Missing Me (22 page)

‘Oh, God,’ Lauren whispered.

I stared down at the baby. A little girl. The umbilical cord was still inside Lauren. As I watched, the baby opened her tiny mouth.

‘WAAH!’ A thin wail filled the air.

Quickly, I reached for the towel and wrapped the baby in it. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was tiny and wrinkled and . . . so old-looking. Nothing like the babies – or
pictures of babies – I’d seen before. I lifted her up to Lauren. She reached down for her, scanning her furiously.

We held her together. ‘Is she OK?’ I said. ‘What’s all that white stuff?’

Lauren drew the towel over the baby and pressed her close against her chest. The wailing stopped. The baby stared up at Lauren with huge, unseeing eyes. I kept my hand on the baby’s arm.
Her five fingers were so small, so perfect.

‘I think the white stuff is called vernix,’ Lauren said. ‘It’s a protective thing . . .’

‘Is she OK?’ I asked again. ‘She’s so minute and . . . and . . . so crumpled.’

Lauren made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob. ‘She’s early, but I think they normally look like this . . .’

‘
Too
early?’ I was holding my breath. As the shock of the birth was wearing off, I could feel myself filling up with a new feeling. I didn’t understand it, but it was
powerful. I
had
to know the baby was all right.

Leaning against the wall, Lauren held her closer. I let go, sitting back and watching them.

‘Anything between thirty-eight and forty-two weeks is supposed to be OK,’ Lauren said, her voice soft. She still hadn’t taken her eyes off the baby. ‘I think she’s
fine, Mo.’

I gazed at them still, letting the reality of what I was seeing settle on me. My sister was a mother. I was an aunt. This baby was my blood.

The powerful feeling flooded through me, right to my fingertips. This was the fiercest love I’d ever known. Lauren looked up. Our eyes met. And I knew that all my former fears had been for
nothing. This baby wasn’t going to come between Lauren and me. We were going to love her together.

She was our family.

‘Oh.’ The word breathed out of me at the enormity and the power of what I had done and felt and understood.

‘Yes.’ Lauren nodded, knowing exactly what I meant.

Slam.
Upstairs the door crashed open. A split second later, footsteps thundered down the stairs. Two men wearing surgical masks stormed into the basement. One carried a gun. He pointed it
at me.

‘Move away,’ he ordered.

Terrified, I scrambled back. The second man crouched down in front of Lauren.

‘What are you doing?’ I glanced up the stairs. I could just make out Jam’s body, still prostrate at the top. There was no sign of Wolf, but I could hear him talking to someone
upstairs, demanding to know what was going on.

I looked back at Lauren. The second man was peering down at her.

‘It’s OK, I’m a doctor,’ he was saying. He was murmuring something. I caught the word ‘placenta’.

Lauren gave another groan. I held my breath. Was she OK? The doctor was still examining her. He cut the cord, then looked up.

‘Let me check the baby,’ he said.

‘No.’

But he had already taken her. He was opening up the towel, eyes intent on the tiny bundle inside. ‘She’s fine.’ He was speaking to the other man, whose gun was still pointing
at my face. Both men strode to the staircase. The baby started crying again.

‘Wait, what are you doing?’ I said.

‘Stay back.’

As they raced up the stairs, Lauren screamed out. ‘No!’ Her yell rose up, over the baby’s thin wails.

And then the bunker door slammed shut and Lauren fell silent, her face the colour of ash, as the baby’s cries died away, fading into the air as if they had never been.

I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Wolf pounded down the stairs. He rushed over to me.

‘Madison?’ He grabbed my arm. ‘Did they take the baby?’

I nodded. Lauren was still sitting, motionless, a picture of utter despair. I walked over and squatted down beside her. I had no idea what to say . . . how to comfort her . . .

‘We’ll get her back,’ I said.

Lauren looked up at me. Misery was etched into her face. I’d never seen anyone look so completely devastated. A terrible blistering guilt bled through me. This was all my fault. If I
hadn’t tried so hard to impress Allan, I would never have found Natalia. And if I hadn’t tried to help Natalia, then Baxter wouldn’t have taken Lauren’s baby.

I helped Lauren back into her leggings, then laid her down on the mattress. She let me help her as if she were a child, then closed her eyes and turned away to face the wall. Feeling helpless, I
wandered across the room to the shelving area, where Wolf was rummaging through the contents of a cardboard box.

‘What I don’t understand is how Declan Baxter and his men knew the baby was coming,’ Wolf said quietly as I joined him. ‘I mean, Lauren wasn’t due to give birth for
a couple of weeks . . . there weren’t any obvious signs it would happen when she was captured. And there aren’t any cameras in here, either.’ He glanced up the stairs to the hut
above.

I followed his gaze. ‘What happened upstairs?’ I asked. ‘There was a man guarding you, wasn’t there? Did he hurt you?’

‘No,’ Wolf said. ‘When they left, I could hear them outside, tinkering with that control panel by the door, but I don’t know what they did.’

‘What about Jam?’

‘Did you say
Jam
?’ Across the room, Lauren sat up. ‘Is he
here
? Why didn’t you say? Is he all right?’

I exchanged a look with Wolf. ‘We think he’s been drugged, but—’

‘Oh, God.’ Lauren got up from the mattress. She clutched at her side, leaning against the wall.

‘Are you OK?’ I asked anxiously, rushing over.

Lauren gave a fierce, sharp nod. ‘I have to see him.’ She staggered across the floor. I caught her arm.

‘Wait,’ I said. ‘Wolf and I will bring him down.’

This took some doing. Wolf held Jam under the shoulders, taking the bulk of his weight, while I guided his legs down the steep stone steps.

It took at least fifteen minutes to get him down the stairs and onto the mattress. Lauren sat beside him. Tears were now streaming down her face. Again, I didn’t know what to say. Jam
moaned and shifted a little.

‘I think he’s going to be fine,’ I said, trying to sound hopeful.

‘How am I going to tell him about the baby?’ Lauren sobbed.

I stared at her. I’d never seen Lauren in such a state before. She was always so strong and resourceful – I couldn’t bear watching her break down like this.

‘Do you have a name for . . . for her?’ I said, hoping to give Lauren something else to focus on.

‘Yes,’ Lauren wept. ‘Ellie.’

I smiled. ‘That’s pretty.’

‘Jam and I decided last week.’ Lauren looked up, wiping her eyes. ‘Ellen Shelby Caldwell for a girl.’ She paused. ‘I wanted Shelby’s name to be in there
somewhere.’

She looked at me, tears welling up again. ‘Oh, Mo.’

‘We’ll be fine.’ I said the words with more conviction than I truly felt. ‘We’ll be OK and . . . and so will Ellie. We’ll find her, I promise.’

Lauren sniffed. ‘I’m going to see if I can wash in that bathroom,’ she said.

Wolf and I helped her up. She seemed a little steadier on her feet as she walked to the room with the tiny sink. Then I went over to Jam. He was breathing deeply, as if he were asleep, but I had
no idea if he were any closer to consciousness than he had been before.

I sat back against the wall. Wolf was pacing across the room, deep in thought. I suddenly realised I was sweating.

‘Is it me or is it hotter in here than when we arrived?’ I peeled off my long-sleeved top and bundled it into a ball.

‘It is.’ Wolf stared at me. ‘
That’s
what the men were doing outside with the control panel. They were turning off the air conditioning.’

I placed my top under Jam’s head as a pillow, then went over to Wolf. I lowered my voice so that Lauren wouldn’t hear inside the bathroom.

‘Doesn’t that mean we’ll suffocate?’

Wolf nodded, his eyes wide with fear. ‘With four of us in here, I reckon we’ve got an hour – maybe two – before the air becomes unbreathable,’ he whispered.

I gulped. So this was Baxter’s plan . . . take the baby and leave the rest of us to die here.

‘But Baxter knows your dad,’ I said. ‘Surely he won’t let you die just because you helped me?’

‘How would he know I’m here?’ Wolf said miserably. ‘Those men upstairs didn’t look properly at me. Anyway, why would Baxter care if I got killed? He’s never
paid me any attention – and I’m sure he’s going to do his best to make sure no-one finds out that he’s responsible.’

We stood in silence for a moment, then Wolf pointed at the wall that led from the bathroom to the corner of the room where the shelving started.

‘Does anything about that look strange to you?’ he asked.

I stared at the wall. At first glance it appeared exactly the same as all the others in the room.

‘I don’t see—’

‘Look at the paint, it’s a slightly different colour.’

I moved closer. It was true: the wall Wolf was looking at was a greyer shade of white than the rest. ‘OK, but I don’t get—’

Wolf tapped the wall. It made a light, hollow sound.

‘It’s not solid,’ I breathed. ‘But that doesn’t make sense; all the other walls are reinforced with concrete.’

‘Exactly,’ Wolf said. ‘The concrete was added
after
the hut and this basement area were built. I think it was originally designed as a storage area. And I don’t
think this is a proper wall at all.’ He gave it another hollow tap. ‘I think it’s just a bit of plasterboard,’ Wolf said. ‘Which means there’s got to be
something on the other side.’

A bead of sweat trickled down my forehead. I wiped it away. ‘Come on.’ I picked up the hammer Wolf had found earlier and slammed it against the plasterboard. It made contact with a
smack. A satisfying crack spread across the wall.

Wolf fetched the plank of wood Lauren had torn off a packing crate before. He thrust the end against the crack I’d made. The crack deepened. I hit the wall with the hammer again.

Lauren appeared from the bathroom. ‘What’s going on?’

I explained as Wolf took the hammer and rammed it repeatedly against the wall. He stopped, gleaming with sweat, after a few minutes. I took over. Then Wolf took over from me. In ten minutes we
had created a hole big enough to crawl through.

Jam moaned from the mattress. ‘Lauren?’ he rasped.

Lauren went over to him as Wolf disappeared through the hole.

‘What can you see?’ I said, torn between wanting to help Wolf explore and concern for Jam.

‘I was right,’ Wolf said. ‘This
is
a storage area. Come and have a look.’

I glanced over at Lauren and Jam. Jam was raised on his elbows now, his face pale, intent on what Lauren was telling him. A look of terrible pain twisted across his face. He reached out and held
Lauren in a hug.

I decided to leave them to their private moment, and crawled through the gap in the wall after Wolf. Enough light shone through from the other room for me to make out that we were in an empty
space roughly three metres square. The air smelled damp and fusty.

‘If nothing else, this will buy us a little more time to breathe,’ Wolf said.

‘Why would anyone wall this area up?’ I said.

‘Maybe it’s unsafe,’ he suggested.

‘Great,’ I said. ‘So we’re now choosing death by suffocation or death by wall collapse.’

Wolf gave me a wry smile. ‘I love how you always look on the bright side, Madison.’

In spite of everything, I smiled back. ‘You can call me Mo, if you like.’ As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I felt scared. It was a big thing, letting Wolf use my nickname.
Only Jam and Lauren were allowed to call me Mo.

I busied myself exploring the far corner of the empty room.

‘Thanks, Mo.’ Wolf sounded sincere – pleased, but not over the top with it.

I relaxed slightly. Maybe it was OK admitting to myself I liked him.

Maybe it wasn’t something to be so frightened of after all.

I felt my way across the wall. It was rougher here – and damp. My fingers hit a ridge. It was cold and metallic. I traced the outline as my eyes grew accustomed to the darkness. I’d
found some sort of rusting metal flap. It was about a metre wide by half a metre high. I felt for the bottom edge and prised it up. A metal rail slid into place at the side, holding the flap open.
I felt inside. It was a kind of chute – made of earth and sloping upwards.

‘I found something,’ I whispered.

Seconds later, Wolf was at my side.

‘I’ll climb up,’ he said. ‘Take a look.’

‘Me first,’ I said. ‘I’m smaller.’ I clambered into the chute. The earth was tightly packed under me, the darkness ahead deeply unnerving. I remembered Wolf’s
warning that the area might be unsafe and tried to push the thought to the back of my mind.

I kept going, clawing my way through the earth. Dirt fell on my hair and my face. I forced myself on.

‘Are you OK?’ Wolf’s voice sounded much nearer than I expected. It felt like I’d moved miles, but I had only come a couple of metres through the chute so far.

‘Fine,’ I said. I clawed more earth under my fingers. Two fingernails broke as more dirt fell on my face. I spluttered, trying to blow the flecks off my mouth.

‘Is it getting any lighter?’ Wolf said.

‘No.’ My heart sank. The absence of light meant there was surely no access to the outside up ahead. Still, I had to know for sure.

‘I think the chute must be for pouring coal, or maybe wood, down,’ Wolf said.

‘Right.’ The ground ahead of me opened and flattened slightly. I reached out gingerly with my hand. A sloping sheet of iron met my touch, similar to the one I’d climbed through
before. I felt around the rusty edges. It appeared to be a similar size. I gave it a push. It was stuck.

‘There’s an iron flap at the top,’ I explained to Wolf, ‘. . . like the one at the bottom.’