Escaping the End

Chapter 14

Ashton held Klara as close as he could with his hand clasped tightly over her mouth. He hated doing this to her, but there was nothing else he could do, the swat team was just outside with their stupid machines. Ashton was well aware things like heat sensors had been around a while, but he was completely over the fact that they had actually thought to use them. The cave was cold and would lower all of their body temperatures, but he wasn't sure it was enough to actually get by without being noticed.

Klara started to squirm and was clearly trying to shout, or talk, or communicate thrashing around as her muffled protests were cut off. Ashton leaned in and shushed her before looking back up to watch the cave entrance hoping no one would hear the commotion down there. Klara was becoming more and more antsy as the time slipped on by, but there was nothing Ashton could do and he turned to Tamara desperate for help. This didn't do much to help him though as Tamara was watching the entrance just as intently as Ashton had been.

"She picked a great time to wake up," Ashton mumbled inaudibly to himself.

He knew all too well that there were those swat team people would track them down to the ends of the earth if necessary heck, their footsteps were clear as day just outside the entrance. This clearness was troubling to everyone in the cave and it made Klara so antsy she almost broke away from Ashton several times. He wasn't sure he could hold her any tighter than he already was but that didn't stop him from trying to.

After about five or ten more minutes of wrestling with Klara, Tamara stood up and walked over to the entrance. Ashton glanced and and wondered for a second what she was doing, but had to go back to wrestling Klara again. This didn't seem to bother Tamara as she paid no mind to it and instead opted to lift up a rock that was blocking her view. Ashton wanted to jump on her and drag he back for this, but he knew she was the adult and would know what she was doing, hopefully.

Tamara stood there for a few minutes with the rock raised up so she could see out. She didn't move, talk, or even make any gestures towards the other two. Without warning, Tamara grabbed Ashton's shoulders and leaped to the back of the cave. Both him and Klara landed against the hard ground with a thump and looked up as Tamara started to search around for something.

While she did that, Klara and Ashton looked at eachother in confusion and then watched each other as the color drained from their faces. There was loud yelling coming from outside the cave and the sounds of heavy footsteps and the undergrowth was trampled. It was at this moment that Ashton knew what Tamara was looking for, she was looking for a way out or further into the cave. He jumped to his feet and started to help her as Klara sat there, cowering from the entrance.

There were several explosions before smoke started to fill the cave and the search for a way out became even more energized. Even Klara managed to find herself and started to help with locating some form of an exit. Even with three people looking though, it seemed so useless as the cave filled to the brim with the smoke. Everyone was coughing to no end as they covered their mouths in an attempt to lessen the effect of the smoke.

Klara could hear the swat team members as they started down into the cave and she looked even harder, with no avail as the smoke filled her eyes. It seemed this didn't help the swat team though as they couldn't see through the thick smoke either, even with their masks on. The smoke even made it too hot in the cave for the heat sensors to work, leaving everyone stumbling around like idiots. One of the swat team members had even stepped right by her, though neither of them knew it.

Ashton knew how bad this situation was, but he couldn't think straight enough to get out of it. He just wanted to escape. This wish was finally, finally answered as his fumbling hands found a hole in the wall. It was small enough that he knew everyone that needed to escape would get out, leaving the swat team to rummage around until the smoke cleared out. He looked up and desperately threw his head around in an attempt to find Tamara and Klara.

Klara bumped into Ashton in her own attempt at finding a way, but this didn't stop Ashton from picking her up and pushing her towards the opening. She eagerly crawled through it and fell to the floor on the other side while Ashton started to move around searching for Tamara. He soon learned that despite being much bigger than Klara, she was far harder to find. This was most likely due to her survival instincts kicking in.

Ashton realized the smoke was starting to clear out after he could see Tamara fighting off one of the swat team members. Right as she kicked him to the ground Ashton ran in and grabbed her arm and threw her towards the opening. It took her a second, but Tamara quickly figured out what was going on and squeezed herself through the opening just as quickly as Klara had. Ashton then covered it with the foliage in the cave and turned to face the swat team members who were now all starting to see clearly enough to attack.

Ashton booked it to the cave entrance and hopped out like it was nothing before bolting off into the woods. He had no idea where he was going, but he wasn't about to let himself be captured when he had already survived for so long, most of it on his own. He only motive to fight threw all the pain and exhaustion he was is was survival, but it wasn't just for him like it had been a couple months prior.

Ashton stopped dead in his tracks about ten minutes after he escaped the cave but it wasn't because of a huge number of swat team members. No, it was because of the smell of smoke and burning bodies. He immediately started to assume the worst had happened when he started to make his way towards the smell. He was immediately relieved to see it was the town that was on fire, not something else. This, this was at least part of the plan so it wouldn't have ended in everyone's deaths, hopefully.

As he neared the burning town, Ashton heard shouting and loud footsteps. He could see the people off a little ways into the distance and he concealed himself up in a tree and watched what was happening from there. The talking wasn't loud enough for him to hear every word, but he could pick on most of what he missed anyways.

A swat team member ran up and saluted a tall figure in nice clothing, "Sir, we have received a report from team Rouge. They have intercepted three of the group members," he reported, still holding the salute.

The tall man nodded, it was obvious to Ashton that this must be the Governor, the one bent on all their deaths. The Governor's pleasure quickly faded with the rest of the report however.

"But the two females managed to find a way out in the confusion of the smoke and the boy hopped out of the entrance right after the smoke had started to clear out."

"Boy?" The Governor asked disdainfully, "Boy! You wouldn't happen to mean the one of two children would you? He managed to get passed you once with the girl, how could you not corner him in a cave?"

The swat team member jumped back, "We don't know sir!" he explained, obviously panicked, "The team is on the lookout for him now, they figured the females would be goners anyway,"

The Governor paced back and forth, "No, have them look for the females, I need would like to have one of them. The other we will dispose of and I will take care of that brat myself the next time I see him," he said spitefully

There was something about the hate in the Governor's face that sent tingles down Ashton's spine and made his blood run cold. He dreaded the day he would have to face the Governor face to face if those were his feeling towards Ashton. The only thing Ashton couldn't deal out was why the Governor had such a strong hate for him, he hadn't done anything besides disobey his law which didn't warrant the same kind of hate on everyone else.

A/N

Sorry about the weird uploading schedule for this story. School has got me swamped and then I lost track of the week number. Enjoy this chapter and look forward to one (or more) on Monday, but know that I won't upload again until next year after that. I kind of like celebrating holidays with my family.