The Wilds

by Donna Augustine

  I heard one of the guards move and the door swung open. The hall was unlit as well. From the intensity of the darkness, the whole place might have gone out.

  “The generators died. That asshole Paul probably didn’t fuel them,” Mark said.

  “Go check it out. I’ll stay here, since we aren’t supposed to leave any of the inmates alone out of their cells in a lights-out situation,” Bruce suggested, and I prayed I’d get another opportunity alone with him.

  “We aren’t under attack. It’s Paul.”

  “Then you go.”

  “No, you go,” the other guard yelled as they argued in the dark.

  I heard noises in the far distance as the situation was probably causing alarm. Footsteps echoed down the hall beyond our area as others went to go investigate the outage.

  My two guards were currently arguing. I’d gotten the sense there wasn’t much respect there, and the discussion quickly digressed into insults.

  I didn’t care what they were saying. They couldn’t see me and they were distracted. If I could get out of this chair, I might be able to get to the window and out of here before they stopped arguing.

  I yanked at my hand, willing to sacrifice some layers of skin or break my thumb if needed. Last time I checked, thumbs weren’t necessary to run.

  They were still arguing when a slight breeze trickled over my skin and fresh air wafted by my nose. That window hadn’t been open when I’d first gotten here. Maybe they opened it while I was knocked out, but I would’ve noticed a breeze before now.

  It was a new moon so there wasn’t a drop of light to see even if I could turn around, but I took a deep breath. That was definitely fresh air. Was the place under attack? Had someone cut the power to the generator? I wanted to hop up and down in the chair.

  This wasn’t necessarily anything good for me, but anything bad for them had potential. The guards were still arguing and had decided to move on to rehashing every wrong the other ever committed, if the “you stole my soda a month ago” was any indication. Did neither of them realize the window was open and we were probably no longer alone?

  I yanked harder on my right hand, the one that had more give in the strap. There was another strap around my chest, holding my back firm to the chair and stopping me from using my teeth on the buckle. I had to get my wrists out. I’d been tensing my arms when they buckled me in to give me some leverage and room, but I needed more. If I could get one free, I could unbuckle myself.

  I froze as I felt the draft of something, or more likely someone, moving past me. Then I went back to my struggles. This was my opportunity and I wasn’t going to lose it. Whoever was busting in here could go about their business while I went about mine.

  I yanked at my hand violently, more than willing to rip it from my wrist if that was the cost of freedom, when there were shuffling noises in front of me, approximately where I’d heard the guards standing. There was a grunt and then the sound of someone falling before another body sounded like it hit the floor.

  This couldn’t have been going better for me. Who knew how much time the stranger had just bought me by taking out my guards? I briefly contemplated asking for some help before the intruder disappeared off to their target, but didn’t have to make that choice. Fingers were at the straps of my chair before I could contemplate what was happening. I started to struggle violently, expecting some of what the guards had gotten.

  “Stop,” a male voice said. “If you dislocate something it’s going to be harder to get you out of here.”

  I immediately knew the husky male voice. “You?” The fake government worker was breaking me out? I knew something had been wrong with him. “What the—”

  “Not now,” he said. “Let’s get out of here first.”

  That last sentence stopped the flow of questions about to gush out of me. It didn’t matter. I’d take whatever help I could getting out of here and worry about the source later. If he was worried about me dislocating something then he certainly wasn’t planning to kill me. Good enough in my book!

  I went perfectly still as he worked the straps at my wrists. As soon as they were free, I undid the one around my chest. I yanked off the electrical leads in a quick swipe as he undid my ankles. It didn’t matter to me who he was or why he was here. I was getting out! That was all I cared about. I could die a foot from that cement wall and I’d still not regret it.

  Chapter 5

  The second I was free, I bolted toward the window. There was no hesitation. I didn’t bother asking him who he was or why he was here. I didn’t care anymore. I had a single preoccupation. This was my chance to escape.

  My fingers gripped the waist-high sill, getting ready to launch myself onto it when his hands came to my waist and gave me a boost. I was startled by the touch.

  People avoided touching me. He’d helped me out of the chair but with the straps it had been unavoidable. Now he was touching me again when he didn’t have to. I would’ve made it through the window, albeit a bit slower, on my own. I didn’t bother asking him about that either.

  It was a fleeting thought as I saw nothing but fields of grass and forest in the distance. I leapt from the window and my knees groaned as I landed on the dirt six feet below. I looked to my left and saw the huge wall. It was just as ugly from this side. This was the first time I’d been on the outside of the cement giant in fourteen years, and the adrenaline ripped through my system like I was tapped into a geyser.

  The lights that normally glowed from the top were out. He, whoever he was, had definitely cut the electricity to the entire compound. He must have gotten to the main generators but I’d been under the impression they were well guarded.

  I scanned what I could see of the place, trying to get my bearings, from the outside looking in for once. Margo, I’d try and get her first, but how? The windows were too small in the cells. I eyed the window I’d just come out of, still wide open. If I went back in, would I get back out?

  I hesitated for a moment, thinking of the people I was leaving behind: my friends and the young girl who had just come to this place. It was a stupid choice but I took a few steps back toward the building before I was jerked to a halt.

  “I have to get my friends,” I said, trying to jerk my arm loose.

  “You won’t get anybody. You’ll be dead and I didn’t do this to walk away with nothing,” he said, his grip still firm.

  I had no idea who this man was. Pretty sure his name wasn’t Samuel, and I’d bet everything he didn’t work for the government. But he was right. I’d already had a plan; I’d had one for years and it would take some work but it was my only shot at helping them.

  I nodded, agreeing but not having the heart to say out loud I was leaving them behind, even if only for a short while.

  “Put this on,” he said, releasing me and handing me a dark sweatshirt.

  I turned to see he was dressed all in black as I took the sweatshirt from him. It was three times my size but I gratefully threw it on over my white clothes and then pulled the hoody up over my bright hair.

  The second it was on, he grabbed my hand and started tugging me after him. We were making a mad dash for the tree line I hadn’t seen in years, not since my parents had brought me here. The guilt was staggering as I took my first step away, but the feeling of the freedom I’d been craving was overwhelming.

  I was running through a field of grass and then surrounded by trees as we entered the forest. Leaves and branches whipped at my skin, leaving trails of early evening dew across my skin along with some welts, and I’d never felt anything so wonderful. My lungs couldn’t get enough of the smell of wet bark or the feeling of my feet hitting something other than cement. A few deer were startled by our approach and darted across our path as we ran, and I had to force myself to concentrate on not getting distracted.

  A couple hundred feet in and I slipped and fell. My cloth moccasins were predictably not conducive to running, just as they’d been designed. Flat on my back and I wanted to laugh for
no other reason than the wonderful feeling of looking up at the tree canopy from where I’d fallen.

  He stopped instantly and was assessing me while I was already getting to the business of ripping my shoes off.

  “Your feet?”

  “Will heal if we get the hell out of here. Dead doesn’t get better,” I said, knowing I would’ve run on a broken ankle if needed. He nodded an approval I didn’t need or care about.

  He leaned down and grabbed my hand, yanking me upward faster than I would’ve moved. I didn’t mind. We weren’t home free yet and the sirens started blaring in the distance, punctuating that fact. The compound must have gotten their generators back on and also discovered my disappearance. That was the sound of a full alert, all bodies on deck, there’s an escaped prisoner. I’d only heard it a handful of times since I’d been there.

  “They’re going to send out dogs,” I said, but I wasn’t sure if he was listening to me as we raced through the forest.

  I remembered the last girl who had managed to escape, or sort of. She hadn’t gotten far, maybe not even out of these same woods. They’d loosed the dogs. The next morning they’d found pieces of her, which they’d carried back and placed in the courtyard. We’d had an afternoon viewing, stuck out with what was left of her in the yard underneath the hot sun. Even if you managed not to look, you couldn’t escape the smell of rotting flesh. There wasn’t a single girl who didn’t know what happened if you ran. I’d never faulted Patty, Margo or Cindy for their fear.

  I was built differently, or maybe the Bloody Death really had made me insane, because I remembered that afternoon vividly and how I’d thought she’d been the lucky one. She’d died outside the compound. She’d died trying, not withering away until she was a mere shell of flesh, no better than a zombie.

  Still, my legs pumped a little harder. I might have more balls than my friends but I still didn’t want my story to end as dog food.

  “Only a little farther,” he said as we ran hand in hand, an instant connection formed with a complete stranger from being in such an intense situation together.

  I ran without asking how much was a little bit farther was. Whoever Samuel was, he had some sort of plan and I had none. Plus my lungs weren’t quite up for the double duty of keeping my legs moving and speaking at the same time, lungs that were already tiring from their lack of use. I hadn’t run like this in, hmmm, maybe ever?

  Exercise of any sort had been strongly discouraged in the most unpleasant of ways. A first offense usually warranted a few meals missed. Subsequent offenses were dealt with in more harsh terms, sometimes broken bones. They’d broken Larissa’s leg after she’d been found doing jumping jacks in her room more than once. It had healed wrong afterward, which hadn’t been a surprise. They hadn’t put a cast on it or set it properly. They’d wanted to cripple her.

  I tried not to think of Larissa after she disappeared, but I’d never tried to exercise again. I couldn’t if I wanted to be able to escape. It was another piece of life that they’d stolen from us, but I’d decided it was more like I’d put it on a shelf, on hold for the day I needed to be whole. For this day. This was the moment I’d been saving.

  I pushed past the burn in my chest as I took great gulping breaths but the weakness in my legs was growing. No matter how I pushed for them to keep pace, no matter how I willed my mind to overcome my physical limitations, I couldn’t make them move quicker. It wasn’t the pain that started slowing me down. I could take pain, ten times the amount my legs were dishing out, but I couldn’t force them to move.

  His grip on my hand helped pull me forward to compensate but he couldn’t make up for the clumsiness that was coming along with the muscle fatigue. When I tripped, his hand on mine kept me from falling. Then he was pulling my arm upward and giving me his back. “Get on,” he said.

  “We’ll never make it. You can’t carry me.”

  “I know what I can do. Get on my back.”

  Any resistance was driven away by the sounds of dogs barking in the distance. I jumped on his back and wrapped my arms around his neck, my ankles locked at his waist.

  He took off the second I was on. I wondered what he ate to fuel him, since it felt like we were moving even quicker than when I’d been running alongside him. I chalked that up to the strange sensation of riding another human being.

  I heard the pack barking in the distance but I couldn’t tell if they were getting closer or my adrenaline was making me think they were. I wasn’t going to die here. I refused to die here. I’d once thought that I wanted to die a free woman. Now that I had freedom in my grasp, I wanted a chance to live, goddamn it!

  He stopped suddenly and I thought it was fatigue as he shrugged me off him and onto the ground. My feet had barely touched dirt when he moved away and I was left swaying, more exhausted than him even though he’d been carrying me the last few minutes. Before I could ask what he was about, he was pulling branches off a metal contraption with two wheels. It was a bike, but a type I’d never seen.

  He climbed on top of it, putting a leg on either side, and then held out his hand to me. “Get on. This is quicker,” he said, although it did nothing but sit there.

  When I didn’t move, he reached forward and dragged me behind him. “Hold on tight.”

  He kicked the thing and it seemed to roar in anger at the affront. I’d read about these things in Moobie’s adventures. It was either a motorcycle or dirt bike. I’d never seen either so I couldn’t say which one.

  I was sure we were dead. There was no way they hadn’t heard that great noise, but then we took off at such a pace I had to cling to him to keep from falling. The trees started whipping by at an alarming rate as he steered it onto the dirt road that led away from the compound.

  We were going so fast now that there was no way the dogs would catch us. I threw my head back and let delirious laughter bubble out.

  “Why are you laughing?” he asked, forced to yell over the noise the bike was making.

  “Because I’m free!” I yelled into the air as loud as I could as my hair whipped about my head.

  Chapter 6

  We traveled on the main road for a while but had veered back off into the forest several hours in, or at least that was how long I’d thought it had been. I had no real way of telling time without the moon in the sky to judge. The bike had a light that shone in front of us that he used to navigate the forest.

  He’d steered his loud bike off onto a pathway of sorts, which hadn’t been visible from the road but he’d obviously known was there. It made me wonder how many times he’d taken this route, and what for?

  I didn’t complain or even question where we were going. I didn’t know what this man wanted or if I liked him, but I did like our current direction. Of course, I wasn’t too picky about where we were going as long as it was far enough away from the compound that I wouldn’t get caught while I organized a rescue for my friends.

  The farther we traveled, the better my chances were of them not finding me, and I was ready to gamble on whoever was willing to help. I’d been ready for a while to take any chance provided, and this man, whoever he was, seemed to know his way around.

  The machine we rode on slowed down and we came to a complete stop in an especially thick part of the forest. I climbed off, slightly stiff from running earlier, and started to make my way to a group of shrubs in the distance, any conversation having to wait until nature was taken care of. I’d been holding it forever and my bladder had been quite put out that I wouldn’t take a bathroom break during my big getaway.

  I heard him climbing off as well before he spoke. “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “It’s been hours,” I replied, hoping he’d take the hint. He didn’t say anything else as I darted behind some shrubbery to take care of my business.

  Shielded behind the bushes, I realized I had my first big decision to make. Did I take off now and go solo or did I go back to where he was and use him to get a little farther from the compound before I
branched off on my own? I’d never be able to travel as quickly as he could. If I did break off on my own now and they sent people after me, they’d overtake what little distance we’d gained easily if I was on foot and they were on horses. If they took one of the trucks I’d heard they had, it might be even worse.

  I didn’t know where we were headed but I knew what awaited me back there. Sometimes the devil you know is just that—some asshole to steer clear of.

  I stood and straightened out the bottom of my now dirt-streaked white dress that hung below the dark shirt he’d given me, and headed back toward the unknown. I’d go with him willingly but a couple of questions weren’t out of order.

  “Sam” was waiting by the bike when I got back. We looked at each other in the dark. I still couldn’t get a read off him, not even a hint. It would’ve been so much easier if I could’ve. Of all people to have to get stonewalled by, why did he have to be the one with a cement wall almost as big and thick as the compound’s? The one person I really needed to get a handle on and I was drawing a blank. I let out an aggravated sigh when I realized the only thing left was talking. Talk wasn’t my strong point, and cajoling information ranked even lower. I’d never had to do it before and the compound wasn’t known for polishing up your social skills. Not to mention, I didn’t want to talk. I wanted to just know shit like I always did.

  I committed myself to having to speak to him and let out a string of curses—that kind of talk I was adequate at.

  I stopped, close enough to not be awkward but far enough that I’d have a slight lead—I hoped—if I decided to make a last-minute run for it. “Who are you? It’s quite obvious at this point you aren’t really a government inspector, or not one that isn’t planning on reporting back to work anytime soon if this is any example of your work ethic.”

  “No. I’m not a government worker.” He shook his head once but didn’t offer up any details. Way to inspire confidence there, buddy. If it was possible, this guy’s social graces might be worse than mine. I never thought I’d see the day.