The Time Stone, Third Edition (Extended Version)
Chapter 22

The long crawl through the narrow shaft is arduous for the duo trapped like rats in single file, struggling to make their way to freedom. They finally reach the end of the shaft.

“I can’t believe I got the tail end of this deal”, says James.

“Where are we now?” asks Tina. They were exiting the shaft and exposed to a wide field having followed the chute to an exterior yard surrounding the facility. The fencing they observed surrounding the compound as far as the eye could see had barbed wire wound around the top with another set on top of that. The sound of barking dogs filled the air around them and the odor of burnt ash protruded about resulting in a burned stench. The guard towers were filled with guards armed and ready, awaiting their prey, those eager to defy them. “We may have a problem here, James,” Tina says.

James thought to himself that he would not have been put by fate into this situation if it was completely hopeless. “There is always a way,” he thought to himself and looked about the yard his eyes scouring the vast expanse before him with hawk-like precision, and something clicked inside and he could accelerate that sight. His eyes began seeing things quicker and then quicker searching frantically and then a red dot appeared before him brightly and it began lighting his way quickly growing and growing encompassing the whole field of his vision before him and rushing forward, as if a self-facilitated visual effect. His senses grew wider as they tunneled into a swirling vortex of infrared light penetrating his eyes and suddenly it stops as he is face to face with a small doorway underneath one of the towers with a padlock on it, a trap door leading directly under the yard and outside via an underground passageway, leading to directly to the open field behind the jail, once used for shipping and receiving, according to an old sign he envisioned in his mind’s eye. It is apparently long since abandoned, as evidenced by the faded dirty roads and overgrown grass. There the door is covered with dirt and rust decayed over many years of neglect. The door is otherwise well hidden and invisible to the naked eye, but somehow James’ new enhanced senses picked it up. The door is meters away from their location, but seemed to James like it is directly in front of him. He smiles as he looks at his baffled companion and explained that there is a way out. They agree to give it a try.They maneuvered their way slowly across the chain link fence then ducked as they approached the visual light range of the object tower and then quietly crawled near the fence what James described quietly to Tina as a virtual blind spot to the guardsman in the tower. Then they held their position until nightfall and James explained his story to Tina and how he managed to figure out their final escape, but she couldn’t believe how his new abilities worked.Nonetheless, she is grateful that it is a reality, as she told him. At night fall they made their way to the door, but there is a problem being that they would be out of the blind spot and exposed to capture by the tower security guards light that is turned on after dark, a beam so bright to make the most hardened criminal freeze dead in her tracks.

As they approached the trap door, Tina quickly used an old trick from her life on the streets by ripping off part of her shirt and entering it carefully into the lock of the keyhole and then sliding it back and forth very fast carefully not to break it, but fast and steady enough to use the friction to trigger the unlocking mechanism, as she explained to James. After several seconds, nothing happened and James looks at Tina with an amused grin.

“I thought it would work.” She responds to his grin.

“Let me try.” James flung his wrist in the air and struck his hand down as he closed his eyes and pressed hard with his mind’s eye. In a matter of seconds, the lock clicked open. He opens his eyes and smiles as he removed the lock and opens the door.

“You got some real magic power, James” Tina adds dropping herself into the hole.

James frantically looks up at the spotlight and saw it approaching and knew that they have to move. The duo quickly escaped through the trap door and down a tunnel and collapsed the door just as the light of the tower passed right over the sealed hatch.

James and Tina escaped from the tunnel leading from the place of their captivity. The road out of the tunnel and into the open field is lonesome and arduous for James and Tina. It is a long run from the tunnel exits across the muddy and filthy field. They walk down the muck-ridden dirt road looking up at the stars and quietly holding one another close trying to avoid being spotted by the guards who might spy over to watch the other side of the fence beyond the tunnels.Fortune smiles on them as a pickup truck stops, owned by a dirt farmer named Melville who is more than happy to have their company while he gives them a ride back towards civilization. They were grateful for the ride.

“You kids are heading to Chronix Bay?” asks Melville. “You’ll likely need some supplies and things.”

“Yeah, we would be very appreciative of any help you could give us. We are kind of low on funds right now” says Tina.

“Lots of varmints in town got what you need. Free Castle is a mighty good watering hole to wet your whistle and ponder your next move.” Melville replies. “I don’t want to mind what you two were doing nearby the old loading front for the prison.”

“Good, ’cause we aren’t reckoning to be telling” laughs Tina mimicking Melville’s old western vernacular.

“Well, we aren’t in Chronix Bay anymore. The first thing that we need to agree to do is get as far as we can away from here.” James whispered to Tina.

“This here is Radcliffe. Chronix Bay, varmints, that is quite a ways east,” says Melville with his broken dialect and peculiar vernacular depicting his lack of a proper education.

James and Tina looks at one another with dismay. They knew they have been transported far, but not knowing how far would make it difficult to plan an escape somewhere else. They rode with Melville in his green faded pickup truck and spent the two and a half hour ride talking to them about his job lifting hay and feeding his pet rooster named Roger. The duo smile at each other, listening to Melville as they are extremely grateful when he let them off in a small town outside of Chronix Bay called Radcliffe population 2001, but we’re not sure about the 1 according to the sign on the outskirts of town.