The Hunted

Beautiful Thing

"Everything okay?" Farris asked once I'd reached him and Rose. I nodded.

"Not really, but they're as good as they're going to be for awhile," I replied. I could feel him looking at me, but I didn't meet his gaze. The last thing I needed to do right before storming into a prison was talk about how I was feeling.

"We're almost there," he told me, giving my hand a light squeeze. "You can take all your anger and frustration out once we're inside."

"Never did I think a prison riot would be therapeutic," I replied. He laughed softly.

"Me neither."

"Dillon thinks I have a lot of bottled up anger," Rose said softly. "Maybe this will help. I think he's really referring to himself, though."

"Most likely," Farris replied.

I smiled softly, walking with them the rest of the way in silence.

We reached the gate we needed to exit through. We surrounded Rose as she typed in a second override code before slipping through the gate. I stayed next to her as she typed in the code to undo the override, before I rejoined Farris and jogged up the steps beside him, tucking my gun into the waist band of my pants. Rose and Derek would follow us in a few minutes. It was one thing to enter as a group of four. It was a little suspicious to leave as a group of four.

I grabbed onto Farris' arm as we walked down the street, resting my head against his bicep. A couple in love. That was what we were supposed to look like. Love was a hard thing to find anymore.

"Just another block," Farris muttered under his breath.

I let out a breathless laugh, burying my face into his shoulder as we passed two Guardians on patrol. As they walked on down the street, I could hear them laughing and talking in low voices about how much we had to learn still.

"If only I could kill them," I muttered. Farris laughed

"You're just lucky that no one has ever seen my face before," he replied, "or else this would be a little bit more difficult."

"I guess that would be one benefit to being a chameleon."

"Yeah," he said with another laugh.

Ahead, I could see the looming brick structure of the prison. The lightness I had felt just moments before disappeared, filling my body with dread. You could do all of the planning you could, but it would never be able to replace the fear that filled you once it came time to complete a mission.

I closed my eyes for a moment, resting my head on Farris' arm. Not as an act, but because of the nausea. We all really could die within the next hour. It was a reality that hit hard when the time came.

"We can do this," Farris said softly as we turned down the street and into a side street. "Just keep a level head."

"I know," I replied although I didn't really know.

We waited behind a trash bin in an alley across from the east side of the prison. Caleb and Alex, the other Guardian, were supposed to be able to take out the Guardian's at the side gate so we could all get into position.

I held my breath, waiting to see the signal. Two figures darted across the street, their shadows cast onto the sidewalk by the street lamps. They went up to the Guardian House, disappearing inside.

Farris and I waited, watching for them to shine the light out the window. It wasn't an easy task. At the high security prisons, the toughest Guardians were always assigned to work there. It was filled not with murderers, but with people who were mad as hell and willing to kill if it meant they had a chance at freedom. The prison was full of people who were tired of the way they had been treated.