Escape

Chapter One

  Hello,

  I'm Tatiana and the rather chubby-looking resemblance of a horse over here is Capadet. We used to be two famous circus horses, but a long while ago, we found ourselves left behind in a deserted zoo and, well... how about I just tell you the story from the start? Okay, here we go!

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

  If you happened by some chance to be here, at Sage Wildlife Zoo in the horse enclosure, on the second to last Saturday of 2028 at precisely 10:54pm, you would see two horses. Retired circus horses to be exact. One a fancy brown piebald, the other a pitch dark black. You think that's all there is to it? You're wrong. Look closer into the scene. Look into the brown piebald's mind. See that? Yes, hurt and regret, but do you see the other thing forming there? Yes, the very beginnings of an escape plan.

  Tatiana watched her beautiful black coat glisten in the early morning sun. She knew it wouldn't be like that much longer though. Eventually it would be like Capadet's mangled coat that he didn't give a thought about. He was always like that, too many other more important things to do and there always used to be people to see... until the entire town was evacuated for safety purposes. Apparently the area was announced to be a tornado prone area, and it was decided that everyone had to be evacuated in 24 hours, before the first tornado was due to strike.

  Basically everyone evacuated without a second thought about what would become of the horses and other animal residents of the zoo. A little girl told them everything that was going to happen, and then they became desperate to edge their way into someone's mind, maybe then they could be rescued too, and taken to safety? They tried everything. Bowing to people who passed by, rearing and posing for people, everything! Saddly, everyone just thought they were excited at everything that was going on, and left them at that. No one came and led them onto a horse trailer and before they knew it, everyone had deserted them. Only a few hungry animals were left penned up. Especially now, as some of the most intelligent had already escaped. 

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

  Tatiana had just decided to stretch her legs for a bit when Capadet woke up and began grumbling on about how they were all just worthless creatures now.

  "Wake up sleepy head! It's almost midday already." She joked, trying to lighten the mood. Capadet got up and began to eat some of the few oats and scraps of hay left. He looked strangely focused on something; he didn't even hear her speak.

  "I've been thinking a lot recently..." He began before Tatiana jumped, beginning to feel rather neglected as yesterday's events still attempted to settle into her mind as reality.

  "Duh! You didn't even hear me speak when I said hello to you this morning, and you've acted as if I haven't even existed these past few days." Tatiana snapped. Staring at Capadet's startled face, she "Sorry, but I've really been missing the old Capadet recently." She confessed.

  "Well, I've been thinking..." He began again, casting a cautious look in Tatiana's direction, in case she were to explode again. Satisfied she wasn't he continued, "Maybe we aren't going to just give up and die here? Maybe our destiny is to escape to freedom?" Tatiana opened her mouth to argue the point when a heap of noise rose from the direction of the monkey's and chimp's cage.

  "Look, more animals are freeing themselves every day, and we're trained circus horses! We're the best escape artists you can get. Are we really going to just let ourselves die when maybe our destiny lies elsewhere?"

  "Get real Capadet, we're just two young circus horses, who're in a situation of life or death here. And if life includes getting over these fences, it's more like death or death." Tatiana argues grimly, her mind obviously set against the hard path of escaping.