Escape

The dreaded Sleep Crews arrive ahead of schedule to terminate Project Hummer and all test subjects. The cruelly efficient crews methodically eliminate all things living in the

 

Escape

 

I checked outside to see where the Sleep Crews were. When I saw the men in the grey Haz-Mat suits in the common area, I knew I did not have much time. The Sleep Crews were here. I ran back into my dorm and grabbed my small personal bag. Two energy bars and one bottle of water had to do for now. I needed more, but it was now or never as I rushed to make my escape. On my way out, I pulled the fire alarm. I rewired this one into a siren that made a high-pitched sound that only my group could hear and understand. I was a go for freedom.

            I made it to the back of my dorm undetected and saw Dr. Menedoza’s lab assistant enter the lab. Dr. Menedoza was still morphing into a dog! I executed that as much out of retribution as I did to survive, but she overlooked explaining what she intended to do to me and my survival instinct took over. 

            Doreen ran back outside screaming for help at the top of her lungs. She supplied me with a much-needed distraction. While she screamed incoherently, I made a run for the fence. It was tall. When you are scarcely five feet tall, any fence is tall, okay? I ramped up my speed and took off.

The fence was much less a challenge than I thought. It was not quite as high as I thought and I jumped it without much trouble. I know I was running at my top speed before I decided to jump and I was over the twelve-foot fence with room to spare, but my landing was a little rough. I managed to scrape up my knees and I turned an ankle, but the pain went away within one or two minutes and I never really slowed down that much.  

            Okay Beth, now what? I made it outside the fence and I needed to get my bearings quickly. As I looked around the sparse landscape, I realized I was in the open. I ran to some low brush to cover the rest of my escape. Two bottles of water were waiting for me under the first poor excuse for a bush. They were hot, but they were wet and that is all that mattered.   I planned our escape for years, and I almost had all my bases covered. In two weeks, I would have had everything I needed hidden out here, but they issued the order to exterminate our project and I did not want to die. 

            Alarms were still sounding within the facility and the gates remained closed. Either they did not know we were escaping or I had caused enough turmoil in the lab that they did not have a clue what was taking place. The Sleep Crews were at work and I could hear many tortured screams from inside the facility as the Sleep Crews eliminated the failures. I was not a failure. I was the first; I was the model they tried to duplicate. A ghostly shape swept by the back gate. It had to be Melissa. Lindsay had gone missing months ago. Those two could cloak themselves; hide in plain sight as it were. 

            I witnessed two others make a run for the side gate and they cleared it with no trouble. That had to be Maria and Kayla. Marianna did not make it out. They took her down as she tried to get back into the lab I just escaped. Marianna was one of the few mistakes who turned out viable. She had no special traits, but she was human and she was a nice person. She helped take care of the younger ones. I am not sure if they killed her or not, but the sleep teams were very proficient. If she was on their list, they put her to sleep.

            I saw them take three other failed experiments down in the common area of my former home. I knew them and it hurt me deeply to see them put to sleep. For me, I knew it was now or never. My legs were okay now, the scrapes were healing and my ankle was sound again. The cave was six miles away and inside the cave I would find Hummer. Designated Hummer U1, this was my vehicle. I designed it, built it with a little help, learned to operate it and I built its decoy that sits in the hangar along with over twenty other Hummers in various stages of construction. Project Hummer was the cover name for this lab. We were all experimental subjects and now Project Hummer was eliminated, one child at a time.

            I looked over my shoulder at the lab and testing facility I had been forced to call home since I was five years old. It did me no displeasure to bid this place farewell. Almost anything the world had to offer would be better than the years I spent behind those walls. I took off and hit my stride within a few seconds. I was cruising along at almost my top speed. Learning to adjust to these abilities was the only good that came from the testing they put us through. I learned to control my speed so I could still walk at the end of a long run of fifty miles or more. I kept breathing deeply and evenly as I ran, avoiding the burning sensations I experienced so early in my training. I was cool, calm, collected and ready to see what this world had to offer the smartest girl in the world.

Reviews

[None]

You give the reader great explanations here to the surroundings--past and future. A good use of hope here as well.

[Raef C. Boylan]

"I was a go for freedom." [?]

"They took her down as she tried to get back into the lab I just escaped." [I = I'd?]

"I built its decoy that sits in the hangar along with" [sits = sat, or is it still there when she's recounting this story?]

"It did me no displeasure to bid this place farewell" [did = caused? - being picky because of her established intellectual ability...although maybe she's more limited in language than in maths and mechanics?]

Good last sentence - gives the reader a sense of continuation over the into the next chapter, and of heading towards discoveries.

Nice work.