Alias

The Escape

The low moaning started after just a few minutes. The guard was waking up.

"Go!" Ronin whispered, shoving a still-shaking Andrea into the dark hallway. She had a terrible sense of direction. Ronin darted to the left and she ran after him.

They flew down the corridor, passing door after door. Suddenly, Ronin slowed down and crouched at a doorway to their left. They slipped into the room. The floor was carpeted. Stripes of light were shining through the blinds onto the walls above them.

Andrea looked around. They were in a spacious room, with a large desk at the end, and file cabinets and shelves covering the walls. What were they doing in an office? The yellow light from the window turned to a flashing red and blue. The two fugitives crawled behind the desk until they reached a corner of the room. Ronin squeezed between the wall and a file cabinet and began pulling up on part of the floor. Confused, Andrea looked on blankly, until she realized that the panel hid an opening in the floor. A hidden passageway.

He disappeared into the narrow hole easily. "Come on!" he said softly.

Andrea's legs went down the hole, but she was stuck. She tried pulling up on the floor.

"What are you--" Ronin whispered. She heard him mutter something, and felt his hands grab her ankles. She held her breath. Ronin yanked twice and she fell through, tumbling onto the cold ground next to him. Her sides ached and she glanced up at him.

"Sorry."

He glared at her silently and pulled her up, and then covered the hole above them with the floor tile, leaving them in total darkness. The air was chilly; the floor felt cold and damp. Andrea laid her right hand on the shoulder in front of her.

They crept down a hallway, feeling along the stone wall on their left. She felt him crouch slightly and she did the same, while sliding her left hand up the wall to the ceiling. The ceiling felt lower, like it was slanting down. Suddenly, Ronin stopped walking and grabbed her arm.

The silence was broken by the sounds of heavy men running above them. It lasted only a few seconds. The footsteps subsided as quickly as they had started, and Ronin continued. Andrea pushed herself on, ignoring her fear.

The ceiling had to be no more than four feet high now, and the air had become stagnant. Ronin stopped at a junction in the tunnel. From the right echoed the faint sound of voices, and from the left came the unmistakable smell of sewage; but it was hard to tell for certain which direction the sounds came from. Ronin started toward the left, but Andrea hesitated. He pulled her after him into the narrow tunnel and quickened his pace. A few minutes in, the ceiling grew higher and the shaft widened until they could run side by side. After jogging about twenty more yards, their feet splashed into shallow, frigid water, the sounds echoing through the tunnel. Andrea shuddered as her shoes began to fill with cold mud and the water got deeper.

Soon, the water was up to their knees. Andrea's feet shifted in the mud, and she paused to reach out and steady herself. The air seemed fresher here, and she noticed the water was faintly shimmering. As they rounded a corner, they felt a rush of cool air and could see the tunnel walls in the moonlight.

They waded a bit further and found themselves at the foot of a ladder, where the tunnel branched off to the right. They paused, listening. No sound, except for crickets. They were safe but, Andrea was sure, not for long. Following his lead, she slowly climbed the slippery ladder to the surface. He took her hands and lifted her up until she was standing in waist-high river grass. The moon, at half phase, led them with its gentle light. Ronin knew the way; he walked, crouching down, and motioned for her to come. There was the willow, just as he had described, and over there were the cattails.

Eventually, they found the raft on the muddy bank, along with a large stick.

"Ok, this is it!" Ronin whispered. They knelt beside the raft.

"Now we have to wait for some kind of signal?"

"Yes. Somewhere over there--" he pointed across the water-- "and then it's safe for me to go."

Andrea felt relieved. Somewhere across the river, someone was waiting for Ronin and was ready to start from where she left off. She was exhausted.

They waited for a long time. Nothing was happening. Minute after minute passed until Andrea couldn't tell whether it had been ten minutes or thirty. Then, she remembered what she had forgotten!

It wasn't the best time to talk, but this was the last time she would see him again. She cleared her throat. "Ronin . . ."

He turned and frowned.

"Ronin, I know this is a bad time, but I have something to say, and I've been really meaning to say it . . . ."

"Say it, then," he hissed. He wasn't going to wait. When the signal was given, he would go, as planned.

"Well," she paused, "it's just, before you go, I'll never see you again. But you mean a lot to me. I've learned so much, and I've changed so much and I'll never forget you for the rest of my life."

Ronin was quiet. "I'll miss you too . . . I also want--" He stopped and faced the water.

The dark river suddenly glimmered with the reflection of a single candle on the opposite bank. The signal! Without another word, Ronin crawled onto the raft and firmly wedged his stick into the mud. He pushed, and she pushed. The raft slid into the water and was gone.

She was overcome by a sudden loneliness, but threw those feelings aside. Deep in her heart, she rejoiced. She recalled his long-ago words.

"Freedom is all I want," he had said.

And now finally, freedom.