Free Dissidence by Jamie Canosa Page B

. . . baby steps.
    The spoon scrapes the bottom of the bowl , and when I bring it back to my mouth , I taste nothing but metal. I keep my hand moving anyway , though, because I’m not sure what the next step is yet. Meal time is reaching an end , and I still haven’t seen the moment we were looking for. Connor has to literally pry the spoon from my tense fingers when he takes our dishes. But instead of heading for the receptacle , he makes a wide arc around the room , intentionally passing the guards corner. Nerves cramp my stomach as I watch him. This was definitely not part of the plan. Just as he passes the guards, he ‘trips’ sending brown gravy splashing all over the queen’s uniform.
    She cries out in disgust, and Connor is rewarded with a stiff jab to his jaw which sends him the rest of the way to the floor. I’m on my feet with no idea how I got there , or what I intend to do about it now that I am. All I can do is watch him peel himself back off the floor. Is he smiling? Sometimes I’m not entirely convinced of his sanity.
    Behind him , every other guard in the room is fussing over the large brown stain on the woman’s uniform, blotting it and offering her napkins. Not one of them is looking at the rest of us. Even the workers are thoroughly distracted. Suddenly Connor’s grin becomes infectious , and I find myself smiling too, or maybe I’m just as crazy as he is.
    It’s do-or-die time, and I’m not entirely sure that’s not literal. I have no idea what the punishment is for attempting to escape, but making an example from our deaths doesn’t seem outside the realm of possibility. That cheerful thought makes it much easier to convince my feet to work.
    During the commotion, Connor rejoins Lori and I , and the three of us slip out of the pavilion. W e use the deep shadows cast by the dorm buildings in the moonlight to cover our progress toward the gate. I glance behind us so often that I get a crick in my neck, but no one is following us. Connor’s distraction did the job perfectly. Now, if only the front gate would be so easy.
    From the front of the dormitories , we can see the gate and, just as I expected , the lock is hanging loose. A couple of guards are already standing there , but a minute later , there’ s a shift rotation. The next gr oup arrives within seconds. We’ re not going to have much of a window , and we’re only going to get one shot at this.
    We wait anxiously for the next rotation for several minutes until the guards step away from the gate, and we make our move. ‘Our move’ is really more like a mad dash across open space, hoping and praying no one happens to notice us. My brilliant plan in action.
    The metal is cold in my hand as I swing the gate open a couple of feet, just wide enough for us to slip out. With a soft clank, Connor pulls it shut again behind us. We actually did it. We’re out. Tha t was almost too easy, and then—
     
     
    Chapter 9
     
    “ Come on . Let’s get this thing to the dining hall, so we can eat some time tonight. ”
    “I’m going as fast as I can.”
    Damn karma. I freeze, like literally freeze. It feels like there’s ice water in my veins. The only thing that penetrates my panic- stricken mind is the creak of the gate. I spin around, fully expecting to find us surrounded, but it’s only Lori. She’s slipped back inside the fence.
    “Where are you going?” Would have been nice of her to include us in her little retreat. The voices are drawing closer.
    “Hide,” Lori whispers urgently.
    Easy for her to say. There is absolutely nothing at all out here to hide us, just several straight yards of well-maintained grass in front of us, and a fence at our backs. Whose idea was this , anyway? We can’t move forward, and even if the guards coming back from the train somehow miss us, no way the patrols won’t notice us this close to the fence. We are entirely screwed. Pulling Connor along with me, I duck into the shadows further along the