Nada's Escape

56- YWS.

I look around the ragged circle of girls, offering a closed-lipped smile and a little nod of approval for each one. "We're gonna make sure this escape is more than an attempt. This'll be the last escape, and it's going to work, goddammit."

I watch excitement, a spark of golden electricity, jump from eye to eye around the circle. All eyes on me. I pull out my little receipt-list for comfort, even though I've got it memorised to a T.

"We're going to need to hoard food for the journey. Everyone will need to take a little bit extra from the marketplace and hide it. Sound good?"

Macie clears her throat with a little false sound, "Why don't we just keep it in our cupboards? The marketplace rules say that each household is allowed to keep a week's worth of food. Surely that will be enough for where we're going?"

"Maybe, maybe not. That would be a little more subtle." I chase another thought across the sky with my eyes. "The other problem with that is if we get busy or lazy, we may accidentally eat the hoarded food. We'll also need to make sure we have enough bags to move the hoard on short notice." Amy leaps down from her boulder right into the centre of the circle.

"Maybe all the houses on Warrior Circle keep a bag with maybe only a day's worth of food." Amy deftly finds the middle ground of the problem. "That way if anyone asks you can just say you've prepared to go on a picnic. The rest of the hoard can be kept in the cupboards and emptied into the bags when the time comes."

Macie and I nod in agreement and Amy crawls back to her perch. I move on to the second element of the receipt-list.

"Water containers may be a little harder to keep below the radar. Sure, we can keep enough for a day with the picnic ruse, but I'd prefer to have more than that if we venture into the desert."

"Hmm..." Amy is thinking hard, in a pose comically similar to that of a philosopher.

"What if they're not rigid containers? Like water bags. We could easily hide them anywhere then." Willow, the girl still massaging blisters on her heels, offers, surprised at her own genius.

"Yes..." Amy's grin is mischievously infectious. "Has anyone seen something like that at the marketplace?

"No..." is the unfortunate response. "But perhaps you can have a proper look for that tomorrow, Willow?" Macie finishes.

"Everyone else collect other bottles and food in the meantime. Hopefully we can build up our stores super quickly." I conclude the point.

"But we make sure not to get caught." Amy adds.

"Obviously." I agree.

"I'd like to second Amy's sentiments," Macie starts with a worm-like formality that makes me want to cut her off. "It is imperative we don't get found out. We will always be able to steal another day, escape tomorrow. But we can't escape if we're dead."

"Or imprisoned," pipes up Fern, propped up against Josie.

"Or have to swear real oaths," echoes Josie, rubbing her wrist as if the ribbon is still wrapped there.

I feel my face puckering and an unconvinced hum vibrating through my teeth. Organisation, schemes and long cons all make so much sense and yet there's still a little part of me that aches to run hell for leather until I run out of legs. That's thinking like a caged animal, I tell myself, that's no way to win.

"Okay. Caution over speed for now..." I reiterate, though I probably don't need to.

"Make haste slowly," Tanja mutters, scribbling on her notepad. I shuffle behind her to look at her notes, not really expecting her to have written down the escape plans but just making sure.

Established shopping schedule.

Made plans for another hike and picnic.

Discussed how soon training should commence. Consensus reached to make haste slowly.

I give her a pat on the back, "Nice." A weird conjugation of capital letters catches my eye amongst the scribble at the top of the page. YWS; Young Warriors Society, I realise.

"Food and water are all very good," Beth is saying to everyone, wide lips really feeling each proclaimed word, "But how are we going to get across the desert?"

"Mm... transport." Amy nods and Beth has to twist her whole body about to see the blonde girl. "The most obviously solution is to commandeer a vehicle from the garage. Unfortunately, none of us knows how to drive."

Amy pauses to check but we all agree with that point, our heads bobbing unhappily.

Laura, mouth already half-full of muesli, pushes past the other two musketeers, "I used to hang with some big kids who'd make a hack at stealing and fixing cars. Would that help?"

"Yes... I think that would." I say, almost wishing for a beard to stroke as I feel myself getting closer to the bones of our masquerade escape. "I'll get back to you on that."

"We also have Finley, right?" Asks Fern, eyes flashing.

Something in my abdomen shifts uncomfortably, but I force myself to meet her eyes and smile.

"Yes, he's on our side. He knows how to drive but... Well I don't want to wait around for him to get back." Nobody speaks for several seconds after that and I pray that they're not frantically reading into my every word. Laura's example seems to have set stomachs rumbling however, so everyone starts digging for packed lunches by common assent. Little conversations start up and I smoothly rise with the little backpack I'd carried this morning.

I offer Amy an apple, leaning against her awesome vantage. She crunches into it happily, spraying the rock in front of her with juice.

"Finley's alright, you know." She mumbles around the apple flesh, "Wouldn't trust him out of your sight, but for a Huntsmen that's pretty good."

I take her words to heart, despite the eerie melancholy lurking nearby. When I snatch the apple from her fingers though I'm incredulous.

"Really? Because you've got so much experience with boys."

She giggles, "You know I'm wise, whatever the topic."

On the walk back, the musketeers start a winking, giggling dance with Tanja and Willow, which keeps the atmosphere light, despite the soupcon of incoming rain in the air.

"I can't believe they'd assign Stacey a sponsor and then let him leave straight away. How irresponsible is that?" Beth, two steps ahead of me chats in gossipy tones to Amy.

"It just shows how stupid they are." Amy shakes her head knowingly.

"You should have seen where they were keeping her. A locked white sick room in the Huntsmen's nursing home." Macie tells this to the fencers behind me, drawing them out of their winking war and into conversation.

"Hey, that's me you're talking about." Stacey squeaks, trailing unnoticed behind the fencers. Only a little sheepish, Macie drops back to talk to Stacey. I make sure Lily's still there, cheeks red from exertion but thankfully free of tears.

"Then there's Penny." I whisper, "Henry's mother is gone and yet he lives in a house all by himself with Penny and goes to school and training for hours every day, leaving her alone with nothing to do. He barely has food in the house."

Beth, who went to check on Lily with Laura yesterday chimes in, "Lily's the same." She looks around to make sure Lily's out of earshot, "Her tiny sponsor told me he's barely left the childcare place himself."

"How do they expect these children to look after each other?" I ask, with a hint of worldly exasperation.

"They don't care," Amy replies, "With the Huntsmen it's sink or swim. Learn to fight or die; learn to eat or starve. If you're not independent, get stuffed. Bit like a few of my foster parents."

"It's a good thing they've got us." Beth nods, before dropping strangely silent for the rest of the walk.