Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Not that there’s any chance of that, she told herself. He’s probably off pirating somewhere while I’m trapped in this crazy cult Compound. How in the hell am I going to get out of here?
Well, hopefully by following Shurla’s plan. The two of them spoke quietly for about an hour longer, plotting their escape. By the time the lights went out and they all climbed into their narrow cots, she was feeling much more hopeful than she had earlier.
Twenty-Five
Penny had the oddest dreams, that night—she dreamed that her pillow was whispering to her. It whispered and whispered but she couldn’t understand half of what it said.
“Colonel Sanders,” whispered the pillow. “Colonel Sanders is the Shining Star—he brings us chicken from afar.”
Strange images began to grow in Penny’s dreams. She saw the man who had called himself the “Glorious Leader” standing in front of her. But he had a giant fried chicken drumstick for a torso. His head sat on top of the end of the drumstick and his arms and legs were growing out of it.
He began dancing and singing to Penny, telling her how wonderful he was as he bobbed his drumstick body all around. But all she could think about was how hungry she still was. The protein shake she’d had for supper hadn’t filled her up for very long.
Still he kept singing, but most of what the Glorious Leader said went in one ear and out the other. He seemed to be singing about how the Compound was a paradise and she was lucky to be living there. But Penny kept imagining what it would be like to go take a bite of his juicy fried chicken body. The giant drumstick appeared to be extra crispy—her favorite. If only she had some mashed potatoes and gravy and coleslaw to go with it, she would be perfectly happy.
The dream seemed to go on all night long and Penny got hungrier and hungrier. By the time she woke up, her mouth was watering and she was hoping that she and Shurla could get some breakfast before they made a break for it and tried to escape.
She sat up in bed and noticed that she was the only one awake. It was still dim in the dormitory but there was a slit of a window, high up on the far wall, and a thin sliver of pale dawn light had painted a single luminous stripe on the blank white floor. It must be early in the morning then—which explained why everyone else in the cots all around her was still asleep.
But was the early hour really the reason no one else was up? There seemed to be a hushed whispering sound coming from somewhere. Penny frowned, remembering her strange thought that her pillow was trying to tell her something. Something about the Glorious Leader and a giant chicken drumstick…
No, he was the chicken drumstick, Penny thought. And he was singing something but I couldn’t quite make it out…
She put her face back down to the pillow experimentally and the whispering sound got louder. But try as she might, Penny couldn’t make out more than one word in ten. Every once in awhile she caught, “Glorious Leader” or “Shining Star,” but nothing else made any sense.
Penny frowned. Was there something wrong with her translation bacteria? And why was her pillow whispering to her, anyway? Was she still asleep and only dreaming that she was awake?
As if in answer to her question, the overhead lights suddenly came on and the door opened.
“Rise and shine, my lovelies!” cooed the voice of Mother Toone. “It’s another beautiful day in the Compound.” She went to each of the beds and shook the women gently by the shoulder. Penny had quickly pretended to be asleep the moment the door opened, so the NeverBreeder attendant shook her too.
Penny yawned and stretched, pretending to wake up just like all the women around her.
“Wakey-wakey!” Mother Toone sang brightly. “Time to get up and have some tasty breakfast. Then off we pop for a quick exam and then some lovely activities and maybe even some time in the exercise yard if you’re all very good.”
She bustled out the door and Penny sent Shurla an excited look.
“Did you hear that?” she whispered, leaning close to her friend’s cot. “The exercise yard! That must be outside the building. And if we can get out of the building, we can escape!”
“Escape?” Shurla frowned at her as though she didn’t understand the meaning of the word. “Why ever would we want to escape from the Compound?” she asked Penny, looking confused.
“What?” Penny stared at her blankly. “We want to escape because we don’t want to stay here with this crazy cult! We want to get back to Hell’s Gate Station so you can go back to your life as a, uh, joy-girl and I can call my friends and have them come get me.”