12 Miles to Safety

They stayed in that position for two days. They found a small cave with an easily concealable entrance, so they moved everything inside, covered up the opening, and hunkered down.

Despite everything, everyone was doing mostly okay. The Tanakas had recovered enough to take charge of making sure everyone ate. Grace and Hunter were the only ones to leave the cave, splitting guard duty between the two of them. And Anna looked after Danielle.

Grace was worried about Danielle. Her wound was starting to heal, but she still looked pale, and it was hard for her to move very much. Grace prayed that she wouldn't get an infection, but there wasn't anything they could do to prevent that.

But after two days, Danielle insisted they leave. They had been in one place for too long, and the chance of discovery and recapture only grew greater.

They traveled at night. Hunter and Ren took turns supporting Danielle, who set their very slow pace. More than once, the Underground 109 member told them just to leave her. But no one even bothered arguing with her. They just kept going, almost dragging her along if needed.

But after two nights, they had only traveled about four miles. Assuming the other groups hadn't been caught or killed, they would all be across the other border by now. Grace doubted they were still waiting. It had been too long.

8 Miles to Safety

As they took shelter on the third morning since escaping captivity, Grace found herself with Hunter, alone, for the first time in days. Their food supply was running low and the two of them had ventured out to try and find something to eat and bring back to the group.

"How are you holding up?" Hunter had been inspecting some berries, but had stood back up without picking any. The last thing they needed was poison.

Grace leaned against a tree. In all honestly, she was barely holding on. If she didn't have the others to travel with, she would have taken off running at that moment and not stopped until she reached the border. But she couldn't. "How are any of us holding up?" she countered.

Everyone looked horrible. Hungry, scared, and exhausted was not a good combination. Hunter had constant circles under his eyes. He was much thinner than when Grace first met him, and he hadn't smiled in days.

He didn't answer her question. "Eight miles left. Even at our current pace, that's only four more days. Less than a week."

Grace looked up at him, but she didn't have time to reply. They both turned their heads back toward their camp spot for the day as they heard a rumble of trucks in the distance.

Without a word, they took off running.

"We think they're on to us," Grace said breathlessly as she approached the group.

Danielle nodded. "I hear it too. You six have to go. Now. You can still make it. I can hold them off."

"How the hell are you going to hold them off in your condition?" Grace demanded. "We're not leaving anyone behind."

"You'll never make it with me," Danielle snapped. "Just go."

Grace looked at Hunter, her mind racing. "Okay," Grace said, and Hunter's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off. "You five go," she ordered.

"Absolutely not," Hunter said.

"Danielle, those makeshift weapons that you told us about back at 109," Grace said, "you still have them?"

Danielle nodded.

"Right. But you're in no condition to use them effectively against what's coming. I can." She turned back to Hunter. "You need to get everyone across the border. We don't have four days. You have today. You can make eight miles in a day, and Danielle and I can hold them for a day. We'll follow later and meet you there."

"Grace, I am not leaving you behind." As Grace observed Hunter's face, she knew it was almost hopeless in getting him to change his mind.

Almost.

Grace looked pleadingly at Anna. Hunter's sister had been quiet since the escape, but now she got Grace's message, loud and clear. She took her brother's hand and tugged on his arm. "Hunter, we need to leave."

Hunter looked at his sister in anguish.

"We're not leaving anyone behind," Anna said. "We're just splitting up. Grace is right. This is our best chance for all of us."

Hunter looked at the Tanaka family. "And you agree with this?"

"I don't like it," Mr. Tanaka said. "But I'm not sure what other options we have."
Hunter looked around at all of them, and then locked eyes with Grace again. "Okay." It looked like it physically pained him to say it. He picked up his pack. "Let's go." He took Grace's hand. "I'll see you on the other side of the border."

"I'll see you there."

Hunter dropped his hand, and the group took off at a run, disappearing into the trees.

Grace turned back to Danielle, who was shaking her head. "You should have gone with them," she said.

"Tough," Grace said. "What do you have in your pack?"

Tire spikes, tear gas, and enough supplies for two Molotov cocktails. "We really only have one plan," Danielle said. "And it starts with these." She held up the tire spikes."

Grace nodded. "We have to move quickly." The trucks had stopped a few minutes ago, and now they could hear footsteps approaching. The trees wouldn't conceal them for long.

Grace helped Danielle up, and they limped together to the road. In the distance, they could see the trucks, but no men. They must all have left to go search the woods.

"Here." Danielle held out the roll of tire spikes. "There are three separate rolls, one layer thick each. But their sharp, and should do the job."

Grace left Danielle leaning on a tree for support, and then unrolled one line of spikes out onto the road. Then, she jogged across the cracking asphalt and put a second line down a little farther away from the trucks and on the field next to the road, just in case they tried to go around the spikes. They wouldn't be able to drive on the side Danielle currently was on, too many trees.

Grace kept the third one. Just in case.

"Alright, now let's move." Grace helped Danielle up, and they started limping their way up the road.

"I see them!" Someone shouted in the distance, and Grace heard trucks start up again. She readjusted her grip on Danielle and picked up the pace, almost working up to a run.

The cars came from behind them, growing louder and louder until Grace heard screeching and could smell smoke. She didn't dare glance behind her even for a second, but it sounded like the trap had worked.

A quarter of a mile later, around a bend in the road so they were out of eyesight, Grace put down the last roll of spikes. They kept going for another quarter of a mile.

Half a mile from their original position, they had to stop. "Sorry," Danielle panted. "I just need a moment."

"It's okay." Grace's shoulders were aching. "I think we're okay, at least for now."

She shouldn't have said anything. A rumble of an engine sounded in the distance.

"We can't outrun them," Danielle said. "And we're out of spikes."

"Alright, well, what else do we have?"

A few moments later, Grace stood on the other side of the road from Danielle, out in the open. She had her hands up and tried to keep herself from having a panic attack. It was a stupid plan, but it was all they had.

The truck roared up and then screeched to a halt as the driver saw Grace. There was only two of them, and only one truck. The plan might actually work.

"Listen, I surrender." It wasn't difficult for Grace to conjure up tears. "She made me do it, I swear. I just wanted to give in, but she made us keep going."

"Where is she?" the driver snarled. He and the armed passenger got out of the car, making their way toward Grace. "Where is she?" he repeated.

Grace didn't have time to answer, but she didn't mind. She couldn't think of anything witty to say, anyway. The truck burst into flames as Danielle lobbed a Molotov cocktail through the open driver's window.

The two men turned around in panic, giving Grace enough time to pull out a tear gas canister, pull the tab, throw, and run. The men were doubled over and coughing as Grace went back to Danielle, practically picked her up in a fireman's carry, and took off. Even with almost all of Danielle's weight on her, Grace was fairly confident that she could outrun two men dealing with tear gas.

They only traveled another half a mile. Grace saw the abandoned barn, got the pair over to it, and collapsed.

Seven Miles to Safety

"Whatever happened to that gun?" Grace recovered enough to say something, and she remembered how each team was supposed to have a firearm.

"Taken when we were captured," Danielle said. "It's the only thing we couldn't get back."

"Shame."

"You were good out there," Danielle said.

"I'm exhausted," Grace admitted. Her entire body was shaking. "Danielle, we need to get out of here."

"I keep telling you to go."

"And I said 'we,'" Grace shot back. She got up. "I'm going to go look around. See what's here."

"Be careful. It's still light out."

"I know."

There wasn't much. Empty feed bags, farm equipment that probably wouldn't turn on, and some rotten grain. Grace couldn't even see a house where farmer once lived. There was just nothing.

She was about to head back inside to Danielle when something caught her eye, and a crazy idea took over her mind. Crazy, but not impossible.

"You want to do what?"

Grace had brought Danielle out to describe the plan, and Danielle stared at the old wheelbarrow in disbelief.

"I can't carry you," Grace said. "That's for sure. But pushing you in something that rolls is another matter entirely."

"Grace, that's crazy."

"I agree. But we don't have a lot of time. They'll regroup and they'll be back, but probably not before tomorrow morning. Which gives us tonight."

"You think we can get to the border tonight?"

"If I run, yeah. I think it would take two or three hours, including breaks."

"If you run pushing me in a fucking wheelbarrow? Grace, you're exhausted. You haven't eaten properly in weeks."

"I started out fit enough to run five miles in less than half an hour," Grace shot back. "And I'm desperate to get out of here. So I should be able to run seven in a few hours.

"I'm not leaving you, Danielle," Grace said stubbornly. "So either you get in the damn wheelbarrow as soon as it's dark enough, or we face down an army of angry militants armed with broken farm equipment and one Molotov cocktail."

Danielle looked at the wheelbarrow again. "Under one condition."

"What?"

"Paul never hears about this. Ever."

"Danielle," Grace said, deadly serious, "I think Paul is a piece of shit. I don't want to talk to him ever again in my life. And I certainly wouldn't tell him about this."

"Well," Danielle reasoned, "if we're going to do this, you should eat the rest of the rations. You'll need your strength, and as you say, we'll be out by tomorrow. Or we'll be dead."

***

Even by Grace's standards, the plan was ridiculous. About a quarter of a mile in, her arms and legs were screaming, and she was barely going faster than a power walk. But she forced herself to keep going.

She thought about Seaside. She thought about Tallulah and Angie. She thought about her brothers, who she would never see again. She thought about all the people who had helped her on the journey. She thought about the girl she got the pink and sparkly ribbons for.

She thought about Hunter. She told him he would see her again. And she fully intended on keeping that promise.

They travelled on the open road. They were exposed, but the wheelbarrow met less resistance on the smoother surface, so Grace could keep her pace up better. She had to stop half a dozen times, but every time she felt like she couldn't start up again, she would see Seaside or Tallulah or Angie or Hunter, and she got herself up off the ground.

It took about two-and-a-half hours, but in the early morning, Danielle told her to stop. They had reached the border crossing, and this was the most intense one Grace had come across.

1 Mile to Safety

"Jesus, who do they think they are, the Soviet Union?" Grace cursed under her breath. She and Danielle lay on a ridge, looking down. The whole place was lit up with fences and barbed wire blocking their path to freedom.

Grace was exhausted. No, not exhausted. Grace didn't think there was a word for how tired she felt. Her arms and legs felt like lead. Her chest and stomach ached. All she wanted was to take a nap for a week straight. The only thing keeping her going was the fact that freedom was so close.

"Do you think the others would have been able to get past this?" Grace asked.

"I would guess that this part is only so heavily guarded because it goes over the main road," Danielle said. "If you go in either direction, eventually you'll hit a spot you can cross."

"Is that what we're going to do?"

Danielle gave her a side glance. "You can hardly move, and I'm injured. No. I have an idea."

"Is it as crazy as me pushing you in a wheelbarrow for almost seven miles?"

"Honestly? Yeah." Danielle looked at her square in the eye. "Do you trust me?"

"After everything? Absolutely."

"Then wait here for me. I'll be back."

It's not like Grace could have stopped her. She rolled onto her back as Danielle left, staring up at the sky and trying to regain even a minuscule amount of strength back into her body.

Every moment Danielle was gone was like torture. But Grace forced herself to stay where she was. After all, if Danielle had been caught, she would hear something from the border.

"Put these one."

Grace jumped as Danielle threw fresh clothes at her. "What are they?" Grace asked once her heart stopped trying to leap out of her chest.

"They have uniforms," Danielle said. "The border guards. We're going to put these on and just walk out."

"You're right, this is as crazy as pushing you in a wheelbarrow for seven miles." Grace pulled on the black pants that were way too big for her, belting them tightly to keep them from falling down. A gray shirt followed and a black jacket with patches on the shoulders followed, and finally a hat. Grace probably looked ridiculous, but hopefully would pass as a border guard.

"Where did you get these?"

"Let's just say we should get out of here before two underdressed border guards wake up from getting knocked out," Danielle said wryly.

"And you really think we can just walk out?"

"Behave like you own the place."

Well, that's how Grace had gotten into the valley in the first place. It was only fitting that she would leave the same way.

How Grace made herself go down the hill to the border fence, she would never know. They passed a few guards on their way down, and no one gave them a second glance.

Grace flinched as she and Danielle stepped into the harsh floodlight that lit up the border. She wondered how they powered them. It had to be battery, but how these people managed to still have batteries after all this time, Grace couldn't even fathom.

"Where are you two headed?" The woman who spoke to them sounded more curious than hostile, and she certainly wasn't sounding any alarms.

"We have orders," Danielle said curtly. "Got to cross the border now while it's dark."

"Smart," the woman said. "Get away from those private security guys before they have enough light to aim."

"Exactly."

"Good luck."

And they just walked through the gate.

"That was brilliant," Grace said hoarsely.

"I'm literally shaking right now," Danielle said. "I can't believe that worked."

"I can't believe anything has worked."

They kept walking until Grace saw a house in the distance, lit up by the moonlight.

"Do you think they'll be friendly?" Danielle asked. "Given how we're dressed?"

"They'll want answers as to why we're here more than they'll want to kill us," Grace said, mostly sure that she was accurate in her assessment. "And we need rest."

But when Grace stepped in a gopher hole and she collapsed, she couldn't get herself to get back up. But then she heard someone calling her name from across the field.

"Grace! Grace!"

Hunter.