers of people per household had slightly shifted. I knew the flu had been going around the base and I felt sick to my stomach knowing that that was probably why the numbers had changed. People were being punished for not being able to contribute because they were sick.
As much as I hated it, I had to continue my job, pretending that I wasn't revolted. I couldn't risk getting caught fudging the numbers or I might face banishment, which would only put the entire operation in jeopardy, as well as AJ and Doofus' safety. I wanted more than anything to help these people, but I had to keep in mind that I ultimately would be helping them.
That night when I got back to the Inn, AJ and I took Doofus on an extra long walk to the dog park as I vented to him about the day. He was pleased to hear that Dave was likely going to join our cause and his idea would work, but it was definitely a concern that the rations were being cut.
"What do we do if one of us gets sick," I asked as we sat on a bench together.
AJ shrugged and looked at me. "I guess we'll just have to make it work. The flu only lasts like a week or two and we've survived worse," he said, wrapping his arm around me. I leaned into his shoulder.
"That's if it's just the flu. Something like mono could mean we're out of commission for a month. Or if one of us gets with something like cancer that would be even longer," I said, feeling myself getting more and more panicked at the thought of it.
"Hey," AJ said, snapping me out of my rant. "Hopefully, everything will be better by then, if that even happens. Right now, let's just focus on just fighting off this bug going around so that doesn't happen."
He gave me a kiss on my forehead, then on my nose, then a soft kiss on my lips. I nodded and couldn't help smiling. He always knew what to say to ease my mind even if it was just a little bit. I was still worried about everything, but at least I wasn't panicking anymore about it.
We walked back to the Inn with Doofus and talked about ways we could keep from catching the contagious virus going around.
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At one of the following meetings, there were only 4 of us sitting on couches at Aaron's house. He had gotten lucky with his timing and was one of the last ones to get a house before the base really started to fill up. It wasn't a large house, only 2 bedrooms that he shared with John who came in later. It definitely looked and smelled like a typical "bachelor pad".
Three people were sick, including John who had locked himself away in his room, and it was a smaller gathering than usual. Dave had joined us that day. It was the first meeting for him and he looked very jittery. His leg was bouncing, he kept rubbing his thighs and glancing at the door and windows like he was either planning a quick exit or was worried someone would burst in at any moment. I hoped it was the latter.
Dave was able to give us some insight on the behind the scenes for the soldiers. He was a bit extra talkative about some of the gossip amongst the soldiers, but he did reveal that before each guard shift, they each filled a bottle of water from the same cooler that was located by General Ross' office. Each soldier took turns filling it with fresh water so it was always full.
"Looks like that cooler is going to be the answer for our armed guard problem," Anna said as she rubbed her chin in thought.
"So we're just going to poison them," I asked suspiciously.
Anna's eyes snapped up. She said, "No, of course not. Well, I mean technically, but we'll just knock them out. Maybe dose it with sleeping pills or something that will make them fall asleep. But we won't put in anything that will kill them."
I relaxed a bit hearing this, but still felt on edge. Anna had been much more intense at meetings. I could understand that it was getting closer to the date we were going to move, but I would be lying if I said it wasn't a bit scary. I felt like I always had to remind her that we didn't want anyone getting hurt. She always reassured me that she was not ever going to do that and I needed to trust her, but I couldn't help the gnawing in my gut.
Dave stood up and said, "We'll have to get someone medical involved. I can talk to nurse Sarah. I know she'll be interested in our cause. Or at the very least will provide me with the information and meds we need without asking too many questions." His voice shook with nervousness, but, bless him, he seemed so determined.
Anna stared at him for a moment with a soft smile, but I could see the look in her eyes. She was sizing him up without trying to be obvious. I had seen her do it to me a lot when we had first met. At the time I hadn't realized what it was, mistaking it for just kindness, but as I observed her over the weeks, I saw her doing it more and more with new members and I could practically hear the cogs turning in her head.
Stella stepped forward and grabbed Anna's shoulder. She and Anna looked at each other for a moment, having a silent conversation before Stella said, "Why don't I and someone else go with him."
"Alright," she said, nodding her head. She turned to me and said, "Claire, would you mind going?"
I was taken aback a bit not expecting Anna to call me out specifically. I suddenly felt all eyes on me in the room and under a spotlight. The room was silent and I felt the peer pressure pressing down on me. If I said no, would I not be seen as a team player? I didn't want to take the chance.
"Yeah, sure," I said. Anna smiled at me and I tried to return the smile, but I didn't feel quite right. Honestly, I didn't want to go and bother Nurse Sarah. She had been so kind to us the day we had come and I had passed by her a handful of times. I was also very worried about what could happen if she didn't want to help us. I'm sure Dave wasn't the only soldier she was friendly with and could easily report us if she didn't want to be allied with a bunch of rebels.
Anna clapped her hands together and said loudly, with a smile, "Well, that settles it. You guys find a time to meet up within the next week and get it done."
Stell and I locked eyes for a moment as we nodded at each other and I looked over at Dave who looked a bit green. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy, but it was too late to back out now.
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We had met after the meeting and agreed to carry out the plan a few days later. Stella and I both feigned sick, claiming symptoms of the flu. I started "not feeling well" when Dave conveniently came in to deliver papers at work. He volunteered to escort me to see Nurse Sarah. As we went, we "ran into" Stella who was also on her way because she was also sick and she joined us.
When we got to the Inn, we went straight to Nurse Sarah. The room had changed a bit since I had last been there. There was more equipment and a shelf lined with medications and the table for folding laundry had been converted to an examination table.
"Hello Sarah," Dave said cheerfully as we walked in.
"Hey, Dave, what's going on," she asked, turning around from some papers she was writing on.
He rubbed the back of his neck and said, "I brought you some guests for you. They said they didn't feel well and I decided to bring them to you for a diagnosis. I reckon it's the flu that's been going around."
She sucked in through her teeth and came to us. She put her hand on my forehead and on Stella's and her eyebrows knitted in confusion. My blood pressure shot through the roof with anxiety. I hadn't even thought about the fact that neither of us would actually be presenting any symptoms.
"Hmm," she said, taking a step back. "Have either of you had any nausea, diarrhea, or other symptoms?" She turned around to the area she had been sitting at that had a filing cabinet that she opened and started shuffling through.
"Yeah, it's been coming out of both ends pretty viciously," Stella said quickly. She elbowed me gently to get me to say something.
"Same," I said.
She shuffled through her files and said, "Remind me again, it's Stella... Hernandez, correct?" Stella nodded and Sarah pulled out a file. She looked back at me, "I remember you, Claire. Miss 'no last name'."
I had forgotten that I had never gone back to let Sarah know what my surname was. It had been months and I hadn't put much more thought into it after the first day to two. I had wanted it to be something meaningful to me, but I didn't want to take AJ's name yet. I didn't want to have Nate's name anymore and my maiden name felt like a completely different person than who I had become.
Nurse Sarah examined Stella first and I thought more about my name, running through a ton of different common last names still trying to figure out who I was. I thought back to my life since infection day. At first I was scared and alone, trapped in a prison of my own making. Then I was made an actual prisoner in The Community. And now I felt like I was trapped in yet another form of confinement and was actively fighting for my freedom.
Thinking about breaking out of prison brought back memories. I remembered walking out of my room as a child to the living room where my mom and dad were watching The Shawshank Redemption. I stood in the doorway and watched for about 20 minutes before my parents realized I was there. I was then ushered back to bed, being chastised because it was a grown-up movie and it was late.
Years later, I was able to watch the movie in full and loved it. It became a bit of a comfort movie for when I had nothing else to watch. My favorite character was always Red, played by Morgan Freeman. His silky smooth, deep voice narrating the movie made me feel peaceful. I realized how much I craved to watch the movie and made a mental note to see if I could find a way to watch it later on.
When Stella was done, Nurse Sarah motioned for me to get up on the table. She felt under my jaw, checked in my throat, nose, and ears, and listened to my breathing. When I was done, I hopped down and stood next to Stella.
"Well, lucky for you two, I don't think it's the flu. If I had to guess, you probably both ate something that wasn't very good. A day of rest and keeping up fluids should do the trick," Sarah said as she wrote on two papers on her desk.
Stella and I looked at each other realizing that we were soon going to be expected to leave. Stella looked back at Dave, who had been silent the entire time awkwardly standing against the wall, and cleared her throat loudly, motioning for him to jump into action.
Dave stood up straight and said, "Hey, Sarah, I've been meaning to talk to you about something."
"Yeah," she asked looking up.
Dave cleared his throat. "I've been having some trouble sleeping. I've tried a bunch of different stuff, but nothing seems to be working. Do you have anything I could take? Something that would really knock me out?"
Sarah rubbed her chin and went to her shelf saying, "I can give you some Ambien if you'd like."
"Is that the strongest you have," Dave asked. Sarah turned to look at him and Dave made a face like he was trying to get her to understand an underlying message. Her eyes widened in understanding. I suddenly felt very silly standing there with Stella pretending to be having diarrhea because we were not needed. It was clear Dave had already discussed this with her already and she was in.
"Ah," was all she said and went to the filing cabinet. She pulled a set of keys out of her pocket and bent down to the bottom drawer. She unlocked it, shuffled around for a second, then pulled out a bottle. She brought the bottle over to Dave and put it in his hand gently. "This is what you'll need. Be extra careful with it because it's easy to cause an overdose, which is the last thing you want. I have a lot of reservations about giving this to you, but it's the only sure fire way to ensure what you need."
"What is it," I asked. I probably shouldn't have, but I couldn't help it. The way she talked about it made me afraid of what it could be.
Sarah took a breath and said, "It's Rohypnol. Better known as roofies."
My eyes widened. "No way, Dave, you can't take that."
Stella grabbed my hand and pulled me away from Sarah and Dave. She got close to me and whispered, "Look, I know it's kind of morally questionable, but it'll ensure that the guards at the gate stay out of the way."
"Stella, you heard how easy it is to overdose someone on that stuff. And I know it's been over a year since the infection started, but I know you remember what that drug was used for most of the time," I whispered back.
"I know," Stella said. "But we aren't using it for that. We're doing this for the greater good here. We'll be careful so no one gets hurt and when this is all over, we'll be sure it never sees the light of day again."
I was still very apprehensive, but I trusted Stella. We walked back over to where Dave and Sarah were. Dave was still holding the bottle and Stella nodded at Dave and he put the bottle in his pocket.
"Thanks Sarah," he said and turned to walk away as she went back to her desk to write some more on the forms.
"No problem," she said, not making eye contact. We began walking away toward the exit when she said, "Oh, by the way Claire, do you have a last name I can put on the paperwork?"
I thought for a second and said, "You can put down Freeman."
Nurse Sarah smiled at me before we walked out. I went home for the rest of the day to keep up the facade of being sick. The closer we got to the day we struck the more I felt like it wasn't what I thought it would be.