AWOL

Details

"In the successful organization, no detail is too small to escape close attention." ~Lou Holtz

I realize right as the panel slowly slides open that I am NOT in the proper attire to ride buildings. The large tough linen smock cast over my body like a tent reaches just below my knees, I am wearing nothing underneath, and I don't have any shoes to protect my feet. There isn't anything I can do now, and there wasn't much I could do before except maybe yell up to the stranger that I didn't have any underwear and shoes. But, a nearby guard could've heard me, ruining any chance of escape, and even if I told him, what could he do? Ask a female guard for a spare pair of undies and shoes? I'd rather escape with the possibility of more of me showing than I'd like than to not escape at all. 

It's finally time to get the hell out of here. 

The mysterious stranger lowers the same rope used all the times before to lower my meals, except this time there's no tray attached. I instantly understand what he wants me to do. I wrap the rope around my midsection and double knot it. I walk over to the nearest wall and signal for him to begin pulling me up. I help as much as I can giving leverage by kicking my feet up against the wall, but it seems he doesn't need much of my help. He's yanking me up faster than I can plant my feet. 

Soon enough, I'm crouching face to face with J,  the mystifying man making it possible for me to escape and I'm suddenly conscious of the fact I haven't washed my body, cleaned my teeth, or done anything with my hair since I've been locked up. To my surprise, he's not as old as I thought he was. He doesn't look much older than me. His straight dark hair falls slightly past his shoulders. I immediately take notice of the long scar running across his olive skin from his left ear, across his cheek, to his chin. He has deep moss green eyes that stare into my eyes so intently and seriously I almost cower and look away, but I stand my ground and look back. He puts his finger to his mouth, signaling for me to not make a sound. Something I'm very good at. I nod. 

He turns and starts shuffling inside a bag next to him. I observe him further. He's wearing the usual guard uniform, tight long-sleeved grey shirt, a thickly padded black vest, green cargo pants, and those heavy clompy boots I hate. How do they get around in those? Lean muscle is evident through his shirt and vest. 

He turns back to me, back to staring into my soul, with a black fitted long sleeve shirt, black stretchy cotton pants, and sneakers extended toward me. I blush at the thought of telling this handsome stranger I didn't have any underwear. Thank Goodness I didn't.  I lift the clothes and shoes from his hands, instantly falling in love with the extra lightweight of the shoes. Perfect. I look up to see he's gauging my reaction, trying to see what I think. I give him a terse nod of approval. It seems our line of communication consists of mostly head nods and eye contact, yet we understand each other accurately.

He abruptly turns around, and I interpret it as him giving me privacy to change. I turn around too. I slide the stretchy bottoms on under my smock, pull the shoes over my feet and tie them tight. They fit perfectly. I pull the smock over my head and yank the black shirt down. I turn around to see mystery man staring at me. He's changed his shoes into something that looks far more lighter than those guard boots. We're both ready to ride some buildings.

I take a moment to finally take in my surroundings. The lights are dimmer than usual. We're in a large room with a low ceiling and several doors and windows. I can't make anything out through the windows, because it's too dark on the other side. I can see a faraway reflection of myself, I realize I haven't seen myself since I was imprisoned, how long have I been gone exactly? Maybe he'll know. I'm afraid to see how much I've changed, I look away. There's a guard knocked out, or at least I assume he's knocked out if not dead, in the corner of the room, and then I see them. All of the other panels on the floor, there's probably over 50 of them. They all have red slashes painted over them, like mine, but I take notice of my slash not reaching all the way across the panel like the others' do. Must've accidentally been rubbed off by the guards walking on it. These people are prisoners like me, with no hope of escaping.

Until now. 

I look over to mystery man and see that he's risen to his full height, he already knows what I'm thinking. He looks at me with a callous expression and turns away, expecting me to follow him, but I'm angered by his insensitiveness and selfishness. We can help these people. Why wouldn't he want to help them? Why is he helping me and not them? 

I reach for the keys mystery man left beside my old panel. Inexperienced move. I begin unlocking the closest panel and start sliding it open. Before I can see the prisoner inside, J's behind me, clamping a heavy hand over my mouth. He swiftly shuts and locks the panel with one hand. I'm struck to silence by how he snuck up on me. I'm too shocked to put up a fight, I can feel the strength and experience through his arm, how it holds me, disengaging any offensive attacks I could make by its positioning alone. How'd he get behind me so fast? He didn't make a sound. If we were to battle, I could already foresee the outcome. Him standing over my split throat, and me long gone, too slow to have blocked anything. I was frozen with fear. He let go of me. 

I turn around with a questioning glare. These people need our help. Did his eyes soften? His eyes turn hard and steely all too quickly for me to really discern what I saw. I try hard to conceal my shakiness. 

This man is dangerous.

 He's deadly. 

But so am I. 

He holds his finger to his mouth again to remind me to be quiet, no time to ask questions now. This time as he turns around and stalks stealthily toward one of the doors, I follow in the same pursuit. 

He put his ear to the door and listens. He slowly turns the knob and peeked through the crack. He opens the door and continues forward, I follow him into an empty dark hallway. This is what I'd seen if I could see through the windows. It's unnaturally quiet and feels abandoned, nevertheless, mystery man remains quiet and swift. I stalked after him to the end of the hall, where a slither of light snuck through the crack made between the bottom of the door and floor.

My earlier thoughts reappear in my mind. Light is what you have to watch out for, it's unnatural, you don't know where it's coming from. Nothing good was awaiting on the other side of that door.

Mystery man bends down toward me, I stiffen as his cheek brushes against mine, I can feel his prickly stubble. I feel his mouth move against my ear as he whispers into it with a deep, gruff voice.

"Flank my right. I have your left. Keep quiet until we're noticed." He whispers quickly and clipped into my ear as he shoves what looks like a short-staffed polearm into my hands.

"Can you work with this?" I shivered at the warmth of his breath as it hit my neck. I hope he didn't notice. This polearm had a long curved blade with a jagged tip, good for hooking and cutting, it's short length made it wieldable with just one arm, so I could use the other for offensive or defensive maneuvers, or wield the polearm with both arms for a stronger downward force.

 It was versatile. I liked it. 

I looked up at his green eyes, so dark they almost looked black if you didn't look close enough, that always seemed to be waiting for my approval. I gave a firm nod. 

"Aim to kill" 

With that, he opened the door. 

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Author's note:

How's it going so far? Do the chapters need to be longer?

I just get so excited to get the next chapter out to you guys! >.< 

They'll inevitably get longer and longer as the storyline develops. Promise!

Thank you so much for reading!!