Letting Go

Chapter 6

I'm in the glass box again. It's dark and cold, and I'm afraid they'll come for me again.

I hear the door of the box slide back. Wait, what? Why is the door opening, that's not right. I must be hearing something.

"June, you need to go, NOW. Run and don't stop. Go out the emergency exit. We'll be right behind you, ok. Now go!" I hear someone whisper. I quickly scramble to my feet and stumble blindly out of the box and towards where the door should be. I hear another door behind me slide open, and then footsteps behind me.

I reach the doorway and see a dimly lit hall. I look both ways and start running down the right hallway, towards the emergency exit sign. I'm running so fast everything just looks like one big blurry blob. The only reason I know the sign is there is because I can see its faint red glow. I hear two other people running behind me but I don't dare take the time to turn around. I know who they are,

I reach the exit and push hard on the door, hoping it'll open for me. It opens and the warm night air greets me. Freedom! We're so close! Just when I think we've finally done it, a blaring and high pitch alarm sounds. I hear someone yell,"Run!" Behind me.

I run into the night, towards the forest. I feel like I'm running slowly through mud, the world slowing down around me. I desperately urge myself to run faster but I can't. The forest, we can get cover and go from there.

But I can see the faint outline of an electric fence, and I can hear the crackle of electricity rushing through it. I turn around and see the panic on the woman's face behind me, the man outs his arm around her, saying something I can't quite hear. Why do they seem so familiar?

"They should've cut the power by now. What do we do?" The woman shouts anxiously. They turn to me, then grab me by the arm and we run closer to the fence. I don't understand why we're running closer to the fence, but then I see guards running out if the door we escaped through. We're running out of time.

Then, the electric fence zaps and sparkles, then falls silent. The man throws a rock at the fence, and when nothing happens we start climbing. I'm trembling from head to toe and the guards have almost reached us.

So close, almost there. We've almost reached the top of the fence. How are we going to get over the barbed wire? We're going to have to jump and hope we land in forest brush.

I reach the barbed wire and turn around to see where the others are when I hear the sound of guns and screams. Someone screams,"Hurry June!" I look down and I see two bodies laying still on the ground. Holding back my tears, I climb on.

I feel a sharp pain in the back of my neck, making the world around me spin violently. I try to hold on to the fence, but I can feel my hands slipping. I can't stop me eyes from fluttering shut, and soon I can't think, I can only feel myself falling to the ground below. I expect to feel my bones break as I hit the ground, but I don't. I can't feel anything anymore. I'm fading quickly, and welcome the darkness. Then everything goes black.