THE DESTINED HERO: A Stranger's Chronicle.

Chapter 2. The Escape.

Still ignorant of where they were, they were locked up in an iron cage right in the middle of a fenced base, with warriors patrolling day and night, it seemed they were on the lookout for enemy attack.

They maintained their silence two days into their captivity, despite the pressure being put on them. Agreeing to speak only if Marcus and his men would tell them where they were and why he had the other survivors killed.

Larry remained mute than the rest, not even a word was said to his fellow captives. He kept blaming himself for not listening to the voice in his head, he kept wishing he could reverse the hand of the clock. It was the first time any of them had witnessed someone being killed, not to mention such a slaughter.

"How long do you think they are going to keep us alive?" Christie asked as the five of them sat inside the cage.

She was ready to compromise right from the moment the others were killed. But Stephanie kept reminding her that they'll all be dead the moment they answer their questions.

"Why don't we come clean with them and get over it. Maybe they'll spare our lives." Lillie was in support. "We are all going to die anyway."

"Enough!" Stephanie didn't like hearing talks of death, she was not ready to die and if their silence would buy them more time to live, she was willing to take it. "Don't you realise what they'll do to us once we start talking?"

"We're better dead than in a cage. Look at us, two days without food or water." Lillie was fed up listening to Stephanie.

"That's enough, all of you!" Larry finally broke his silence, causing them to turn to him in surprise. "We crashed in a strange place, now we're prisoners to these strange people. Look around you, does this look like our world? It's not even close to the earth our ancestors left."

"So what are you saying?" Stephanie didn't want him to continue as she already knew where he was going with that speech.

"Christie and Lillie are right. There's no escaping this place, and we will all be dead sooner or later, so why delay the inevitable?" He stood and walked over to the door of the cage.

"What are you doing Larry?" Toby follows him, trying to talk him out of whatever crazy thing he intends doing.

But his mind was already made up, as he drew the attention of the nearest guard keeping watch. "Hey, you, tell Marcus that I am ready to talk."

"Dude, you must be crazy. You're not thinking straight," Seeing that Larry wasn't listening to a word he said, he said to the guard, "don't tell Marcus anything, we're never going to talk."

But the guard had already taken the words from Larry as he was under obligation to report whenever any of them was ready to talk.

"I get it Larry, you told me yourself that you were having some brain damage due to the crash. You have to snap out of it. Think of what you are doing. How it will affect all of us. Please, you can't do this." Toby begs.

"No Toby, I don't have a brain disorder. If I had listened to the voice then, I wouldn't have been here."

"What are you talking about?" Stephanie took interest in their argument, "Toby what is he saying?"

"I don't know,"

"Hey. Marcus will speak with you." The guard returned, unlocked the cage, took Larry out and locked the rest back in, then led him to meet with Marcus.

Not long after, the guard returned him to the cage with fresh blood slipping from his mouth and nose, with brushes on his face and other parts of his body.

"Idiot." The guard pushed him into the cage and shut it back.

Instantly Stephanie and Toby came to his aid, filled with confusion and curiosity of what happened while he was gone. Their guess was that he refused to talk, still they wanted to hear it from him.

"I'm fine," Larry endured the pain, exacting energy and ability to help himself.

"You don't look fine," Stephanie insisted on helping him sit up.

"I said I'm fine," he slowly brought out the key to the cage which he stole from the guard, making them realise that everything he did was an act just to get that key.

"Oh shit, you're a genius Larry." Stephanie exclaimed in excitement.

"Shh, bring your voices down."

This was when Lillie and Christie noticed something was going on, therefore they came close to find out and were also excited at what they realised was happening.

"Why didn't you tell us your plan all along?" Toby asked.

"Because, I wanted it to be convincing enough for the guard to believe I was betraying you all."

"Nicely done. So now what next?"

The four of them were at this point sitting round Larry as he filled them in on their escape plan. It appeared that while the ladies were busy mumbling about their captivity, Larry was busy monitoring the patrol pattern of the guards and when they usually change shifts.

With the aid of a well laid down plan, they initiated their escape at dusk. Everything was going well as planned starting from the unlocking of the cage down to the successful sneaking to the main gate of the vicinity. This was where Larry was unable to tell how they would get through since he had no visual from the cage.

Hiding behind some barrels to plan on how they would sneak past the two guards taking watch, an alarm was raised as a guard noticed they were no longer in the cage.

"Find them! Make sure they don't get into town." Marcus shouted on the top of his voice as he came out of his shelter.

With that instruction, it was presumed that they had already left the perimeter, so they began to leave the base in small groups, spreading themselves around the jungle so as to cover more ground.

The last group was about to leave the base too, when Frank Turner stopped them. "We don't abandon camp. Look around, they could be hiding around somewhere."

"Now is our chance, Larry." Stephanie noticed the gates were still open with nobody manning it.

"Are you crazy? If we go out there, they'll find us." Christie whispered.

"Same thing will happen if we stay here. We have a better chance out there." Toby supported Stephanie.

Larry was not concentrating anymore, his eyes were fixed on Frank as he issued commands, telling the men where and where not to look. The perfect escape he imagined had come to ruins with people everywhere looking for them. Thus, he didn't know what else to do.

Since the escape was all his idea, they now looked to him for a decision on what to do.

"Larry, what do we do?" Stephanie noticed he was lost, and called back his attention with a tap on his face.

"Uhh," he shakes his head, giving ear to what they were saying.

"They're going to find us if we don't act fast. What do we do?"

He took his time to think then noticed the unguarded gate. "We make for the gate, there's a town nearby, that's where we must go."

"But…" Christie stutters.

"Then stay if you wish," Toby was fed up with her complaints and didn't allow her to finish, as they made their way through the gates.

Christie was still in objection for very good reasons, she didn't want to get caught again and seeing the number of people that went out that gate in search for them compared to the ones that stayed back, she believed they had better chance of hiding from those within, than those in without. Nevertheless, she followed them, seeing that they were willing to leave her behind.

Following Larry's leadership, they were able to avoid the people scattered over the jungle searching for them. All they needed to do was to survive the night without being caught, probably pending the time when their pursuers would give up, believing they were able to make it to the town which was mentioned by Marcus.

While they kept sneaking around the jungle, they heard a deep voice from behind.

"Don't move."

It was an old, rugged and tattered looking man who drew his arrow pointing it towards them with every intention to use it if his instruction was not taken.

Full of fear, they slowly turned, raising their hands in surrender as they shit themselves. The thought of a failed escape went through their minds as the old man was believed to be one of Marcus's men.

"You're only kids?!" The old man was surprised after noticing they were just teenagers. Taking note of their strange dressing, he wondered. "You must be far from home?"

That question made them realise that he wasn't with Marcus, so they begged.

"Please help us, some men are after us, they want to hurt us."

"Hurt you? Why?"

"Please Sir, they killed our friends and took us captive for two days. We managed to escape but they are unto us. Please…"

"You can put your hands down," he stopped pointing the arrow at them, putting it back in his quiver, and said. "Follow me."