Escape

Chapter IX

-Zac POV-
"Can I at least see her before you take her into surgery?" I ask. The nurse nods her head and points me to her room.

"Hey Charlotte." I smile. Her eyes are closed and the vent is breathing for her but I decide to continue speaking anyway. "Look Charlotte," I say leaning in close to her. "I know your parents died. I know they died in a plane crash on their way to Pennsylvania . My mom was on the same plane. She died too. This may not mean much. I mean you don't have any parents, at least I have one. Just know that I know what you're going through sort of. I may be an ass 90% of the time but, that doesn't mean I don't care about you." I squeeze her hand and she squeezes back. I feel tears welling up in my eyes as the drop to my cheeks. The nurse comes in and pulls her cot away.

-Charlotte POV-
Once I became unconscious in the car a second me formed. I was a ghost. I couldn't be dead, could I? Zac rushes me into the hospital spitting out information at the nurse about me and my injuries. They pull me into a second room but I watch as Zac answers all the answers correctly. I didn't think he ever paid attention when I said those things to him. The nurse walks away and mumbles something to the doctor. Meanwhile Zac keeps running his hands through his hair. Him sitting with his elbows on his knees. Is he worried? The nurse comes back out and explains to Zac my options. Let me repeat my options. So why in hell does he get to choose.

"Hey! Zac! Don't you dare sign those papers! Don't you dare put me under the anesthetic!" I shout at Zac although it does no good. He signs the papers and walks into my room. He says sweet things. Up until he brings up my dead parents. He says he lost his mom in the same accident. I feel bad for him, I really do. So when he squeezes my hand I try with all my might to squeeze back. Because this may be the last time I will ever sort of feel his hand with mine.

-Zac POV-
Jackson and Clay come running through the hospital until they both reach me. Jackson picks me up by my shirt and throws me against the wall.

"Where the hell is she?!" Jackson demands.

"Let go of me and I'll tell you!" I shout back at him. He releases me. I fix my shirt.

"Stop stalling." Clay snaps.

"She's in surgery. They're trying to get the bullet out before it kills her." Jackson's face grows with more anger.

"Dammit Zac! If she dies that wont be the damn thing that kills her!" Jackson screams at my face. He's sweating bullets.

"What do you mean?" I ask in confusion.

"She's allergic to the anesthetic they give in surgeries!" Jackson screams once again.

I don't let him get another word in. I bolt to the nearest doctor I can find. I tell him how she's allergic and he screams at me for not knowing and says she could die from it.

"I know! I made a mistake! Just go and tell them!" I scream. The doctor sprints out the doors into the operating room, closing the door behind him.

I crouch down on the floor against a wall. Jackson and Clay are sitting in the waiting room. This is going to be one hell of a long wait.

-Jackson POV-
Zac seems more upset then Clay does which is odd. I thought Clay really cared about my sister. Clay keeps texting someone and I finally get a glimpse at what he is saying.

Clay: I know, it's not my damn fault alright. We let him find her and he just happened to sign the papers.

Unknown number: Get your shit together Clay. If this one slips away your ass is on the line.

I shift my head away from his phone. He couldn't be talking about Charlotte, could he?

"I'm going to go see how Zac is doing, I'll be right back." I tell Clay. He nods his head and continues typing.

I approach Zac, his eyes are red and puffy and his cheeks are stained with tears. He looks up at me and quickly wipes away his tears and stands up.

"What do you want." Zac snaps.

"Look, I don't like you. We both know that. But somehow you managed to find my sister and I owe you for that. But I also need your help. Clay was texting someone," I start telling him what the texts said and Zac's face drops. "Do you know anything about it?" I ask him.

"The man who took her worked for my uncle. My uncle hires people to go out and capture certain girls. Usually brown eyes and brown hair. He chains them up in the basement and everyone takes turns raping her. Thats their pay instead of money. Its a system they have, a business he calls it." As the words leave Zac's mouth I become angry again.

"Why the hell wouldn't you tell the cops?!" I spit at him.

"Don't you think I have?" Zac spits back at me. "They escaped. They have a radio thats connects with the cops so they can hear everything. They know all the cops plans against them. They cant be shut down. Clay has to be their new member because by the sound of the text they have him doing rookie stuff."

"How do you know all this? Do I even want to know why." I look down at the ground.

"We're not that close of friends." Zac looks down as if he's afraid to tell me the the next part.

"Go on, tell me." I tell him.

"There's about 9 or 10 of them working for my uncle. They each get 'paid' every night. Zoey was there for almost 4 days." Even Zac's eyes fill up with tears.

"The people here for, Charlotte Long?" A nurse says. We rush over to the nurse. Clay stays sitting, viciously texting on his phone.

"We were able to pull out the bullet, but then she started seizing during surgery due to the allergic reaction of the anesthetic. We had to eject the anesthetic. This caused Charlotte to wake up with her back still cracked open. We numbed the area so she wouldn't feel us closing up but she went through a great trauma in surgery. Plus whatever happened with the bullet. And which I assume was rape, all the bruises and blood on her body. Thats another trauma." She takes a breath and starts reading off of our script. "It is our best recommendation that you remove the life support feeding her oxygen to survive. We do not expect a recover mentally, physically we do but this patient could be harmful to themself or others."