Runaway

Prologue

© Sweetslover8 2013. It is illegal to copy and/or steal.

~Uploaded August 26th, 2013

I have been staring at the same spot on the ceiling for five hours now. Five hours. I lay waiting in bed, for the perfect oppurtunity. I tilted my head to the left and was greeted by nothing but solid, blank walls. On the right? The same, only with a steel door with so many locks and codes that it would take me hours to crack it. But I wasn't pondering how to unlock it. Trust me, I've tried and four hours later, I only got through half of the damn locks. No, I was waiting for Quentin.

I started tapping my fingers on top of the plain white bedspread. I checked my watch again. It was 11:58 at night. He should be here anytime now. He was never late. If he was and the sperm donor somehow found out, he'd be fired so fast he wouldn't get a chance to swallow.

It was now 11:59. I could hear another door opening at the end of the hall through that solid door. I tiptoed quietly to behind the door and counted down in my head. 10, 9, 8, 7... I heard the swipe of the passkey and the locks clicking open. 6, 5... The heavy door swung open slowly. 4, 3... A boot stepped into the room and froze. 2. The person stepped further into the room, scanning it intently while unknowingly standing right in front of me. 1. I jumped high and grabbed hold of the man. He was over 6 feet tall, but the bigger they are, the harder they fall. I passed my left hand under his left arm and clamped my hand onto his neck. Man, I love half Nelsons. The genius didn't think about grabbing his gun or even his taser. Just struggled against the strength of a 15 year old girl. But before he knew it, I had grabbed his taser and shocked him in his side. He looked like an electrocuted walrus for a second before collapsing to the ground with a heavy thud.

I sighed and took off his belt with his gun holster, taser, and most importantly, his passkey. I disassembled the gun and left it in a useless pile in the locker. Next, I dragged the unconscious guard into another locker and looked at him. He had a rather peaceful look on his face, like he didn't just have his butt kicked by little old me. His hair was dark and curly, his body looking pretty good in the guard's uniform. I shook my head apologetically, even though he couldn't see me.

"Sorry, Quentin", I said to the unconscious man. "It had to be you tonight, didn't it? Serves you right for not listening to me." I slammed the locker shut and holstered my own gun into the belt.

I had warned him, I thought as I snuck into the hallway and past the other room doors. But his stubborn ass wouldn't want to take a night off. I had told him to take the night off, since he deserved it, but he refused. It didn't matter that he was the only guard here that was decent to me. Whoever, and I mean whoever, got in the way of me and my goal, usually ended up crashing and burning. Or in this case, unconscious in a locker with bruises that'll be feeling nasty in the morning.

I shook all thoughts out of my head. I swiped the passkey through the scanner and the giant door that was even bigger and more heavy duty than my bedroom door swung open. I crept into the silent and seemingly empty hallway, but wasn't fooled. There was always some guard lurking just around the corner.

I peeked around the corner and sure enough, there was one walking down the hall. He was one of those clumsy, but jolly, type guards that you always see carrying around a donut or cup of coffee. He was carrying both. He sipped his coffee while humming a tune that distinctly sounded like- No, it couldn't be. A middle-aged man humming Justin Bieber?! What has this world come to? I scrunched my nose in distaste as he hummed the words.

Baby, baby, baby, ohhh.

Great, that's exactly what I needed; a pop teen singing sensation's song playing in my head while I was trying to break out of a military facility. Why couldn't it be music from Fast and Furious instead? Or the other JB? James Bond. I looked back at the man, and thought, This is going to be way too easy.

I simply took out the taser, and waited for him to pass by unknowingly. He did, just as he was getting to the chorus of that haunting song.

"BABY, BABY, BABY, OHHH- AHHH!", he screamed before falling to the ground. His coffee and donut went down with him. The coffee had left a nasty stain on his shirt. I grabbed his ankles and hauled him into the nearest supply closet. I hoped the smell of spilled coffee wouldn't give him away before I had a chance to escape. Just as I was about to close the closet door, I looked back at the guard and felt a twinge of sympathy. I went back in and... grabbed the donut out of his hand, still fresh in its wax paper.

"Sorry, dude. You snooze, you lose." And I closed the door. I took a bite out of the donut. Mmmm. Boston Cream. I had to steal donuts from this guy more often. I finished it and dropped the paper in a garbage bin. Midnight snack over.

I tiptoed quickly and quietly down the hallway of shiny linoleum and stopped when I came to the next guard outpost. It was the totally cliché thing where the guard is sitting on one of those foldable chairs and still manages to fall asleep somehow. His head was tucked into his chest, his arms crossed, his hands right next to his gun holster and taser. Damn it. At least he was sleeping. You could practically hear his snoring echoing down the hallway. I tiptoed, and slowly removed the belt from around his waist, strapping it around my own instead. I continued down the hall, wondering vaguely what his reaction would be when he woke up.

You're probably wondering by now, since it is a top secret military facility, why no one has seen me roaming the halls through the surveillance system? Simple. I hacked into the system and inserted a video of empty halls playing on a loop. That's what happens when you get me the best tutor there is in hacking and reprogramming. I wouldn't be surprised if the system started blaring Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" in the middle of a board meeting. Or if the screens started showing pictures of Hello Kitty dancing to some ridiculous jingle. And on top of which, I slipped a non-toxic and very concentrated amount of sleeping drugs into everyone's food at dinner. That's what happens when you make me cook for 500 officers, I protest against it, and they make me do it anyways. They'll be sleeping like babies until noon. Then they'll be groggy and wandering around aimlessly, trying to remember something very important but it slips their minds. The drugs will wear off by tomorrow morning, when they realize that one of their most valuable assets has gone missing. But by then, I'll be halfway across the country, out of their greedy claws forever.

I had finally made it to the closest staircase. Yes, I had to go through 3 guards to arrive at one measly staircase. But it was the most direct way out and I didn't hesitate to kick the door open and run up all 25 flights of stairs. I could feel the pressure change in my ears around the 18th floor up. Yes, my bedroom was in the deep bowels of the Underworld. No sunlight, or moonlight, or any light for that matter, except from the cheap industrial florescent lighting. And the occasional four times a year when we were allowed to go outside and to the nearest town.

I didn't stop running until I got to the very end of the staircase and kicked the nearest door open. A blast of cool air rushed onto my face, its fresh scent enchanting me. I stepped outside. Outside. How long had it been since I had been outside? It was November now, and the last time had been two months ago. In September.

All around me, I was surrounded by century old pine trees, a thousand twinkling stars overhead that covered me like a blanket and the distant, faint sound of running water. A waterfall. I could've stood on the roof of the complex for ages, just inhaling the fresh scent of pine trees, listening to the calm of the forest at night, basking in the glow of the moonlight. But I knew I had to get going. Without any further hesitation, I jumped.

I couldn't help but smile as I fell off the edge of the building. I was that much closer to my goal, that much closer to a brighter future, that much further away from them.

~~~~~~~~

Hello to anyone who may be reading this.

This is the first story that I've started that I actually know how to finish. I know you may not be understanding the plot just yet, but it will develop and become more clear later on.

I'll upload the next chapter if I see things are going well.

Thank you and enjoy!

Also, please leave comments and let me know what you think!