Fates Must Be Kidding

Fleeing towards new life

When I caught up with everyone else they had already picked up the hidden ammunition. However deep inside we were hoping we wouldn't have to use it. Staying hidden in the crowd rushing outside we kept a watchful eye on the guards. Most of them were trying to prevent hundreds of kids from entering the woods. Fortunately, most of our comrades recognized this as an opportunity to get out of this hellhole, and their training kicked in. They split up into smaller groups and headed out in different directions, too many for the guards to cover. That's when the alarm went off and we heard the first shots. I guess they were adamant about keeping us all here, dead or alive. That only made us move faster, jumping over tree trunks and boulders, weaving among trees, all while staying alert.

The day was still young, about 10 am, but the deeper we got into the woods the darker it became. Fortunately, we knew the area really well, all those survival tests we had to go through came in handy. I have no idea how long we had been running, but I knew that the fence surrounding the perimeter should be nearby. Suddenly I got a really bad feeling, like a black hole opened up inside me sucking everything in. Call it an intuition, premonition, gut feeling, it doesn't really matter, it has never let me down before. So I signaled everyone to stop and take cover. About twenty others who were staying with us kept going, and that's when we heard it, the sound of engines straight ahead. And that was really-really-really bad. Five snowmobiles stopped right next to the fence and ten guards took aim at the kids headed in their direction.  

I knew two things for sure, we couldn't let them die, and we couldn't back down. Looking around I saw that  my gang was waiting for my signal, so I pointed towards tree crowns. It was wintertime, thus they couldn't provide much cover, but that's not what I was looking for. I needed a safer way to get to the guards and hopefully catch them off guard. We started jumping from one tree to another, doing our best to make as little noise as possible. Quite soon that concern went out of the window so to speak - all we could hear were shots and painful cries. Ricky, Sam and I were the first ones to leap from our trees and land right on two nearest snowmobiles. Teddy and Knox took one more, while Rose stayed up and took out three guards with her knives.

Quickly evaluating the situation, I saw that seven guards were down, and three others were being overpowered by kids who followed our lead. It was now or never, I pointed at the fence giving the rest a silent command, they got what I meant right away. Just as I was about to launch myself in the air more guards showed up and opened fire. Fortunately, Rose, Knox, Teddy and Ricky were already on the other side, so I told them to keep running. I took cover behind a snowmobile, and Sam dove behind one as well, a bit further from the fence. As I sneaked a glance at the newly arrived guards, I noticed a group of boys quietly approaching them from behind. 

To help them out a bit, I waved my hands in the air and yelled to the guards, "Hey guys, any chance of you pretending not to see us and letting us go?" I heard a couple of laughs and then, quite predictably, they opened fire in my direction. One bullet grazed my arm, but I wasn't too worried about it. It turns out I should have been, since right after I let out a tiny yelp, Sam jumped out of his cover and ran towards the armed men. That was so not like him, he was usually a lot more level-headed and reasonable! 

"Bloody i***t, I am so kicking your stupid ass for this!" was all I thought to myself before I emerged from my cover. Sam was already on top of one guard, and the others were trying to fight off two groups of runaways among which I noticed my gray-eyed opponent from the Challenge. He looked my way and mouthed "Go!" I was torn between wanting to help and listening to him. That's when Sam ran up to me and pushed me towards the fence with the words "Get out of here, I'm right behind you!" I listened, and I will regret my decision for the rest of my life. 

As I jumped in the air, the sounds of fighting were drowned out by more snowmobiles approaching and shots fired from different directions. I took a step back to the fence, and yelled to Sam to hurry up. But he shook his head and said, "Go, I'll keep them occupied! Stick to the plan!" So I ran, turning back just once to a picture that still haunts me in my sleep - my big brother falling to the ground after being shot twice in his chest. I froze to my spot with my mind running a million miles a minute. I need to go back, I need to get him, Rose can fix everything, I will kill all of them! I couldn't even see what was happening anymore, everything blurred by burning hot tears.

That's when a pair of strong arms reached for me and dragged me into the woods. "Come on Em, we have to keep moving!", Ricky's voice reached my ears, but I didn't react. We couldn't leave! No man left behind, this is our most important rule! "Snap out of it Em, you have a family to take care of!" He was absolutely right, I failed Sam, but I couldn't let the others down as well. So I followed Ricky to our rendezvous point, hoping that Rose, Knox and Teddy made it there safely, and that they would forgive me.

It was already dark when we reached a gas station at the outskirts of a town not far from the Facility. We knew about it from the maps we studied in class. It being not the nearest one made us think we would be relatively safe meeting there. As soon as we approached, the other three came out of hiding. Rose opened her mouth clearly about to ask about Sam, but one look on our faces was enough of an answer for her.

"We need a car", was all I could get myself to say. Teddy nodded and led us to an unguarded parking lot a couple of blocks away. We kept watch while he disabled the cameras, and then Knox broke into and hot-wired an older looking Range Rover. With everyone settled in, Ricky drove us away from the gray misery of our lives. We drove through the night trying to put as much distance between us and the place that was our home for way too long as we could. We headed south, selecting smaller roads to avoid cameras, it would be naive to think that they would let us go just like that! And that's exactly why we couldn't stay together.

"Stick to the plan" were the last words Sam said to me. I knew I had to do it, to let them go in order to keep them safe. But it was incredibly hard for me, even though it was me who came up with that damn idea. I wouldn't know where they were, whether they needed my help... The feeling of dread and helplessness was slowly taking over, and to make the matters worse, I still owed them an explanation. So I took a deep breath, put my big-girl pants on and let it all out. With all the crying, hugging and even more crying we didn't even notice how we approached our first stop, a small town in Wyoming. That was the girls' stop. According to the story we came up with, Rose and Knox were orphaned sisters who ran away from an abusive foster family. Next we dropped off Teddy in Salt Lake City, I thought he would be safer in a bigger city where he could put his tech skills to good use. So it was just Ricky and I left. We said good bye in Las Vegas, where he would join the underground fighting scene. I wasn't too happy about it, but he had to make a living somehow. 

We got rid of the car in a Nevada desert, in case it was spotted in the robberies we had carried out. Let's set the record straight, I wasn't proud of it, but we did need food, gas, some clothes and cash, we didn't take more than we needed. So I had to hitchhike to my destination - Arizona. My plan was to find a pack that would take me in for a while, until it was safe to reemerge again. Our ultimate plan was to stay low for three years, and then gradually get back together. The meeting places were selected beforehand, since we would have absolutely no way of contacting each other, just in case one of us was found and watched. You might think that we went to extreme lengths to avoid being located. Maybe you are right, but we had to fight hard for our freedom, so putting an extra effort into defending it just made sense to us.

And that is how I ended up in my current predicament, surrounded by four bulky guys in baseball shorts, clearly unhappy I dared to cross their pack border and request a meeting with their Alpha.