Chapter 27 - The Journal of Seven
Back in Room 307, Samuel carefully locked the hospital room door.
Harold struggled to sit higher against his pillows.
"You said they found the journal."
Samuel nodded.
"But not all of it."
He removed a leather notebook wrapped inside waterproof cloth.
The cover was badly burned.
Nearly half its pages were missing.
Lily looked at the faded handwriting.
"The Journal of Seven."
Harold gently ran his fingers across the cover.
"We each wrote one chapter."
Samuel smiled sadly.
"And you insisted on writing the last."
Harold laughed quietly.
"I was always stubborn."
Samuel opened the journal.
Inside were handwritten entries from seven different men.
Each page described another rescued child.
Another hidden tunnel.
Another narrow escape.
Emily's handwriting was absent.
Margaret's was absent.
Only soldiers.
Harold pointed toward one page.
"Read that."
Samuel cleared his throat.
"Day Forty-One.
Richard refused to leave Tunnel Three.
We believed he had found another survivor.
Instead...
He led us to an underground classroom containing nineteen children.
They had survived by sharing rainwater collected from broken pipes."
Lily looked horrified.
"Nineteen..."
Samuel turned another page.
"The children trusted only Richard.
Whenever soldiers entered without him, they hid."
Harold closed his eyes.
"He saved more lives than any of us."
The next page had been torn away.
Then another.
Then another.
Only fragments remained.
"...experiments..."
"...memory tests..."
"...Doctor H..."
"...transport list..."
Lily frowned.
"Someone removed these."
Samuel nodded.
"Recently."
Harold's breathing suddenly became uneven.
"That means..."
"They're searching for the same thing we are."
"The final chapter."
Samuel quietly closed the journal.
"We still don't know where you hid it."
Harold looked toward the window.
Outside, rain had begun falling again.
"I never hid it."
Samuel blinked.
"What?"
Harold smiled faintly.
May you like
"I mailed it."
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