Exit Wounds

Ch.11 Sweet Dreams

Later in the night downstairs in the basement Leonardo was busy assembling two small teams for tonight. One team would enter the house and the other would stay down the street providing backup incase something were to wrong. 

He wasn't sure if two teams would be necessary for just an old lady but had no idea if she lived alone. Usually it took a few days of planning before he'd make a decision like this, but because this women posed a threat to Luciana's safety, Leonardo felt he had no choice but to act sooner rather than later. 

While that was happing, upstairs Luciana was dreaming of the first day she had arrived at the camp. Often Luciana found herself reliving the past through her dreams. 

It was around nine years ago that Luciana and more than a dozen kids had arrived at the camp. It was a large wooden shed that hid the children from the outside world. 

Luciana woke up to the sound of people talking. Upon waking up she felt the soreness her body was in. Letting out a small cry as she pulled her body up to stand and follow the voices she was hearing but as she took her first steps she was pulled back, hitting the floor. Turning around to look, she saw herself chained to another human. A small boy who was sleeping under some hay. They both had shackles around one foot and small metal chain attaching them both together. Luciana approached the boy quietly noticing his fawn colored hair and his tourist looking clothing. He did not look to be from here. 

Luciana knowing she wasn't going to get far attached to a sleeping body she took the time to look around. Small streams of light creeped through the cracks, it looked like they were in horse stables. Remembering the voices from earlier she called out for help. All kinds of voices reacted, some older, others young, boys and girls, but some she couldn't understand. The voices she could understand told her to stay calm and that they too were chained. 

All the shouting caused more kids to wake up from their sleep and cry out for help as they found themselves away from their families. The sound of children sobbing echoed. The sleeping boy had finally awoken, revealing the darkest blue eyes Luciana had ever seen. She crawled towards the boy extending her hand out for the boy to shake, instead he took her hand and held it without letting go. Luciana's forehead scrunched, she was only trying to say hello, but not wanting to be rude she let him hold her hand.

Luciana spoke to him in Spanish but the boy only stared back at her with a blank expression. He did not understand a word she had said. He instead tried speaking to her in his foreign language but Luciana too was puzzled. Not knowing how to communicate with each other they sat there together in silence until some time later someone came to get them. 

The sound of a door creaking open was heard alerting everyone that someone had arrived. More doors began to swing open and broken chains were discarded. When a man came to Luciana's stable to break the chain that connected her to the boy, she thought the man was there to help them, but then they all walked out into an open field that stretched out for miles. Luciana couldn't recognize where she was. She was lost like the sun that had gone to hid behind the grey clouds. 

Luciana at the time was too young to realize the severity of the situation. There were men holding guns all around them preventing any of the children from running away. Other men there were separating the children into groups based on the language they spoke. The largest group speaking Spanish, then English and Portuguese and the smallest group that didn't speak any of those languages. 

A man cleared his throat catching all of their attention. He loudly ordered them to run along the wooden fence that surrounded the patch of field they were standing in. The kids didn't move for they were still in shock and afraid to move. When no one did the man reached for his gun and shot bullets into the air. Out of instinct they all crouched to the floor covering their ears. His instructions were only in Spanish so those who could understand starting running. The other children soon joining after they got the instructions in their own language. 

Luciana felt she had been running for ages, her feet ached, and with each time she fell from losing her balance, the more difficult it was for her to keep going. Naturally the older children were doing better than the rest. But they all kept going even if they did need to take breaks they never sat down for if they did, one of the men would come over and threaten to lock them in the shed forever. Having already spent hours in the shed  and guns pointed at them as they jogged in laps was enough encouragement for them not to disobey. 

It was past midnight when Leonardo had finally assembled the teams and briefed everyone on their role. Tonight it would only be Leonardo and Luciano's men.

The two teams drove in vans towards the ladies house. Once they got to her street they shut the headlights off and slide the van doors open. As the got closer one of the vans stayed back a couple of houses away while the van Leonardo was approaching the house. 

They all hopped out of the moving van and crouched around the house towards the back. One of the men took out a set of tools and worked his way through the locks on the door. Opening the door slightly and checking inside. There was no source of light and absolute silence inside of the house. They sneaked inside with their guns in one hand and flashlights in the other. 

The floor boards creaked as they entered the hallway towards the rooms. They positioned themselves at each door ready for Leonardo to give the signal so that they could barge through the doors. Once Leonardo saw that everyone was in their spots he gave the signal to enter. 

"It's all clear." One of Luciano's men told Leonardo. 

Damn, Leonardo said to himself. He had no idea where else the women would be at this hour, but looking around the place showed signs that someone did in fact live here. 

In defeat they all left the house empty handed. Leonardo almost crashing into one of Luciano's men that was apart of the other team. 

"Whoa! What are you coming in here for?" Leonardo questioned the man. 

"A woman came running out of this house and started running down the street. We were able to capture her by surprise and now she's in the back of the van tied." The man responded. 

Leonardo was dumbfounded. How the woman was able to get past them and out of the house he could not figure out, but he wasn't going to think about it any further. Luciano's men had successfully gotten the job done in time before the sun had even risen. 

As usual Luciana was an early riser but today she was up for a different reason. She was experiencing painful abdominal cramps and at any moment she would vomit. 

Getting up out of bed was proving to be too difficult. The amount of pain in her stomach made her whole body weak including her legs. She had to practically crawl on her knees to the bathroom in order to vomit. 

The food from last night floated in the toilet bowl and although it was delicious, Luciana was relieved that it had come out as she felt slightly better, still in discomfort but no longer nauseous. 

Luciana thought it was too early to leave her room and rummage through the kitchen cabinets for pain relievers. Almost getting back into bed, Luciana remembered that Sergio's room was the closest and he would surely help her.