Escape(on hold)

Flight

Nate's P.O.V:

  I shot the girl-Kara- a strange look. She seemed sane enough, well, just as sane as I was.

  "Catch!" 

  My eyes widened as she unwrapped the sheet from her jeans and chucked it at me. I caught the balled-up sheet in my hands, still staring at her. "What the-"

  "I'm assuming you don't want to jump down from the second floor?" 

  "Oh." I spread out the sheet and ripped it into two, knotting the ends together, staining the sheet with red as I did so. Her eyes followed my hands.

  "That's got to hurt, huh?" The obviousness in Kara's statement made me want to throw something at her. 

 "Nope, it's all fine and-" I looked up from the knot to see her standing in front of me, holding out a handkerchief. 

  "Give me your hand, I'll wrap it up."

  I silently held out my hand, because as much as I hated to rely on her so much, my hand really did hurt. She quickly and firmly wrapped it up in the handkerchief as I watched, eyes narrowing with pain, then stepped back as we both heard footsteps in the hallway. 

  "Run!"

We both reached the window at the same time. I hopped up on the sill, clutched the sheet and let myself slip down, hands burning. The sheet didn't exactly reach the ground, so I hung for a moment where it ended, then let myself fall the remaining few feet to the ground, landing in a crouch. I looked up to see her untie the sheets from the sill, then hop up on it and grab the edge, lowering herself downwards by jumping from sill to sill. 

  This girl had the grace and agility of an acrobat and could read body language like a professional.

This girl made me feel like an idiot.

  She hit the ground, rolled over and stood, brushing dust off her jeans. "What the hell are you waiting for?" 

  "Orders, general."  Damn her. Couldn't she have outlined her plan more clearly? I felt resentment rising inside me, resentment that had nothing to do with our lack of plan. 

  She raised an eyebrow. "Pissed off, I see."

  "I'm sure you can." I muttered sullenly. "What's step two?"

  "Ah, yes, step two. Well..." She turned aside with a thoughtful look on her face, to survey the area. Right in front of us rose a dilapidated gray wall, with gleaming coils of barbed wire strung across the top. Behind us was the similiar gray concrete of the facility dormitory. We could still hear the faint yells of the guards in the distance, but they floated down to us from above, as our rooms were searched in vain.

  "Okay," Kara interrupted my thoughts. "Step two: Run!" Without a further word, she set off towards the right of the building, towards the gigantic main facility building. I followed, trusting the strange instinct that was guiding her to get us out of here.

  Our worn-out asylum-issue sneakers hardly made any sound as we reached the corner of the dormitory building and began running across the vast ground separating us from the main building.  Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see that the ground was empty. This was crazy. With the air of paranoia that usually hung around the guards during the day, one would expect large numbers to be swarming around at night. After all, that was when desperate kids like us would actually attempt to escape.

  But no, the grounds were absolutely deserted. Except for us, that is. I caught up to Kara as we reached the end of the ground, making her pause right beside the great grey walls. 

  "Wh- What?" Just like me, she was gasping for breath.

  "How come this place is so deserted? Doesn't that seem a bit creepy to you?" I rested my hands on my knees as I talked, trying to recover my breath. Damn, I was out of shape.

  "Yeah, I guess..." Her voice trailed off as she looked around awkwardly.

  I frowned. "So, did you just happen to know that it'll be deserted tonight?"

  She looked back at me. "Look, I can explain later, okay? The important thing now is to get out."

  "How do I know you aren't leading me into a trap?"

  "Why would I? And, out of all people, why you?"

  I mulled over her words. That made sense. Out of all the teenagers in the boys' dorm, I used to be the quietest, the least rebellious, always keeping my head down. Until the incident with the spoon, that is. 

  "Fine. I'll trust you for now... I guess." I looked up. "But after we escape, I want an explanation, alright?"  

  Her gray eyes narrowed, then she sighed. "All right. Now can we go?" 

  I nodded and straightened up. "Where now?"

 She turned towards the massive gray edifice looming beside us. "To the parking lot behind this building." 

  My eyes widened. "There's a parking lot in this place?" Who would bring a car in a place like this?

  "Seldom used, but yes. There's also a really rusty spot in the barbed wire right behid it."

  I nodded and started following her as she padded beside the wall of the building, keeping an eye out for anyone from the asylum staff. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a person climb down from the window of our room, using the same technique the girl had used. My blood chilled. Were they trying to retrace our route?

  I nudged Kara and pointed towards the dorm. She looked over and cursed. "So they decided to use their brain cells, for once." She whispered.

  "Just move faster, get around this building." I whispered back.

  She silently nodded and picked up her pace. I followed suit and looked back to see more guards coming out of the side of the dormitory window. Two of them took lit torches and shone them over the grounds. Their beams, however, were not directed at us, but at the other end of the grounds, towards the lone shed that stood there. Presumably, they assumed that no escaping kid would be stupid enough to go towards the main building.

  Panic rose in my mind as I saw one of the guards take out something from his pocket and talk into it. My imagination was running wild, and that wasn't a good thing.

  For the first time tonight since I knocked that guard watching the security cameras out, I wondered if our flight was a good idea at all.