4. The Escape

Gemma

She couldn’t remember when last she had slept so well; she knew she hadn’t been so well rested since she’d been brought to the pack house.  Honestly, it was strange that she’d slept so well, as if she feared nothing.

That could only mean one thing; that she was becoming complacent.  Complacency could cause her death, especially in the middle of all these beasts.  She got up and made her bed, then she glanced out her window and found that there was still no guard posted at her window.

This could be her chance to escape!  Quickly, she rushed to the bathroom and took a shower.  She came out of the steaming bathroom in her towel, like she always did and stopped short in her surprise.

The soldier was standing there with the tray, holding her breakfast.  Why did he show himself when everyone else tried their best to avoid her?  “I’m starting to think you’re trying to see me naked…”  She mused in distrust.

He chuckled with amusement.  “I wouldn’t mind, but the commander would kill me.”  He answered with a wink as he set down her tray on the chair near the bed.  His comment made no sense to her so she decided to ignore it.

“They used to just put my meals in the office; the only time I saw anyone was when the young alpha came here.”  She answered, hoping he would get the hint and put her next meal in the office so it would buy her time to get away, today.  She fully intended to get away as soon as possible.

“And here I thought we were friends.”  He pouted jokingly.

“Let’s be honest.  If you weren’t ordered to take care of me you wouldn’t give me the time of day, just like every other wolf in this territory.”  Gemma deadpanned as she walked to the closet and pulled out clothes, closing the closet door most of the way so she could dress in relative privacy.

He was quiet, so she assumed he’d left, so when she was dressed she walked out of the closet and startled when she found him leaning against the doorway again.  “Jeez!  You scared the crap out of me…”

He grinned with amusement.  “You know, not all wolves are like those you met here.”

“Yeah, the others just order me to be locked up so they could forget I exist and save themselves the energy of dealing with my presence.”  She retorted as she took up the tray and looked at what her breakfast would be.

This guy had loaded her plate like he expected her to eat breakfast and lunch from it, but she knew for a fact that he would bring another tray in the afternoon, which is why she wanted to leave as soon as possible.  She needed as much of a head start as she could get when she was running.

“I guess I can’t blame you for your opinion on wolves…”  He admitted reluctantly.  “Personally, I think you’d be a great friend.”  He grinned at her.

“Only until the order to kill me comes through; I’m guessing that’s not too far away anyway.  You can’t have a human walking around knowing about you.”  She answered as she started eating the eggs and fruit. 

She fully intended to keep the bacon and pancakes for rations, since she didn’t know how long she would have to travel on foot before she would be completely free.  It was not like he brought her small portions of food, so she could eat her fill and still have rations.  She’d been driven here by the wolves that sent a car to get her for the appointment.  The irony was that she had willingly gotten into the car that had kidnapped her.

“You don’t think the commander would really kill you, do you?”  The soldier asked with horror.

“Oh please, I know I’m only alive because I was useful up to this point.”  She answered, rolling her eyes.

He looked thoughtful for a moment, then smiled.  “We should start over.  Hey, my name is Grant Michaels.”  He said with sparkling eyes as he held his hand out to her.

Gemma sighed and shook his hand.  “Gemma.”  She answered drily.  She suspected they already knew everything about her; she didn’t know why he was going through this farce.

His eyes glazed over for a moment and he sighed.  “Duty calls.  Let me do my work and maybe we can hang out at lunch.”  He grinned a moment before he left.

She heard the door lock again and she counted to ten.  When she was sure he wasn’t going to come back, she quickly finished what she was not going to put in her bag for rations.  Man, was she glad she was a packrat!

Taking a plastic Ziploc bag out of her backpack purse, she quickly put the pancakes, toast, bacon and uncut apple inside and sealed it, then she put the two water bottles in her purse and pulled on socks and sneakers.  She threw in two extra pairs of socks and a change of clothes and then glanced out the window again.

There still wasn’t a guard, so she left her bag in the closet for the moment and rushed to the bathroom to get her toothbrush and toothpaste, bar of soap and a washcloth.  Then she plugged the bath and opened the water so it sounded like someone was in the bath.  Closing the door behind her, she put her toiletries in her backpack.

Slowly she opened the window and then waited to see if someone would come rushing to stop her.  Then she grabbed her backpack, a rolled-up blanket she had stored in her closet and the bottle of harvested bleach water.  Making sure the coast was clear; she slipped out of the window and onto the small roof of what appeared to be a porch.

As quietly as she could, she closed the window to win her whatever moments it would take them to figure out how she had escaped.  Sliding hesitantly down the slanted roof to the back of the house, she kept her eyes scanning her surroundings.  When she was sure no one was around, she climbed down the edge of the porch.

She washed the area with bleach water in an attempt to lower the chances of them catching her scent.  Gemma sidled down the side of the house, avoiding windows and then glanced around the corner.  When she saw no one, she ran for the edge of the woods as fast as she could.

Her heart was in her throat with the tension of trying to escape, but she was not about to give up.  Once she knew she was hidden in the shadows of the trees, she leaned back against the tree to catch her breath.  It would be so much easier if her throat didn’t feel constricted with her fear.  She was sure if they caught her she would be dead.

Once she had managed to calm herself down as much as she could under the circumstances, she started a steady pace, trying to keep to the shadows and listening intently for anything that sounded like something was nearby.

Gemma froze when she saw some cloth sticking out from under a bush.  At first, she thought it was someone, but then she realized that it was spare clothes.  It made sense, if they shifted and didn’t want to walk around naked, they would stash clothes to change into.

With a slow smile, she realized that this might just help her.  Glancing around, she pulled up the map on her phone and Then checked the position of the sun.  She was no wilderness survivor, but she had researched how to stay on course.  The last thing she needed was to get lost and run in circles so the wolves could find her close to where she started.

She checked the trees for moss and on which side they grew; the position of the sun.  Once she knew which way she needed to go, she rushed behind the bush and changed into the too big clothes.

Thankfully the sweatpants had a drawstring, so she tied it to keep the pants up.  Then she rushed in the opposite direction from where she was headed and stowed her clothes under a thick bush, making no attempt to hide her route and scent going in that direction.

Then she doused the area with bleach water and made sure to cover her trail for a distance with the bleach water as she headed in the direction she wanted to go.  Once she’d emptied the bottle of bleach water, she stowed the empty bottle in her bag and took a pace she knew from her training that she could keep up for a while.

She did not stop when the sun reached directly above her.  She had to take the chance she had to get as far away as she could.  She kept jogging at the speed, though she could feel herself getting tired, she pushed herself to continue.  The farther she was away, the better for her.

Gemma kept checking the map and the direction so she didn’t get lost in the woods.  She didn’t want to stop until nightfall and if she found a safe place to hide and rest.  She knew wolves were much faster than she could be, but she would take however long she could escape as a win.

She came to a stream and then glanced at the map.  She tossed a leaf into the water to check the speed of the stream.  It didn’t flow too fast and if she could stay in the water for a distance, it would make it harder for them to find her.

She glanced around to be sure she was alone and then stripped down to her underwear, shoving her clothes, socks and shoes into the backpack and then held it to her chest as she gingerly stepped into the light current. 

Slowly, but surely she went to the middle and used the current to carry her downstream, if she came to the large bend in the stream, she would have to get out and leave the stream.  She would occasionally take small gulps of water, hoping that the water was as clean as the mountain stream seemed.

She didn’t want to drink up all the water she had in the two bottles, or she wouldn’t have water for much longer.  But then, getting sick from unclean water was also not a good idea.  She hoped drinking from the stream was the lesser of two evils.

When Gemma came to the bend in the stream she’d checked on the map, she gingerly edged to the opposite bank and quickly got out.  She was proud of herself for getting this far as she used her hands to push off most of the water and dressed in the clothes again.  She grabbed a few more gulps of water from the stream before she headed away from the waterway.

She had come much farther than she had expected, but she was not ready to stop.  She still had to find shelter for the night even with the sun slowly descending in the west.  The cool water had soothed her tired muscles and she wasn’t sure if it was adrenaline or the water, but she felt like she could keep going for a while longer.  She had to.

Whatever distance she could get away from the wolves would count in her favor.  She knew she still had a long way to go, but she wasn’t giving up.  She had to get away from those animals and see if she could get back to civilization.  It was her only chance to escape whatever they had planned for her, because whatever it was could not be good.  He had said that he could not allow her to leave when she knew about them, so the only logical explanation was her imminent death.