He kept his Blackberry charged, even though the service had yet to be restored. He took that, the charger, all the kid’s passports and his wallet. He told the kids to take only one change of clothes. They were going to go and try to find their parents.
The kids were eager to go. They had been stir crazy sitting in a hotel with no TV and nothing to do for five days. Taylor and Monica missed their parents. Jeri was worried for her aunt and uncle and Sam, well Sam was just ready for a new adventure.
“We need to sneak out of here.” Colby told his charges. “They don’t want you to leave. I don’t know why that is, but they are not going to get you. I don’t know how we’ll find your parents, or what we’ll do even if we do, but we need to try. We can’t give up. So you need to be quiet. I’ve been watching. I don’t think they have as many guards as they want us to think. I’ve only seen the same men at the chow line and they switch up with others. I think we can get by, but I don’t know what other security they have outside the hotel and some sensor may catch us. So stay close and stay quiet and we’ll try to get away.”
All the kids nodded and Sam smiled deviously. They waited until the soldier came by for the bed check and then, when they heard the stairwell door close, all five jumped out of bed, picked up there things and followed Colby out the door.
There was a video camera by the elevator, but none by the stairwell. So when they heard the door open on the floor below them, they assumed the solider checking beds was at work on that floor so Colby took advantage of that timing. The kids followed him in near silence. He didn’t know they could be so quiet. Good to know.
When they got to the main floor, he stopped them and slowly opened the door to look around. They needed to run across the hallway to the exit. It didn’t look like it was armed. Colby decided the best way to do it was to run together. He told the kids to stay as quiet as they were coming down the stairs. Just when they were about to bolt Sam stopped them.
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“There’s three guards coming,” he whispered.
“How do you know that?” his father asked after retreating the herd the step back into the stairwell. Just then they heard military boots around the corner and he gently pulled the door shut silently. Peering between the crack, Colby saw three guards walk past their position. After they were gone, he re-asked his question in a whisper. “How did you know that?”
“I just saw it.” Sam shrugged. “We can go now.”
How does he know we can go? But instead of worrying about it then, Colby knew they had to move. “Alright then” and he gathered them up like a hen with her chicks and hurried them across the now open corridor. As soon as they were outside, the five stopped behind some nearby bushes.
“Now we’re going to need to make it past the guard at the entrance.” He said quietly. “Do you see him?”
“Uncle?”
“Yes Taylor?”
“If we go around to the other side, we’ll be able to get down to the freeway.”
“I know that’s the way we came, but this is the closest way out.”
“But there’s no guards there.”
“How do you know that?”
“I just know it. Like I know my name.”
