Chapter Twenty One
Sawyer
Sleeping really was the cure to most things.
And this was true sleep. Not the ‘I fell unconscious’ sleep, which really couldn’t even be counted as sleep.
When Sawyer awoke, his body was still sore and he imagined it would be for some time, but he at least felt rested and he could move better than the day before.
He rubbed at his eyes and stretched as much as he could without hurting himself.
But it still felt good to do. When his eyes finally adjusted, he saw Benji lying beside him.
His eyes were open, staring at the ceiling above them.
Something Sawyer often caught himself doing since there wasn’t much else to do down there.
“How long have you been awake?” He asked, voice groggy.
“I don’t know. Maybe an hour or so.”
“You could have woken me up.”
Benji shook his head. “Absolutely not. You let me sleep when I was recovering. You get the same treatment.”
He supposed that was fair. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m functional, I think. If your bastard uncle comes down here, I think I’ll survive.” Benji half-joked.
“Well, that’s a plus. It would really ruin the whole ‘let’s escape from here’ thing if you didn’t.”
Benji flicked his brows and shrugged a shoulder. “Guess that’s true.” He paused and shifted his gaze down towards his chest. “Do you want your hoodie back?”
“I don’t even know if I could get it on right now.”
He hummed. “Yeah… I’ll just hang onto it. You can tell me when you want it.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
Silence rolled over them once again. It wasn’t uncomfortable. But it wasn’t all that comfortable either. Sawyer could see Benji was thinking about something. “What’s on your mind?”
“That’s a loaded question.”
It sure was. “Start with the most pressing thing then.”
Benji tapped his fingers against his chest while he continued to stare off at the ceiling.
Sawyer imagined he had several pressing issues so it was probably hard to figure out which of them was the most pressing.
As Benji thought about it, Sawyer didn’t pester him about it.
He just kept his brown eyes upon the other, taking the time to look him over.
He really did look exponentially better than he did two days ago.
To be quite honest, Sawyer thought he was going to die.
He had no idea how he didn’t. It wasn’t like Sawyer was a medical professional.
Anything he did learn was from Google or Cole.
And Cole wasn’t the best teacher. But whatever it was that Sawyer had done, it got him past the worst of it and now Benji was on the mend.
They needed him to be as healthy as they could too considering Sawyer was now worse for wear.
“I guess my whole…family situation is pretty pressing,” Benji admitted with a frown, “I’ve been trying not to think about it but it’s hard not to when there’s only so many things to think about down here.”
Sawyer nodded. “Yeah, that…makes sense.”
“I still can’t wrap my head around it.”
“I doubt you’re supposed to be able to. It seems like that was the point of it. Whatever is happening by whoever didn’t want you to know a thing.”
Benji sighed. “It’s just…not fair.” Sawyer thought that really none of Benji’s situation wasn’t fair but that seemed beside the point. “I matter too. No matter what my dad thinks…”
“Of course you do.”
“It doesn’t feel like it when they do shit like this.”
Sawyer frowned. He supposed that made a lot of sense. Regardless of who did it or for what reason, they still put Benji in the line of fire. How could someone feel like they were cared about when that happened?
Benji just shook his head and shifted the subject. “I’ve been trying to think about how to get us out of here.”
“Have you come up with anything?”
“Not really. I don’t know how this place works,” he turned his head towards Sawyer, “I feel like getting us from point A to point B is going to be all you.”
He huffed and nodded. “Yeah…”
“How do you feel about that?”
Sawyer shifted a bit on the mattress and his eyes moved towards his bandaged hand. “Scared.”
“Yeah…”
“I just…once we are out. Then what? Milo isn’t going to stop looking for us. It’s going to be a manhunt.”
“I know some people who can get us a safehouse.”
Sawyer’s brow raised. “How would we even contact them?”
“I would just need a phone. A burner. I just don’t have any money on me or anything.”
“That’s fine. I have some cash saved up. Seems like a worthy cause to use it.”
“I’ll pay you back.”
That got a good laugh out of Sawyer. So much so, it actually hurt his back to laugh that hard. “Shut the fuck up.”
“What?!”
“You’re not paying me back.”
“Why not?!”
“Benji, you’re so stupid.” Sawyer laughed once again and wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.
The fact that Benji’s concern was paying him back after everything he had been through and everything he was going to face?
Absolutely hilarious. “I don’t mind paying for what we’ll need to get us safe. ”
He sighed and muttered, “Fine.”
Sawyer gingerly moved himself to sit up and released a soft sigh once he had.
He placed his hands behind him and leaned back with some difficulty but nothing he couldn’t handle.
“I’ll have to check out the schedule for the guys upstairs.
” He could see Benji’s brow rise from the corner of his eye.
“I think our best bet is going to be sneaking out of here when most of them are out on a job.”
Benji hummed. “Yeah, that makes sense.”
“We’re going to need a car.”
“I’m guessing you don’t have one of your own?”
He shook his head. “No. I live here. Rarely leave. And when I do, I just go with someone else to wherever they’re going.”
Benji frowned. “That’s…really sad.”
Sawyer shrugged. “It’s just how it’s been.”
“Do you know how to drive?”
Sawyer frowned. “No. Not really. Cole was going to teach me but he just…never got around to it.”
“Who is Cole?”
“Oh. He’s just a guy who works up there. He’s kind of like a medic.”
“There’s a medic here?”
“For the guys who work here, yeah.” Sawyer frowned. “I’m sorry.”
Benji shook his head. “It’s fine. I just…didn’t know.”
“Milo would kill him if he found out Cole came down here. No one is ever allowed down here…”
“Except you.”
“Yeah. Well, that’s my job here.”
“Right,” Benji sighed before he spoke up again. “Is this Cole an alright guy? He like you?”
Sawyer’s brow arched. “Uh…well, yeah. I…I think so. He’s the only person who gives me the time of day and treats me well.”
He just nodded at that.
“Why?”
“Well, do you think he could help us?”
“Cole?” Sawyer asked, more or less rhetorically, then stared off ahead.
Could Cole help them in some way? He knew that Cole did have a car.
He was usually who Sawyer tagged along with when given the opportunity.
He could ask him if he could just…have his car, but that seemed like quite the big ask.
“I mean, probably in some way. I could…see if he’d let me use his car. ”
“That could work. Do you think he would?”
Sawyer shrugged. “I don’t know. Have you ever asked someone if you could take their car and probably never see them again?”
Benji snorted. “No.”
“Yeah, me either.”
“But does he know about how things are with you and your uncle?”
Sawyer swallowed and sighed. “Yeah, he does…”
“And if you likes you, he’d want you to get out of here, right?”
“Theorectically…”
“Then it can’t hurt to ask.” Benji shrugged. “And if he says no, then we go back to the drawing board.”
Sawyer nodded. “I guess so. I mean, we could always just…hoof it, I suppose. It’s just the weather that’s the problem.”
Benji shivered at that statement. “I hate the cold.”
“I would too if I were in your shoes.”
Benji huffed. “I’ve always hated it is the funny thing. How far from town are we?”
“On foot? Probably about an hour.”
He groaned then said, “That’s not too bad.”
“No, not really. It would just suck.”
“Then let’s hope Cole is in a giving mood, huh?” Benji looked towards Sawyer for the first time since their conversation began and smiled a bit. “The plan sounds easy enough though.”
“It does.”
“Do you still have my boots and thermal?”
Sawyer nodded. “Boots are over there,” he pointed towards the corner of the room, “The thermal is in a pile on the ground. Probably still soaked.”
Benji sighed. “Probably. At least I’ll have the boots.”
“I can probably get you a coat too if we need to walk.”
“I really hope we won’t,” he sighed.
Sawyer nodded while he turned his gaze towards the stairs. “I’ll…take a look at the schedule today and I’ll talk to Cole.”
Benji released a breath and nodded. “Great.”
He didn’t say anything in response. He just chewed on his lower lip and nodded once.
The thought of talking to Cole about everything put a pit in his stomach.
Sawyer wasn’t even sure why. Cole was a pretty nice guy all things considered.
Perhaps it was just the fact that asking him for such a big thing really felt like Sawyer was quitting.
But he needed to get out of there. After what happened with Milo, he really believed that he was going to die there if he didn’t.
Not to mention he couldn’t stand working for him anymore.
He was sick of it. He needed a change. He needed to start his own life.
Cole had to understand that, right?
He sure hoped he would.