Noah grabbed the jacket, throwing it at her.
She stepped off the bed, pulling it on as Noah relieved the guard of his pants, tugging them on.
Next, he took the gun, grabbing her hand.
“Wait, maybe you should go,” she said.
“Skye, I’m not doing this with you right now. We go together or not at all.”
“I’m slow and weak.”
Noah slammed his lips down on hers. “It’s now or never.”
“What about the others?” she asked, looking toward the doors.
“We get out of here, and we bring help. We don’t have time to let them out. Half of them are weak anyway. Come on, we don’t have time to play here. We’ve got to move.”
He took hold of her hand, and they ran out of the room. Noah went in the opposite direction than whenever Mitch took her.
“Wait, Noah, what about the elevator? It’ll take us out of the top of the building.”
“I know, but we don’t want to get out where everyone is fighting. We need to leave through the back door, where not many guards leave.”
“You know the way out.”
Noah had admitted to her one of the days after he’d been taken that he’d been so badly beaten, Mitch and the others had mocked them all, showing them all where the exit was. It was just another element of their torture, how close to their freedom they always were, but never quite reaching it as they broke them so easily.
“Yes, I do.” He took her hand, and they ran through an arena. It was closed off, with no light, and Noah didn’t stop.
Even as her body struggled to keep up with him, she didn’t try to slow him down. One foot in front of the other. Fighting, trying to get away.
Tears of joy and hope fell down her face, and she could do nothing more than pray it worked.
They ran through another room, down a long corridor, and suddenly, Noah threw his weight behind a large metal fire door, and then they were out in the world.
It was daylight.
She blinked against the sudden harshness of light. It was also frozen, the snow biting into her feet.
“We don’t have time. We’ve got to move.”
They ran across the field, heading for the forest when they heard the first shot.
“Fuck, they’re onto us. Come on, Skye.”
She kept on pushing. In her thoughts, she remembered Mitch, his threats, the violence of his hands as they hurt her.
Everything he tried to do to her was to break her. She was more than ready for death, ready to have that killing blow delivered by Noah.
Only, they had found a chance to escape. A rare, beautiful chance.
To some, they were young, too young to even attempt something so incredibly foolish, and yet, they were making it.
They burst through the tree-line, and Noah cursed.
“They’ve got dogs,” Noah said.
“You’ve got to shoot them.”