Chapter 59: The Great Escape
Four days later, NB14572 and NB14564 broke out of the orphanage. NB14572 used the tool she had made to pick both the room lock as well as the lock on the front door. They made their way down the track towards town. It only took them thirty minutes to reach the centre of town. It was completely quiet.
‘This place is amazing,’ said NB14564.
‘Imagine what the Capital looks like,’ said NB14572. ‘I’m sure it’s a hundred times bigger and better.’
They reached the carriage stop. There was a timetable plastered on the wall.
‘Yes, there is a carriage out of here tomorrow morning,’ said NB14572 as she turned excitedly towards NB14564.
NB14564 nodded and smiled.
Early the next morning, a staff member alerted Melandria that NB14564 and NB14572 had escaped. Melandria smiled and shrugged her shoulders. The staff member rushed out of the orphanage. She ran down the track towards the nearest guard post. She thumped on the door. A guard opened.
‘Two orphans escaped,’ she said in a panicked tone. ‘We need your help.’
‘Have you checked all the cupboards?’ chuckled the guard.
‘One of them is her, NB14572,’ said the staff member.
‘I’ll inform Tiberius immediately,’ said the guard in a much more serious tone.
The guard picked up a handset. He pressed a button and began talking. He paused for a few moments as he listened to someone on the other end. After a few more exchanges of words, he put the handset down.
‘Don’t worry, we’ll find your missing orphans very soon,’ said the guard.
The staff member had a perplexed look on her face.
Meanwhile, at the guards’ complex, Tiberius was briefing a dozen of his guards in the courtyard.
‘We have to assume that the children will attempt to leave the North,’ said Tiberius as he stood in front of the guards. ‘The most likely way they will do this is by carriage.’
Tiberius started to pace. The guards in front of him stood still.
‘I want you to change into your civilian clothes,’ said Tiberius as he stopped pacing to face the guards again. ‘I don’t want them to know we are on to them. We will get them.’
At the carriage stop, NB14572 and NB14564 stood together holding hands; they were invisible.
‘It’ll be here soon,’ whispered NB14564 into NB145672’s ear.
‘Stay vigilant,’ whispered NB14572 back to him. ‘It’s not over until we reach the Capital.’
Someone from the carriage company started spraying the pavement with a hose.
‘This could be a trap,’ whispered NB14572 to NB14564. ‘They want us to leave footprints.’
‘He might just be cleaning the pavement,’ whispered NB14564 back to her.
‘We can’t assume that,’ whispered NB14572. ‘Let’s see where the carriage stops.’
Around fifteen minutes later, the carriage pulled up and stopped next to the wet pavement.
‘So we wait for the next one?’ whispered NB14564.
‘No,’ whispered NB14572. ‘I have a plan.’
They waited for the other passengers to board the carriage. They left obvious footprints on the wet ground. NB14572 picked up NB14564 and carried him across the wet patch. She placed him on the bottom step of the carriage. He then picked her up and carried her onto the carriage. He carried her to the second-from-last row before putting her down.
Several guards in plain clothes began to search the area around the carriage stop. They looked at the carriage steps for small footprints, but there were none. One of the guards radioed back to Tiberius.
‘It looks like they are not here,’ he said. ‘They didn’t get on the carriage.’
‘They got on the carriage, trust me,’ replied Tiberius. ‘Get on the carriage and check the empty seats.’
The guard climbed up into the carriage. He saw two empty seats in the second-from-last row. The guard smiled as he drew his sword.
‘I got you now,’ he said firmly as he stared at the two empty seats. ‘Get up!’
There was no response. The guard chuckled and prodded one of the seats with his sword, but there was nobody sitting there.
The guard sighed deeply. He radioed back to Tiberius as he got off the carriage and said, ‘They’re not on the carriage.’
NB14572 and NB14564 were hidden under the seats of the third-from-last row in the carriage. They were invisible and completely silent. A few minutes later, the carriage departed from the stop. NB14564 clenched NB14572’s hand as a sign of victory. However, NB14572 was still nervous.
Twenty minutes later, Tiberius arrived at the carriage stop.
‘No sign of them,’ said one of the guards.
‘They’re not here now,’ said Tiberius. ‘They left.’
‘Do you want us to search for their tracks in the snow?’ asked a guard.
‘If you like,’ replied Tiberius. ‘You won’t find any. They’re in the carriage that left.’
‘So they’ve escaped,’ said a guard.
‘Nope, our head trainer is riding in that carriage,’ said Tiberius with a smirk. ‘He will find them.’
The head trainer was seated in the back row of the carriage. This allowed him to observe the whole carriage. He did not notice anything out of the ordinary. The carriage hit a bump in the tracks. This caused one of the passengers to drop her drink. The liquid from the drink rolled across the floor. It kept rolling until it reached the row of seats the children were hidden under. At this point, it reached an invisible barrier. It did not take long for the head trainer to notice this peculiarity.
He got out of his seat and then sat in one of the two empty seats. He took a deep breath and then kicked underneath the seat. NB14564 yelped in pain. The head trainer quickly reached down and grabbed both children.
Tiberius and several other guards arrived shortly. They were riding bicycles. The head trainer was standing behind the carriage. He had both children gripped hard across the chest.
‘Excellent job,’ called out Tiberius as he got off his bicycle. ‘You are still the master guard. I bow before you.’
‘Would you like me to return them to the orphanage?’ asked the head trainer.
‘That will not be necessary,’ replied Tiberius. ‘You deserve to take the rest of the week off.’
The head trainer handed the children over to two other guards. He got on a bicycle, and as he was about to ride off, he turned around and said, ‘Sir….’
‘Again, thank you,’ interrupted Tiberius.
The head trainer nodded, and then he cycled away.
‘Take them into the woods,’ ordered Tiberius to his guards. The guards dragged the children into the woods and then up a hill. Tiberius followed behind them. Eventually they reached a clearing.
‘Give me the boy,’ called out Tiberius to his guards.
They handed NB14564 over to him. Tiberius pulled out a dagger and held it to his throat.
The guards turned NB14572 to face Tiberius. She had turned pale, but she still had a defiant look on her face.
‘Are you willing to beg for his life?’ asked Tiberius. ‘Or will you let me slit his throat?’
She desperately wanted to stand strong. Tiberius started to press the blade against NB14564’s neck, causing it to start to bleed.
‘Okay, please don’t kill him,’ said NB14572 softly.
‘Get on your knees and beg,’ shouted Tiberius.
NB14572 dropped to her knees. ‘Please don’t kill him. If you must kill someone, kill me,’ she pleaded as tears began to roll down her face.
‘That is sweet. That is so sweet,’ said Tiberius as he moved his dagger down from NB14564’s throat. ‘You’ve appealed to my softer side. I won’t kill him.’
‘Thank you,’ gasped NB14572.
Tiberius shoved NB14564 to the ground. He looked at NB14572 with an evil smirk on his face. He turned to two of his guards and said, ‘Cut his legs off!’
NB14564 tried to shuffle away from the guards. One guard grabbed him, and the other drew his sword. NB14572 screamed loudly. She desperately tried to get to her feet, but the guard holding her would not let her up. The guard with the sword began to swing his sword repeatedly at NB14564’s legs. He hacked and sliced at them. NB14564 screamed in agony.
NB14572 was pushed and held down on her stomach. The guard holding her pulled her head up, forcing her to watch as NB14564’s legs were slowly being severed from his body. The brutality continued for several minutes until both his legs had been hacked off from the knees downward.
Finally, both NB14564 and NB14572 went quiet. Tiberius walked over to NB14564, who was bleeding profusely. He was breathing heavily as he lay on his back.
‘He’s alive,’ proclaimed Tiberius. ‘I kept my word.’
NB14572 remained silent. The guard rolled her onto her back. Her face was different. It looked drained of life. Her eyes had turned blue.
‘She’s done,’ said Tiberius as he turned to the guard who was holding her.
‘Shall we leave her?’ asked the guard.
‘No, bring her back to the orphanage,’ replied Tiberius. ‘The others must see their fallen hero.’
‘What about him?’ asked the guard as he pointed to NB14564.
‘We’ll let him have his freedom,’ replied Tiberius.
The guard picked up NB14572. They set off back towards the track.
Later that day, Tiberius and another guard arrived back at the orphanage. Melandria opened the door. She looked down in shock at NB14572’s almost lifeless body.
‘What did you do to her?’ demanded Melandria.
‘We simply caught her and returned her,’ replied Tiberius. ‘No physical harm has been done to her.’
‘Where’s the other one?’ asked Melandria.
‘He’s been returned to nature,’ replied Tiberius. ‘Call the other children. They need to see her.’
The other children gathered around NB14572. She had been placed on the floor. She stared up past the other children to the ceiling.
‘Let this be an important lesson,’ said Tiberius as he looked at the children. ‘All will come to heel. It will happen one way or another.’
Sapien Loop: End of an Era
Sapien Loop: Frozen in Time is the sequel to the book Sapien Loop: End of an Era. Sapien Loop: End of an Era is available on Amazon, in collection series on my @spectrumecons account, and in individual chapters in my @captainhive account.
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