Chapter 365: Mei and Tommy Planning the Escape
"Mei, I’m sorry—"
She picked up her bowl and emptied what was left of it into his face.
Keith sat there dripping, blinking slowly.
He very clearly hadn’t expected that. Still, maybe he had it coming. He’d let his satisfaction show a little too much, and Mei wasn’t going to let that slide.
She pushed herself to her feet and turned to walk off, but she barely got two steps before one of the men stopped her.
"Where are you going?"
"I need water. My dress is ruined," Mei replied.
"I’ll lead her," Tommy said, speaking up at just the right moment.
It seemed her perfectly understood Mei’s cue.
The man looked between them, then shrugged. "Whatever. Be quick."
That was all the permission they got.
Tommy fell in behind Mei as they headed into the house. He stayed close, but not so close that it looked strange. Even that had to be measured here. Everything did.
Inside, the house was stocked well enough to handle the prisoners’ basic needs. Water had been stored away, supplies stacked where they could be grabbed easily, the whole place arranged with the kind of ugly practicality people built in times like these. Nothing about it felt warm. It was just functional, like everything else in this world now.
As soon as they stepped into the living room, Tommy scanned the place carefully, eyes moving from doorway to hallway to the corners where someone could appear without warning. Only when he was sure no one was right there did he gently nudge Mei toward the sofa.
"Stay here," he said quietly.
Mei sat down and waited.
A minute later, Tommy returned with a bottle of water in hand. One glance at it was enough to tell it wasn’t meant for drinking, but that didn’t matter. Right now, it was just for her dress and for the sake of appearance.
She took the bottle from him and poured some onto the stained fabric, then started rubbing the silk together, trying to clean off what she could. The material clung wetly under her fingers, and she kept her eyes on it, though it was obvious her mind was elsewhere.
Tommy, meanwhile, kept looking around. His gaze never stayed still long. Door. Window. Hallway. Back again.
He was tense, and for good reason. If someone walked in on them now and caught even a hint that this wasn’t just about cleaning up a dress, everything could fall apart.
"You took your time making your decision," Mei said at last, her voice low as she kept working at the fabric.
Tommy glanced at her, then answered just as quietly. "I made my decision a few days ago."
"Then why did you avoid us?" Mei asked.
"Because it would’ve looked suspicious if I stayed around you too much. I have to act discreetly too," he replied, seriously.
And he meant that.
Out of all of them, his part was the hardest. If this had any chance of working, then he had to play it perfectly. He couldn’t afford to draw attention, not even the smallest kind. One wrong look, one conversation that lasted a little too long, one moment of visible concern, and somebody would notice.
That was why, even after speaking with Ryan, Tommy had purposely kept his distance from Mei and Keith. He couldn’t let himself look eager. Couldn’t let himself become predictable either.
After Liam woke up in that cinema hall, he’d already found Ryan’s disappearance strange. Tommy had handled that by saying Ryan had knocked him out too, and that when he finally woke up, Ryan was already gone. Thankfully, Liam had believed it.
At the very least, they all seemed to know one thing about Ryan, he wasn’t the kind of man who liked killing people. That helped. It made the story easier to swallow.
Even so, Tommy preferred staying out of sight as much as possible while he prepared.
"I need you to understand something," Tommy said, lowering his voice even more. "I have the toughest job here. I need to get a boat ready and somehow get you, Keith, and Emily down near the lake without anyone noticing."
Mei looked up at him then, and for a moment she had nothing to say.
He wasn’t exaggerating. It really was the hardest part.
Honestly, she wasn’t even sure it could be done.
"Can we help somehow?" She asked anyway, offering even if it felt almost stupid considering the position they were in.
Tommy looked at her for a second before answering.
"It’s going to be hard. We need a boat."
"One with fuel, right?" Mei asked.
"Yeah, of course. I mean, one without fuel would be quieter, maybe more discreet, but it’d be too slow. We’ve got too much distance to cover. If someone spots us out there, we’ll get caught immediately," he said.
He was right.
If they took some simple paddle boat and one of Callighan’s men noticed something was off, then came after them in a motorboat, it would be over before they’d even made real distance. Risky as it sounded, the faster option gave them a real chance to get away before anyone could react properly.
"The problem is Audrey," Tommy went on.
"Audrey? The short-haired woman?" Mei asked, immediately thinking of that woman, the one who looked like she’d been a criminal long before the world fell apart. Just another one of the dangerous people who had escaped that prison and ended up here with the rest of the psychos.
"Yeah," Tommy said with a nod. "She’s always around there. The boats get used when they need to haul bigger supplies from across the lake, but mostly they use them to move faster between towns and grab anything untouched before someone else does."
Mei slowed her hands against the dress.
That made things worse.
If Audrey was always hanging around the boats, then getting one without being seen wasn’t going to be simple. And if those boats were important for supply runs, then people probably kept an eye on them even when they weren’t in use.
Tommy clearly knew that too.
This wasn’t just some rough plan anymore. He was trying to build a way out in the middle of a place where every useful thing was watched by dangerous people.
And if he messed up even once, none of them were making it to that lake.
"These people handling and using the boats... you’re not part of that group, are you?" Mei asked.
Tommy shook his head. "No. If I was, I’d already be over there. Right now I just get whatever guard duty they feel like handing me."
There was a bitter edge to his voice.
A few days earlier, he had tagged along with people like Romero, doing small jobs under watch, carrying things, following orders, being useful without ever being trusted. But they were never going to leave him alone with anything important. Not with boats. Not with supplies. Not with anything that could actually help somebody escape.
"How about joining their group, then?" Mei asked.
Tommy looked at her like she’d just suggested he walk into a fire. "You want me to ask Audrey to take me in?"
"What other choice do we have?" Mei shot back. "Are the boats watched every hour, even at night?"
Tommy exhaled and rubbed the back of his neck, clearly anxious by the whole situation. "Well, obviously there are fewer people around at night, and yeah, that would be the best time to try something. But even if we managed to steal one, the second we start it, it’ll make noise. A lot of noise. And that’ll pull everyone over there."
Mei went quiet after that, her fingers slowing against the damp silk of her dress. She stared at the stained fabric, but it was clear she was thinking past it, trying to force some better option out of a situation that barely had any.
Then she looked up.
"How about moving the boat behind the house where we’re being kept?" she asked.
Tommy frowned. "Wasn’t that the plan from the start?"
"No," Mei said, shaking her head. "Your plan was to steal one from wherever they keep the boats in Brigantine, right? But that’s not near the house where we’re being held. So if you take one from there and come all the way to us, that’s a whole extra trip for no reason, and a loud one too. But if you can get a boat prepared somewhere behind the house..." She paused, thinking it through as she spoke. "The water’s what, maybe two or three miles behind where we’re staying? If you start the boat from there at night, there’s less chance people in Brigantine will hear it right away. Less chance we’ll be found out before we’re already gone."
Tommy stared at her for a second.
"Yeah... I mean, that is better," he admitted. "But I still have to get the damn boat behind the house."
"Then don’t steal it," Mei replied.
Tommy’s face tightened. "What?"
"You heard me. Stealing it is out of the question. You need to find a reason to move it. Something that gives you authorization, or at least something that doesn’t make people suspicious right away."
She spoke calmly, but there was weight behind every word now.
If he stole a boat and hid it behind the house without anyone knowing, then the second somebody noticed one was missing, suspicion would spread everywhere. People would search. They’d tighten security. And if they found the boat before the escape, then everything would collapse before it even started.
But if the boat had been moved for some believable reason, if it was still considered part of their own system, still where it was ’supposed’ to be, then maybe nobody would think twice about it. At least not until it was too late.
That was safer. Still dangerous, but safer.
Tommy kept staring at her, almost like he couldn’t believe she was saying it.
"You serious?" He asked, sounding completely thrown.
What kind of excuse was he supposed to come up with for moving a boat closer to the house? What reason could possibly sound convincing enough in a place like this, around people like them?
"I don’t know," Mei admitted honestly. "But you said it yourself. Until the night we escape, you have to be beyond suspicion. So don’t try to steal the boat."
Tommy didn’t answer right away.
For a moment, the room felt smaller. Quieter too. The only sounds were the distant creaks of the house and the faint movement outside. He stood there with too much on his shoulders and not enough room to fail.
He could feel the nerves chewing at him again, that tight pressure in his chest, his heartbeat hitting harder than it should. He was scared. Of course he was. Anyone would be.
But underneath that fear was something else.
He wanted out.
More than ever now, he wanted out of this place, out of this rotting nightmare, out from under the eyes of people who acted like they owned every breath around them.
"All right..." he said at last, giving a small nod. "I’ll find a way."
Mei looked at him and nodded back.
That was all either of them could really offer right now.
"Anyway, hurry up," Tommy said after a moment. "We should head back."
Mei stood from the sofa, still holding the bottle, and gave one last glance down at her dress before straightening.
"Enjoying yourselves?"
Both of them froze.
The voice was deep, sudden, and far too close.
They turned at the same time.
Williams was standing there in the doorway, wearing that crooked smirk of his.
