Gail had barely pulled herself together and found the strength to stand up. She staggered to the corner and captured the attention of the others.
Glad she’s moving around. Hanna could relieve herself of any duty as the room’s official caretaker.
Gail was still struggling to make sense of the horrid nightmare from earlier. It had felt too real to ignore. It was unlike anything she had ever experienced. Maybe it was a side effect of the sedation shots we got.
Hanna watched Gail pace around from the safety of the other side of the room.
Gail had seemed to gravitate toward Russell. He was in the chair nearby, slowly waking up from his snooze. He glanced up and locked eyes with her. Perhaps a mistake. Gail was looking for a shoulder, and Russell was the only logical option. Their shared history gave him a slight advantage over the others. Gail was typically a private person. She had a shrink she had stopped seeing a few years prior. She had been off her depression medication for months. She had felt as though she had been doing better — until this.
Russell nodded toward the lieutenant. Gail looked across the room. Dimitri and Hanna seemed to be at a safe distance. They couldn’t hear her if she whispered. “Where did you guys go?” she asked Russell from the side of her mouth.
“Excuse me?” he asked.
Gail angled back with a look of dead seriousness. “I woke up, and you guys were gone. But there was someone else in here.”
Russell shook his head and fumbled for a response. “Maybe you’re just tired, LT. It’s been a fucked up day.”
Gail dropped her head to the floor, trying to rationalize her thoughts. She was failing at convincing Russell her nightmare was real. Russell had little patience to begin with. He was quickly growing tired of the conversation, but he was trying his best not to be rude. He was doing a terrible job at that. His body language was hard to ignore. He sighed and looked away, impatiently tapping his foot against the hard concrete.
“I’m telling you. I know what I saw,” said Gail.
“I’m sure it felt real, but it was just a bad dream, Gail,” Russell said with an awkward smirk.
“You’re dismissing me.”
Russell shrugged it off. “I’m just saying—”
“I was by myself!” she said.
Russell glanced over to Hanna and Dimitri. He almost wished he was in an argument with the Russian. The other two were in their own worlds. Gail’s conversation was of no interest to them, and who could blame them? It sounded like nonsense.
Russell moved back to Gail and escorted her further away from the other two. He pulled her into a sort of huddle with his arm, trying to keep his voice concealed and trying to protect her from further embarrassment.
“No one has left the room, Gail. Look, you’re tired, and you really need to settle down. You’re being ridiculous. Now, it’s none of my business, but isn’t this the same kind of thing that got you in trouble at Creech?” he continued in a harsh whisper.
Gail looked up at Russell with a daring scowl. “You know nothing about me.”
“Maybe. But I know you almost declassified an entire program because of your emotional meltdown,” he replied.
“And what about you, Russell Turner?” Gail snapped back. “There’s got to be a reason why you’re stuck at level three and were never offered a promotion. It’s why they’re forcing you out early, isn’t it? Maybe it’s because you also run your mouth off too much. I guess we’re both liabilities, right?” Gail stepped back and gently pushed the hair from the back of her neck. “Here. Is there anything there? At least look and humor me.”
Russell sighed with fatigue. He just wanted to return to his seat. His legs were tired, and he still had not recovered from the ordeal with Dimitri.
“Come on,” the lieutenant pressed.
Russell took in a heavy breath of hot air. He would patronize her one last time. He slowly focused on the back of her neck, right below the hairline.
“Come on. Do you see anything?” Gail demanded impatiently.
Russell did a double take. “Wait.”
His words seemed to gnaw at Gail’s anxiety. Hanna and Dimitri snapped their heads toward the conversation.
Russell gently moved her hair farther up the back of her neck. It was the most intimate he had been with a woman other than his wife in years.
“Yeah. You got something here,” Russell said.
Gail’s face sunk with horror. “What? What is it?”
Russell moved in for a better look. His eyes were focusing on the base of her skull. “Here. Something right here. At the top of your neck,” he continued reluctantly.
The suspense was too much. Gail shook with impatience. “What?” she shouted.
Russell’s seriousness dissipated. A smile started to crack along his doughy face. He pushed her neck forward with his index finger. “It’s a hickey,” he said and started to chuckle.
Hanna rolled her eyes at Russell’s relentless efforts to be funny. This was another example of the man’s bigoted attitude toward women. Perhaps he got off on making women nervous. Gail was not amused. She smacked his hand away and stepped back to the corner — to his surprise. Russell hadn’t expected her reaction. Being the master of comedy, in his own mind, seemed to blind him from the reality of his annoying jokes.
“Come on. Relax. There’s nothing there,” he replied.
Gail angrily covered her neck and turned back toward the wall. She had trusted him, but it was a mistake she immediately regretted. He had been making a mockery of her since they had woken up in the room. She knew she was on her own. “Forget it,” she muttered through tight lips.
Russell knew he had taken it too far, but he felt it was worth it. He seemed to get his swagger back. “Come on, LT,” he pleaded with an unrepentant, cocky smirk.
“I said drop it,” replied Gail sharply.
She sat back down into the tattered office chair and pivoted toward the riveted wall. Russell angled toward the others and shook off the moment’s amusement. Then the sight of Dimitri made him forget the humor. He turned back to Gail, towering over her as she adjusted back into her uncomfortable chair. “We’ve been through a lot today. You just gotta relax and lighten up. We’ll get through this. We’ll be out of here in no time at all.”
It was the most genuine thing he could muster. After all, he had bet on it. There was no indecision or wavering. He had practiced his pitch since he had discovered the red plastic card in his pocket.
Russell’s words trailed off with contemplation. Perhaps he was more or less trying to convince himself.
There was movement across the room. It was the pant legs of Dimitri’s thick coveralls rubbing against each other as he stood from his spot and shuffled into a corner. His back was turned to Russell and Gail. He was positioning himself in urination mode. Then the drawn-out sound of a zipper. It was an obvious gesture to get under Russell’s skin. The zipper was like nails on a chalkboard. Russell couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. Dimitri’s audacity surpassed his own.
Gail was still locked up in her own frustration and completely unaware of Dimitri’s actions. Russell was the only person noticing the situation.
“Hey, what the hell are you doing?” he shouted.
Dimitri didn’t look back, but the commotion was hard to ignore. Hanna looked up, took notice, looked back to Russell as his anger started to boil over. Not again with these guys.
“Hey!” Russell continued.
“What the hell does it look like I’m doing?” Dimitri replied.
Dimitri barely looked back to fire his response. He wanted to create a confrontation, and it was working.