Freegans part 10

Matt
We watched as Lucy was taken away. I gripped the bars of the cage so hard that it hurt, as if that could somehow bring our friend back. When it was dark again, Madiza relit the candle. I hadn't even realized that it had gone out until she held a match to it again. I turned to her and Ben.
"What are they going to do to her?" I asked.
"They told you, silly. They'll question her, and question her, and question her, until she spills the nectarines!" Madiza said.

I assumed she meant beans, but decided not to try and pursue the case.
"What if she doesn't talk?"
"Then that would be real bad. She may make them angry. You wouldn't like them when they're angry." That didn't sound good to me.
"What will they do?"
"They'll take her soul, so she'll never get to heaven. They nearly did that to me. They took my mind, but I was too clever for them, oh yes. They never got my soul. No, they didn't at all. Hee hee hee hee!"

I turned to give Cara a look. To my surprise, she wasn't there! For a moment I thought that she had somehow managed to escape. Then I realized that she was down by my feet, clutching at the bars of the cage, with her back to me. I noticed that her shoulders were shaking. Madiza had retreated back into her corner, and was singing a song to herself, with musical backup from her chains, and Ben was doing what looked like meditating.

I crouched down by Cara's side. "Hey, you okay?" I asked. Then I noticed that she was crying. Tears were pouring down her face, and running in two rivers. She was just barely suppressing loud sobs. When I asked the question, she couldn't help letting one sob loose. Gently I pried her hands from the bars, and turned her to face me.
"Hey, what is it?" I asked in a soft voice. Cara lifted a hand to wipe her eyes, then choked out, "I'm scared, Matt. I don't know how we're going to get out of here, or what they're doing to Lucy, or even if we're going to get out of here, or anything. I don't know what to do, and that scares me. I want to go home!"

With that she started crying again. She tried to stop the tears, and failed. I pulled her forward, and allowed her to cry into my shoulder. "It's all right," I whispered. "It's all right." We sat like that for a really long time, me holding Cara, and her crying. At one point she sat up and wiped her face, murmuring, "I must seem terrible to you right now."
"No. You're just fine," I said. Then Cara got more tears, and we went back to square one. Eventually she fell asleep like that, curled into my side like a little cat. I sat up for a while, watching our fellow inmates, before I fell asleep too, leaning my head on Cara's. Despite the circumstances, I felt pretty good.