No Peace for the Damned

need to get out of here
.
    He nodded absently. Now that the pain had surfaced he was weaker, but his determination was incredible.
    OK, what do I do?
    On the other side of the door will be two paths. One leads to the horse barns and the other leads into the woods that circle the estate. Take the trail on the right into the woods. I don’t know if it’s night or day, so you’ll need the tree cover
.
    Theo nodded. He put his back against the wall. He peered from the side, the pritchel back in his left hand as he opened the door with his right. As the door cracked open, a sliver of gray light shone in the dark room. There was no movement or sound in the immediate area—only the chirp of crickets and the buzz of mosquitoes to fill our ears.
    Theo opened the door wider. The moon shone brightly, high in the sky among a million stars. Silently, Theo moved. From the silo to the woods, he disappeared into the night. I knew the landscape well, but moving with Theo brought with it a whole new excitement. His grace and intensity were intoxicating. Once inside the tree line, he stopped against a thick maple, taking a moment to breathe through the pain of his injuries.
    What had they done to him?
    Without the benefit of my own eyes I couldn’t explore his body to see the severity of his injuries. And he was trained enough to know that looking at your wounds only made the pain worse. So after a couple of heartbeats, he was ready to move again.
    Straight ahead until you cross a small creek. You can get a drink and then head west toward the highway
.
    How far?
    About two hundred yards to the stream and another half mile to the road
.
    It was a haul, but he refused to show any wear. With another deep breath he was off. I stayed quiet while he ran. His movements were so smooth, so quiet, that if I hadn’t been with him I would have thought any noise he made was from any other night creature living on the estate. The babbling of the creek, once it hit his ears, made him run faster. Only when the water was in sight did he slow. Just inside the tree line, we paused and listened.
    Is there anything?
    I listened closely. No one had left the main house, but two of the guards at the security station were talking about the silo camera suddenly shutting off. They were drawing straws to see who would check it out.
    They know the camera is broken. They haven’t started the cart to head over there yet, but one of the guards is on his way to the maintenance garage. It will take at least seven minutes for him to reach the silo
.
    Nothing right here, though?
    No, but you need to hurry
.
    Without a sound he moved to the creek. He cupped his hands and drank in the cool water. The refreshment was instantaneous. I couldn’t feel the burn of his throat, but I could feel his satisfaction as if it were my own. He rose from the creek without gorging himself, drinking only enough to quench his thirst and keep his head clear. That more than anything else told me about his life. You can be trained to fight and to move and to think on instinct, but only someone who has suffered actual starvation would know his limit before making himself ill with overconsumption.
    West?
he asked, already moving in that direction.
    Yes. It’s a way, but just head in a straight line and you will hit the wall before the highway. There are cameras and guards that patrol the wall so I’ll let you know when we’re close
.
    It was dark under the trees. The moonlight provided little light through the full branches. He had moved a fast one hundred yards when a black shadow rose between the trees ahead. It was impossible to make out in the darkness, but it appeared to be larger than a human. Thicker. Theo moved in an arc around the shadow.
    What is it?
    I tried to use his sight to make out the shape. Bigger than a person. A work truck, maybe? We were almost on it before realization hit me, and my mind was paralyzed with terror once more. Theo froze with me. His heart sped up and his silent breath stopped completely as he tensed for a strike.
    Danger?
It was a feeling inside him rather than an actual thought.
    It took more than a couple of heartbeats for me to recover enough to respond.
    No. No danger. It’s…it’s just a shed
.
    A shed? Then why…?
    Just keep going!
    He paused a moment longer before survival took precedence over easing my fear and he was moving once again. By the time we were close enough for me to make out the wall patrol I was nearly composed