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I was actually outside the prison.
I giggled and caught my laugh for fear it might give away our position.
I still couldn’t believe Egara had reached through the narrow gateway and pulled me through, risking not only his chance of escape but his life.
He had saved me from the terrible lifestyle I’d been subjected to.
I had come up with coping mechanisms that allowed me to deal with the worst of the events of the past year, but they did nothing to prevent the horrible future coming my way.
I breathed in the air of freedom and immediately coughed, sputtering around a mouthful of sand and grit that clogged my throat.
Okay, so I hoped freedom would taste a little better than that!
The sand sucked at my heels and made traversing it difficult.
Each time I lost my footing, Egara was there to pick me up and help me across the rippling plains of the endless sand dunes that stretched into the far distance.
I could still hear the klaxon of the prison riots from here and I wondered if they would continue now they knew a pair of prisoners had escaped.
I doubted they were out after us already. They had an entire riot to quell and a prison to lock down before they would come looking for us.
They might wait for the sun to wear us down first.
It was doing an admirable job of that all right.
The sun was scorching and my lungs hurt.
I puffed and panted, more than I should have been if it was only due to the exercise.
I was fit—at least, I had been before I’d been abducted—and although I got a lot of physical exercise between the sheets at the prison, I still struggled to keep up with Egara.
His strides were almost twice the length of mine and it took some doing to keep up with him earlier during the sprint through the hangar.
My lungs still hurt from that exertion and my breaths were ragged and came haltingly.
I had never been asthmatic but I had friends who were and they sounded the same way I did now.
My breaths came haggard and raw as if one of my lungs had collapsed and couldn’t operate at full capacity.
Egara was there once again, his strong hand reaching out.
He pulled me onto my feet and force me onward.
For the first time since arriving on this moon, I wondered what the makeup of the air was.
Did they have enough oxygen on this moon to support humans?
I recalled the stories of other prisoners who managed to escape but were found dead outside the walls shortly after.
Was this the reason?
We had each come from different planets, different backgrounds and atmospheres.
None were native to this moon.
They wouldn’t be used to the atmosphere of this strange and hostile landscape.
We descended down a sand dune and found ourselves in a narrow valley between two huge mountains.
