Page 12 of Claimed By the Hitchhiker

“Yeah, but doesn’t work most of the time. You’re welcome to wait until you hear a tone, though.”

“Where’s the nearest spot where I can get a signal?”

“Cellphone? Probably that fork in the road a couple of minutes from here. There’s a small hill. Just have to climb it and you might get lucky.”

“Thanks.”

I enter the room first, quickly scanning it. The walls are painted beige, and a wooden dresser stands against one wall. There’s a small table with two chairs in one corner and a bulky, boxy TV beside the bathroom door.

Walking to the large window, I look for movement outside before pulling the curtains down. Dani climbs the large bed and, with a deep sigh, lies down and kicks off my slides. She sinks into the mattress face first, rolls over, and runs a hand along the smooth, cool linens, a smile on her face.

I hover above her, hands on each side of her arms, and kiss her nose. “We can ask the owner to cook for us or we can munch on whatever you bought and sleep afterward.”

“I’m not up for a heavy meal.”

“Potato chips it is, then.”

She sits cross-legged across from me while I take one chair. I’m not exactly hungry so I open a bottle of water and finish it in three gulps.

“Tell me about yourself,” she says, leaning her back against the headboard.

“What do you wanna know?”

“Anything. What you do, where you work, where you’re headed, your family? I don’t know. Everything.”

“Like I said before, I’m a detective. I’m not really starting a new job, just transferring to a different town around four hours from here. I don’t have a family. Never knew my father, and my mother passed away a few years ago. When you first saw me, my truck broke down.”

“Hmm…”

I lean forward and rest my elbows on my knees, interlocking my fingers. “Dani, is it too painful for you to talk about it? Because I’d like to know more about the compound. I’m planning to check out that hill the old man talked about and call the Chief to let him know about your case. Is that okay with you?”

She jerks her head and swallows before taking a sip of iced tea. “I’m fine with it. Elise is still at the compound. If your Chief can help us, maybe I can save her.”

“You keep saying compound. Do you remember its exact location?”

“Yes. I did my best to memorize the turns when I drove off. We can ask for a paper and pen from the owner. I’ll draw it for you.”

“Okay. I’ll do that later. What’s life like in the compound? Tell me all about it.”

She exhales a shaky breath. “It’s a small community. We have older women who supervise us girls. They give us tasks, make sure we follow all the rules, write reports, etc. We’re divided into two groups—the women and us girls. Every day, we wake up at 7:30, do self-care, eat breakfast, do our chores for an hour, eat snacks, go for a walk and exercise, eat lunch, take a two-hour nap, drink tea, read books, eat dinner, self-care, and it’s lights out at 9 PM.”

She’s holding a half-bitten chip, a faraway look in her eyes. “To be honest, it’s not that bad. There are rarely men around. Sometimes, they go there to harvest the crops, fix things, or anything that requires manual labor. Sure, they brush against us ‘accidentally’ but never more than that. I always knew something was off, though. The walls are so tall. We tried to climb up the roof and saw nothing beyond. We have a small library, with classics, old magazines, and fiction books. I didn’t even know the date when I left. I thought it’s still 2001.

“I know about TV, those surveillance cameras, and cellphones—yours is way smaller than the ones I’ve seen by the way—but not much else.”

“How did you learn to drive?”

“That’s a funny story actually. Found a book about cars and everything. Elise, ever the daredevil, found an old car by the barn. When we’ve been good, we’re granted our ‘me time.’ With ‘me time’, the women don’t follow us around and basically just let us do our thing. So Elise and I sneaked into a barn on the edge of the property and had a hell of a time. It took us a couple of hours to finally figure it out because it’s manual transmission, and of course, she crashed us into a hay bale. No one found out because it was raining hard that time and it muffled the engine sound, but unfortunately for us, we had checkups the next week, and both of us had bruises.”

“Did they punish you?”

“I don’t know if you can call it that. They were always extra careful with our bodies, so what they did was take out our ‘me time’. I liked to read, so I wasn’t allowed in the library for a month.”

Dani chuckles and gives me a sad smile. “You know, I was looking forward to graduation. I knew there was a world beyond our walls, and I was more than ready to get out and leave.”

“How did you get out?”

“Elise helped me. I don’t know how she did it, but she planned it all out for me. I’ve never been a good liar, and she was scared my face would reveal everything. She’s still 16, so she’s still safe for two years. But after what happened, I’m scared that Father might rush everyone to graduate.

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