“What?” Jada gasped. “You can’t leave, Hella. I’ll have no-one with the both of you gone.”
“Then come, Jada. You don’t have to stay here.”
“I can’t. If they find me…” she trailed off.
“They won’t. We won’t let anything happen to you.”
“I can’t. I’m sorry,” she answered, tears streamed down her reddened cheeks. She swiped them away angrily, spinning around and walking out of our tent. The entire section of where we were was surrounded by white tents. When we were younger, we had to stay in the confinement building that sat right in the middle of the property. But once we hit eighteen—and stopped trying to fight the system—they put us out here with the rest of the soldiers. There were around thirty-eight, and we all kept to ourselves. Hella and I had been planning our escape since we decided to stop fighting against Kurr. We’d studied each detail with careful precision. We knew when the guards switched shifts or when they were at their busiest, therefore, giving us a ten-minute window of opportunity.
“We can’t leave her here,” I said to Hella while tying up my combat boots.
“We can’t do anything else about it. She doesn’t want to leave.”
“We’ll come back for her.” Throwing my black vest over the top of my hoodie.
“Yeah,” he swallowed. “We will come back.”
“Ready for this?” I asked with an arched brow.
“Born fucking ready,” he replied, eagerness and determination boring through his eyes.
Once the clock-tower that sat above the guard’s headquarters struck nine, we began our escape. Throwing my backpack over my shoulders, I pulled my hoodie over my head, shading my eyes.
“Let’s go,” I whispered to Hella, who was following closely behind in my footsteps. The dry leaves crunched under the heavy weight of my combat boots, and the darkness of the night leaving any visible vision impossible. Pulling out the night vision goggles I’d stolen a few weeks ago, I handed a set to Hella as we continued our trek. Dodging the bright spotlights that swung around the entire compound, we made it to the corner of the diamond metal fence. We’d both been working on it for a few weeks, with full knowledge that this part of the fence was weaker than the rest. We decided to cut all the metal and then re-bind it back together with our own wire, making it easier for us to remove it easily when the time was right.
Unhooking all of the hooks, I passed them to Hella, who then placed them in his pockets while still keeping watch, his head moved from side to side, his gun cocked with his finger on the trigger. Hella and I were around the same height and the same build. We could pass as brothers, only where my hair was dark, his was blond. We could both bench around the same. One of the only things that mattered in the compound when we weren’t training was how much you could bench. It was all about the size of the man on the outside and the size of the fight on the inside. Hella and I both had plenty kills on our hands, Kurr always made it clear just how successful we were and how much we contributed to the cause. The cause of what, I never fucking knew. Taking out people who they said or sending us into Iraq, it didn’t matter. We had to do it. But where I had patience with my kills, Hella would just tear you to shreds like a Pit Bull with a lockjaw and not bat an eye.
“Done,” I whispered, stretching out the wire and rolling it back to form a hole that was only just big enough to fit us both. Pushing my body through, we both made it to the other side of the fence and ran. Ran like we’d done many times before, but only this time—we didn’t get caught.
My feet were pounding the pavement in heavy strides, and the air was dead silent with nothing but our heavy breaths and the crunching of leaves under our boots breaking the silence. With my hoodie thrown over my eyes, my legs found their fifth wind and I boosted forward. The freedom surging through me was surreal. I’d wanted this for so long. All the failed attempted breakouts, all the punishments, the whips, the cuts, it wasn’t all for nothing.
“Have you heard from your contact?” I asked Hella as we found the first car that was parked under a single street light. The only beacon lighting up the darkness of the night. The fog was thick and the air ice cold. A cold sweat broke out all over me. I took out the screwdriver from my backpack, popped the lock quickly and slid into the driver’s seat.
Hella took a seat on the passenger side, throwing our bags to the back. “Yeah, we’re good. She’s a cop.”
That got my attention. What the fuck was he thinking bringing a fucking cop into this. One thing I knew was to never trust anyone in the law. Pussy or no pussy.