The Life of the Wife

Chapter twenty five

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

DET MORRIS

Eric threw a dirty glance that had me reconsider my decision on telling him my plan. His wrinkled face stayed frozen as his glazed over look shook my inner fears. This man was a caring man, but his honest cut throat emotions made you second guess what his real intentions were inside the chamber.
'You think that you will live?' He finally said, speaking through his teeth.
'Yes.'  I kept my ground, trying to appear more confident than I was feeling.
'And you are willing to risk the life of another on this?' He glanced over to George who was tapping impatiently on the end of his bed, his chest pulling up and down with every short sharp breath.
'He is choosing his own fate, he is taking on the risks on his own accord.' My whispering voice, crackling as I try to hold back from being any louder.
Eric thinks about this, and then after some silence he lifts his bony hand in front of me, raising his eyebrows and waiting for me to respond.
'Good luck, the both of you.' He says as I shake his cold, callous hands firmly.
Raw confidence replaced the fake version I was expressing from Eric's acceptance and I said my goodbyes. If we didn't execute this plan to complete precision, I would never see him again.

As everyone slowly started to fall asleep, I glanced over to George who was still showing his impatience. Even from here I could see the beads of sweat rolling slowly down his forehead, soaking his dirty brown fringe.
I crept to the toilet and signalled George to do the same. As I waited for him to come in I lowered the toilet seat to stand on.
George hastily threw himself behind the curtain, leaving barely any room to turn and face him. When I did I was face to face with his worried expression and heavy breaths.
'You keep a lookout while I pull at the wire.' I whispered, refraining from wiping the sweat building between the wrinkles of his upturned expression.
I lifted myself onto the seat and grabbed the wire. Pulling it felt harder than I imagined it to be and I felt the skin on my fingers begin to irritate. Finally, with a final strong pull the wire was removed from the hinges and George caught me before suddenly falling.
'Are you okay?' His voice crackled in fear and excitement.
I steadied myself back up and kept pulling, this time with a more stable stance.
Once there was enough room to fit our bodies I started at the rotten flaky ceiling, my fingers and under my fingernails screaming in pain from the splinters.
A small crack of light spit through the peephole I created and lit up a line of brightness looking like a solid beam all the way to the ground.
I continued to pull at the wood to realise that there was more wire on the other side.
'Can you pull that one too?' George was now by my side, looking up at the reflecting silver metal that meshed over our only way to escape.
'I'm not sure, I can't see where the hinges are on it, I don't know where it starts or ends.'
'Let me try, and you have a rest and keep lookout.' George placed his hand out, willing me to come down, and made sure I got down safely.
As George took my place I created a small slip through the curtain to make sure no one was coming, or awake and looking over here.
I looked over to see that Eric was still awake and reading, while occasionally throwing quick glances toward the glowing curtain. I was surprised no one had awoken from the noises, but they've slept through the screams of the dying before.
'Oh my god, I got it, I got it free!' George exclaimed with a whispering yell.
I looked up at the hole that was soon our freedom and chuckled a little.
'Lets get moving then.'

We laid on the blistering metal roof so we weren't seen by anyone. With every excruciating minute that passed, my skin boiled as if I were bacon in a frypan.
After some time we crawled our way to the lowest part of the tin roof and fell to the warm soil that surrounded the ground. My joy of feeling something soft was short lived when we had to quickly get up and push our bodies to the wall of the shed.
As we crept to the edge George jerked his head towards a large tree that grew over the fencing that surrounded the commune.
'On the count of three?' I mouthed and we readied ourselves to run.
With every second waiting to say "three" my heart pounded faster. When we started running there was no turning back. I sprinted with all the power my legs allowed me and before I knew it I was touching the rough bark of the towering leafy tree. George was right behind me and gulped for air as he held his back against the tree, looking around to make sure no one seen us.

We fumbled our way up the tree as quite as we could make it. I was about to climb over to the large branch that granted us access to the free world when George grabbed my arm and pulled me closer to him. Before I could do or say anything he nodded over to the two men walking around the outside of the fence. I was about to fall right on top of them.
To speak, we whispered in each other's ears and decided to stay in the tree until the men had made their way to the other side of the commune.
Waiting felt like forever, and with every second wasted, meant that someone would find us missing and we were open targets.