Thorns stuck into my feet making me feel like I was running on porcupines. I tried to ignore the sticky pain shooting through my morphine infected brain. It took all my power just to focus on the left, right rhythm of my feet pounding the ground.
Behind me a red light bore down like the eyes of the devil. Tattle-tell sirens wailed my escape and I could already hear the guard dogs. They think a few puppies can track me? They should really know better.
I willed myself to go faster, I knew the layout of this island. The hospital wing was on the east side meaning I had about two more miles till I got to the cliffs. If I was right there would still be ropes slithering down the sides of the cliffs for training. I could rappel down to the shore and grab my gear. Three and a half miles down the shore would be the speed boats. All I had to do was get past the rabid German Shepard’s, boobie-traps, and guards with semi-automatics and Gatling guns. Piece of cake.
Once I got to the cliffs I wasted no time hooking the climbing harness around my hospital gown and starting my decent. At first I took it slow but the barking gave away the guard’s position. They were closing in. I stopped and tore off a couple strips of my gown. Fastening them tightly around my hands I started a controlled free fall. Heat started to lick at my palms through the flimsy cloth.
“There!” Above me guns clicked off their safety.
Have you ever done serpentine down a thousand foot cliff going about fifteen miles an hour? It’s a total adrenaline rush.
Flashes of bullets bounced off the rock like small fireworks illuminating the dark for milliseconds at a time. I swung right and was met by the bite of a bullet. My forearm stung but I kept up my sway. Left, bounce, right, bounce, repeat till I finally landed with a thick thud on the shore. I clipped off my harness and ran down the shore as fast as I could.
A few hundred yards away I could just barely make out the glow of flash lights. Across the length of the beach there was a string of thirty or so armed men shouting orders.
My survivalist brain gave me an easy option. I cringed. Jumping into freezing ocean versus thirtyish guns with large steroid-ridden, trained men controlling them. Taking in a deep breath, I plunged into the icy water head first, fighting to keep air in my lungs.
I forced my muscles to work with me. The currents screamed no mercy as they repeatedly slammed into my aching bones. Thinking of the place that lay behind me kept me going. I had been raised, if you could call it that, from birth in that place. Everyone was older than me by generations making it a solitary existence. The closest things I had to friends were the animals I hunted. Occasionally I would only capture them. Talk to them as if they could listen and respond. Sometimes I pretended they could.
Training was brutal. They would keep us awake for days without food or water forcing us to train until we collapsed. Once in a while they would see something unacceptable and come to terminate the wrong doers. I watched men who had trained for decades be dragged away because they lost a single sparing match during training. They never came for me.
When I had gotten good enough to go off the island on missions they would test me with duals to the death. Any hesitation got you killed. I’d learned that early in life. When something needs to be done you did it.
I did their bidding for years. From ages ten to seventeen I had killed enough people to fill a wall street riot. I hadn’t asked questions or really even looked at names. It didn’t matter at the time who I killed as long as I did it efficiently.
But enough nostalgia, my exit was coming up.
Gasping for breath, I washed up on the shore right next to the docks. Have you ever stopped to appreciate breathing? You should. I mean, air is really an amazing thing isn’t it?
My gown clung to me like an extra layer of skin. I wrung out my hair and started running for the small cave where I had hid my gear. Numbness had taken over my entire body so it was more of a shamble than a run but I made it none the less. In my duffle bag was a new set of cloths, bank account information with access to several fortunes, weapons of all kinds, a new identity, and the all-important chocolate bars. I shook hard from the freezing water setting deep into my now burning muscles. In the cave I took a second to slip on black cargo pants, a hunter green long sleeved shirt, and black gloves. One of the pockets had a plethora of hair ties, I slipped one around my wrist and fastened my hair into a loose but sturdy bun. Now it wouldn’t slap around in icicle stinging my face and neck.
At the caves mouth I surveyed the docks and surrounding area. No doubt everyone was on alert. Three guards on the dock, two wanderers. I slipped past the two easily by throwing rocks, simplest trick in the book. On the docks, I slipped silently behind the first guy and slipped my knife across his neck, dropping him silently into the damp sand. The second one had better hearing and I had to work to keep it quiet but skipped by none the less. Lastly, the guy puppy guarding my boat.
I approached with butterfly footsteps. The man turned with a smile.
“My Darling, I did not expect you to get this far.” The lighting brought out his sinister features. How cliché.
“I was trained by the best. Why not expect just that?”
He chuckled condescendingly. “Always so arrogant. Now tell me what is your plan after leaving this place?”
“Nu uh. This isn’t a Disney movie. I’m not going to brag about my plan to you while the guards close in.”
He gritted his teeth.
“I know you wont fight me.”
“What makes you so sure?”
I felt myself grin. “The same reason I woke up in the hospital instead of an execution room.”
Silence.
“You care about me.”
His face was full of malice. I started inching towards the boat. He didn’t move but I could see the coils ready to spring. Our eyes held. This is the man who’d raised me, watched out for me, encouraged me in his own nonchalant way. In the end he brought the ultimate blow, my final betrayal. It was the perfect irony that he would be the last to stand in my way.
I climbed into the boat and it roared to life causing steady vibrations in the silent waters.
“I’ll be watching for you….master.” I bowed to him out of respect for our past.
As I sped away I watched him. He stood at the edge of the dock and right before he knew I was out of earshot he called to me. “Like father, like daughter.” My blood was colder than the water slapping at my boat.
I could almost feel his smile. It was his final stab.
There had always been suspicion in my heart. But now I knew.
Daniel Kings was my father. And my ultimate enemy.
Should be an interesting character confliction down the road! Whatever. Rumors had left me suspecting this years ago. I turned my eyes to the sea. Closing them was the only way to ignore the tears streaming down my cheeks and meeting the salty spray. My first tears since I could remember.
This was freedom. True, beautiful freedom. I sighed. Tastes kind of salty.
I laughed at the thought. My entire life was being flipped upside down, but freedom was beautifully salty. For the rest of my days I’d be running. But none of that mattered until I reached shore. If my calculations were correct it’d be two days till I reached Florida.
Kicking my combat boots up, I dug into my bag for some chocolate. High energy, specially formulated, power bars that were worth three meals and could completely replace MRI’s, with the added bonus of tasting exactly like chocolate.
It took no time at all to fall into a half conscious sleep. I’d wake to the sunrise of my new life. A life that I could finally control.
Or at least, that’s the plan.