The Escape

• Sarah Charles, Grade 11
• Poetry
• 2010

“Just keep running.

Don’t look back, just keep moving forward.”

These were the words that ran through her head as she fought her way out of the town, the town that contained her family, her friends, her home, her life.

But she couldn’t stay, the future there was too uncertain, and she couldn’t deal with the constant fear of not knowing when the end was coming.

As she ran through the bushes, trying to keep out of sight, she saw all the things in her life that she was leaving. The house she grew up in, where she had taken her first steps, uttered her first words, had her first love.

“Stop it; you have to let it go”
She tried to tell herself this as she struggled to keep hidden from the spotlights and the guard towers. It was getting harder now, for there were fewer trees for shelter.

She had known that this was coming, and had prepared for it, she knew her escape route well, but now, under the cover of darkness, it was more difficult then she had imagined.

She was so close now, just a few hundred more metres, but her decisions in that short distance was the difference between life and death, for even if she survived being captured, they would surely kill her for trying to get away.

There was still a chance to give up, to go back to her unstable fragile life, the life that she had always known, but she couldn’t do it, not now, not after she had come this far.

Her backpack hit softly against her back, reminding her that this was a she had left of her old life. It had taken many hours to decide what to pack. After all, how do you put your life into a backpack? She had decided on the essentials and a couple of nostalgic items that she couldn’t bear to leave behind.

No one knew that she was leaving; she couldn’t risk anyone finding out. She had a plan though, so her mother wasn’t harmed, just as long as she made it out alive.

She was about to make one of the biggest decisions of her short life; left or right. It seemed simple enough, but this one decision was make or break. One wrong turn from now on would likely end her life, but the right decision would mean her freedom.

Then, as if planned, sirens started to blare and lights flashed. Only they weren’t focussed on her, but some disturbance in town.

This was her chance.

While she ran forward, through the gates, and on to freedom, something told her that her biggest challenge was just beginning.