I have no idea how long we have been driving, but my arms are getting tired from rocking Allison. I also have a feeling that my face is completely swollen where Walker slapped me. I might have had to use the restroom, but I have not eaten or had anything of any real substance in days. Allison, on the other hand, definitely needs a diaper change. It feels like time is just flowing past me and there is nothing at all that I can do about it. It seems like everything in this life causes pain. Not everything, I remind myself. Allison is love, not pain.

Just when I think I am about to go crazy from the claustrophobia, the van slows down and the engine clicks off. We must be there, wherever "there" is. I cannot possibly know how far we have traveled.

Someone is unlocking the back of the van. I hope it will be Walker, but to my utter dismay, it is the older soldier. He steps into the back of the van, approaching me and Allison. I continue rocking Allison, keeping my breathing slow and even. I don't want to wake the baby because of my anxiety. He doesn't slow his pace until he is standing only twelve inches away from us. I shift the still soundly sleeping Allison into my left arm. I want to have at least one arm free. Who knows when I might need to punch this jerk in the face.

He reaches out and grabs my now empty arm, jerking me forward. I guess that means I should follow him. Where is Walker? I thought he said he would get me out, but he did say I would have to be patient. I wonder how much time that translates into. Taking big steps, I match Grinch's pace. He is squeezing my arm so tightly that I am sure it will turn into a huge, nasty bruise. Its not like I really care, I know I won't be short on those for a while. I just wish that I had been more careful, more vigilant. If I had been, Allison and I wouldn't be stuck in this gigantic mess. I wouldn't have to rely on someone else to get me out.

The air has a crisp, clean breeze. The moon is still high in the sky, rotating around the earth as if the world isn't changing. As if everything is exactly the same as it has always been. It seems that the universe is too vast that what happens here, now, on earth couldn't possibly matter. How could I possibly matter? Stop, I curse at myself. I can't give up. Not after all that I have gone through. I need to be strong for the both of us. I am important, because what I do now, in these days, will define the rest of our lives. If I give up now, I will end up in prison for the rest of my life, or worse. I keep my head high as I walk. I trust Walker, he will get me out of this. He promised. I just have to be patient.

Just then his radio comes to life. I catch a few of the words: "Security breach", "fire", and "could be rioters" are a few. Grinch loudly curses a few times. He then looks over at me, the fifteen year old girl rocking a baby. He pulls out a pair of handcuffs, locking one side on my free wrist and the other on the steel light pole we are currently under. "Don't move," he commands before running off to deal with the situation. Apparently he thinks the rioters pose more of a problem than me. His mistake.

Now all I have to do is get out of these handcuffs, while at the same time keeping Allison quiet. It won't do me any good to escape, to only get caught by the prison guards because of a crying baby. The only problem is that I have no idea how to get out of handcuffs. Its not like that is something they teach in high school. I wiggle my hand around, but the cuff is so tight that my hand barely moves at all. And the more I twist, the more skin on my wrist I lose. I nearly yell out in frustration, but I think better of it.

I stand there, rocking a baby with one arm. I am starting to feel the strain from holding a child in one arm for so long. I push the pain to the back of my mind. I cannot believe that this piece of metal is actually containing me. All I can do is hope Walker will save me. God, I can't believe I just said that. Depending on someone else to save me makes me feel completely helpless. I am helpless.

Then, Allison wakes up. And starts crying, loud. That's when I notice her diaper probably hasn't been changed in over six hours. With all that has happened, I haven't exactly been able to change it. Plus, I no longer have her diaper bag with me, since the soldiers took it from me. Just then, I hear someone's heavy footsteps approaching me and Allison. I really hope that it is 7uiWalker, here to get me free. I'm not sure how much longer I can stand this.

The man finally comes within my view. It is-to my great relief-Walker. He is breathing heavily, almost to the point of panting. He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a tiny, silver object. Which, I assume, is the key to my handcuffs.

"Are you okay? Did anyone come up to you?," he asks.

"Nobody came up to me," I say.

"Okay," he says while he unlocks my handcuffs, "let's get you two out of here."

I shift Allison into my other hand as soon as the cuffs are unlocked, flexing my arm. It feels good to be free of them.

"Thanks," I say.

"Come on, we have to hurry!" I could hear distant voices approaching our location. Walker took off running, not waiting for me any longer. This would be a lot easier if I had Allison's carrier, I think to myself as I race to catch up to Walker. Allison, finally deciding she's had enough, starts screaming her lungs off. Great. But really, I can't blame her. I feel like screaming right now, too. As we run, the flood lights strategically placed around the base start flashing on as we run past each one. At least if we get caught, Walker can't completely blame me for not calming Allison down.

"Come on! This way!" Walker whisper-yells, as he slips out of my vision. I reach where I last saw him. That is when I notice the metal fence is bent outwards. It looks like I could slip under it. The only problem is that I don't know how I can possibly slip under, while as the same time holding my baby.

"Here," I hear walker whisper, "pass her to me. I promise you that I will give her back to you after you make it past the fence. Hurry, they are coming!"

"UGH!" I say, passing Allison to him under the fence. Next, I inch my way under the metal fence, which is digging into my back all the way under. When I am fully out and standing up, Walker hands me Allison. We share a brief glance, then we take off running. If we were in the Olympics, we would have won. By a lot.

The terrain is rough. We are running through the thick New England woods. I have no idea where we are headed, but it seems that Walker knows exactly where he is going. If only I felt so confident in these woods, but I am struggling the whole time to protect young Allison. Having to shield her wears me out faster than I would have normally been worn out. Plus, I have

For a long while we just run, not saying much of anything. But after what feels like we have been running for hours, I call out a hoarse "wait up." At this point, I am panting heavily from running for miles. I thought I was a good runner, until this. Maybe I was, but I had never had to push myself this much, this hard before.

Walker comes back and offers to carry a still whimpering Allison for a while, but I refuse. I took her on as my daughter. She is my responsibility. No one else's. And, as much as he has done for me, I still don't completely trust Walker. I mean, really, how much can I trust someone who works for the people who are chasing us. Hunting us. What if this is all just some kind of sick plot to capture me? But why would they do that? They already had me. I just don't understand why this guy would stick his neck out like this. "I'm fine," I say, still panting. "Let's keep going." I didn't say it because we both knew it. If we stopped now, we were as good as dead. And I did not come all this way, fight this hard, to just get tired. I started up at a slow jog, quickening my pace over the next mile or so. I did this until I was pushing so hard my legs felt like they would fall off, but I just keep pushing myself. Harder and harder. After a while, my legs stopped burning. It was as if my body finally accepted what my mind had been saying all along. I can not stop until Allison is safe. Even if it kills me. But it won't I realize, because if I was weak I would have never made it this far.

I looked over at Walker (who's first name I still do no know), and I realized I couldn't see him. This, I thought, was strange because I had been keeping pace with him for the last hour.

"Melanie! Over here," he called.

"What is it?" I called back.

"Shelter!" he said, with what I could only assume was pure relief in his voice.

Shelter turned out to be an old, abandoned cabin in the woods. We looked around, locating some blankets in one of the closets. They looked about one hundred years old. Seriously. They were gross, but Walker, Allison, and I didn't care. We laid a few blankets out on the floor. Allison, who was tired from crying during most of our travels, fell asleep in my arms as I rocked her back and forth. While I rocked Allison, Walker kindly set up all of our "beds." I climbed into the bed, with Allison sleeping across my chest. Normally, I would have been worried about rolling over, but I knew that I wouldn't. The cabin had a few rooms (I was too tired to count how many), and Walker set his bed up in one of the other ones. Apparently, he didn't want to take away my privacy, not that I even cared at this point. Or, maybe, he just didn't want to risk being woken up by a screaming baby. Not that I would blame him, even if that really was his reason for sleeping in a separate room. I don't really want to be woken by a screaming baby either.

I wonder what time it is. It is probably close to dawn, although I really won't know until the sun rises. Right before I fall completely asleep, I have a fleeting feeling of happiness and safeness. If my brain had been fully awake, I would never have had that feeling. But it wasn't. And I did.

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