Desi
I stared at myself in the mirror, my eyes trailing over my newly dyed black hair. I ran my fingers through it, not really believing what I was seeing. Going so drastically from blonde to black perfectly fulfilled our motive. I looked nothing like I did before. I took a deep breath and I went on to the next step.
I pulled my hair back into a low ponytail and grabbed for the scissors sitting on the bathroom counter. Slowly, as if it might hurt, I cut the ponytail off, my hair falling loosely around my face, skimming my jaw. With the scissors I snipped stray longer pieces here and there and made it all even.
I glanced behind me at the sheered off hair that lay on the floor and picked it up, tossing it into the trash can on the side of the toilet. Turning back to the mirror, I grabbed a compact from the makeup box and dabbed foundation onto the scar tracing my cheekbone. If you looked close enough you could still see it, but I didn't plan on anyone examining my face tonight, too much would be going on.
"Aundrea," I called into the bedroom, listening as she plopped herself down from the bed and skipped towards the bathroom.
"Whoa!" Aundrea exclaimed when she saw my hair. "You look so different!" Her eyes lingered on the hair cupping my face, and she suddenly looked sad. "You kind of look like my mama."
I knelt down in front of hair, my hands resting on her shoulders. "I'm sorry," I told her soothingly. "I wish she were here with us too. But I need you to stay strong while we get out of here. Are you gonna be okay with Cody and Ryder?"
"I'll keep them from fighting," Aundrea replied, a light smile on her face.
I smiled back at you. "Please, do that," I laughed halfheartedly. "We need someone who isn't crazy around here."
Suddenly, her arms were around me, squeezing me tight. I brought my hand through her long ponytail, pressing her face into my shoulder.
"Stay with me," she said, her voice muffled from my shirt. "Please. I'm scared I won't see you again."
"You'll see me again, Aundrea," I assured her.
"But you're gonna go see that mean lady." She lifted her head away from me and looked into my eyes. "She might make you mean too."
"Don't worry about me," I whispered. "You stick with Ryder and Cody. They will get you out of here, no matter what."
Aundrea nodded her head and started to back away from me slowly, her eyes glistening with tears.
"Aundrea, wait," I said, holding my arms to her, but she turned over her shoulder and ran out into the bedroom.
I picked myself, up from my knees, taking a look at myself in the mirror again, still not believing what I was seeing. I looked more edgy, my hair matching the emotions that ran through me. I wasn't the carefree, tanned blonde that I had been before the infection broke out. Now, storm clouds surrounded me, raining a black river that now ran through my veins.
I tore my gaze away from the mirror and walked into the bedroom, grabbing a pair of dark jeans from the rack and the black long-sleeved shirt that I had cut thumb-holes into, the edges of the sleeve partly covering my shredded palms.
Pulling on a pair of tennis shoes, I walked out of the bedroom and into my crowded living room. For an instant I ignored all of the stares, as everyone looked at the new me, and glanced around the room that I would never see again. Either I would escape or die tonight, but either way I would leave this prison.
"Desi," Cody said, breaking me out of my trance. "You look--"
"Like a little skater chick!" Durbin finished his sentence, a smile on his face. "I feel like I could give you a skateboard right now and you'd bust out a kickflip."
I laughed at him. "What do you know about skateboarding?"
"I used to be a drunk, remember?" He said, humor written all over his face. "That involves a lot of sitting in a recliner, watching TV. I'd watch the X Games just waiting for someone to bust their ass."
"You look so different," Cody said, interrupting Durbin and stepping in front of me. His hand reached to grab a strand of my hair and twirled it through his fingers. "So different." His eyes trailed to meet mine. "But your eyes are still just as mesmerizing."
"Okay, lovebirds," Durbin said. "We gotta get this show on the road. It's almost six-o-clock and we've all got to get to our positions."
"Where's Ryder?" I asked, making Cody sigh in front of me.
"He's standing in the wings, waiting for the guard's to leave their position from the roof, so that he can get to the helicopter," Durbin explained. He turned his attention to Doc, Cody, and Aundrea. "Now remember, five minutes after Desi and I leave, you three need to get to the roof and rendezvous with Ryder."
"I didn't get to say goodbye to him though," I said to myself, but everyone heard me.
"You shouldn't need to say goodbye," Cody said, grabbing my face and making him look at me. "We will all see you at six-thirty, right?"
I had told them that I could handle this, that I could do what I needed to do with Vivian and make it to the helicopter before it lifted off, before the infected or any guards made their way to the roof.
"Yes," I said, feeling like I was lying. There was no sure way to say that I would be there, so many things could go wrong, but I had to do this. I'd waited for this moment for way too long.
"Then I'll see you soon," Cody said, his eyes filling with hopeful tears. His arms wrapped tightly around me, filling my face with kisses, his lips tracing from my forehead, to my nose, down to my lips.
"Let's get going, Desi," Durbin said, glancing at his watch. "It's showtime."
I squeezed Cody's hand, telling him a silent goodbye and glanced towards Doc, giving him a nod. Aundrea was hugging Doc's legs, her eyes closed, tears dripping down her cheeks.
I took a deep breath, trying to hold in my own tears and walked away with Durbin, closing my suite door for the last time.
When we got off of the elevator, Durbin went in one direction, towards the area they kept the infected, and I went in the other. I couldn't keep my heart calm, as I wove through people in the lobby, trying to find the back hallway that Ryder had told me about, one that would lead me in a circle, around back to where Durbin and another guard would be standing watch.
I glanced into faces of men and women, dressed casually since there was no match tonight, and I was trying to find if any guilt would pass through me for what we were about to do. I recognized men I had seen bet hundreds on whether I would live or die, or how I would kill an infected, and any creeping guilt that I might have had disappeared.
Finally, I found the vacant hallway, and rounded the corners, peeking around the very last one to see Durbin and another man standing on the outside of a big black door. My hands were shaking as I held my fake purse and my heart felt like it was about to burst out of my chest. Once I rounded this corner, all of the chaos would begin.
Feeling like my feet each weighed a ton, I stepped around the corner and started to walk down the hallway.
"Excuse me, ma'am," the guard on the side of Durbin said. "But you can't be back here."
I tried to look confused as I glanced around the hallway and halted in my tracks. I felt my cheeks blush as I spoke. It might have looked like embarrassment to the guard, but to me it was my anxiety. "I'm sorry," I told him. "I must have gotten lost. I could have sworn my room was down here."
"You're on the first floor, there are no guest rooms down here." The guard started to look cautious, suspicious even.
"I think somebody drank a little too much at the bar, Jonah," Durbin said, laughing, saving my ass.
The guard laughed with him. "You're probably right. These women are such lightweights."
"How embarrasssssing," I said, trying to slur my words a little bit, going along with Durbin's idea. "I'll just go." I jerked my thumb over my shoulder and wobbled to the side, making the guard laugh at me.
As I turned around, I gripped my purse in my hands, holding it in the right position for everything to fall out of it. I threw myself to the ground, acting as if I had tripped and watched as all of the miscellaneous items I had packed in there flew across the floor.
Jonah and Durbin laughed, but I could tell that Durbin's was filled with nerves as the moment edged closer to us. "You should go help her," Durbin suggested, nudging Jonah.
"Why me?" He asked. "Why not you?"
"Because I just got here, lazy-ass," Durbin said, his scratchy voice sounding more like itself.
"Fine," Jonah replied, stepping forward and walking down the hallway towards me. "But you owe me a beer."
As Jonah crouched down in front of me, scooping up the numerous tampons and spare change, Durbin silently slipped behind the black door he had been guarding. This is it, I told myself, now I just need to keep Jonah distracted.
"So, is it true that they keep the infected back there?" I asked, watching him, waiting for his reaction.
His eyes raised at me in alarm. "How do you know that?"
"Oh you know," I said, waving my hand dismissively. "Gossip, rumors."
A knowing smile crept onto his face. "You slept with Caleb didn't you?"
"Guilty as charrrged," I slurred.
"He tends to run his mouth a lot," Jonah laughed. "Especially when he wants to get a girl in bed."
I laughed with him, acting like I knew what he was talking about. Suddenly, his eyes filled with recognition, and my heart raced. How could he know it was me so quickly?
"Wait," he said. "Are you Holly? As in the best night of my life Holly?"
"The one and only," I waved my arms out to my side as if I were a prize.
"Apparently, you rocked Caleb's world." Jonah waggled his eyebrows at me as he handed me my now full purse. "I bet I can rock your world baby." The way he spoke, his voice sickeningly sweet, wanting to take advantage of a drunk girl, made me want to gag.
Jonah leaned forward, edging closer to my face, his expression looking like he was entranced until his eyes traced over the scar on my cheekbone. He darted backwards, quickly standing up and pointing his gun at me.
"Your name isn't Holly," he said, his face turning red, ashamed that I had tricked him. "You're Desiree. Get on your feet now."
"Sorry, honey," I purred, almost sounding like Vivian. "But it looks like you have bigger problems than me right now." I glanced over his shoulder to see Durbin, running like a bat out of hell towards us, the black door now open.
Noticing my distraction, Jonah turned around, almost dropping his gun in shock. "What the fu--"
Jonah was cut off by the sound of raging screams coming from the dark room that Durbin had just sprinted out of. The guard was in such shock, that he stood still as Durbin ran around him, snagging my arm and pulling me down the hallway.
I heard the pounding of footsteps as Durbin turned over his shoulder to shoot Jonah in the back, the sound of his dead body hitting the ground rising above the stampede.
"That should slow them down a little bit," Durbin said as we rounded the corner. "I'll bet they're starving."
.