As Jesse drove through the locked gate of the compound, he couldn't stop himself from crying. Tears running down his scarred cheeks, a mixture of choked up sobs and a delirious laugh escaping his sore throat. Foot heavy on the gas pedal with no intention of slowing down, just aiming to get the fuck away from that Hell he's spent God knows how many months in.
He was free.
He was finally free.
Before Walter had showed up to end this once and for all, Jesse had accepted that he was going to die there; alone and cold in a hole in the ground.
In the beginning, he had fought back; tried to run away. One time he was so, so close until he got to the fence lined with barbed wire, and before he could even reach the top, he had fallen to the ground and was surrounded by the night he was dragged back to his cell and beaten. Any wounds that were inflicted, any bones that were broken, were left untreated; leaving Jesse to lie there in constant pain.
As time had passed and Jesse could no longer keep track of the amount of days that went by, he lost hope. He learned just to go along with what he was told. Following commands meant less punishments. Less beatings. Less being spoken down to and humiliated, treated as less than a human being and more like a speck of dirt on the ground beneath the Nazi's steel-toed boots. Even so, the men still treated him as lesser, treated him as just a thing, a machine to produce pounds upon pounds of meth.
Todd was the only one who remotely treated Jesse like a living, breathing human being. Even if he was spoken to with sickly-sweet words and touched with a mockingly-loving hand, he couldn't bare to even hear the other man speak after he had watched him kill Andrea right in front of his eyes.
Todd showed no remorse for killing her.
"It had to be done, Jesse. There was no other choice," He repeated over, and over, and over. And every time, Jesse would clench his teeth and shut his eyes as tight as he could; wanting so badly just to wring the bastard's neck and choke the life out of him. But he could only tremble, fist clenched in his bonds so hard that his overgrown fingernails dug into his filthy palms; those damn chains that kept him bound at the bottom of that cage-topped pit that was his shitty home.
Even the times where he was alone in the pit, he felt like he was being watched. Even when the gate at the top was covered with the tarp, he felt eyes on him; felt like his every move was being calculated, judged.
In the lab, it was Todd who watched over him, made sure he was doing as he was supposed to and didn't spill any chemicals as he went through the cook. Todd was the only one who got a gas mask to protect him, leaving Jesse open to the toxic fumes. Breathing in harsh chemicals and tethered to the ceiling like a dog on a leash, he couldn't sit down and rest. All the while, the heavy chain wrapped around his torso pressed on a potentially broken rib, sending pain coursing through his body.
On the brink of starvation and covered in scars that may never fade, he had given up any shred of hope- if there was any even left remaining after he was trapped in the compound- and accepted his cage in the ground as a grave.
But now, as he was speeding off into the night, he could only thank God that he was free; thinking it nothing short of a damn miracle that he was even out of the fence.
He hates Walter with all of his being, but at the same time, he wouldn't be driving free if it wasn't for the man showing up at the compound.
Jesse silently thanked the man for saving his life one more time; tears still tracking down his reddened, scarred cheeks.
"Oh, god." He gasped through heavy, airy sobs.
"I'm free. I'm finally free."