Chương 6: Flee

Ch 6 - Flee She is running in a blind panic. Hot tears of terror blur her vision. Mucus streams from her nose as she pumps her legs as hard as she can. She has no plan, has not consciously chosen a direction. Zig-zagging between the orange houses and through alleyways, her instinct is simply to put the greatest distance between herself and the bunk house. Cold air burns her lungs, she cannot keep up this pace for much longer. She needs somewhere to hide. To think.

The alleyway opens out onto a wide road lined with the same orange buildings. She hopes it is not the same road, that she has not run in a circle. There is movement two buildings away. A metal door groans as it swings open. Cara's trainers carve ruts into the gravel as she brings herself to an abrupt stop. She watches, keeping her knees bent and thighs flexed, poised to turn and run if her captors emerge from behind the door. It is a woman.

Her long brown coat flaps as she steps over the threshold, one hand already tugging the door closed behind her.

"Hey!" Cara shouts. The short shout takes a full exhale, her lungs feel like they have shrivelled like old balloons. She forces herself into a stumble towards the woman. Her second shout is a breathy whimper, "Help!" The woman turns, caution stopping her from closing the door.

"I need-" Cara pants as her jog brings her to the woman.

"I need…can I.. use your phone?"

"My what?" The woman stiffens. Her cheeks are sunken, her face a waxy yellow overlaid with a network of burst capillaries. Her watery eyes narrow suspiciously.

"Your phone," Cara pleads, "or can you call the police for me?"

"Police?"

"Please!" She risks a glance up and down the road as she steps closer to the woman, bringing herself within an arm's reach.

"Please, I've been kidnapped. I need your help." The woman's gloved hand tightens on the door as she inches it wider.

"Kidnapped? Who kidnapped you? Gerd!" she yells over her shoulder, back into the house.

"Gerd, come here."

"Please, can I come inside? Please, they will be looking for me." She takes another step towards the woman. The woman blocks the doorway with her body, the door pulled snuggly to her hip.

"Who? When did they do this? There have been no alerts." The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Cara wants to scream in frustration. Whatever had happened, however Wyndeer had done it, it must have been quick. There had been dog walkers and other runners in the park, she had seen them, nodded a few hello's as she passed. It had been Saturday morning. She didn't have any plans for the weekend. She was notoriously slow at responding to messages.

How long would it take for her friends to raise an alarm? She'd be missed when she didn't turn up to work on Monday. Would they alert the police? A man appears behind the woman. His hair flat on one side of his head, a tousled mess on the other. He rubs his bloodshot eyes.

"What?"

"Please," Cara blurts out before the woman can speak, "I need to come inside, they will be looking for me."

"Recons she's been kidnapped," the woman offers the explanation over her shoulder, her distrustful eyes keeping a careful watch on Cara.

"Who'd do that?" The man looks Cara up and down, unimpressed by what he sees.

"I don't know," Cara says desperately. She's running out of time, she's sure of it. Cold is stinging her fingertips. She stomps her trainers, trying to release the numbness that has enclosed her feet like a thick pair of socks. If they don't let her in soon, she'll have to make another run for it. She eyes the woman's thick brown coat enviously.

"He's called Wyndeer. Dresses all in black. His whole gang is in black. I don't think they live here. He's made up a crazy story about another planet. Please, I need your help."

"Black? Trisec? Here?" the man's eyes widen, suddenly alert and awake.

"Yes!" The word whooshes from her mouth, the corners of her lips raising with the relief that he appears to be grasping the urgency of her situation.

"Trisec, that's what one of his gang said."

"Inside," he barks. He pulls the woman roughly by the arm, dragging her back into the house. Cara moves to follow her.

"Not you." He yanks at the door. Cara jams her shoe into the gap, the pinching of the heavy metal door and its frame is felt only in the core of her numb foot. Desperation masks the pain.

"Please!" He shoves her hard in the shoulder, sending her sprawling onto the gravel road. Her hands flail and scrape across the sharp rocks.

"We don't want trouble with Trisec. Get out of here." The clang of the door rings out across the quiet road. She takes quick, wheezing breaths, suddenly aware of the tightness of the clear bandage across her bruised ribcage. Hot tears prick at her eyes and trickle warm paths down her cheeks. She gives in to her despair, releasing her shoulders to collapse back onto the stony ground, looking up at the sky. The dome arcs above her.

The violent swirling of grey and brown seems oppressively close, crushing her further into this nightmare. She wipes the tears from her eyes with the backs of her dusty hands. It is closer. The mesh of the dome curves lower above her head. She must be near the edge of the dome. Draig had said there were exit passages. A new hope of escape buds in her chest as she sits up. Her trainer is trapped in the seal of the door, her sock hangs loosely over the heel, a feeble white flag of surrender.

Looking down at her foot she finds a cut slashed from her arch to her big toe. A lip of pale flesh hangs away from her foot, dripping blood onto the gravel. Shouts echo their way down the road, passed from orange building to orange building. She scrambles to her feet, breaking into a stumbling run, glad that the cold has deadened all sensation below her knees.