Escape: Day 14

Word Count: 84,009

Summary of Events:

Dallis came to shortly before the gangsters pulled into a motel for the night and nearly managed to escape them — she did succeed in causing a message to be planted for Trace, though. Trace stopped at his favourite restaurant again for food and received the message, which confirmed what he'd assumed and made him feel a lot better. Dallis plotted escape as the gangsters continued south. Trace chafed at his slow progress and considered doing whatever it took to go faster. Dallis — once again tied to the bed for the night to prevent escape — put into action the first part of her escape plan . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

"She'd noticed that they didn't loop the ropes around the posts repeatedly, they just left loops and securely tied the ropes to the gaps they had between her ankles and wrists.

Having noticed that, she'd kept her elbows slightly bent so that they'd have to use more rope to make things taut at her feet.

It'd been somewhat hard keeping her elbows bent for so long, but now she released them and lifted her hands over her head with ease.

Being as the restrained position of her hands compromised her, though, she had to use her lower body to shift herself closer to the foot post and loosen her feet, but that was done easily.

To get off of the bed would have to be a delicate manoeuvre as well, as she didn't want to fall, lest they be woken up by the thud of her body hitting the floor.

She carefully rolled over onto her side and then shifted her upper body toward the edge, leading with her hands until they touched the floor. Then she carefully managed to lower the rest of her body to the floor with the quietest of thuds.

It took her a little bit to orient herself, but soon she was certain which way Otie's clothes were, and she soon found some fabric.

Quickly she identified it as a shirt. She wanted his pants.

Thankfully, they were close by; but disappointment soon filled her when she found that his gun wasn't among them. He was either still wearing his gun, or he'd put it somewhere else and she hadn't seen it because she'd not looked at him while he was undressing.

She did feel a solid lump in his pocket, however, and discovered it was a jackknife: something to cut her bonds with. Good.

A groan sounded and she almost dropped the knife.

"Where's my little puss-puss?" Otie moaned sleepily.

He snorted sharply.

"Gone!" he hissed. "Jay!"

Another groan sounded. Dallis quickly shoved the knife into her pocket; she wouldn't be able to use it now, mainly being as it was dark.

"She's gone!" Otie snapped.

"What!?" Jay cried.

Lights snapped on and Dallis looked over her shoulder to see the two men upright in their beds, both looking at her, their chests bare, Otie's obviously darkened by ink, Jay's not so much — although skin colour contributed to that more than anything.

"So," Otie said, sliding across his bed and getting to his feet. "You were going to try and run away?"

Dallis looked away from him as he walked over to her, grabbed her under the arms, and hauled her back to the bed. She wouldn't fight. She had a means of escape in her pocket, and she was using it tomorrow."