Moving further, she poked her head out slightly to see if there were any guards nearby, the last thing she could wish for was to run headlong into one. In the distance she could see one looking into the fence talking into what appeared to be a walkie talkie or a very robust cell phone, Eden wondered if he was making a routine report. The guards to her right were already a good distance away.
Crouching down again, she stared at the fence from her new position. Digging deep enough to get under it would take too long, on the other hand trying to break or cut the fence would make a lot of noise and she didn't even have the necessary materials to do it, it would be impossible. She only had the option of climbing, in itself it did not seem higher than a high school fence which surprised her, but the thickness of the metal felt robust, in addition to being reinforced by metal bars at the feet, the top part had curved spikes somewhat rusty. Looking closely at the spikes they seemed to be far enough apart not to stick them if she went carefully, but the key was that "carefully", that took time, and of course she did not know how much she had.
Eden did not know exactly what time it was, but her intuition told her that it was early noon, so releasing all the air and without thinking any more, she ran to the fence, throwing her backpack to the other side and starting to climb. It was more difficult than she expected, the holes to grasp were smaller than normal and her feet had little support.
In the distance she began to hear scandalized people, she knew they were the guards but she was not going to stop, she would not even look at them, her attention was completely on her climb to the top. With difficulty she was reaching but her hands burned her, they burned when she felt the metal digging into her skin leaving marks. The voices were getting closer and closer.
-Get down from there, stop!
Eden ran one of her legs over the fence, brushing her thigh more than expected, causing her pants to snag a bit without getting caught.
-Girl! Stop, stop! - The voices expressed anger and despair in equal parts
Ignoring them, she passed her other leg into a lowering position, but with its support been so small, the foot was not able to bear the weigh and she fell backwards to the ground with a sharp blow. It had hurt, but her head hit the soft backpack helping her not to break it. Sitting in a daze, she stared straight ahead, blinking rapidly. The men, fully uniformed and armed from what she could see now that they were close, were waving at her in an exaggerated way, soon the sound came back to her ears in a rush, slightly dazed her.
-Come back! You have no idea where you're getting - two of the guards were getting mad
- Please, girl, if you go further, we will not be able to help you- the oldest opted for assertiveness- going to the city is a suicide, come, we will open the door and you can come in, we will take you home- I raise my hands as if trying to reassure her- No one has to know, nothing will happen
- I'm sorry- he spoke only addressing the "nice" guard - but my partner is there, I have to go
- Young girl, there are no living there- his voice was heavy, full of feeling- I'm sorry to say, but if your partner is in town ...
Eden got up, cleaning her clothes as well as she could and checking for injuries. With determination she closed her eyes thus preventing any tears from falling and leaving behind the trio that was yelling continued on her way.
It was strangely satisfying to walk down the road in silence, without pollution. She did not hear a soul and that she did not know if it was good or bad. Arriving at the roundabout at the entrance to Lugones, she could begin to see the city, but everything was still silent and that was starting to get on her nerves. Taking a few moments to take a deep breath, she tied her hair into a high bun, leaving a few strands loose, so she could make sure the hair wouldn't get in front of her eyes at the worst moment.
At a comfortable pace she climbed the slope that would allow her to enter the city, she was just reaching the edge of it when she heard something, on the bridge that rose to her side, sticking well against the wall she was getting closer to the edge to see what it was. She was almost there when her foot got inside something of strange texture, looking down she could see how her shoe was completely inside the stomach of what appeared to be the corpse of a dog in full decomposition, judging by the cadaverous fauna that could be seen, he has been most likely dead for weeks. Covering her mouth, holding a gag, she took her foot out and, avoiding stepping on it again, advanced a little more and looked. At the bottom of the bridge and moving further away was a person, his movements were strange but at such a distance she could hardly see clearly.
Out of sheer precaution, she waited another minute until she stopped seeing the man, only then did she move down the street to finally enter Lugones.