Acid Rain by R.D Rhodes (ebook reader txt) 📕

her and sprinted again, bursting out through the front door and landing outside. The strong sunlight stung my eyes.

Fuck. We’re out! We’re out! Was all I could think.

Harry bombed ahead, his skinny, whippet arms pumping the air. I glanced back over my shoulder at the huge sandstone building glowing red in the daylight and at its many windows as they got further and further away. Patients were staring out from our ward, laughing and cheering and pointing at us. We bolted through the car park, adrenaline coursing through my body, and we kept on straight down the hill for the woods. We were halfway down when the call came from behind us, “HOI! GET BACK HERE!” Three staff members racing from the front door in our direction.

The woods were right in front of us, it seemed to take forever to get there but we made it and broke through the trees. The ground got bad, the wet autumn leaves slippy, and I dug my trainers in to keep a grip. We reached an overgrowth of nettles so high it came up above our heads. I threw up my hands as the spring-back thorns ripped and thrashed at my skin.

“Shit!” Harry’s voice called from ahead.

I caught up seconds later on the other side. He was standing in vines, his bare arms gashed and bleeding as he stared at the ten-foot barbed wire fence.

“What do we do?”

The fence ran both ways through thorns and nettles. Bushes everywhere. “Dig!” I shouted. I fell to my knees and clawed into the needly, spiked earth underneath the fence, tearing out clumps of turf. Harry did the same.

“It’s no good, there’s too much roots!”

“AISHA! HARRY!”

I looked back, I couldn’t see them. My heart felt like it had leapt up into my throat. I got up and ran to the right of the fence.

“Come on, keep looking!”

We raced along the fence, gripping at it to pull ourselves through the raking branches. We searched high and low but it was no good, the fence didn’t bend at any point, there were no holes in it or burrows underneath.

“COME BACK! OR YOU’RE IN FUCKIN’ TROUBLE!”

The calls were getting closer. They sounded right behind us. There was no other way. I gripped the metal links on the fence and tried to heave myself up. I kicked out but the gaps were too small to get a proper holding with my feet. Then a hand closed under my shoe and propelled me. I dove my arm around the top of the railing and swung myself halfway over, my feet sprawling right into the spiraling barbed wire on top. I leaned my foot against the razor coils and allowed them to take my weight.

“Give me your hand!”

Harry tiptoed and took my hand and kicked and pushed up the fence as I pulled. He climbed up alongside me and I turned as much as I could to face the other side. The spikes cut right into my legs and I wriggled to try and free them. Every movement caused a searing pain.

Harry squeezed his legs through and fell out the other side, I heard the rip of the wire as it tore through his skin. He landed and stood there looking up at me. I glanced back. They were rustling through the nettles and catching up fast, Kev in the lead. I folded my sleeves over my hands and stretched out an opening in the wire and dived through head-first. I came down on the ground with my hands spread out and my body slamming down after. The fence sprang back to its full height as Harry pulled me up.

The three arrived at the fence behind us. We ran into the forest and a thousand spruce branches met us as we crashed through in the dark.

I stumbled. There were ditches between the rows of trees and I jumped down and ran along one, Harry right behind me. My feet pounded the earth, panic pushed me on, branches snapped in my face and the ground thumped underneath us. Then light broke through as we came out into a field.

I checked in every direction and caught sight of a gate in the hedge. We lunged through dead wheat sticks that snapped about our knees until we reached it, and I peered down the road behind- there was no cars, but there doubtless would be soon. I took my chance and jumped the gate and we made our way down the tarmac, running five minutes at full speed. Houses came into view- there was a small village ahead. We leapt another fence and cut through a field, heading for an oak wood in the distance. I glanced back over my shoulder, glimpsed the top of a tractor ploughing one of the fields, but I couldn’t see anyone else. I sprinted uphill for the trees and when I reached them I scrambled down a ditch in the middle of the wood. We splashed through the stream and climbed the embankment on the other side. I dived behind a mound of earth and crouched down. Harry launched in behind me and we peeked up over the edge at the fields below us. In the distance was the forest from which we’d come. No-one had yet emerged.

Chapter 25

H arry’s cheeks were red, his nose scratched to pieces, blood trickled from a lump of missing flesh in his lip. “They’ll be sending the search teams soon.” he panted heavily.

We kept looking out over the field. The tractor's engine droned away as it followed the same lines of its plough. We couldn’t see anyone else.

“What we gonna do?”

“I dunno,” I said. “What do you think, head north?”

“Head north.” He agreed.

We watched the road for a bit longer, trying to regain our breath, gather our energy for the next burst. No cars had yet