"All right, Button, are you ready?"
"Yeah."
Maddie and Joseph had traversed a few halls, passed through the empty lobby area, and were standing in front of the exit doors. The front doors to the facility. This was their only way out. On the other side of the doors were two guards.
Maddie twisted the knob and opened the door. She was instantly aware of the cold outside air. It took swiftly to her face and ears. She also noticed a line of tall green pine trees. Above them, stars.
The two guards were at their posts, and they spun toward Maddie and Joseph.
"Excuse me," said one of the guards. "I'll need to see some identification."
"Excuse me," snapped Maddie. "I'm the divisional secretary of correctional facility operations. Inspector class b. Now, if you would kindly move out of the way."
Maddie attempted walking past the guards. The one on the right with the dreadlocks extended his arm, blocked her.
"Ma'am, we need to see ID."
"And who's the kid?" asked the guard on the left, referring to Joseph.
Maddie eyed the guard before answering. He had a crew cut and goatee. "That's my son. Had to take him to work today. Sitter was booked up."
"Why didn't you get a different sitter?"
"I have trust issues."
Crew Cut looked at Joseph, then at Maddie, probably trying to judge the ages. Maddie realized her mistake then. Joseph was eight years old and she was posing as eighteen, claiming to be his mother. But Joseph did look more like a five-year old.
"Don't judge me," Maddie remarked, staring down Crew Cut.
He turned around and faced the forest.
Dreadlocks insisted, "Ma'am?" He was holding out his hand.
Maddie had her fake ID in the holo. She wanted to see if she could get past them without it. Just in case the ID didn't work. Apparently she needed it.
Reaching into her jacket pocket, she retrieved the holo device, turned it on, and brought up her identification.
Dreadlocks looked at it for several prolonged seconds.
Maddie pretended to look disinterested, rolled her eyes, stared at the forest--her destination. Beneath the facial expression, she was worried. Was this going to work?
Dreadlocks powered off the holo and handed it to her. "What are you doing here so late?" he said.
Um... What am I doing here so late?
Maddie went over the options in her mind. She needed to think of some technical sounding reason. Trying to find a reason made her brain hurt.
"Excuse me?" asked Maddie, buying time.
"What are you doing here so late?"
Escaping before I become a convicted murderer, duh! "Pop inspection. The state department encourages us to do pop inspections of the prisons so the staff isn't prepared."
"Oh, I see."
Dreadlocks faced the forest and seemed to settle into his original sentry position. Maddie looked at Crew Cut. Same story.
"May I go now?" asked Maddie in a voice of faux frustration.
"Yes, ma'am," said Dreadlocks, facing forward.
"Thank you." Then, "C'mon, Richard," she said to Joseph.
Maddie walked past the guards then swung a right. There was a large visitor's parking area about one-hundred yards away, down the dirt road. But that wasn't the destination. After about twenty feet, Maddie and Joseph were out of the guards' sight, blocked off by several large mounds of dirt, the kind dropped off by tractors from dirt quarries. Maddie didn't know why they were here, but whatever.
In her high heels and dress skirt, she pulled Joseph along and they climbed up one of the mounds. There was a crater in the top and they rolled into it. Now they were hidden by a circular wall of dirt. Maddie tried to stand, but tripped. Joseph giggled. Maddie smiled but said, "Shhh." Then she took off her heels and buried them in the dirt. Taking out her tennis shoes from her waistband, she strapped them on her feet. Much better.
Slowly rising, Maddie peeked over the crater's wall. To the right, she could see several patrol jeeps. Parked. She looked around for the patrol jeep that was circling the prison. Nowhere to be seen. Must be on the other side of the prison. She'd wait for it, because right here, next to the other jeeps, is where the patrolman would park when he switched out with the next patrolman. Maddie checked the time on the holo device. Two minutes until the man's shift changed.
She sat back in the dirt and leaned her head against the dirt wall. Let out a sigh. She couldn't believe how well this was working. Every part of the plan had worked, despite the run-ins with the two guards. This was the very last part of the plan and, if they pulled it off, they'd be home free.
Free forever, because Maddie wasn't planning on getting caught.
They would be on the run the rest of their lives, but that didn't matter. What mattered was they would be together. And they were good at hiding. They'd been hiding the last two years.