Chapter Thirteen
A Walk In The Forest
Before the first streak of sunlight crossed the horizon, I climbed out of my cot and crept to my wall locker, which I’d left unlocked before turning in. I dressed as quietly as possible. With one of my rare insights, I wondered if the Countess planted a homing device in my boots—in all of our boots—to track us. I put my running shoes in my backpack to switch footwear later.
We were well into summer, I think; the Countess shrewdly blurred our sense of time. But I stuffed a jacket into the pack for night wear and slid my arms into the straps of my backpack. Creeping from our barracks-style quarters, I scurried toward the shed at the north end of Russleder. Because it faced towards one of Siberia’s many forests, the Countess paid scant attention to tha
