Purple | Cole Stewart -VERSION DISCONTINUED

Chapter 3: Escape

I didn't know how long we had been driving. It hadn't been long, but it felt like an eternity. It was just me and the low rumble of the engine, along with the occasional murmur from the front of the vehicle.

I didn't know where i was going, but I knew it was in my best interest not to make it there.

I had to try to escape.

I had seen so many escape attempts in my time at Thurmond, and not one of them was a success. But I had to try. Maybe my chances were better- I was already outside of camp, more than anyone else had ever achieved. All I had to do was escape from binds I couldn't see. And jump out of a moving vehicle. And possibly take on 3 or more PSF's.

Easy as pie.

Okay, I thought to myself. Step one- get out of the restraints.

I started with my wrists, afraid to move my legs and cause unnecessary damage to myself. Freeing my arms was surprisingly easy. All I had to do was let my skin heat up enough to allow the metal to stretch and my hands could slip out. The only difficult part was making sure the metal didn't hit anything, otherwise it could make a noise or maybe even set something on fire.

Focus, Carter. Ankles next. Now that my arms were free, unbuckling the belts was ridiculously easy. I was seriously starting to believe these guards were just stupid. I mean, not only did they leave me alone in a room, they left me alone in a room, they left me alone in a pitch balck room, which meant I didn't have to worry about cameras.

I definitely wasn't complaining- I mean, freedom is freedom- but it seemed too easy.

So I wasn't all that surprised when I ran into my first real challenge- the doors.

I moved toward them slowly, knowing that if the van were to turn sharply I would be thrown into a wall and draw a significant amount of attention from the men driving. And of course, I could barely walk anyways, so slow was really my only option.

I pushed softly at first, trying not to make too much noise. When I felt no movement, I felt around for a latch of some kind. The chances of there being one inside the van were slim, but my luck had been pretty good so far.

But apparently I spoke too soon. The door didn't budge, so I had no choice but to try and force it open and pray to god that it opened before the PSF's realized what was happening.

No no no-

I continued to bash my shoulder against the door, my desperation increasing with every attempt. The stupid thing wouldn't even move an inch, and to make things worse, dumb dumber and dipshit seemed to finally have realized something was wrong, because the van was slowing down.

I was thrown off my feet, the angry muttering of the men outside becoming louder as my hope of escaping became so, so much smaller.

I scrambled backwards, ignoring the ache in my arms in favor of getting as far away from my captors as I could.

The doors swung open.

Okay. Pros and cons of my current situation. Pros: I no longer had to worry about getting the doors open. Cons: Just about everything else. Including the fact that my only exit was blocked by 1 very large and angry man. Shit.

"You stupid kid, why are you making this so goddamn difficult?" with the lack of light coming from outside, I couldn't tell who said that. Not that it mattered, given I had much bigger problems at the moment.

The biggest of the three men reached into the van towards my leg, growling when I stumbled back.

"C'mere kid, you're only making this more difficult,"

"It's almost like that was my goal," I muttered, surprised at how confident I sounded, which was in sharp contrast to the fear running through me.

"You little bitch!" he yelled, jumping up into the van.

I screamed, holding my hands out in front of me and closing my eyes, thinking only get away, get away, get away.

I could faintly hear his growl turn into a yell over the sound of my pounding heart beat.

I opened my eyes to see- nothing?

I could hear the faint screaming in front of me, and I felt the van shake as the front doors slammed shut.

I snapped out of the daze I seemed to be in, scrambling out of the van on my hands and knees, and to come face to face with one of the two other men.

I yelped and spun around to run before a hand wrapped around my wrist and pulled me back, slamming me into the side of the van.

"What the hell did you do you piece of shit?" he yelled, slamming my head into the metal behind me yet again.

I whimpered, pushing against his chest with both hands as my eyes filled with tears.

To my surprise, he flew away from my hands and into a nearby tree.

I groaned and held my head in my hands.

"Hey!" yelled the final man from where he was crouched by what I assumed was the unconscious body of the first man.

I held a hand out weakly, wanting more than anything else for him to just stay away.

And he did, as my eyes filled with tears caused by a mix of relief and pain. I stumbled around the van to the front seat, hoisting myself up into the driver's seat as every part of my body screamed at me to stop.

Thankfully,the engine was already running, so I didn't need to figure out how to start it. After wasting a few precious minutes figuring out how to lower the seat so that I could reach the pedals, and figuring out which pedal was the brake and which was gas, I started off down the road. I didn't care where I ended up, as long as it was far away from there.

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