'Huff... Huff... Huff...'
"C'mon Arrisa! You have to keep going!" I yelled behind me.
"Tristan! Delcain! Slow down! I can't keep up!" She yelled back.
"We can't slow down. We'll be caught for sure! Delcain, can you carry her?" I asked.
"I can try. C'mon Arrisa get on my back!"
We continued to run through the forest, the darkness pushing down on us like a boulder. We had no destination, we only knew we didn't want to go back. Freedom, Death, or Capture.
There were five of us in total, I was the oldest at age 17, Arrisa was the youngest at age 5. All of us shared one common problem, we were Omegas. Born in a lab, groomed into perfect Omegas. We knew nothing about the outside world apart from stories and books, but life in the lab wasn't living. We just existed.
We ran for what felt like hours, soon hearing an alarm blaring in the background, dogs barking like mad.
"We have to pick up the pace, they've noticed we're missing already!" I yelled.
"I see a break in the tree line!" Kaleb exclaimed.
Out of the many escape attempts I had made, I never made it to the treeline. I picked up the pace and found a road. On the other side of the road was a massive hill that rolled down into a town full of lights.
"We're almost there! Don't give up! We can make it!"
We ran across the road, down the ravine, and through the ditch. I could see Delcain slowing down, I wasn't strong like Delcain but I wanted to share the burden of my half-assed plan.
"Delcain I'll carry Arrisa from here." I said putting my bookbag across my chest, then squatting down for her to climb on.
I could tell they were all scared to go down the hill, but the only other option was death, or getting caught. If we were caught, we would pray for death so there were no other options.
'This is the last time... I'm not going back... I'd rather die.'
My last escape attempt claimed my mother's life, she never blamed me. Even as she lay dying, she only ever apologized and told me she loved me.
I will never forgive them... that lab could burn to cinders for all I cared. They had taken everything from me. I would hit them where it hurt, hard.
We slowly slid down the hillside, taking care not to topple forward. We were halfway down the hill when the barking grew louder. I looked up and saw about 10 men and 7 large dogs. The kids began to panic.
"Tristan! There's no where you can go that we can't find you!" A man screamed.
"It's okay guys, the dogs wouldn't be able to control their momentum on the hill, and those fat asses won't risk coming down here. We're almost there, don't give up!"
"Okay Tristan." Arrisa said, holding on tighter. We were almost down the hill when I heard a scream to my left.
"KALEB!!"
"It's okay, it's just a bite wound!" He called back, kicking the dog down the rest of the hill.
"You're bleeding so much!" Arrisa cried.
"I'm fine, keep going!" He yelled.
We reached the bottom and slipped between some buildings. The city was filled with people. I found a glass bottle on the ground and smashed it. I took a small piece and held out my arm, feeling along my forearm. There was a small lump by the inside of my elbow. It was information my mother passed to me on her dying breath.
I dug into my arm and found a metal pill shaped object that blinked green. I pulled it out and crushed it on the ground. I ripped my jacket and wrapped a piece around the wound tightly.
"Next, we have to cut the chips out. Or else they can hunt us down. Boys have them in their arms, girls in their legs." I told each of them.
Kaleb and Delcain made short work of theirs. However Arrisa and Sable couldn't locate theirs. We helped them look for them and found them in their inner thighs. It was sickening to know why it was placed there.
After cutting out everyone's chips, Delcain helped wrap everyone's wounds. Making sure to wrap the bite wound on Kaleb's leg as well. We walked through more alleys and streets, eyes wide and star-struck by the sights. My mother had left a small amount of savings behind in cash for me, however since I had no knowledge of how to spend currency, I couldn't be sure how much I actually had.
"We need to find a bus station and leave this city first. They'll eventually find us in a city this close to the lab."
"Okay but what if we need things we don't have?" Delcain asked.
"It's okay... my mom had a plan for me." I reassured them.
Delcain and I were the only literate ones among us. The lab didn't believe an Omega bred to serve needed to know how to read, but our mothers had bigger plans for our futures.
We searched for anything remotely close to transportation and found a train station instead. I was able to buy 5 economy class tickets for us, the destination was the furthest city from the current one we were in. It would take 10 hours to travel there and we had an hour and 30 minutes before it departed.
"You guys stay right here on this bench. Don't talk to anyone, don't go anywhere. I have to find a pharmacy and convenience store. If you do run into trouble before I get back, I want you to split up. If you can make it back to this spot, great. If not, be safe. I'll try to find you if I can. Understand?" I asked.
Everyone looked so scared, but I didn't have a choice. There were things I needed to buy before we boarded the train. They all nodded their heads in agreement and I headed off. The pharmacy and convenience store were relatively close by only 5 minutes on foot.
I grabbed some snacks, water, and suppressants. I also got some cream for Kaleb's wound, along with Band-Aids and wraps for our own.
"That will be $158 corra." The clerk said.
I pulled out two bills that had hundreds in all four corners. The clerk looked skeptical at first but tendered the sale nonetheless. I walked quickly back to the station and spotted everyone still on the bench looking stiff and nervous.
Their faces all lit up seeing me. I quickly walked up to them, and passed out waters and sandwiches. I treated Kaleb's wounds first, pouring water over them and then applying the cream. I wrapped his wounds tightly and let him eat. By the time I had taken care of everyone, Delcain rinsed and wrapped my wound as well.
We had 10 minutes before the train departed, so we all boarded it together, taking a booth and resting. A conductor came through to check tickets and stopped at our booth.
"Tickets please."
I handed him all five tickets and he ripped an edge off, handing the rest back to me. As he walked away everyone sighed in relief. The tickets and essentials didn't cost much in terms of how much money I had, however I knew the money wouldn't last forever, so we would need to find a way to get money, and I was the only one at a working age.
Delcain would be able to work in two years but that didn't help the immediate problem.
"Tristan, how much money did your mom leave you with? My mom gave me 50,000 corra when I told her I was going to escape. She didn't want to come since she was pregnant... I wish I could have changed her mind." Delcain said with a regretful frown.
"My mom left me with 275,890 corra... it was everything she saved after my third escape attempt. It's enough to get us on our feet but I'm going to need to get a job soon, to maintain a place." I said.
"Tristan, are we going to live together now?" Arrisa asked while Sable glanced out the window, the train had begun to move.
"Yeah, we're all going to be together now. We'll have to look out for each other from now on, okay? We can't act reckless and we cannot get caught. We'll have to come up with a background story. We can never tell anyone where we came from, they'd take us back to claim the reward."
"Right, but for now everyone get some rest, it'll be 10 hours before we reach our destination." Delcain said to the smaller ones.
"Right, we can think about the difficult things tomorrow." I agreed.