Chapter 38 - Dolchstoßlegende
Carl and Roberto were now on the run, by this time it seemed people would have noticed they were missing. Right now they were attempting to rest under the covering of a highway bridge. This wasn't ideal, the underpass offered little protection from the wind, it was noisy and there was nowhere to hide from the cops under here. But they had no choice, they had been walking for hours and needed a rest, that and there was nowhere else to go. Carl didn't have a watch, but he guessed it must have been about seven o'clock, the sun was rapidly setting. He wouldn't let Roberto and himself rest for long, they need to keep moving soon, now that the police would be looking for them the darkness of night would be needed to cloak their movements. They were now on the edge of the suburbs, the nearest town was now a relatively short walk away. Carl was banking on the area having a train station, he hoped they could both stowaway on a freight train of some description and quickly get a lot of distance between them and the prison. He hoped the authorities would only conduct extensive searches for them within the region around the prison, and not wherever they could get to on the trains. All this logic and planning was sound in theory, Carl just had to be sure his hunches were correct.
Roberto had fell asleep while sitting on the ground to recover from the long work. He had sat on the ground with his head in his arms, and although he tried to fight it the unrelenting need to rest his eyes beat him. Carl would let him sleep for a little while, at least if his friend was asleep he would get some silence. He sat against the cool cement and thought about what had happened back at the prison. He didn't feel guilty about what could have happened after he left, but he was curious as to what had occurred. At least his plan of escape had worked, for him and Roberto...
Carl's plan of escape he had sprung the prior morning had two parts. One part was the plan he had told to the other kids to get them involved. This had been the plan TJ had lived through. It was simple, get weapons, get a vehicle and fight their way out, using the guard's keys and other means to open the doors as they went. However when the riot began Carl and Roberto never used this distraction to break into the warden's office to get the car keys like they had agreed, by this time they had already left the prison. They had already began their own escape around an hour before the riot began. They went through the side door and made their way to a door next to the laundry. Roberto had seen guards open the door in here every so often, it led out to a fenced off area on the outside. There were large bins out there were all the buildings trash was thrown. Overtime the plan was concocted between Roberto and Carl to use this to get out. Roberto kept mental notes about when the trash was collected. He found it to be every second Wednesday between 11 and 11:25 am. Therefore just before this time they opened the door using the bump key and climbed into the bins, covering themselves in rubbish to hide. Inside the bin it wasn't very pleasant, but the deeper they could mix into the rubbish the more undetectable they would become in case something happened. The time came and a truck was let into the area to take the trash away. Two men got out of the vehicle and moved the bins one by one into place where an arm on the truck could pick them up and empty them into the back of the vehicle. Carl was shocked at this part, this was the only oversight he had yet encountered in the plan. The arm picked up the bin the pair were hiding in last and tilted it so the rubbish fell out. Both boys slid and fell into the back compartment of the truck, however the fall was quite great. Roberto was ok as he fell on something soft, but Carl fell onto his arm, causing pain to surge through him. He let out a cry of pain and then quickly constrained himself. However the noise of the truck was loud enough to muffle his cry. Nobody heard him and soon Carl could feel the truck starting to move again. When it reached the gates he worried the vehicle may have taken too long. If it was inside the prison when the riot began it may have to stay inside until it was over, and by that time somebody would have noticed the two boys were missing. The driver was having a brief conversation with the man on the gate when an alarm began to sound, Carl knew this was more than likely due to the riot beginning.
'Let that truck though and then we're going into lockdown.' One officer yelled to the man on the gate as he ran off to find out what was happening.
The man did as he was ordered and the truck was on its way to its next destination. At this point Roberto and Carl had to choose how long they would stay in the truck. The longer they stayed inside the quicker they would get away from the prison, but the danger of them being discovered would also grow. Roberto was eager to get out of the truck before it reached its next location, and so he whispered into Carl's ear this view. Carl convinced him to stay calm and they compromised. After what felt like around fifty minutes or so the pair decided to leave, but they had no idea where the vehicle was now. It was difficult for them to climb out of the compartment they were in, the walls were tall and they was little to hold onto. Roberto boasted Carl up, he quickly jumped out into the road. Carl hit the road with force and rolled forward, harming his left leg. The vehicle had been moving fairly fast and Carl had not landed his jump well. Coupled with the injury to his arm Carl was starting to think he was becoming unlucky. Roberto did better when he jumped out and then ran over to once again meet up with his friend. They found some cover in a few dense bushes at the side of the road and got changed. They had brought the clothes TJ had dyed for them a few days ago. Roberto had cut and tore the clothes to make them look a little bit more like normal clothes, and not their prison uniforms. Instead of the all in one yellow jumpsuits they were Roberto had separated them into trousers and made the tops into T-shirts, these designs were crude, but combined with the dye Roberto hoped him and Roberto would now blend in a little bit more easily. Once changed they hid their discarded clothes in the bushes and began their brisk walk. Looking at the signs they noticed they were getting close to a town. They left in that direction and then saw train tracks also matching their path. This was how the plan to catch a train was hatched, and was why Roberto and Carl were now resting underneath the bridge now.
After a little while Carl woke Roberto, they had wasted enough time and needed to move. The town was almost empty, only a few cars were on the road and the pavements were devoid of pedestrians. Both boys noticed no police in the town, but they were still on guard just in case. Finding the train station was proving difficult, they had lost sight of the train tracks themselves long ago as the tracks no longer followed the roads. This town provided an urban environment the two boys had not experienced in a long time, ever since they were incarcerated. But it wasn't like the big cities they used to call home. The town looked run down and old, it seemed the whole area was far from rich. It took another hour for them to discover the station. Their timing was impeccable as a train was there almost ready to leave, but getting into the train wasn't as easy as they had thought. Once the workers moved away from the train, just before its departure, Carl and Roberto ran up to one of the train cars and attempted to open the large door. It was locked, and whatever the two boys did it wouldn't budge. The sounds of the train got louder as the vehicle began powering up to move.
'It's about to leave! What are we going to do?' Roberto questioned worryingly.
Carl quickly thought, he knew if they didn't get out of here soon they would struggle to hide from the police much longer. He also had no backup plan of how he would travel long distances without hiding on a train. 'The roof of the train, we can get on the roof and ride it out of here.' Carl exclaimed as he began to climb the metal ladder in between two sections of the train.
Roberto grabbed and pulled Carl's shirt to stop him moving. 'That's crazy! We can't just sit on the roof of this thing, we could be killed.' Roberto asserted.
Getting himself free of Roberto's grasp Carl continued climbing the ladder. 'Pull yourself together, we don't have any other options.' Carl replied.
'I'm not going up there, anything could happen. We can find another way out of here.' Roberto pleaded.
'Get up here now!' Carl shouted, not thinking about whether anyone close by could hear him.
'No.' Roberto barked, standing his ground.
Carl stared at him from atop the train car, waiting for his friend to crack and follow him onto the train. Neither party moved, but the train began to. Roberto was terrified, he never imagined his escape without Carl, but there was no way he was going to climb onto that train, it just felt too dangerous. Carl however hated his decisions being questioned, and although it pained him to think it he also didn't want to do this alone, so he quickly climbed off the train before it left.
'I hope you're happy!' Carl spat at Roberto.
Indeed Roberto was happy Carl chose to stay with him. He knew Carl could make it on his own, if Carl left him behind he would cope fine on his own. Roberto on the other hand underrated himself, he thought of himself as a smart kid, but he often found himself stressed and unable to think in some situations. Not like Carl who was cool under pressure, and great at thinking of ingenious ways out of impossible situations. However just this once it was Roberto who found them a way out.
'Go on then, tell me how we're getting out of here.' Carl murmured in a sarcastic tone.
Roberto looked around, after a moment he noticed a delivery truck in the car park. 'In that.' Roberto stated as he pointed at the truck.
Carl shrugged and followed Roberto into cover where they watch the truck without being seen. Carl was mad at Roberto for making him miss the train, but if he found him some transport out of here it would be much easier to forgive him. For around twenty minutes crates were deposited in the back of the vehicle. During this Carl noticed a sort of thick plastic sheeting making up the walls of the cargo compartment of the truck. This was tied down once all the cargo was in so the compartment would be secure for the upcoming journey. As the sheet was tied down and not locked in place Carl became confident this was a viable course of action.
'Come on.' Carl whisper as he sprinted to the back of the truck.
The two boys undid one of the ties holding the blue sheeting in place and shimmied inside. Once they had found a comfortable place to sit amongst all the cargo they both sat in silence, waiting for the vehicle to get on its way.
Once it did Carl wondered if he had made the right decision in staying with Roberto. But he concluded that he'd never know the answer to that, and another matter began infiltrating his thoughts. With everything that had gone on both boys had not really noticed how hungry they had become. At this point they hadn't eaten since breakfast, and it was getting close to midnight now. Food would be added to the list of things they badly needed after they got out of this truck, wherever they ended up. Along with some normal clothes, somewhere to sleep, and money. They had done well so far, but Carl and Roberto weren't out of the woods yet. They had both stabbed many of their friends in the back at the prison, knowingly setting these kids up with an escape plan Roberto and Carl knew would fail. To them the riot had been nothing more than a distraction to mask their own escape. Betrayal had got the pair this far, but now their success may well depend on how far these two friends trust each other.