“That would be me,” I managed to say, wanting so badly to cover my nose with my hands. But my hands were dirty too, and covering my face with my sweaty, blood-stained shirt wouldn’t help. Everything was foul.

  “Alrighty, we on our way,” the old white man huffed, pulling out.

  I immediately started praying we made it through the guard station without a hitch. I heard voices as we rode through. I held my breath the entire time. I didn’t speak much during the ride because I simply didn’t want to open my mouth in that stink-ass truck.

  The ride was miserable and seemed to be taking forever. We were definitely taking the most scenic route. Some of the roads we drove down had nothing but cornfields surrounding them. At one point, we passed a police car sitting off to the side and my heart drummed up in my chest.

  After what seemed like forever, the laundry truck turned onto a long, dusty, one-lane road, with nothing surrounding it but trees and bushes. The scenery made me think of some deserted campsite in a movie like Friday the 13th or one of its sequels. Jillian and I used to watch those movies as kids. We would watch scary movies and then be scared as shit for weeks afterward. I smiled as I thought about the fun times with my cousin.

  “We made it, finally,” the stinky, beer-bellied white man announced as he slowed the truck to a halt.

  I looked through the dirty windshield of the truck and squinted my eyes. What the fuck? This can’t be right? I was screaming in my head, but I kept my cool.

  “A farm? Lisa and Anderson told you to bring me to a farm?” I asked the man incredulously. My eyebrows were dipped low on my forehead and my lips were twisted into almost a snarl.

  What the fuck is going on? I need to be in the city to get to my mother! I was thinking.

  “Mmm-hmm, that’s right. Someone else will get you on the next leg of the trip. Now, they said you wasn’t going to give me no trouble. Said you just wanted to get as far away as possible, so they said for me not to worry. I don’t want no trouble now. I expect to collect my money and be done with this. I risked a lot to help you out,” the man said, hints of annoyance underlying his words.

  He could tell I was none too pleased with my current surroundings. I snapped my mouth shut and eased the look on my face. Shit, I was a beggar and damn sure couldn’t be a chooser.

  “No, I’m good. No problem at all,” I lied. I could tell lying and faking were going to be huge parts of my repertoire while I worked to get to my mother and as far away as possible.

  I was led around the back of the farmhouse to another waiting truck. It was the type of truck I had seen on the highways that had closed-in animal crates hitched to the back. I could tell by the small holes in the truck’s back cabin that it was, in fact, an animal transport truck. I looked at the man strangely, and he looked at me with amusement in his eyes.

  “Yeah, this is your ride to freedom. Might be a little uncomfortable for you, but you won’t have to worry about nobody finding you. Nothing but some chickens on the way to slaughter up in there,” he said. There was an amused tone to his words; then he nodded toward the back of the truck. “Smells will keep even the most gung-ho police away from you.” The man laughed.

  I was growing wary of him because he seemed to be taunting me on the low. I didn’t know what the man meant when he said something about the smell, but I would soon find out.

  Another man stepped from around the side of the truck, nodded at the big-bellied white man, and unlatched the back.

  “Go on, climb in,” the man told me, nudging me forward.

  I did as I was told. It wasn’t really an option to decline at that point. I couldn’t question any parts of this crazy plan; all I thought about was seeing my mother.

  “Oh God! What the fuck is that smell!” I shrieked as soon as I climbed up onto the truck. “It smells like pure shit in here,” I complained, gagging slightly. “Is this some sort of joke?!” I called out to the men.

  Neither one responded, but as soon as the truck doors were closed and locked, I could hear them snickering. I eased down onto the truck floor between two crates. The sawdust on the floor pricked my legs and I felt like I was being stabbed with a thousand needles. It didn’t help that my body was already in bad shape from everything I’d been through. The sound of chickens fighting in the crates was crazy. I could hear their nails scratching against the wood and they made a crying sound, which hurt my ears.

  “Oh my God! What the fuck?” I shouted, hoping maybe my voice would scare the chickens into keeping still. “I can’t believe this!”

  My talking just made it worse. The chickens began reacting and shrieking because of my presence. Some of the crates moved violently from the chickens flapping their wings. I could barely move left or right because of the cramped space, but I was able to put my hands up to my ears. It didn’t help. I started praying in earnest that this wouldn’t take much longer.

  The second truck also didn’t go toward the highway, which made me think they were still purposely taking back roads so we didn’t run the risk of getting stopped by police. After driving for a while, we finally got to another place. I hoped this was going to be it.

  I immediately got nervous because when I was going over my escape plans in my head, I had anticipated being in the city when I got away. Now shit had changed, which meant I had to change my plans. My mind started racing with different scenarios about my escape. My thoughts were broken when the driver looked up into the rearview mirror and smirked at me. That caused a cold chill to shoot down my back. I wasn’t up for no more bullshit.

  “You ready to face the music?” he asked.

  That’s when I noticed he had an accent that sounded like Ahmad’s. “Who are you?” I asked, my voice rising.

  “We finally got our hands on you, Misty. You ran right into our trap,” he said.

  I scrambled up off the floor to try to open the back door to jump out. But when I did that, his foot mashed down onto the gas and the truck sped out of control. My body lurched forward and I went barreling into the chicken crates. One fell over and at least ten birds escaped and started going crazy. One of the chickens tried to fly and attacked the driver.

  Now the truck was really out of control. I screamed when I saw the driver just miss crashing into a huge tree. He drove the truck onto a patch of grass. The truck swerved all over the place and I just knew I was about to die. I struggled to open the back door; the truck’s jumpy movement and my own pounding heart made grabbing the door handle difficult. But finally, I was able to get the door open and jump from the truck. I rolled onto the grass and took off running. My legs were burning and my chest felt like it would cave in. All I could think of was that Anderson had to be working with my enemies. But that didn’t make sense. They could’ve just killed me.

  As I ran, I saw a lady in the park. She had just taken her baby out of her car. I ran straight for her, pushed her down, and hopped into the driver’s seat of the car. I peeled the fuck out of there.

  “Oh my God! Oh my God!” I screamed out in joy as I raced the vehicle down the road. My fucking hands were trembling so badly, I could barely keep them on the steering wheel. I was so excited inside. Lisa’s plan had worked, but not exactly how it was laid out. At first, I didn’t know if I should stop or keep going, because I needed to get in touch with my mother or Sandra or somebody.

  I stepped on the gas and kept checking the mirrors for any cops or any followers. I looked down and saw that the woman had left her cell phone in the cup holder. I kept following that one road, but I was growing very anxious to find a spot to stop and call Sandra and let her know that I had gotten away. I was going to need her help, for sure. I knew explaining this to Sandra would be difficult. I knew she would want me to just keep on running as far away as I could get until she could come and get me.

  Finally, after driving for a few, I decided to stop. I called Sandra.

  “Sandra!” I cried into the phone. At first, I was dealing with such a big rush of emotions I couldn’t get my words out properly. After I calmed down a little bit, I was finally able to tell her a quick version of the entire story about Lisa getting me out, but how one guy had turned on me and I was now lost.

  Sandra said she was part of the plan; she’d been contacted by Anderson, but she grew worried when she didn’t hear from me. Sandra told me she was supposed to meet me on a back road in Norfolk. She gave me the location.

  “Sandra, if for some reason I don’t make it to you, please make sure you send the authorities back to that prison to save all of those women. If I get away and meet up with you, I have to go back and help the others. It is the least I can do for them . . . I made promises, and they are suffering,” I told her seriously.

  “Misty, just get out of there right now. Let me get you in the clear first. This is too risky to worry about right now. Hang up and drive,” Sandra said with feeling.

  Sandra told me to hang up the phone because the woman whose car I’d stolen probably already had the police pinging the cell phone towers to triangulate my location. I hadn’t even thought about that, and she was right. I couldn’t risk keeping the phone, although that meant no more communication with Sandra. I was out there all alone, and all of law enforcement was probably looking for me right now.

  I did like she said. I hung up. And as I drove, I threw the phone out of the window and sped away from it. I followed all of the landmarks I remembered passing, until I was up the street from the location where I had arranged to meet Sandra. My heart was beating really fast and I was sweating. I was very nervous that someone would jump out on me before I could get to her. Luckily, the windows on the woman’s car were tinted so dark that you couldn’t see inside.

  I drove past the location first, so I could make sure everything was legit before I exposed myself. I just prayed really hard that as I passed, Sandra would see me and give me some signal that it was her. Even though I drove by slowly, I couldn’t tell. I saw people eyeballing the vehicle suspiciously, so I knew I had to go around the block and stay back before they started to investigative further. I worried they’d realize that the car was stolen—or worse, that it was an escaped inmate behind the wheel. Just being on the street had me hella nervous. All I could do right then was hope that Sandra could piece together the clues and get there as soon as possible.

  Suddenly a tap on the window almost made me lose my heart through my mouth. I whipped my head around and saw Sandra standing outside the car. Relief washed over me like a warm wave.

  “Open the door,” Sandra whispered.

  “Oh my God,” I gasped, happy as hell to see her. I scrambled out of the car and rushed into Sandra so hard and fast that she stumbled back a little bit.

  “Whoa, whoa,” Sandra said, chuckling. “I’m happy to see you too, Misty.”

  At first, it took me a minute to catch my breath because I was crying so hard.

  “Oh my God! You have no idea what I’ve been through. I can’t believe this day is here, and it almost wasn’t. Ahmad sent someone and they infiltrated the plan. I don’t know how he always finds out everything,” I said through my happy tears.

  What if I didn’t get away? What if they were waiting for me in the back of that truck? These were the thoughts running through my mind.

  “Oh my God. I can’t stop saying how happy I am to see you,” I said.

  “I’m happy too, but we need to get out of here. This area probably is hot as hell now,” Sandra said.

  I can’t lie. I was still kind of dazed by the way everything had happened. I was shaking all over, and my heart was beating like a drum. I knew that the prison realized by now that I had escaped. It wouldn’t be long before they would be on a mission to find me, and on an even bigger mission to keep me from exposing the things going on in the prison. That meant they were going to be trying to shut me up . . . permanently.

  I started thinking about Shanta, Lena, Dana, Fiona, and all of the other inmates that were subjected to the abuse of those sick people. I knew that once Dr. Clemons realized he might be exposed, it wouldn’t take them long to figure out who helped me get away. All fingers would point back to Lisa and she would surely be killed. I could just imagine them pulling her down to the bowels of the prison and beating her, torturing her, and then executing her in front of all the girls so they could make an example out of her. It didn’t matter if she worked there; I believed they were ruthless enough to kill her in there. Lisa was on my mind like crazy.

  But I also had bigger problems on my hands. Terrell’s family and Ahmad were still trying to set me up for the downfall, and now I was sure they knew I had escaped.

  As I settled into Sandra’s car and contemplated my next move, I suddenly saw three black cars with dark tinted windows barreling past us. My stomach jumped. I knew right away they were law enforcement vehicles that were probably on my case. I also knew that they’d be setting up search perimeters soon. They would probably be riding around with some of those bloodhound dogs trying to find me. All they had to do was spot the car and I would be done. I’m sure they wouldn’t spare my life, especially after what I had done. After I saw the cars whizzing past me, something snapped inside me.

  “I have to get to my mother, but after that, I need to do something about that prison. I can’t let women continue to be tortured there,” I said.

  I went into superhero mode in my mind. I just said to myself, I had to take things into my own hands. I wasn’t about to let an opportunity for revenge slip right through my fingers and I wasn’t going to let the girls down.

  No matter how dangerous the mission was, I was hell-bent on bringing Dr. Clemons down and getting revenge for all of the abuse I had suffered. I couldn’t just let them all get away like that.

  19

  REUNITED

  “Baby girl?!” Her familiar voice was like the sweetest music to my ears. The excitement of hearing it was indescribable.

  “Mommy? Mommy, is that you?” I called out, the glare of the sunlight hurting my hypersensitive eyes.

  Sandra and I had been driving all night, but when the sun came up, I had to get into the trunk, just in case. Being in that dark trunk, I felt like I had been riding for days when the car stopped abruptly, jarring my cramped body. My stomach was churning with a mixture of extreme hunger and nausea from the motion. Finally, I heard that voice.

  “Mommy!” I called out again.

  “Yes! Baby girl! It’s me . . . in the flesh!” my mother called out and opened the trunk of the car.

  I had never been so glad to see my mother in my entire life. She leaned down and I threw my arms around her neck and squeezed her like I never wanted to let her go.

  “I’m happy to see you too, Misty,” my mother said, barely able to breathe. I was squeezing her so tightly.

  “You have no idea how happy I am that you’re safe and sound,” I cried.

  “It hasn’t been easy. I’m not even going to lie, Misty. You got us all into some dangerous stuff out here, and then when you just disappeared and I couldn’t find you even in the system, I just knew they had gotten hold of you,” my mother said on the verge of tears. “I just knew my child was dead and that I would be dealing with another death all alone.”

  “No, Mommy, I’m alive. They used the system to punish me. It has been a horrible experience,” I said. “I don’t even know how I made it through that, but I am here. Like Grandma told me once, when I saw her on the other side . . . I have a bigger mission, and God won’t be satisfied until I fulfill that mission,” I continued.

  “Well, for now, let’s savor this moment together,” my mother said.

  She handed me a department store bag. I looked inside and couldn’t believe my eyes—she had a disguise ready for me. My eyes almost popped out of my head when she pulled out the wig, contacts, and clothes. I knew my mother had definitely learned how to be street savvy after everything she’d been through because of me. I was glad she was thinking on her feet.

  My mother looked around before saying, “Scrunch back down and put on those clean clothes. You need to put this on so we can check into the hotel for the night. Just in case someone’s looking, push down the back seat and exit from there instead of jumping out this trunk. We will have to figure out a plan after that. But right now, you look like you need a good night’s rest and some good food,” my mother mentioned. Her eyebrows were raised as she took in an eyeful of my old and new cuts and bruises.

  This was why I loved her so much. She never let me down.

  * * *

  “This shit is not bad for a girl who broke out of a prison with nothing and no one being able to find her for months!” I beamed as we all entered our hotel room.

  “Shit, you’re a genius for this one. I’ve been locked up a ton of times and only ever used legal defenses to get out. I swear, I don’t think I’d have the balls to convince anyone to help me actually escape,” Sandra said, rushing over to check out the wet bar.

  “It would’ve been even better if there was a big steak, some fried chicken, some fresh designer threads, and some damn foundation in here waiting for me. I’m so tired of looking like shit, it ain’t even funny,” I said.

  “Just be happy we got into this room without any suspicion,” my mother said, shaking her head. “Tomorrow we can think about all of the other stuff, like clothes and food.”

  When we checked into the hotel, we sent my mother to the front desk to check in. My mother looked like an innocent older woman, and none of us wanted to draw suspicion. Sandra, with her manly features and her masculine swag, and that little hint of attitude that traced through all of her words, would’ve been memorable. Her description might stick with the front-desk clerk in case anyone came snooping.