Our World Of Stars And Fireflies

Chapter 4- Escape

They walked down the hallway, keeping to the sides and being as quiet as possible. They needed to get to the back exit to be able to get away unseen by other soldiers. Their quick but stealthy movements had to be extremely precise and their pathway the same if they were to succeed. The greyish walls were cold against their backs. Sadie was dressed lightly in white clothes that had very quickly dirtied from the consistent going in and out of the cell. Not that the cell was very clean either. Self consciously Sadie noticed a knife in the belt of Thomas's army clothes. She decided if things went badly and Thomas decided to betray her then she wouldn't hesitate to use the knife against him. There was a pistol on the other side. She decided both were better than nothing. They continued walking.

Both of them came to a junction where two paths crossed. Thomas looked both ways and saw a medical trolley stood unused in front of him. Probably been abandoned by some sort of emergency earlier. If people outside were unruly then even doctors were forced to help with restraining them. Or just a lazy sod seeing nobody around and deciding to abandon it. Whatever had happened, it resulted in the abandoned trolley. He pushed Sadie forward and told her to go first, as no one was coming. He hadn't seen anyone coming so he walked casually forward into the open path.

"Thomas!" He froze. 

'Dammit!' was all he could think of. He had been caught right in the centre and had nowhere to go. Sadie looked at him wide eyed. He suddenly realised the danger they were both in. If Sadie was caught, especially with him, they would not be getting out of this. Everybody knew Sadie was a high profile prisoner. No prisoner was brought to this area, especially people like Sadie. Thomas turned around and saw Charlie jogging towards him. At least he wouldn't ask what he was doing. Charlie trusted Thomas enough that he wouldn't question him. Unless it was on the topic of why the highest security prisoner was with him.

"Hey Tom." Charlie smiled as he came up to him.

"Charlie. Hey." Thomas came away from the junction to try and block Charlie's view of Sadie, who was looking desperately around the barren hallway.

"You look like you haven't slept!" Charlie punched Thomas in the arm after examining his face. Thomas had not slept well. He couldn't stop thinking about what had happened. He was helping a fugitive escape. What if she betrayed him? What if she is lying to try and get out? All these thoughts had gone through his head. What made him trust her?

"It's cold at night but its also warm. You know the awkward season. And the scratchy blankets aren't helping." It was a good reason and some of this was true.

"If you'd just said Tom I would've given you mine." He grabbed Thomas's shoulder. "Where ya headed?"

"It doesn't matter. I'm just running around patrolling." He had never wanted to get away from Charlie before and it was an uncomfortable feeling. He didn't want to lie to Charlie. He felt guilty and like he was abandoning him. But if he told Charlie he didn't know what he would do.

"Thomas? What are you doing?" Charlie has always seen through him, seen there was something to tell. "Why do you look like you want to run for the hills?" The joking smile felt so patronising but Thomas felt as if he had just been caught.

"Nothing. I'm just patrolling." 

"Then you wouldn't mind me coming with you?" Thomas hated this, he hated lying.

"Charlie...I... got a lot of work- " He was cut off with a blaring on Charlie's radio. Charlie turned around to answer it.

"Smith. Come in Smith." Charlie looked irritated but answered

"Yessir?"

"We have a situation in Sector nine. We need your assistance." Charlie sighed.

"What is it?" Charlie had been a captain for a short time now, but longer than Thomas, meaning he had to deal with these sort of situations.