"What do you mean you haven't found anything? It's been almost two days now!"
"Peter, we've exhausted every lead we could," said Broyles. "We've interviewed everyone from the movie theater staff to everyone who worked security that day. No one can seem to really I.D. this guy."
"You're gonna have to try harder," said Peter. "Rachel's a mess. That's the last of her family gone missing."
"I know. Right now our best objective is to assume that Olivia may have been targeted. Very few would dare to kidnap a federal officer and a child unless there was a motive involve. It's not enough to warrant it a Fringe case at the moment, but I wouldn't rule it out yet."
Peter grumbled wonderful. With every hour that Olivia and Ella had been gone, Peter was getting more and more agitated. They had to be in serious trouble for them to be gone this long. He had been spending the whole day between comforting Rachel and working with the investigators. Rachel would not be heading back to Chicago until she knew of her daughter and her sister's fates.
He went home and started raiding his fridge in which he had stored a good amount of liquor that was getting him through the investigation.
"Have they found Agent Dunham yet?" Walter asked as he joined his son in the kitchen to make a sandwich.
"What do you think?"
Walter apologetically stayed quiet as Peter began to hopelessly down a bottle of tequila. "Broyles think it might be a Fringe related reason but there's nothing to prove it yet. I mean, if it was Fringe related I can understand them taking Olivia…but not Ella, she's just a kid. Why did they have to take both of them?"
Once Walter was done eating his sandwich he said to himself "that is an interesting thought." But Peter seemed to have ignored him as Walter was probably thinking about something other than the kidnapping (likely food). "Don't worry, Peter. I do believe Agent Dunham will be alright," he said. Something about this kidnapping compelled Walter…got the wheels in his head turning. So he then went upstairs to the attic. He rummaged through some old boxes until he found a particular one he didn't expect to find. It was a shoebox that had a label:
'Open in case something happens to Olive'.
He nearly had a heart attack. How in the world did Walter had this in his possession and not realize it was about Olivia?
He was nervous to open the box but when he did he found nothing but newspaper. He read up on old stock exchange prices and lottery numbers until he realized that he should've been reading the front page. 'Missing Children Found Dead in Florida Swamp Home. Serial Killer Could Be at Large.'
Walter then noticed the date of the newspaper: 1984. That was around the year he and William decided to put an end to the Cortexiphan experiments. "So that's why," said Walter. He couldn't remember what it was that forced himself and Belly to shut down the Cortexiphan testing projects all together but now he did remember: the children who were kidnapped and found dead were all Cortexiphan subjects.
"Oh dear," he said to himself. He was slowly starting to remember why the label was necessary. He couldn't be sure but Walter was certain it was to protect Olive. She was their most powerful subject and a potential target of the supposed killer. He remembered working with Belly to talk to several families into fleeing the state. Olive's had to have been one of them. And Walter now recalled having his memory altered in case someone tried to question him. No one could know that Olivia was one of their test subjects because it was possible whoever kidnapped and killed those children had to have been someone who knew about the Cortexiphan project.
Could this be the man who kidnapped her and Ella?
When daylight came once more, Olivia decided that she could no longer wait around for their fate. Olivia had to take initiative regardless of her condition. With Ella's help, she got a good feel of their close-knit surroundings. Her fingers could reach up the back wall where the crack was seeping sunlight into the room.
It was just as Olivia hoped. The cement layering was weak and crumbling due to being very old and being overexposed to nature. If she could break off some of the stone, it might be big enough for Ella to squeeze through. But Olivia did not yet wanted to burden Ella with the idea of escaping yet. For now, she focused on using what they had to break through the rocks. But all they had was plastic from the food containers they were given. Not strong enough for any kind of digging work.
But then her eyes turned to the sand bucket. The bucket was rusty enough, that she could break the wire handle off of it. She needed Ella to help her since she had one broken arm.
"I need you to hold while I pull okay Ella?" It was painful and strenuous but with enough pressure they were able to break the handle in half and then remove one half of the handle from the bucket.
Olivia used this to work one handed on breaking through the rocks while Ella supported her taking some breaks in between.
"Will this get us out, Aunt Liv?"
"I hope so," said Olivia.
"I hope we get done soon."
"Me too."
Olivia was making headway with digging through the cracks of the weak stone allowing more light in. But she had to give up when it got too dark to work and so the two of them finally rested for the night.
"This could take a long time," said Ella.
"It won't be long," Olivia assured her. The pain in her limbs continued to worsen.
As soon as light appeared, Olivia had some food and tried to urge Ella to do the same.
"I'm not hungry," she said. "I don't feel good."
"You'll feel better if you eat. But you have to do it now before this goes bad."
"Why?"
"Because," said Olivia. "I don't think we're going to get anymore food."
That concern was enough for Ella to eat before they returned to work. Ella was quite helpful but sore from helping her aunt. But after many exhausting hours, Olivia finally pulled out a large chunk of stone. She quickly pulled herself and Ella to the side allowing the stone to fall to the ground with a large thud. The other smaller stones, she was quickly able to clear out as its cement layering was now weak as dirt. A small hole now appeared in the cell. Olivia peaked through and could see dirt and grass not too far away. All she needed to do was dig with her hand.
Olivia was smiling for the first time as her face could feel the warmth of the sunlight that traveled through the hole and into the cell. "We did it, Ella."
"But Aunt Liv. That hole is too small."
"Not for you."
"What do you mean, Aunt Liv? You're coming with me, right?"
Olivia leaned down to rest herself on the floor. "Ella, you need be brave for me. Because I made that hole for you. I'm going to push you through it and then you're going run and not look back." Olivia wiped the tears from her face. "I can't come with you, Ella. You'll have to leave me behind."
Cry! Tuesday morning I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled out so I will try and write more tomorrow and get it posted on Tuesday before I leave cuz you may not get anymore after that for a while. Thanks for the insane amt of reviews.