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We worried whether Cassie's pregnancy would make our captors more or less interested in her. Since we didn't know what they were trying to prove or disprove, it was hard to know if they'd see it as a good or bad thing.
We were all in the suite pretending to relax but trying to work on our escape plans without actually discussing anything, when there was a knock on the door.
"Good evening, Dr. Braun," Gracie Layne said.
"I need to speak with Mrs. Dickenson."
"Certainly, come in," Gracie Layne said, stepping back and motioning for him to enter.
"Mrs. Dickenson, I need to speak with you about the results of your blood work."
When Cassie didn't respond or move, he tried again. "It's a medical issue. I assume you'd prefer to discuss it in private."
"Yet you have a file full of my private medical information that I didn't give you. I hardly think you're really all that concerned about protecting my privacy. Say what you have to say."
"The blood test shows that you're pregnant."
None of us reacted or spoke.
"If you were aware of your condition, you should have mentioned it to us. It wasn't in the records we asked you to verify."
"I saw no need to validate records you received illegally," Cassie said.
"It doesn't affect our research other than to provide us an unexpected point of further interest. Good evening, ladies."
He walked out, and we all returned to what we'd been doing. Gracie was drawing a layout of the lodge. Cassie was doing the same with the surrounding jungle. I was left to list specific questions we should try to answer which would help us craft our escape strategy.
Without knowing the specifics of Dr. Braun's research, we had no way of knowing if we would reach a point where the medical tests and exams we were being subjected to would become more frightening. All of us were anxious to make our escape before that happened.
XXX
"Good morning, Chance," I said, taking his hand. "I hope you had a good night." I kissed his forehead and put my lips to his ear. Squeeze twice if you understand me."
I had to be careful not to let my face show how happy I was that he squeezed my hand twice. "1 for no. 2 for yes. Is anyone with you at night?"
He squeezed one time. "Good. I'm going to pull up your shirt and check your wounds. I promise I won't hurt you."
I pulled up his shirt and was relieved to see that his chest looked as amazing as it always did. He showed no outward signs of the chupacabra attack other than small scars. I kissed his lips, fighting the urge for more passion. I bent back to his ear. "There are bigfoot around. I heard knocking in the jungle." Louder, I said, "I love you, Chance."
Tattoo pulled me away. "Time to go."
I endured an exam by Dr. Braun. Thankfully their interest was focused on my arm, my blood, and my DNA. The arm was photographed, skin was scrapped, x-rays were taken. He said they were running a multitude of tests with the blood they'd drawn the previous day. It would be a few days before they had the data that would let them know if further tests were needed. There was a similar time frame for the initial DNA details. In my head, that meant we needed to escape in the next few days.
Over lunch, I learned that the others had been given similar time frames. We were getting pretty good at communicating without words. I think everyone was on board with the idea that we needed to come up with a plan and launch our escape attempt sooner rather than later. We had no idea what would happen to us after Dr. Braun had gathered all the information he could from us. We knew we would not be allowed to return to our previous lives.
"How was Jared today?" I asked, knowing Cassie would understand that I was really asking if he was conscious or not.
"He seemed good. I don't understand why he's not waking up. I'd like to talk to Dr. Wainwright again. In fact, there's no time like the present," she said, motioning for Katrin.
"Did you need something, Mrs. Dickenson?"
"Can you please let Dr. Wainwright know that we'd like to speak with him."
"I'm not sure when he'll be free," she said, "but I'll let him know."
After dinner, I asked Gracie Layne to stop in my room. I pulled her into the bathroom and turned on the fan. "Unless I've missed something, you haven't really talked to Mark since we got here. Do you care about him?"
It took a while for her to answer. "I'm not really sure. I thought we had a real connection, but maybe he was just using me."
"I get the feeling he's in way over his head with these people. Do you think he understands how serious this situation is?"
"I honestly don't know what to think about Mark at this point."
"I just needed to make sure you didn't have any ideas about taking Mark with us. It's going to be enough of a challenge to get the five of us out."
"I get it, but maybe Mark can help us. Maybe he could create a distraction or something."
"It's possible, but that would mean telling him about our plans. I'm not sure I trust him enough to involve him. If he tells Braun what we're up to, we won't have any chance of pulling this off."
"I get it. I wish I knew how involved he was with all of this," she said.
"Me too. It'll all work out. Let's go make some tea and figure out how to get out of here."
I don't think any of us really understood what was going on with Chance and Jared. They both were conscious but pretending not to be. I assumed they were being given medication to keep them sleeping so they didn't pose a threat. I wondered if Mark might be pretending to medicate them. Asking Mark wasn't an option. "I wrote a note and passed it to Cassie, when I handed her a napkin for her coffee.
Besides the five of us—six if you added Mark, we only saw four other people around the lodge. If, as we now believed, they were keeping bigfoot in the compound behind the lodge, they must have some staff caring for those animals. We knew they hired a local person to cook and probably do laundry, and other maintenance tasks, but we never saw them.
The major decision we needed to make was whether to figure out a plan that would get us all away from the lodge or one that had us incapacitating our captors and staying in place while we called for help and awaited their arrival. It wasn't an easy choice.