Escape. It's all that's been on my mind since our meeting three days ago.

We headed to the common room after finishing dinner - barbecue chicken and potatoes.

I'm still on crutches, which really sucks. I can only hope that I can be off them before we go. I can limo around without them, but the pain is awful. Kind of like right now, even though I'm sitting.

"Tristan," I whisper, trying not to interrupt the conversation with Aria, Quinn, Kendra and Mitch. "I need pain pills."

"'Kay. Let's go. We'll be right back," he tells them.

"Where're you going?"

"Infirmary," he says, nodding his head at me.

We head out of the common room and I have an urge to take his hand. But of course my hands are occupied by these stupid crutches. Stupid Cody and Daniel.

Tristan helps me down the stairs as usual. He's so good to me. I'm so lucky.

And then he puts me down at the bottom of the stairs and catches me starting at him.

"Whatcha looking at there Amber?"

I blush. Why me?

"Nothing."

"Mmmhmm," he nods. "I bet that's it. It couldn't have been that you were looking at this face. Nope. Definitely not," he shakes his head, laughing at me.

I blush and giggle. "Why would I be looking at your face?"

"Hmmm. Maybe cause you're hopelessly in love with me?" He says teasingly.

I stick my tongue out at him. Childish, I know.

"So mature," he says with a grin.

I just stick my tongue out again, and crutch down the hallway toward the infirmary.

Tristan catches up with me, which isn't very hard, considering the fact that I'm on crutches.

He opens the door to the infirmary for me and the guy inside greets us.

"Hi! I'm Colin! Can I help you out?"

"Yeah, Amber here is on crutches," Tristan says, sounding a little annoyed if I'm not mistaken. "She needs some pain meds."

"Okay," Colin says, opening a filing cabinet. "Amber..." He flips through some folders. "What year are you from?"

"Twenty fifty-six."

"Province?"

"Manitoba."

He flips through a few more folders. "Ah, here we are. Amber Matlock, Manitoba, Twenty fifty-six. It says here Amber that you were supposed to be off of your crutches three days ago."

"Yes, but I cannot walk on my ankle. Three days ago when I didn't use crutches it swelled like a balloon. The other girl that's been here just gives me pain pills - no questions asked."

The infirmary dude eases my crutches away from me. I wince in pain as weight is put onto my left ankle. I quickly shift my weight to my right side and Tristan is quick to put my arm across him for some support.

"Just give her some meds and her crutches!" Tristan shouts at Colin.

"The official ADCCG file is kept up to date and gives precise instructions for what we need to do here. You can look at the file if you like. It says right here that she should not be on crutches. I can give you some pain pills though Amber."

Tristan throws up his arms in frustration.

Colin hands me a couple painkillers and some water. I swallow them.

"Come on Tristan. Let's go."

"But you need your crutches!"

I sigh. Clearly neither of the two are going to relent anytime soon.

Tristan argues with Colin for a while longer about giving me crutches back. Eventually they reach a compromise: Colin will switch my tensor bandage for a stronger brace splint thing. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but it gives my ankle a lot more support. But Tristan still won't let me walk up the stairs on my own.

+++

I got my brace last night, and this morning I'm going back to the infirmary. I'm supposed to get pain pills and whoever's there will adjust the brace.

Even though I say I can go alone, Tristan comes with me.

"Let me go down the stairs Tristan. The brace really helps, and in gonna need to be able to walk for the plan."

He sighs. "I guess you're right."

"I always am," I say, sticking out my tongue. "I can hobble around. Don't worry."

I get my brace adjusted and take the pain pills in record time. It's a different girl there this time - thankfully not Colin.

The girl tells me that I'm being cut off from the pain pills. Guess I'll just have to suck it up.

When Tristan and I get upstairs to the common room, Aria and Quinn are talking with Mitch and Kendra. We head over to join them.

"How's that ankle?" Kendra asks me.

"It's alright. The brace is working well."

"You can walk on it okay?" Mitch asks.

"Yeah. I'm a little slow, but yeah."

"Okay, good. Because Greyson told his friends that Jay is 'going to see a girl tonight,'" he says, making air quotes.

I nod.

Wow. Tonight is the night we leave this place. It's still hard to believe that we're actually escaping.

+++

We go through our day as usual. A gym class in which we run laps the whole time - I walked laps to get used to using my ankle, we do math worksheets and have meals.

Kendra and Mitch catch up with us again in the evening.

They explain the plan for this evening. "Greyson and Jay pulled some strings so that your roommates have stuff to do this evening. There are backpacks in each of your closets. Fill them with warm, practical clothes and other things you might need. Nothing frivolous. Greyson has a first aid kit with him. Your roommates are having a sleepover with some of the older people and some your age. Girls, spend the night in Aria's room, guys in Tristan's. Got it?"

"Yep."

"We'll come and get you," Kendra adds to what Mitch just told us.

We all head back to our rooms to pack.

Aria and I start in my room, because we're spending the night in her room.

I pack t shirts, tights, sweats, long sleeves, and a fleece hoodie in my bag. I leave out a sports bra, black long sleeve athletic shirt and black tights to put on later. Then we head to Aria's room. She packs very similarly to me.

The two of us go through the motions of getting ready for bed. Before we get under the covers, we get dressed in the clothes that we left out of our backpacks.

We get dressed and lie in our beds. I doze off for a while, but the anticipation is making it hard to sleep.

At 2:38am Kendra sneaks into our room.

"Come on girls. It's time."

We steal out of the dorms and meet up with Mitch, Quinn and Tristan. Everyone is very quiet.

"Ready?" Mitch asks.

Moments later, the doors to the common room open. Jay and Greyson appear, and motion for us to follow. Very quietly, we do just that. Tristan stays right beside me, probably still worried that I can't walk.

After twists and turns through unfamiliar hallways, we reach a large metal door.

Greyson unlocks it, using some sort of mechanism that I don't recognize.

The door swings open, and the reality hits me. We've done it. But we aren't in the clear yet.

It's cold outside, and I wish I had worn my fleece, instead of packing it. Oh well. It's too late now.

We walk for about an hour until we reach a very brick wall of about fifteen feet with menacing coils of barbed wire on top.

Uh-oh.

But Greyson and Jay must have been expecting this. Jay pulls a homemade rope ladder from his bag, and I realize that they have much bigger backpacks than us. The six of us have standard school sized backpacks. They have 'live out of this backpack for a year' size backpacks.

The boys work together to get the ladder hooked on the top of the barbed wire. It's decided that Jay will got first, and Greyson last.

Slowly but surely, as we all hold our breath, Jay climbs the wall. He pulls the ladder so that half of it is on our side, and half hangs down his side so he can climb down. Greyson holds our side of the ladder so it doesn't slip.

Kendra goes, then Mitch, then Tristan, and then it's my turn. I know that my brother is holding the ladder, and Tristan is waiting for me on the other side.

I climb over the barbed wire and start my descent. I'm a little slower than the others due to my ankle.

I Mitch, Kendra and Tristan, who are crouched down in a ditch that runs along this side of the wall. Jay is holding the ladder.

Once everyone is on the non ADCCG side of the wall, were pretty happy. We've been gone for about two hours so it's about 4:40am. It's still dark.

"We want to get as far as we can in the dark, okay guys? We're going to start walking now," Jay announces.

Tristan comes to walk beside me, and has me put my arm around him to make it easier for me to walk. Greyson and Jay are speaking in hushed tones, Mitch and Kendra are holding hands, Aria and Quinn are walking together in silence, and Tristan and I are just absorbing the fact that we've escaped.

Another hour later we take a quick break. Some protein bars are passed around and we keep going.

The sun is beginning to rise, and Jay announces that it's nearly eight o'clock in the morning.

We've been walking across a barren plain for the last few hours and we reach some trees and take a break.

I sit down to rest my ankle, and Tristan sits down beside me and takes my hand in his.

Everyone is sitting down, enjoying the fresh air, when we hear a gun shot. We scramble for our things and run. Tristan takes my backpack to make running a little easier for me.

A few more shots ring out. But we're literally the only people in sight.

We slow our run to a jog, and then to a walk.

"I don't know where those were coming from," Greyson says, trying to mask his worry.

We continue walking. There is a thick forest way ahead in the distance. It'll probably be a good place to hide.

"Let's aim to get there by midday," Mitch says.

+++

It's only been about fifteen minutes since we regrouped after hearing those gun shots. But I'm going to guess that they came from the helicopters that are overhead.

Before we can talk about the fact that there are what appear to be government helicopters above us, they open fire.

We sprint. Running for the cover of the forest, we are concerned only about each other's safety. Tristan isn't able to grab my backpack this time, but he grabs my arm and makes sure I'm right beside him.

At first it's just a few warning shots.

Then I see Aria fall. Quinn helps her up and tries to keep moving, but she collapses a few feet from where she first fell.

She's been shot.

Quinn bends over her, tries to help her, so they can keep moving. But it's no use.

"Aria!" I scream. "No!"

"C'mon Amber!" Tristan says. "We have to keep going. I can't let you get shot."

"But-but-"

I look back. Quinn is sitting with Aria in his lap, crying, holding the girl he loved.

He motions for us to keep going. To leave them.

I cast one last glance back and follow Tristan.

They're gone.

+++