My fingers curled around the edge of the wall tightly, my heart thudding rapidly in my chest. The searchlight slithered past less than a foot from where I hid. My breath caught in my throat as I tried to avoid making noise. I longed to wipe my hands, slick with sweat, on my torn jeans, but I knew that the movement would draw the attention of the guards. The searchlights came close enough to me that any motion I made would be noticed. As if to prove my point, the light swerved towards me again, and I sucked in a breath to hide my stomach from its deadly gaze. My eyes clenched tightly and my palms grew even damper.

I shouldn't have come out here! The light passed me. With a slight release of my breath, I ducked to the ground and army crawled to my next position. I knew I needed to get there before the light passed this way again. I only had a couple of minutes, maybe even less. My shirt rode up my midriff as I shimmied my way across the ground, hopefully not making noise that the guards would be able to hear. The closest one was stationed a mere handful of feet from me, but I tried to not worry. I had studied them long enough. They were trained solely to follow the movement of the lights. Their beady eyes rarely wandered from that set path of looping beams. That gave me no reason to be careless, though. At the slightest noise, I could become the target of a trigger-happy recruit.

I chanced a glance up at where I was going, and was glad that I did. Someone was there! I cussed in my mind. This was getting a lot more difficult. If I turned back, I would be spotted and sentenced to death. If I continued onward, I ran the risk of this stranger getting us both caught and killed. I was caught in-between a rock and a hard place, but I knew what I had to do. The safest option was to take my chances with the unknown person. Hopefully he understood that I wasn't going to reveal his presence. Some people were just too paranoid these days, not that it was really their fault.

The searchlight passed the place where I'd been just minutes earlier, revealing no one, of course. I nodded silently. The lights were still following the same route, which meant I had timed my movements correctly. I knew they would find my space. I was just smart enough, and lucky enough, to not be there when they did. With all the time I'd spent observing them, if I didn't know most of their routine, then this would have been destined to fail from the beginning.

I had less than a minute now, though, and that meant I needed to hurry. The discerning searchlights swerved around the ground, lighting deadly paths of gravel filled with garbage, and the guards that lined them. The guards stood, guns clutched at an awkward 45 degree angle from their waist. Helmets obscured any visible skin on their faces, and jumpsuits covered any skin at the neck and the rest of their body. I'd studied this place long enough that I knew the details of what they wore. The midnight black, laced in with a hideous olive green were the colors of our nation. In the dark of the night, I could only catch glimpses of them when they were highlighted by the lights flickering past.

I ducked my head to regain my focus where I needed it— getting to where I needed to be and when. A quick glance confirmed that the person was still crouched silently behind the pillar where I was headed. Some details were more pronounced now. Especially while crouching, this person was rather short. A worn black windbreaker rested on their frame, and the wind teased their dark hair into wisps that danced along the crown of their head. They took a deep breath, letting me know that they were scared. Anyone here, even a guard, would be. Not a day went by without a death being reported, whether it was from an escapee or a guard. The very ground we stood on seemed to seep death and blood from its pores.

I squirmed my way to within a foot of the pillar before the person there noticed me. His head jerked sharply and a deep breath shook his body. Instinctively, hands flew up as if to protect himself. I almost sighed, but remembered where I was, and held it in. Instead, I lay my two pointer fingers and pinky fingers together, entwining the rest, and gently placed my two pointer fingers underneath the tip of my chin: the sign of the rebellion.

The person relaxed visibly as I wormed up next to his spot. I could now tell that the person was male, and quite young, too. It was not unusual for a young man to flee, but only with the encouragement of their parents and family. Many were now doing so.

The situation was different for me. My family had no unemployed males, and I was the only female that didn't currently attend school. I would not be missed by anyone that would alert the government for several days, and by then, I would be far enough outside the government's control that they wouldn't be able to capture and kill me. I was fairly young, only eleven years old; but that was still old enough to be on your own. At least it was for me and my family.

The politicians tried to discourage people like us from leaving. They claimed that the area outside of the COMPOUND was dangerous. They'd started out by spreading the rumor that the quadrants had been taken over by blood-thirsty rebels. Personally, I doubted that they were that bad, but either way I didn't plan on joining them. I just wanted to get out. After that I'd take care of myself. That seemed to be the general consensus of the masses. When the politicians figured out that the threat of rebels wasn't enough, they started another rumor about nuclear radiation from an attack being spread around, and that the COMPOUND wall marked the safe areas. The threat of radiation held more fear for the people, I suppose, but it meant nothing to a girl who knew it wasn't true.

The boy fidgeted, drawing my eyes back to him. He seemed to be about fifteen years old. His body trembled in the cool, but light wind, and he gave me a small nod. I eyed him carefully, nodded back, and then crouched to the ground. The light would flicker over this way soon, and I had no desire to be found. The boy followed suit, flowing to the ground and into an easy crouch.

Mere seconds later, the light did a full sweep inches above my head. I closed my eyes tightly and counted to one hundred silently before I allowed myself to move my cramping muscles. The kid was staring at me when I opened my eyes. He stretched out his hand and mouthed something to me. I wrinkled my brow in confusion, unable to understand.

He attempted to mouth it again, but when he saw that I still didn't understand, he shook his head, and made an 'it's not important' gesture with his hand. Then, he stretched it out to me, and turned his head in the direction of the gate. I quickly shook my head, and angled it in the direction of the easier way out. For us, at least, it presented a much smaller chance of being found. I'd spent so much time here that I knew the areas that were patrolled by guards, and which ones weren't. I had noticed an area that was generally avoided by them, and it was far enough away that the lights rarely ventured over there.

He cocked his head to the side, not understanding. I placed my hand in his, and squeezed it gently, willing him to comprehend what I wanted him to know. He still didn't seem to, but he squeezed back anyway. I took this to mean that he was going to follow me. Suddenly, I heard a ghostly quiet, impossibly young voice ask, "Kojo?"

Kojo, or I assumed that was his name, reached down to his stomach. My eyes followed his movement, and for the first time, I noticed a small bundle clutched there. Bright green dots blinked out, and I realized that I was looking at a little girl. Once this registered, my mind began to race. Is he crazy? You can't bring a child out here! We'd have been lucky if the two of us had made it out together, let alone with a little kid! I bet she doesn't even have a clue about what's going on.

Kojo's eyes met mine, pleading and scared. I swallowed slightly, and then let my eyes flit down to the girl again. Her eyes danced over me, and an enormous amount of terror darkened them. She silently whimpered, and buried her face into Kojo's chest. He gently rubbed her back, his hand taking mine again, from where it had dropped to my knee. He squeezed it, as if reaffirming that we were still in this together. My heart was in my throat, and logic told me that I should say no and get out of there while I could.

However, something must have failed to compute, and I found myself nodding in agreement. He breathed a sigh of relief and cuddled the girl into his arms. A seconds worth of quiet whispers and the girl was properly soothed, ensuring that she would be more likely to remain quiet. Her head bobbed up and down somberly, and she clutched at Kojo's shirt, which was torn slightly.

I sighed too, glancing around to make sure no one had heard our hushed conversation, and jerked my head towards the direction of the gap in the gate that the guards hadn't yet found. It was a hole towards the bottom, hidden partially in shadows. The brilliant part is that it was darkened and there, but the hard part is that in order to get there you had to cross a completely open area. A small part of it was hidden behind a pillar, but most of it was completely visible, and gravel coated the ground before the gap. He nodded, a quick bob, and crouched into a higher position, preparing to launch himself forward. I followed suit, and held a hand up, signaling for him to wait.

Several heartbeats passed as we waited in silence. And then, I dove forward. I knew it had to be timed perfectly for me to actually survive. Someone must have been watching over me, because I landed lightly on the side of the large gap without a sound, and without anyone noticing me. I met Kojo's eyes across the gap and he gestured to the girl he was cradling. He wanted her to crawl over to me. How we were able to communicate this without speaking directly, I don't know, but we did. I nodded.

He whispered a few words into her ears, and then placed her on the ground, reaching his hands out to steady her as she slid onto her hands and knees. I readied my arms and hands awkwardly to reach out for her when she arrived. Kojo carefully crouched in a leapfrog-type position, pressing a hand gently on her bottom to push her forward. With shaky movements, the little girl began her crawl to me.

My heart raced, and my breath caught in my throat. Please let her make it. Please... I bit my lip harshly, and the metallic taste of blood began to fill my mouth. I was silently cheering for this child as she reached the halfway point without being discovered. Her hands and knees were caked in dirt, but somehow she managed to continue on her way. The gravel was thinned out in this area, but it still made soft tinkling noises when she moved in just the wrong way. If anything was going to give us away it would be those quiet but deadly sounds.

It seemed like an eternity, but she pushed through the second half of her journey and reached my arms. I pulled her to my chest tightly, as though reassuring myself that she had actually made it.

Kojo grinned broadly, and then motioned for me to move out of the way so he could join us. Suddenly, there was a guard. It was all too fast, much too fast. He was gripped by his forearms as I instinctively clutched the girl to my chest, shielding her eyes while I sank into the shadows. Kojo yelled out, and started to struggle and flail. My breath caught in my throat, and I felt my heart pound deathly fast. The girl in my arms squirmed slightly but calmed when I placed a hand on her head. Kojo let out a yelp when a guard kicked him in the ribs, not bothering with being gentle. He struggled more for a few moments, before going limp rather suddenly.

The guard yanked some sort of device from Kojo's back and let him roll to the ground. A small pool of blood formed on the ground before the guard dragged him away, tearing another hole in his shirt. We had been as quiet as possible, but all the efforts in the world had not been enough to save Kojo.

My limbs shook uncontrollably for a few moments, before I remembered the girl in my arms. I held her close to me for a few moments before survival instincts kicked in. We needed to leave, and now, before the guards started looking for other possible members of the getaway party. I curled this innocent bundle into me and together we fled in the depths of the night.

My only discernible thought that was not directly tied to our survival was So it will be an attempted escapee added to the death charter tomorrow morning.