Happily Ever After (The Lunar Chronicles story continuation)

Chapter 25: Escape

Cress felt utter joy seeing Thorne again, making sure he was alive, that he wasn't hurt beyond repair. His hollow eyes, haggard face and the undeniable fact that he had lost weight still worried her. She didn't know what had went on in that camp, but she didn't want to ask him either.
Not that she had the time. Neither to ask nor to worry. They had to get out.
"This way," Cress said, leading the path that would lead them to their ship. In her mind, she went through the road they had to follow. She had remembered every landmark she could on the way so that they could go straight back. She wasn't actually completely sure they could be considered landmarks. A lamppost. Then a trash can with a cup on top. And a crooked rock. She knew the way. Now they just had to go there.
She and Scarlet had managed to get Thorne and Wolf out of the dungeon. That was the first step. Now they just had to drag their asses back to Earth as well.
Before they were able to reach the path Cress had been aiming for, Thorne came to a halt. He turned his head over his shoulder and observed the army tents. "We need to go in there," he said.
Cress looked around to check if they had unwanted company. "What are you doing," she hissed. She wanted to hiss at them some more, wanted to tell them how hard it had been to get this far, that they wouldn't get another chance to escape if all of them were caught, but Thorne was already moving, Wolf following in his step.
Thorne and Wolf looked at the tents for a long time, as if the tent had mysterious magical powers. Wolf stepped into the tent, the other three people soon followed.
Seen from the outside, the sides of the tent were there protect against the weather, like any tent would. On the inside, the sides of the tent were used as bulletin boards.
A cluster of files were scattered all over a table placed in the middle. A board had been hung up containing notepads.
Intrigued, Cress walked over to the central table and skimmed through some sentences. The words 'palace' and 'Letumosis' jumped out. She felt her stomach churn. The words rung in her head. Flicking through a stack of them, Cress scanned as many of the papers as she could. They all did. Cress tried to get a full image and tried to memorise as many pictures and details as she could. She also tried to think about memory techniques she had read about on her satellite. She tried them out, hoping they would help her remember more information.
She glanced over to Wolf and Thorne. They were both scanning the pictures and plans the same way as she had, but Cress wasn't convinced they would remember much, not as sleep-deprived and malnourished as they were.
Foreign voices. The sound of a latch opening outside somewhere.
"I think the daily training session is starting," Wolf whispered.
"We need to get out. Now." Cress said.
Cress peeked outside the tent to see a few lunar rebels resurface. There was a clear distinction between the soldiers and thaumaturges, not just from the clothes they were wearing. The thaumaturges walked a little straighter, their head held higher. I looked as if there was about one thaumaturge for every soldier. During Levana's reign, there had been many more soldiers compared to thaumaturges, but it seemed fewer of them had joined the rebel camp.
More importantly, none of them were looking in the straight direction of their tent, and not everyone had arrived yet. Cress pointed towards the back entrance of the tent, and they all seemed to get the message. In unison, the group sneaked out through the back.
Scarlet observed the soldiers from around the corner of the tent. "We'll just have to make a run for it. They don't seem to have weapons on them, at least not yet. We should be able to get away in case they see us."
Cress wasn't a big fan of the uncertainty hidden behind those words. She also knew that Thorne was using all his energy pretending that it wasn't hard for him to walk, let alone run, but Cress saw through the act.
Wolf looked at Scarlet with worry in his eyes. "We don't have our implants any more."
Scarlet's eyes widened, realising the implication of this. "What do you mean? How is that even possible?" Scarlet's voice was rooted in worry, but shrouded in disbelief. Her eyes glimmered and she pressed her lips together. "What did they do?" Scarlet asked.
"We had to fit in." Thorne explained, but Scarlet's gaze remained unaltered. "It'll be fine," he continued, "we just need to make sure we aren't seen."
Scarlet glanced around the corner again. She immediately took a step back. Turning around, she started pushing Cress the other direction.
"Rebels are coming," she warned.
They had to get out now.
They had just gotten through the tent flap when an explosion sounded. Scarlet winced. The white rock carried its shockwaves through the ground. The vibrations rung through their bodies. Wolf extended an arm towards Scarlet and wrapped it around her.
"What was that?" Cress asked, still moving away from the tent.
"Some kind of new weapon?" Thorne asked. Chills went down Cress' back
Cress looked to see if she could catch a glimpse of it, but she ended up seeing something completely different.
The rebel soldiers looked around at each other in bewilderment, as if they were trying to read other people's faces. The soldiers walking towards the tent had turned around and joined the confused group. Their movements seemed jerky, almost panicked. The youngest faces in the crowd gawking, their bodies frozen, not from manipulation of bio-electricity, but from surprise or terror. They seemed too young to have been able to fight in the Lunar war. Had they ever been outside a training camp?
Some of the elder, more experienced soldiers ran towards the sound to figure out what had happened. The younger ones followed, almost mirroring their superiors' movement, like ducklings following their mother.
Thorne and Wolf looked at Cress and Scarlet, Thorne furrowed his brow, as if asking whether they had planned this. Cress shook her head. Scarlet shrugged.
However, this was a better distraction than they could have ever hoped for. The square had emptied. There was no one to look their way, but it wouldn't continue for long. Cress couldn't shake the feeling that this could not be a coincidence. It was too good to be true.
They followed the path and ran to the royal ship Scarlet and Cress had used to get to Luna. They got on it, quicker than Cress knew was possible. They flew the royal ship following Thorne's directions. The Rampion was located half a mile west.
From there, they all boarded the Rampion. Cress had discovered a special 'return home' function, which allowed the ship to automatically return to New Bejing without anyone having to pilot it. It was the perfect way to return the ship to Kai in the least amount of time. Besides, Thorne wouldn't have agreed to pilot any other ship than the Rampion.
Wolf followed behind Thorne, Cress and Scarlet as quickly they could into the Rampion and they took off. They hadn't heard any Lunars behind them and didn't think they had been noticed, but they weren't going to take any chances.
Cress sighed. It felt as if she had been holding her breath ever since she and Scarlet had landed on Luna, and that she was only now allowing herself to breathe. They were safe and on their way home to Earth. Finally.