To Kill a Cactus - The Beginning of The End part 4

The Beginning of The End part 3: HERE

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I don't know how exactly it happened, but all of a sudden it was as if I had an outer-body experience. I felt my body moving, I saw the room in front of me and the bars keeping me away from freedom, but they looked completely different from what they had seemed to me for the previous days that I had stared at them. I stepped right to the bars and looked out to the narrow hallway behind them.

There was a bunch of keys hanging on a hook in the wall as I had expected. I reached out my arm and felt the ground, it was covered with litter. I moved my fingers around the trash until I found what I was looking for. There was a long dried up tree branch, a piece of torn fabric and a paperclip in my hands, without acknowledging it to myself I had created a hook on a stick, perfect to reach for a bunch of keys.

I got up again and reached my hook towards the keys, my hands were shivering, but I kept going and balanced myself against the bars, just to reach further, I knew I was a just a bit away from the keys, I pushed myself further and finally, the keys were on my hook. I pulled them quickly to my cell and started looking for the door. I hadn't noticed until then that there was none. There were rows of metal bars from the ceiling to the floor, but no door, no way out, yet they had to get me in there somehow, I knew that, so I looked around the room carefully.

The walls seemed smooth, the floor was covered with dust and filth, I could only see my own footsteps on the ground and the patch of floor that I had laid on. I moved closer to the area on the floor where I had been crawled into a ball, I pushed away the dust and I shouldn't have been surprised to find a keyhole. I went through the keys looking for a match, it didn't take me long to find the right one and opened the lock. 

There was a trap-door that opened towards me and I looked down into the darkness. I knew that in any other situation, I would've been afraid, but for whatever reason, I wasn't. I jumped down, fearlessly, it felt amazing to fall freely and I landed on the ground that was covered with hay. It was unusual to see anything other than cacti when it came to plants. The hay didn't seem too old either, but I didn't have time to dwell on that thought. I could feel that I was close to where I had to go.

I was actually on the ground floor now and my main goal was to get out, I followed my instincts and turned right, I could swear I heard the sound of running water from somewhere, it was so odd, I had not experienced such a sound in a while, but the water was not my goal for the time being, at the next crossing of hallways I turned away from it, I moved swiftly, faster than I had ever imagined, my feet were steady, I almost felt like the hero, I never thought I could be. I didn't have a cape nor any magic powers, but I didn't feel like I needed them, I had my mind and that was going to be enough.

I still had the keys squeezed into my palm and when I reached my next door, I already knew which key to use, I opened the door, stepped outside, I didn't have any shoes on and my bare feet touched fresh green grass, the entire scenery was so different from what I was used to, but I had to go on.

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To Be Continued