Taking Sides

Chapter 8: Escape

-Chapter 8: Escape-

Sneaking out of the room was easy. The door was unguarded, and there was nobody patrolling. The dragons must have thought that their headquarters was secure enough. I snuck my way to the room that held the technology and rifles, only to find that sneaking was unnecessary. It too was unguarded.

Still, I decided to err on the side of caution, and quietly opened the door, then slipped into the room.

The first thing I noticed was that the room was still lit. They must have forgotten to switch off the lights… I was quite sure that that was possible, since the bulk of the lights outside had gone out, leaving only a few here and there, probably to ensure that anyone still awake could walk around without bumping into anything and everything.

I was half expecting to walk right into someone or other who would doubtlessly be there to catch me, but instead, I found the room empty. It didn’t stop me from thinking that the whole escape thing to be dodgy, though. I grabbed what I recognised to be my rifle, from the bit of paper taped to the butt with my number written on it, along with another two fully loaded magazines which I stuck into my pants, for I was still wearing my PT kit, which had no pockets.

As an afterthought, I went back and snatched up another rifle, for my supposed saviour, if he even existed for that matter.

Realising that both rifles had no slings, I held both by the grips attached to the scopes, and hastily made my way to the rover, which was still parked at the toilet area. It had, however been moved, and no longer sat in the hole that I had rammed in the wall. Instead, it had been placed off to one side, no doubt the handiwork of a dragon in its quadrupedal form, and the hole in the wall had been mended.

Glancing around, I made sure that I was out of sight before scurrying to the vehicle and opening the door. I put the rifles inside, and paused when I spied a rifle sling lying the rear foot well. I snatched it up and pulled my rifle out. I slung the rifle and tried it out, then ensured that the weapon was put to safe, for I did remember that they had tossed it into the pile while it was still cocked, and had a round chambered within. We had been lucky that day, for the gun could have gone off when it hit the pile…

I placed the rifle in the passenger seat, and clambered into the driver’s seat. It was then that my bladder decided to protest, and I felt a sudden urge to go and pee. I contemplated bringing the rifle, but decided to risk going without so that I looked like I had gotten up in the middle of the night just to use the bathroom. They had actually installed a toilet bowl and a urinal for me, though I had no idea where all the water went when I flushed, for I was quite sure that this place had not been hooked up to the sewage network…

Either way, I went to relieve myself in the thankfully empty toilet, and made my way back to the rover. I made myself comfortable in the driver’s seat, and made sure that the rifle was within reach. It was a shame that they hadn’t taken any pistols, as it would be easier to handle a pistol when shooting out the vehicle window, though I had no idea how I would manage to aim either way.

Using the light from my phone’s screen, I looked around, looking for the light switch. All military vehicles had a switch that could deactivate all their lights, including the automatic ones, like the signal, reverse and brake lights.

Of course, with the feeble light provided by my phone, it was difficult to find the switch, and as the seconds dragged on into minutes, I felt panic begin to rise into my system, starting to chew away at my thoughts. I felt my palms start to sweat, and the phone slipped several times as I looked over the dashboard, silently cursing whoever it was that had moved the car into a dark spot.

As I felt myself begin to break out into cold sweat, I finally found the blasted switch. I quickly set it to have all the lights off, and sat back up, taking a deep breath to calm my own frayed nerves.