Checkmate

Breakthrough

I dragged the unconscious Guard into the shadows and then peered cautiously into the room from the doorway. The chamber was empty, just some furniture and a ring of keys hung up by the door at the far end. I slipped inside, moving towards that door, listening hard as I quietly unhooked the ring of keys. Just the deep breathing of sleep. I could count five different scents within. 

One of which was Jax.

I'd known I had to breach the prison the minute I'd come into range. His scent was strong. And that had other implications. 

First, he was alive.

That had not been a given. The relief that had coursed through me when I'd scented him had been immense. Somehow, he'd kept himself alive.

However, hot on that was the second implication - he was in the prison, so evidently he had been caught and probably recently, or else they'd have executed him already. I had to act quickly - who knew how long it would be before they decided to remedy that situation. 

Finally, if I could smell him, he was without a scent suppressor. He might have run out or he might have decided it was too risky to remain scentless, as that was a dead giveaway. Either way, it meant that they had his scent - and would be able to track him now. 

It complicated things a little, but then I'd known it was going to be a tricky extraction anyway. I had no idea of the internal layout of the prison, no idea what sort of Guard presence there was inside and no idea what kind of shape Jax was in. I had to get past the Guard, find Jax, get us both out of there, over the wall and to the border before anyone cottoned onto the fact that he was gone. 

But I'd been in similar situations before and I'd had a plan in place within the first hour of observing the prison. 

Which is how I'd ended up where I was, inside, with the duty Guard out for the count outside, and his two colleagues equally incapacitated and carefully hidden in a small nook in the nearest dwelling opposite the prison, where I'd lured them. All three Guard were tied up securely and drugged, so they weren't about to inconveniently reappear any time soon. It made sense that security was this minimal - their manpower was probably concentrated at the borders and settlement walls, and you'd have to get through those two layers of security first. With tensions the way they were, very few would risk it. 

As I went through the door, I saw a long corridor, dimly lit by a single flame half way down that nevertheless threw sufficient light for me to see. Jax's scent was coming from the cell at the end.

He was on the floor in a corner, leaning against the wall, his tunic half open and blood stained, several deep lacerations across his chest, bruises all over his arms and face, his cheek swollen. He looked exhausted, thinner than he'd been and paler.

I lost no time, trying the keys on the ring until one clicked, opening the door and going in to kneel by his side. He hadn't stirred upon my entry, and when I looked closely, I realised that he wasn't asleep, he was unconscious. 

I did a quick once over, lifting his tunic to look at the lacerations, noting the dark bruises across his torso, before checking his legs. It looked like he might have some broken ribs, but his legs seemed ok, albeit lacking in muscle mass and as bruised as the rest of him. He'd be able to stand up, but probably not run. 

I stripped him of his tunic and bottoms, dressing him with the clothes I'd taken from one of the Guard, to help muddle his scent. I pulled him up onto his feet, all the time keeping a sharp ear out for any activity. So far, nothing, but there was no time to be wasted, we had to move fast. This set of Guard had come on duty just before I'd made my move, so we probably had a good few hours till the next shift came and discovered them. I wanted to make good use of that time and get us as close to the border as I could.