A/N: Okay, so my heart was pounding while I wrote this! Let me know what you think..
I don't own Glee.
Chapter 19
The punishment for attempted escape is death.
-Community Member Handbook, Chapter 12, Crimes Against the Community
Kurt, Santana, Blaine and Marina had spent five days and five nights living up among the tree branches. Depending on whom among them you asked, progress was either surprisingly swift or painstakingly slow. Kurt and Blaine remained optimistic, while the long days and short nights were starting to wear on the girls. On the second night of digging, Santana went down along with the boys to help take turns. In shifts, they devised a system where two would dig while the third would search for food to replenish that which they ate the previous day. Meanwhile, Marina remained up in the tree, keeping her ears and eyes open for any danger coming towards the group.
The task was a rather boring one for the fourteen year old. She spent a lot of time hanging from various branches, swinging back and forth to try to give her muscles a work out. Sitting still all day was beginning to take a toll on her body. In the back of her mind, she worried that if she didn't at least try to stretch out every few hours, she would be the first to fall if the group needed to run.
Now, after five full days and nights, the entire group was starting to feel worn down. If it was taking this much energy just to try to get out of the Community, how in the world were they going to prepare for what came next?
As the sun rose on the sixth day, the group exchanged weary glances with each other. The hole was becoming very substantial, and about a third of the way through the night, they'd finally pushed past the halfway mark. The wall had ended up being about seven feet deep below the ground and by the time they called it quits for the night, the tunnel was solidly on the other side of the wall. As excited as they were, they knew that it was going to be ten times more difficult digging up rather than down.
They were talking in hush tones about a plan of action for digging and disposing of the dirt for the next night when a high-pitch whining noise filled the air.
It was a noise they were all familiar with, but could never quite get used to.
It was the noise that signaled someone had tried to escape.
Marina began to whimper softly, convinced that they had somehow been caught.
"Shh, sweetie, it's okay," Santana comforted her softly. "It's not us, they only sound the siren when they're taking someone to the commons for punishment, remember?"
Even as she spoke the words, Santana felt goose bumps travelling up her arms. She shot a silent look to Kurt and Blaine across from her and they looked just as nauseated as she felt.
Kurt looked up at Blaine from where he lay across Blaine's chest. He'd almost drifted off to sleep, comforted by the deep vibrations emanating from Blaine's chest against his cheek while the two of them were talking right before the noise kicked in. Blaine looked back down at Kurt and hugged him closer against his body.
No one spoke as the noise carried on for ten minutes, as it always did, giving the members of the community enough time to arrive at the commons. When the sound finally died out, all four of them strained to try to hear what was going on. The commons were about two miles away from their hideout, but if the loudspeakers were used, which they always were, perhaps they would have a shot at hearing it.
Within a few moments of the siren ending, a voice could be heard off in the distance, but it was too far away for any of them to make out what was going on.
"Can you hear?" Blaine whispered to Kurt, and Kurt shook his head.
"You?" Blaine turned to Santana and she too indicated that she couldn't. It was a frustrating feeling, knowing something was going on, that someone had tried to leave, and not being able to hear the details. Escape attempts weren't very common, so to know that someone else had tried so close to their own attempt, and had been caught, was beyond nerve-wracking.
About five minutes later, the voice could no longer be heard in the distance, and the group held their collective breath as they waited for what they knew came next.
The execution.
They knew it usually took about five minutes to get the offender situated in front of the firing squad and to deliver orders to the squad. Sure enough, approximately five minutes from when the voice stopped, a handful of shots rang out in near-unison. Marina squeezed her eyes shut and began to cry again. Santana looked horrified and even Kurt could feel Blaine trembling underneath him.
They remained silent as they tried to absorb what had just happened. Until now, the idea that they could get caught remained in the back of their minds, overpowered by the thrill of attempting to escape. But now that fear was brought alive, in full color, as they came face-to-face with what would happen to them if they were caught themselves.
Barely had enough time passed to try and wrap their minds around this idea when another series of shots rang out.
A second execution.
Multiple executions were rare. Usually, people escaped by themselves rather than in pairs or groups, since it was rare to find someone willing to risk getting killed in order to help you escape. Especially considering the numbers touted by the Officials. In the past ten years, there had been forty-eight escape attempts and zero successes. That statistic didn't exactly inspire most people to try.
The attempts had definitely waned over the years, from a combination of the poor odds and the fact that more and more people were becoming complacent within the community, as the younger children from the outbreak generation grew up, remembering nothing of life outside of the confines of the community.
"Do you think that's it?" Kurt whispered softly, looking up into Blaine's concerned eyes.
"I don't know," Blaine answered honestly, hoping with everything he had in him that it was.
Moments later, however, more shots sounded. Three people dead now, more than anyone in the group had ever seen at one time. If two were rare, a group of three attempting escape was just about unheard of. They were all aware that they themselves broke the mold when it came to numbers, but it only made sense to travel as a group. It became immediately apparent on that very first night that it would take each and every one of them to even hope to get out alive.
When everything was said and done, four executions occurred that morning, the same number that was in their own group. By the time the night had fallen, none of them were eager to climb down the tree and resume work. They all seemed to be in shock over the events of that morning, and despite the fact that they hadn't heard any noise or activity in their area for days, they were too scared to test their luck just yet.
"I don't think we can afford to waste a night," Kurt whispered, trying to convince his shell-shocked friends. "It's awful what happened, but we can't let it distract us from our mission."
Santana and Blaine didn't respond, and Kurt knew better than to expect Marina to side with anyone but her big sister.
"Fine," Kurt finally conceded, throwing his hands up. "I'll go down alone and the three of you can keep a lookout. Just…just give me the signal if anyone's coming my way."
He started to head down to the next layer of branches when Blaine's hand on his forearm caused him to pause.
"I'm coming, Kurt," Blaine announced reluctantly, as if he was agreeing to help Kurt hide a body. "I can't let you go by yourself."
Kurt thought about arguing with him, but he knew better. He needed a second person with him if he had hopes of making any progress that night.
And so they continued on, night after night, still with no incident. After twelve full days, the hole was finally nearing completion, and they waited in quiet excitement for that thirteenth night.
The day moved excruciatingly slow, each hour that passed felt like a decade. Knowing how close they were to freedom, and still not quite believing their luck in having not being caught, they were almost giddy with anticipation.
They allowed themselves to imagine what life would be like out in the wild. They felt confident in their abilities to live off the land, since their attempts over the past two weeks had been successful. They were ready to eat something other than leaves and the rare handful of berries and even discussed the possibility of being able to hunt and cook wild game.
Finally, the nighttime arrived and they waited a few minutes longer than usual to descend as a group from the cluster of trees they'd made their home over their time in the woods. As each one dropped from the last branch of the tree, they pressed a palm to the trunk, paying homage to the fact that, in essence, that tree had kept them alive.
Within thirty minutes, Blaine, who was at the head digging, broke through the ground on the other side. Quickly widening the hole, gritting his teeth with the exertion of rushing the task, he climbed his way out and called for the rest of the group to follow.
With a wide grin, he extracted first Marina from the hole and then Santana. As the girls scrambled up from the ground, they hugged each other closely and didn't bother hiding the volume of their voices as they laughed. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world, finally being free.
Blaine reached down for Kurt as the other boy wiggled his way underneath the wall. Their eyes made contact and they exchanged tired smiles as Kurt finally reached his arm up to Blaine to help pull him out. Blaine was reaching for Kurt's hand when the expression on Kurt's face changed from one of elation to absolute terror.
"GOT HIM!" a deep, gravelly voice shouted out from the other side of the wall. Blaine watched, frozen in horror as Kurt began disappearing from his side of the tunnel, obviously being dragged back out from the other side.
"Blaine!" Kurt cried out, his nails digging into the side of the tunnel, trying to break free from the strong hand around his ankle. It was no use. Whoever had a hold on him was much stronger than Kurt, especially after two weeks of digging and hoisting and living off of wild plants.
"Oh my God, Kurt!" Blaine screamed, watching helplessly as Kurt's head, then arm, then hand disappeared from sight. He whipped his attention back to Santana and Marina.
"Run, damn it!" he hissed at them and before either could respond, Blaine was diving back in the hole after Kurt.
"Blaine, wait!" Santana called back out to him, but it was too late. Blaine was out of sight, and the girls were left, listening in terror to the scuffle occurring on the other side of the wall. After a few seconds, Santana snapped out of her daze and kicked into action.
"Let's go!" she barked at Marina, yanking the younger girl by the arm as she took off into the woods.
"But what about—"
"We can't worry about that right now," Santana cut her off, begging her own tears to stay at bay until they were out of danger. "They're strong, they'll make it out and they'll find their way to us when they do."
Santana knew what she was telling Marina was probably a lie. Two worn out and underfed boys against a hoard of Officials were certainly no match. But she knew that they would both want her to leave with Marina. If their lives were wasted because of what happened with Blaine and Kurt, then the boys would have died in vain. But Santana refused to believe that the two boys wouldn't make it out. It was too painful to even imagine.
The girls ran until their legs couldn't carry them any farther, and they limped along until they found a tiny cave-like area down the slope of a hill. Carrying brush to the opening and sealing themselves in, they huddled together and finally allowed themselves to break down.
Sobbing, they clutched onto each other and prayed with every fiber of their being for the boys that had set them free.