Escape

Chapter One

The wind whips through my hair as I run, the grass wrapping itself around my legs as I sprint away trying to save my life. The sound of the dogs getting closer by the second and the almost inevitable clamp of their jaws around my face and legs is the only thing keeping me alive and running. My energy levels had seeped to an end hours ago and I haven't had a drink for over 24 hours let alone a meal.

As the lake that surrounded the prison comes into view my shot at freedom grows fractionally larger, only a few more hundred meters on these tired legs and then I'll be away from the dogs forever! Then freedom is only a few strokes away and then into a new life away from this hell hole that I have called a life for 23 years. There is nothing that will stop me from reaching that lake now, the distance is rapidly decreasing as I feel myself gain speed I have never experienced before and the power of my legs was immense, I am flying towards the lake ready to jump in and take the cold as it engulfs my entire body.

A final look back at The Sanctuary and the ground disappeared from beneath my feet, I have made it! I am at the lake! I feel the cold take over my body, the water chilling me to my bones but it's the nicest feeling I have ever experienced, it's the feeling of freedom and a new world for me.

The sound of the dog's whines as they realised that they had missed out on a meal keeps me warm inside and motivated me more to keep swimming across the lake as I realise how close I'd come to being dinner for the hounds. Yet I am alive and making good headway despite my energy levels being well and truly lacking for what I needed to make the swim to land on the opposite bank. The strokes I make in the water are far from what I need to make any ground by sundown and before the lake became unbearable to swim in and my body will surely go into hypothermia. The thought of this intolerable cold and pain coursing through my body saves me from going insane in the water and giving up to the fight against the current and the moral destroying swim to freedom.

The swim is the most brutal thing my body has ever had to withstand. It went on for hours, the temperature constantly decreasing at an alarming rate, I was sure that my limbs were soon to seize up on me and I would be left floating down river on with nothing I could do to stop myself from being caught by the gates that lay in the lake to catch swimmers that aren't strong enough to make the swim to land.

The swim takes me a good few hours to cross the lake but I have managed it! Now freedom is in my grasp and is just at the top of the hill. I hobble to the base of the hill on my crippled limbs and start to haul myself up the face "One, two, three, up. One, two, three, up". As I climb I murmur these words to myself to remind me of the fact that I am still being chased and searched for by the men from The Sanctuary even if I have got away from the hounds now they will be searching the perimeter for me in the morning without a doubt. The hill is far easier than I thought it would be on my weary bones and body but obviously thankful for the ease of the hill my mind switches onto the fact that I desperately need water at least and, if I can, food.

The descent of the hill starts off well, it is far steeper this side to stop people from trying to break in to The Sanctuary to give the inmates or as we are known to the outsiders "the wasted", not that anyone would want to try to break in and face the consequences if they are captured. Carefully I make my way down the sheer face of the hill, checking my footing before even moving one inch, then placing a foot on the lower shelf of rock. The descent is going well until I hit "the protector ledge". The protector ledge is what the heads of The Sanctuary put in place just as an afterthought to hope to stop us from escaping or anyone getting in. The only problem with afterthoughts is that they are nowhere near as good as the original plan and never seem to fit in well or work well. This afterthought is a prime example, all I have to do to get over it is to drop into a crouch and grab the ledge firmly in my hands, then slowly lower myself over the edge to the platform below. As easy as this sounds, it is quite a lot harder when you are tired from several miles of running and swimming. I make my way into a crouched position and start to lower myself over the edge, but where is the lower ledge I am aiming for?! I crouch as low as my right leg will allow reaching out with my left foot in hope that it will make contact with the ledge but nothing hits into my foot. I have to lower my entire body over the edge to get enough stretch onto the ledge below. Oh well, here goes nothing. The water and sweat drips down my back and runs off my fingers onto the rock-face that my life depends on for me to hold onto. The friction is reducing by the second and I feel my body declining as the seconds pass. Surely I will land on the ledge now if I let go won't I? Then the fatigue hits me, I have been pushing my body past its limit for hours now and hanging here for a good ten minutes. After a few moments struggle all hope of lowering myself down onto the ledge is lost, I have to drop myself or slip sometime soon and have even less chance of making the landing.

As my fingers slide off the wet rock I look down as the protector ledge zooms past my face, smashing into my chin as I go past, the lower ledge must be inches away from my feet as they bounce off the rocks rough surface. My right calf catches onto an outcrop and I hear a deafening snap as my leg sends shots of pain coursing up through my body. Oh great! Now my leg is broken and I have no idea of how to slow myself down or if there even is the lower ledge that I was aiming for with my feet. Surely any landing will push the broken bone through my skin and leave it open to infection. All I have left in me is hope, hope that I will land onto my left leg safely at another larger outcropping. My head and body are rattled and smashed about against the rock on the decline as I search for any form of ledge to grab onto or slow myself down on, of to the right look promising with lots of wide ledges but how am I to get there. I reach out and my fingers are shredded against the dagger like rock studs out of the cliff. On my left the face is smooth and looks comfortable from my current position but again there is no real way of steering myself over there unless there is something I can grab onto.