White Pines Sing

VI. Time

The program was full of strange stories, some improbable, some well beyond that. For Aubrey, the greatest stories were always somewhere between truth and reality. This one kept coming back to him. He heard it from Anders, who swore up and down to its truthfulness, although that didn't amount to much. Anders was prone to exaggeration, and you could safely assume seventy percent of everything he said was pure fiction. Still, with this particular story, Anders never backed down or altered the facts, and Aubrey remembered how upset he became one evening when J.T. challenged him on its basic premise.

"Nobody escapes the Pines while everyone else watches." he argued. "It just doesn't happen. No one gets away and lives an easy life in peace. If it happened, we'd have heard about it by now."

"How would you?" Anders shot back, "You don't know jackshit in this place unless somebody tells you. So how about you let me tell this story?" 

It all happened eight or nine years earlier, when his older brother Terry was an Upper. Back in those days, the camp was run by "a couple of dudes with actual guts and no moral compass." You think it's bad now, Anders told them, well my brother Terry and them had it a whole lot worse. The stricter staff wasn't the only unique element of Terry's stay at the program. According to Anders, the first winter after Terry arrived was a severe one, even for northern New Hampshire. In mid-December a massive storm rolled through and knocked out all the power in Fairfax County.

At the Pines, Terry was huddled up in the west-end barn with the rest of the Uppers on evening shift when the blizzard began. The crew inside the barn wasn't quite the Night Owls we know today, Anders explained, but you get the picture. Cole and J.T. rolled their eyes and sat back on their bunks, but Aubrey could tell that Anders had everyone's attention.

It was rough that night, even under the protection of the barn. The wind was howling like a wild thing, and by dark the snow was falling fast and fucking furious. Couldn't see two feet in any direction. They were all posted up with a couple of flashlights, and the radio static was so bad it forced them to crank the volume down low.

Anders paused here for effect, and said that only one of the Uppers saw the blizzard for what it truly was—an opportunity. This one guy had been stitching away for weeks on a leathercraft project during the daytime, you see. Earlier, he had distracted a staff member at the work table, and stuffed a pair of wire cutters down inside his boot. That's why, he explained, they took to calling the guy, "Leather".

"Brilliant." said Cole. "You took time to make up a name for this fucking guy."

J.T. cackled from his bunk below, but Aubrey could tell that Anders was dead serious.

"Just shut up and listen," he told them.

Terry and the others were in the barn late that night, with the wind howling and the flashlights growing dim. It was then, Anders said, that Leather realized all of the security measures at Gaines were of no use anymore. All the ancient security cameras and the busted up radios and the timid search teams – he realized it was all fucking useless. The blizzard provided a once in a lifetime shield from it all.

"If the Uppers are all on shift," J.T. interrupted, "and they're sitting in the barn with this guy, why aren't they all over his ass?"

"Yea it don't make sense", Cole said, "this dude would've gotten the shit kicked out of him. C'mon Andy, make this shit somewhat believable."

"You gonna let me finish?" Anders snapped, and then he jumped back into the story.

Holed up in the barn with the storm going full blast, Leather outlined his plan, and he was straight up with everyone. This was his one shot, Leather told them, and by God he was going to take it. Sure, letting a resident escape was a low-down cowardly act, but they were all too scared of the guy, Terry said later. Most were actually curious to see if Leather might actually pull it off. They all watched in awe as Leather stood up, slipped out of the barn, and disappeared into the blizzard.

He headed towards the Pines, Anders said, determined to cut his way through to freedom or die trying. Inside the barn, they simply waited in the dark, listening to the silence and the swirling storm and the static on the radio, and they wondered if he could really make it.

Leather knew one thing for certain, he knew had the advantage because the snow and wind would cover his tracks. He reached the chain fence that used to guard the camp's perimeter, and from his boot he pulled the pair of wire cutters he'd swiped earlier and he cut his way through. Just like that he was out of the camp and made his way into the forest. Pretty soon he found himself on the bank of a frozen river. He was wearing only the standard program clothes and had no supplies, but his boots had decent tread, and so he took his chances and started walking. He followed it for hours, eventually making his way to the highway, and that's where he got lucky, Anders said. He happened upon an old white van, and inside were three high schoolers hiding from their parents and smoking weed. They felt sorry for him when he recounted his story, and offered him a warm place to stay for the night.

Over the course of the evening, they plied him with hot chocolate and warm clothes and soon he was waking up on a plush bed in a wealthy home. There was a big-screen TV and a fridge full of food and a window that looked out on a snowy forest. He stayed there for weeks, exploring the house and enjoying the company of his hosts. Later, they helped him find a place of his own, and he settled down while working for a logging company in the White Mountains. As for Terry and the others, Anders said, they were let off the hook without even being shot-down. The staff was so embarrassed, he said, that they bought the group's secrecy with a series of promotions and early releases from Gaines. When Terry finally left the camp, Leather looked him up to let him know what happened.

"He told my brother that he may come back one day, if the winter gets rough enough," Anders said, "so he can break others out."

"That's it?" J.T. said, "He just gets away? He's living in luxury somewhere as we speak?"

"What the hell is your problem?"

"My problem is you, Jackass, telling this bullshit story without even trying to make it sound realistic or satisfying."

Cole agreed with J.T.

"What you should've talked about," he said, "is how the guy still lives out in the Pines, eating off the land. Or how Hatch hunted him down in the forest and then carved him up to serve for the residents. Give me something wild. Give me something real. Because nobody escapes this place, that's just fantasy bullshit."

"The escape?" Anders asked, incredulous. "That's the part you can't believe? What about the van? What about the mansion this guy's living in, and the logging job and the happily ever after? What about the part where he's coming back?"

"I'd believe all of that," J.T. said, "before I'd believe somebody could walk out of this place."