"Let's go!" Buffy whispered frantically and shoved Faith out of her bunk.
Suddenly, the fire alarm went off, its loud sirens ripping through the air.
"That'll be Kendra," Buffy said as she and a now wide-awake Faith sprinted out of their dorm room into the hallway, which was a chaotic mass of children by now.
Children of ages ranging from six to sixteen were frenetically running towards the exits. Yesterday the word had gone around quickly that the escape would be tonight, so most children already had their shoes and small duffels filled with small necessities like snacks and blankets and the rare personal memento. All of the children were orphans and only a small number had inherited something from their absentee parents. Most of the orphans, however, were taken in without any personal items and the clinic had never provided any.
Buffy was one of the rare few who had something. As she ushered children younger than her 16-year-old self towards the exits while running towards them herself, she was comforted by the feel of the heavy silver cross bouncing against her chest.
Finally, everyone was outside the clinic's dorm building and sprinting in a thousand different directions. Faith grabbed Buffy's wrist and yanked her towards Kendra. The three of them were the oldest at sixteen and were often tested on by the clinic simultaneously.
Only after the first shot rang out did the screaming begin. The three eldest ducked their heads a little lower but kept running amidst the shouts and cries and gunshots. Suddenly, there was a blast that was much nearer to them than the others.
"Kendra!" Buffy yelled as she watched her comrade fall to the ground. Her first instinct was to run back towards the now-still teenager but Faith didn't let go of her wrist.
"No! Faith!"
"We can't! We gotta go!"
Faith, pulling Buffy along with her, finally reached the chain-link fence that surrounded the perimeter of the clinic.
Crouching into the shadows, Faith asked breathlessly.
"Can you climb this thing?"
"I think so," Buffy replied, trying not to think about Kendra lying in her own blood.
"Then you gotta help me over, B."
Linking her hands together, Buffy boosted Faith up the fence until Faith could make it on her own. Buffy turned and looked, noticing with some relief that the jailbreak was also happening on boys' side of the clinic.
After scaling the fence, the two girls sprinted for as long as they could through the reservation towards the direction of the main road while trying to avoid the spotlights. Buffy found herself thankful that they lived in California and not a place with cold winters.
Almost tripping over the change in terrain, Faith stuck out her thumb as she and Buffy started to jog up the side of the road.
"What are you doing?" Buffy managed to gasp out.
"Saw it in a movie. It's called hitchhiking."
After fifteen minutes of holding her arm out to the apathetic headlights of cars, a little gold Chevy pulled over.
"Are you going towards the Red Virago?" The driver asked with a South American accent. It was a woman, no older than 25 by the looks of it.
"Sure!" Buffy yelped.
"I can help you then."
The two teenagers scrambled into the backseat.
"I am Ampata Gutierrez."
Faith and Buffy mumbled their names as Ampata's little gold car took them away from the twisted Sunnydale Orphanage forever.