Chapter 6

Finally, after three hours of digging, I ran a hand through my hair, looking over at Charlie and Benji, who were doing the same. We had just finished the tunnel leading from their cell to the hallway, and even though we were exhausted, if we spent another day here someone would notice the tunnel for sure. "You ready?" I whispered to Charlie, while we were helping Benji under.
"It's about time." He replied, allowing me to go next. I ignored the sharp pain as the metal bars scraped my back and joined Benji on the other side. I admired how brave Benji was, even though he probably knew the risk we were taking by leaving. Charlie went under next, his reddish hair grazing the ground as he crawled.
I noticed how Benji looked almost nothing like Charlie. Whereas Charlie had reddish hair and icy green eyes, Benji was had a blondish-white color to his hair and grey eyes. Their only resemblance was their sharp features: high cheekbones and an expression that barely changed, unless they were in a good mood.
"Rosaline?" Charlie interrupted my thoughts. "C'mon." I nodded and we took a deep breath, heading into the direction of the hallway that would be our escape.
I sucked in my breath as we reached the end of the hallway. The guard was sitting on the cement floor, leaning on the door, sleeping. I saw Charlie open his mouth to say something, probably a curse, and I shot him a look. "What do we do now?" He mouthed. I shrugged.We stood there for a few minutes more, planning. I thought we might be able to step over him without him waking, but Charlie had other ideas. I watched as he took a step closer to the guard, considered what he was doing, and kicked him in the face.
I barely had time to react because right after we saw the guard come into conciousness, Charlie yelled, "Run!" And, oh, did we run. We were running as fast as we could possibly run, and the only time I looked back, the guard was far behind us, clumsily running and trying to stop his bloody nose. I looked over at Benji, who had become increasingly slower since we started running. "Hey, Charlie?" I asked, stopping.
"Yeah?" He looked nervously over at the jail, which appeared like a small silhouette in the distance.
"Do you think you can handle carrying Benji for a little while?" Benji gave me a small smile of thanks.
"Yeah. C'mon, Benji." He put him on his shoulders, and we were off again.
The trees and houses flew past my vision as we ran, the cool wind blowing through my hair. I noticed how most of the lights were on in people's houses, which wasn't a good sign, considering that it was the middle of the night. "Charlie, we have to get to the woods." I said as we ran.
"Okay." He replied, and we turned in the direction of the woods. "Let's camp there for the night. We'll keep going in the morning." I agreed and we hid in the underbrush of the woods for a while, catching our breaths and staring at each other in disbelief, all thinking the same thing: Is this real?
When our hearbeats returned to a normal pace, we kept going, trudging through moss and tree roots until we were so hidden we couldn't see one light in the distance. Right when we found an okay spot to stay for the night, I immediately sat down on a nearby rock and put my hand on my forehead. Is this really happening? I thought to myself, then smiled.