A Prisoner Of War

Chapter Seven: Day Zero

It's a lovely day. The sun's filtering in golden rays through the branches and leaves of the trees in the forest, gently warming and creating breathtaking crosshatch patterns on the ground. Brilliant yellow sunflowers spread like a golden carpet on the forest floor. There's a lovely breeze blowing, and there's a strong, sweet smell of flowers and pine needles in the air. 

I would've stopped to admire my surroundings had I not been running for my life.

_

Let me rewind.

When Alex said that we would have to put into action Plan B,  I assumed it would probably mean we wait for a few days, then wait some more, and finally, when we see a crack in security, we break the cell, bust out a few ninja-kick moves, knock out a few soldiers, stroll out of the prison, and call it a day.

Alex's definition was completely off the rocker.

Plan A had consisted of us waiting for a few days, sneaking into the General's war room, stealing the war plans and figuring out the route of the missile. We had planned on then escaping to the Defence and intercepting the missile, hopefully staying alive on the way. Dying would not be preferable.

Plan B was impromptu, devised by Alex, so it was bound to be crazy. Yesterday, after we'd gotten our trackers, Alex insisted that we break out immediately.

"Are you mad?" I said. "You want to get us killed?"

She shrugged. "It's the only way, kid. Plus, I got some help."

And, standing behind her, was none other than Hunter Cunningham himself.

~

Since we had some all-new insider help, we had a slight increase in our chances of making it out of there alive. We now had a  fifty-fifty chance of living or dying.

Alex and Hunter had figured out Plan B, and Alex repeated it in a low whisper to Prudence and me as we shuffled back to the cell. Not without surveillance, of course. Rows of soldiers lined the walls of the corridors and scrutinized us like vultures.

Some things never change.

The soldiers locked the cell door behind us as we entered the cell, leaving us trapped.

We waited patiently in the cell, till lunchtime, as planned. When one o'clock rolled around,  the door opened slightly for two soldiers to slide in a dish of sloppy, watery stuff that resembled porridge. But we were alert, and wary. Both of the porridge (?) and the open door.

As we had calculated earlier, we had exactly six seconds until the door closed. 

My heart pounded in my ears as I anticipated the moment of our escape.

Suddenly, with the swiftness of a cheetah, Alex jumped up and smoothly hit a spot on the first soldier's neck and introduced the second's head to her knee. Both soldiers (I think they were girls of our age) collapsed in a heap without a sound. We stared at Alex in amazement.

She blew a black lock of hair out of her eye and shrugged. "I learnt a little bit of karate when I was six."

~

We sneaked into the corridor. Alex and I had put on the soldiers' uniforms over our clothes. We left the two soldiers in the cell, and locked the door for good measure. We pretended to be soldiers escorting Prudence.

I pulled my mask down.  So did Alex, though the only giveaway for her was her set of brilliant cobalt eyes, looking strikingly blue through the mask.