Chapter 2 The Great Escape (Part 1)

As Leo spoke, Zack had a look of disbelief on his face, "B-But we can't.. how did you find a way out of here anyway? This place is like a fortress" Leo let out a long sigh "Look Zack, I know you're afraid of getting caught trying leave, but we can't stay here. Sooner or later they're going to work us to death."

Zacks pickaxe stops and for a moment he doesn't move or say anything, before finally he looks up at Leo with tears streaming down his face,"You know what happened to my Father when he tried to escape.."

Leo couldn't help but feel bad for Zack. 3 Years ago Zacks father tried to escape the mine so he could get help from the outside for all those he had to leave behind. Unfortunately he was captured and tortured in front of the other slaves as a lesson. He died from his wounds a week later.

"We've been here for 5 years already Zack.. I can't stay here any longer. This can't be considered living." Leo has a crestfallen look on his face but he soon finds his resolve again "We will escape this place together, and we will make a better life for ourselves!"

Zacks attitude doesn't seem to change much but he does appear to be slightly more positive about their potential escape. "A-Alright Leo.. I trust you. If you think we can get out of here then let's try it." Zack suddenly realizes the most important part about their escape.

"Uh L-Leo, how are we getting out exactly?" Leo stops swinging his pickaxe as well now, he had been going non stop the entire conversation. "Don't worry, I've got a plan" Leo states confidently with a smile.

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As the sun begins to set, the guards start gathering all the slaves and taking them back to their sleeping areas. Leo and Zack are the last 2 to enter the room they sleep in. It's one large room on the west side of the camp with one entrance and hay strewn across the floor. Clumps of hay would indicate that it's a spot someone uses as their bed.

Leo walks towards the back left corner of the room, furthest from the door, and Zack follows. Leo sits down and leans with his back to the wall while Zack lies down facing the ceiling. Leo looks at Zack and says "This is the last night we'll spend here. " Filled with hope and fear of what's to come, Zack tries to get some sleep, and eventually he does.

Leo on the other hand, doesn't sleep at all. Rather, he's spending every second going over his escape plan repeatedly. Eventually after a few hours pass, Leo shakes Zack awake "Come on, it's time to go." Although he only just woke up, the pressure he feels from what they're about to do forces him awake immediately. Without saying anything, Leo starts pulling some of the hay away from a spot on the ground near a broken plank of wood that makes up the wall.

In doing so he reveals a hole just large enough for himself and Zack, who is smaller than himself, to fit through one at a time. "All right, I've spent the past few nights digging this hole and setting up a barrel on top of the hole on the other side of the wall so nobody would see it. Follow me and keep as quiet as possible" Leo's face is stern when he says this. Zack has never seen Leo look so serious before 'He always looks so happy, he must've been trying to make me feel better by acting cheerful' Zack thinks to himself.

Leo begins crawling through the hole head first and face down. Once his feet are almost out of zacks sight, he stops. He flips onto his back and can feel the bottom of the barrel above him. Slowly he begins to move the barrel to the side. It's a slow process as he's trying not to make any noise or knock over the barrel.

After about 5 minutes pass, the barrel has been moved enough and Leo climbs out of the hole on the other side of the wall. Zack seeing Leo disappear Into the hole, begins to follow suit. It only takes Zack a minute to get to the other side as he didn't have to worry about the barrel.

Leo then begins heading towards the southern area of the camp, he's constantly checking around corners to make sure there aren't any guards. Although Leo knows for a fact that the guards have gotten lazy lately as he overheard a few of them talking about ignoring their guard duty tonight. This is why it has to be tonight.

After about 30 minutes of slowly moving through the camps shadows, the two boys arrive at the same spot where Leo was previously whipped. Luckily there weren't any guards on their path here. Walking up to the barrel he had been drinking from at that time, Leo sticks his hand in and pulls out a rope with what looks like an odly bent horseshoe that's been made to resemble a hook attached to the end.

Zack is impressed to say the least. First, because Leo seems to have put in alot of time and effort into putting the pieces of this plan in place. Second, because nobody, including himself, was able to notice anything strange about Leo or their surroundings as he did all this.

It was at this moment that a sound was heard, coming from a few meters ahead of them, around a corner to the left. "Quiet..." after listening for a few seconds Leo speaks, "Stay here Zack" Leo crouches and slowly walks towards the corner to peer around it. He can see one of the soldiers standing there, relieving his bladder on the wall. He's facing at an angle slightly away from the corner Leo is standing by.

Worried about a confrontation, Leo reaches behind his back and grabs a sharp piece of glass like rock that he had hidden in his pants this afternoon. Leo stood there with his hands shaking, hoping that this soldier would choose to walk the other way.

Once he was finished, the soldier stumbled backwards a bit. It was then that Leo noticed the bottle in the man's hand, he was clearly quite drunk. He began walking down the street away from Leo's position. Leo couldn't help but feel relieved. When the soldier was around 10 meters away, another person walked through an alley further ahead and noticed the drunk soldier.

"Hey! what are you doing over here? I know you're drunk but you should've realized the barracks are on the other side of camp."

The drunk soldier looked up at the man speaking to him. Then he looked around him. "Oooh. HAHAHAHA, it sheems you're wight, HAHAHA, fanks for the heads up." The drunk soldier can barely put a sentence together and slurs through each word.

The man further down the road just clicks his tounge and walks away further down the road. While the drunk soldier turns around and starts heading back in the direction Leo is standing.

Seeing what just happened, Leo starts to panic slightly, his heart is beating fast and his breathing is getting rapid. He grips the rock tighter in his hand, the sharp end pointing up. Although afraid of what is about to happen, Leo prepares himself to attack.

Getting closer now the soldier is only 5 meters away from the corner. 3 meters. 1 meter. His right foot steps past the corner and he begins to turn right towards Leo...