Lace

25

I saw tears in Riley's eyes when he kneeled down on the mowed grass that surrounds us. his hands gripped onto the dirt and his face looked up at the sky. It made me feel proud of myself. to see him looking so relived.

I expected to come out to an army or be greeted by a fleet of snow. Not to come out and be greeted with a boundary fence topped with spikes and steel.

"Are you okay?"

Riley nodded. There's no guarantee that there won't be any guards on out tail. So, we need to act fast. "we need to jump the fence." I told him. We have no other choice. "can you climb?" he nodded, and with great effort, he did. Tearing new holes and opening new scabs in the process. I hated seeing him like this, but it needs to be done.

Once he was over, I knew that I needed to act fast. Anything could happen to him on that side of the fence and I would be no help.

"HEY!" I heard shouts behind me. We've been noticed. With I dragged my numb leg up the fence and felt the spikes cut through my arm. I fell over with a crash and pulled Riley through plot of trees while chanting to myself: don't cry, with the intensifying pain shooting through my leg.

"just a little while longer than we will be okay." I kept reminding the both of us. "we're almost there"

I train whistle sounded in the nearby distance as footsteps behind us caught our attention.

With a dose of hope, riley and I let the adrenaline take over as we pushed pass ourselves and sprinted towards the sound of the train. Our bleeding bodies left a trail behind us, but now we had a goal, and we were so close to just give up.

The train whistle intensified and I let out a shout of relief when the sight of moving metal flashed before us.

"we need to jump, okay." I shouted over the clatter of metal, holding tight onto Riley's hand. I'm not letting him go now!

We picked up our pace and when we noticed an opened cart flying passed us and on the count of three, jumped into metal block.

Riley passed out from extortion almost immediately after landing in the train. It was a cargo train, transporting boxes of canned food.

I was reluctant to lose my grip on the stolen gun and knife in either hand so Riley took the liberty of grabbing a can of beans from the box. With my knife we opened it and shared the can between us. we could have eaten to our hearts contents but neither of us had an appetite to begin with. But we knew we had to eat.

Then came the issue of my leg, or more especially the bullet lodged in it. I never pulled out a bullet before, but I did help Soren attend to one of his. I knew the risks, but I also knew the risk of keeping in in. So, I put my hands in and screamed out bloody murder as I pulled it out. Riley sat there, holding onto me as my blood as sweat covered every inch of my body. I ripped out one of the remaining tassels from my dress and wrapped it around my bleeding wound, then sat against the wall of the cart with Riley, neither of us talking. Just holding onto each other, too afraid to be apart again.

We sat like that, in a comfortable silence until Riley let his tiredness consume him. Not long after, we felt the train slow down until it came to a complete stop.

I woke up Riley, but we stayed there in silence until we were satisfied that there were no threats, then hopped out earning a rush of panic to shoot through the group of middle-aged men and woman outside.

They stood back in fear at the sight of the gun whilst awaiting the arrival of security. I didn't run at the thought of security arriving, I wanted them to come, but Ley seemed to be worked up a little. We never had a good run with the police, until Erebus, that is.

I asked the people where we were, and to my relief we were only about an hour away from home. I didn't realise the weight of my thought until I realised the weight of my words. Home... I had a home.

Erebus... he's my home.

The polices didn't take long to arrive and when they did, Riley and I left willingly. We arrived at the station in no time, and for the first time since leaving Erebus, I felt as if I was right where I was supposed to be.

"Call the beast." I demanded as they seated me in the station.

They looked at each other then at my blank face before nodding to the man behind the table.

The look of fear from the man who held the phone to his ear told me all I needed to know.

The beast is on his way.

Triple update!