Evanesce

Chapter Two
Escape

I hadn't seriously thought about leaving since my first week there. Then I'd inspected my room and found nothing that would help me. I was now inspecting my room again, this time with more reasoning. If there was anything here, I was going to find it.

I must have gone over the room for hours, and my only solution was that there was none. In the end, I had shattered the mirror, overturned the bed, and inspected every inch of the walls and door with more care than the architect did.

And I didn't find one damn thing to help me with.

Dejected, I paced from the door to the hind wall until I was too tired to think. I curled up in a corner of the room and slept for whatever time I had until the guards came back. When they did come, I stayed in my room and refused to leave.

Three to one odds aren't fair, I can tell you. The guards dragged me out into the hallway, with me dragging my feet the whole time. I didn't say a word during the session, and counted sixty-something shocks before one made me lose count.

On the way back I said I had to use the bathroom, which wasn't really a lie. Before I left the bathroom, though, an idea occurred to me. I stared at my reflection in the mirror and wondered. My mirror had been made of safety glass, I hoped this one wasn't of the same stuff.

I just needed something to break it without slicing up my hand. In my room I had used a sheet from the bed, but here all I had were my clothes. What I'd been wearing, or variations of it, for the past however long it'd been since I'd woken up, a black, or maybe it was navy, civilian uniform, came to mind. But I was sure the guards would hear the mirror break, and seeing me shirtless would arouse suspicion, and, if I were lucky, only suspicion.

Then an idea occurred to me. Trying not to think about it much, I stripped my upper clothes. I pulled the shirt back on and wrapped the spare garment around my hand. Within the minute, I shattered the mirror. To my enjoyment, the glass shattered in large pieces.

I selected my piece of mirror and wrapped it in the bra. The door burst open soon after, the guard demanding to know what I'd done. I managed to keep the glass concealed by hugging myself as though I were cold.

I smiled at him, but didn't answer as he accosted me about the mirror. With disgust, he ordered one of the other guards to clean up the mess while I was taken back to my room. I realized with pure joy that I'd only have two guards to fend off.

When we approached my room, I noticed another… prisoner, I guess he was, being escorted someplace. This was the only other person I'd seen who was neither guard nor scientist, but I was too busy to wonder at the time. I nervously unwrapped the glass shard as the woman guard pressed parts of the keypad to my door.

To my horror, my shaking hands dropped the glass and it skittered across the floor to stop at the feet of the stranger. Three of the five guards, mine and his, turned their attention to me as my door slid open. I recovered first.

I pushed the first guard through the door and smashed my hand against the keypad. The door closed, trapping the woman on the other side. I had my… my undergarment… wrapped around my second guard's throat before he could react and held him securely, but I was more nervous about the other three.

Lucky for me, the stranger decided to help. He was helping himself more than me, I'd guess, but still…

He'd grabbed the glass shard I'd so carelessly dropped, and expertly stabbed two of his guards with it. By the time I'd incapacitated mine, he was standing over the lifeless form of his third and grinning insanely.

I ran, not daring to think of what had just happened, or what part I'd played in it. I didn't look back. I ran without any sense of direction whatsoever until I came to a very bizarre door.

It was like any door of the place in size, but it's color and markings were off. It was dark red, where all the others were dark blue. There was something written in a code of some sort I'd never seen before, and I felt weird just standing there. The keypad was normal at least, and I reached for it to see what was beyond the strangely marked door.

"Run!"

I didn't think anything of it then, and followed the strange voice's instruction instantly, abandoning the door. As I ran, I became aware of what seemed like whispers that seemed to be following me. Strange enough, I listened.

I followed their direction, and found myself in a lift going down.

"Careful… Natural."

I listened, and walked out of the lift. I was in a lobby of what looked like a medical facility. I swallowed my fear and calmly walked out the front door. No one turned to look at me. No one tried to stop me, as I'd feared would happen when I saw the people there.

"Free," the whispers spoke, "careful, natural."

I tried to look as casual as I could, but the color… it was almost overwhelming to me. I tried to ignore it and get my bearings, but I'd so missed the color.

"Move," the voices sounded impatient, so I followed their directions. I walked swiftly along the strip of sidewalk that led away from the building I'd left. I recognized the location suddenly, realizing I was on the Military grounds of Houston, and on the science side of all places. Well, on second thought, that made some sense, seeing the place I'd been in.

I moved as quickly as I physically could and as memory allowed towards the other half of the base. I felt tired from the day and from the lack of adrenaline, but I also had this feeling of giddiness that wouldn't go away. I was free.

"Stay so, stay so, careful,"

I wanted a safe place to be, and found my way towards the officer's barracks. I found an old alcove I knew from when I used to live on that base. It was in the alley behind the building, and was where a bio- ethereal energy line had supposed to be placed. The design was changed, but the long hole that was between the building and the alleyway's pavement was still there.

I crawled into the recess with little difficulty and shifted around until I was looking up at the sky. With a start, I realized I was looking up at the sky. There was no barrier, just its skeleton the deep blue sky. I almost panicked until I realized there hadn't been Phantoms up until then, and didn't seem to be any. Still, I was uneasy.

I didn't want to wonder about the scientists or what I'd been through since New York. I didn't want to think about my escape, or the stranger. I didn't know how long it had been since New York, and since I'd last seen Aki Ross, my captain, Ryan, and …Neil….

I didn't know about the doctor or Captain Edwards, but I had little hope for Ryan. When Neil… When we crashed and I saw the sergeant there pinned to the jeep, I didn't have much hope then. Now it just seemed impossible that he could have lived. And of course there was Neil, who died right in front of me.

I looked out into the alley cautiously. Despite the whisper's insistence that I was safe, I wanted to make sure. Seeing and hearing no one, I relaxed in my hiding place and let myself mourn. For the first time in ten years, I cried; I let the tears flow freely and didn't care if I was found by anyone I knew. Evening came and I let my mind sink through memories, pleasant and not so pleasant.

I soon found myself laughing in the midst of my tears. I didn't want to know really, but couldn't help imagining what Neil would have said had he known that I escaped from such confinement while really only using my underwear.

For the first time in so long, I saw the stars. For the first time in my life, I wasn't afraid of that sight from the ground.