Page 4 of Bound to the Guard

“You like that, bitch?” the man snarls, continuing to pump electricity into Jade’s body. “Not so feisty now, are you?”

Pulse racing, I slink forward in my cage and, while they’re distracted, take the keys the first man dropped during Jade’s attack.

Then I press myself into the corner at the rear of my cage, my heart pounding so hard I fear I’ll pass out. Every instinct screams at me to hide, to become small and invisible.

Instead, I watch to bear witness to Jade’s sacrifice. He’s buying me time, giving me a chance to escape. The least I can do is honor his bravery.

With Jade twitching on the floor, the guards take turns hitting and kicking him before they drag his limp and battered body toward the stairs.

Metallic fear coats my tongue, and sweat coats my palms. Any minute, I expect the first man to remember his keys. To come back to search for them. But he doesn’t, and soon their footsteps fade to silence.

My chest heaves, my mind reeling as the weight of what happened crashes over me in suffocating waves. Jade risked everything to give me a chance at freedom.

Guilt twists like a knife in my gut. He’ll suffer for this, maybe die, and it’s all because of me. Because he put everything into the slim chance I can escape and tell someone what happened. All I want to do is curl into a ball and cry, but I can’t. Not now. Not when he’s counting on me.

With a shuddering breath, I peer around the cages, my senses on high alert. When I arrived, I accepted that this was where I would die.

But not anymore.

The keys tremble in my grasp as I fumble with the lock, my heart pounding so hard I fear it will give me away. Time slows, each second an eternity as I struggle to steady my shaking hands.

Finally, the lock clicks, and the door swings open with a soft creak.

I freeze, breath held, waiting for the shouts of discovery. None come. The distant sound of the guards dealing with Jade provides a temporary cover, but it won’t last long.

When I step out of the cage, a wave of vertigo hits, the sudden sense of space and freedom almost too much to bear. My legs tremble, unaccustomed to supporting my weight outside the confinement of the cage. I stumble, catching my balance on the cold metal bars.

With a shaky breath, I force my legs to move, one trembling step at a time. The corridor stretches before me, an endless expanse of gray concrete and flickering fluorescent lights. The stale air becomes harder and harder to breathe. Or maybe that’s my lungs, unable to catch up with my gasps.

I hug the wall, trying to melt into the shadows. Each step becomes a battle with the instinct to curl up and hide, tosurrender to the hopelessness that had become my constant companion.

Only Jade’s sacrifice propels me forward. I can’t let him down.

As I round the corner, my heart lodges in my throat as I spot the grubby utility room and the window that filters in sunlight. Jade wasn’t lying when he said it was small.

He was too healthy to fit through, but I have starvation on my side.

When he told me the plan, I argued with him to wait for nightfall. That’s when he told me they let dogs out after dark. Running when it’s daylight will give me the best chance of escape.

The utility room holds a toilet and sink, along with the furnace that heats the compound. I use them to climb up to the window, my muscles shaking with the exertion.

My hand trembles as I reach for the latch on the window, the metal cold to my feverish skin. This is it. The moment of truth. The line between captivity and the unknown.

I draw in a shuddering breath. The fear is still there, a constant thrum in my veins. But beneath it, a tiny spark of determination.

My fingers shake as I twist the latch, and cool, clean air sweeps in from the outside.

Heaving and wiggling, I wedge my way through, crawling out into the blinding light of freedom.

2

Twigs snap beneath my bare feet as I stumble through the dense woods, my lungs burning with each ragged breath. The urgency of escape drives me forward despite the exhaustion weighing down my limbs.

Cold air bites at my bare skin, raising goose bumps along my arms. It mingles with the sweat and grime coating my body, chilling me to the bone. My clothes, tattered and filthy even before my escape, offer no warmth.

How long have I been running? Hours? Days? Time blurs together, marked only by the pounding of my heart and the crunch of leaves underfoot. Have to keep going. Can’t let them catch me. Can’t go back to that hellish place.

A shiver wracks my thin frame, and I wrap my arms around myself, trying to hold on to any scrap of warmth. My fingers brush the jagged scars marring my skin, reminders of the experiments, the torture masquerading as research.

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