Sam and Colby: The Penitentiary

61

It was definitely more than fifteen miles, especially considering we couldn't go near any main roads. We also got lost a few times until Blaze found a compass in his bag when he was looking for food.

It was four days later, five since we'd left the prison, that we finally stumbled out onto a road with a big sign that read 'welcome to Coalfield'.

"Well, it's been way more than 50 hours," Colby sighed.

"Thank god," said Corey.

"I'll go grab the paper to make sure he's caught," said Jake.

"And then what?" I asked.

"We'll figure it out," said Sam.

"Okay," I mumbled. All of us except Jake tucked ourselves away in some trees lining the road and gave Jake a few bucks before sending him down the road into town.

Something was wrong.

It'd been five days, not a little over two. If we didn't get to go back since Ray had gotten caught, then how were we supposed to make it back?

"I'm so stoked," Corey said, buzzing with energy.

"Yeah," I muttered. Why wasn't anyone else noticing or thinking what I was?

We sat in the trees for a while, talking and laughing until we heard footsteps approaching through the leaves.

"Uh, guys?" we heard Jake say. We all filed out to see Jake with a concerned look on his face and the paper clutched in one of his hands.

"You good, brother?" asked Corey.

"Uh, no," said Jake.

"They didn't find him," I said under my breath.

"What?" asked Colby.

"They didn't find Ray, did they?" I asked Jake.

"No. They didn't," Jake said. He held out the paper and Sam took it from him, quickly skimming the front page article.

"Fuck," whispered Sam. "James Earl Ray's DNA and blood was found in the abandoned Smither's cabin about 15 miles from the prison gate...no sign of him...didn't lose significant amount of blood...no trace of other six escaped convicts...if seen, do not approach Brendan 'Blaze' Carters or James Earl Ray... Jesus. This is a mess," he said, reading scattered pieces of the article out loud.

"Well now what are we supposed to do?" asked Corey. I took a deep breath and thought for a moment.

"We have to go find him," I decided.

"We have to what now?" asked Jake.

"Are you fucking crazy?" asked Corey.

"Yeah. But do you have a better idea?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, why is this a good idea?" asked Blaze.

"Because. If we set him up, he'll get found and the media will be focused on the captured escapee rather than the dead-end convicts that the police have absolutely no leads on," I said.

"Where the hell would we even start? There's so many places he could be by now," Colby pointed out.

"Not with his leg hurt like that," Sam pointed out.