Chapter 20: The Forest

"Captain what should were do about the escaped subject?" Thirty-seven questioned as he looked directly at his superior.

The Guard Captain looked at Thiry-seven before turning his gaze to the rest of his subordinates. He knew they were dealing with a troublesome enemy, and acting without an knowledge wasn't his style. "The subject managed to kill six of this facility's guards, even though he manly relied tricks it's still impressive. That proves his smart, it's a little troublesome dealing with someone like that but not very difficult. The problem is I don't have much information on him not a name nor even a face. From what that failure told me" His eyes glanced at the unconscious figure of Twenty-five. "I can speculate the subject appears to have an understanding of chemicals. The subject was wearing a white coat meaning he must be masquerading as a researcher."

The captain pondered over the matter for a little while before he came to a realisation. "Because of the death of so many guards most of our manpower would be sent to investigate the matter leaving exit right open the for him. Not a bad plan."

The captain turned to look at the rest of his subordinates. He knew the subject was mostly likely attempting to escape.

"Judging by the amount of time that has pasted since the explosion, he would of made it out of the base."

He scanned all his subordinates before his gaze landed on Thirty-seven.

"Thiry-seven."

He stood to at attention when his name was called "Yes sir."

"I want you to take five guards and go track down the subject. If I'm not wrong he shouldn't have gotten far, most probably still within a three kilometres radius of this facility."

"Yes sir."

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Not long after the explosion

Rattle! Rattle! Rattle!

That was the sound of the ladder shaking as Aiden climbed up. This ladder was the one that would lead him to his freedom. When he finaly reached the very top the ladder he was filled with glee.

Only single metal door that stood between him and his freedom. He slowly pushed open the metal door that separated him from the outside world.

As soon the door was opened a blinding light flashed. The Sun's bright ray shined in his eyes. It caused him to flinch for a second, it took him a while to get use to the natural sunlight. After being in that underground facility filled with artificial lighting his eyes needed a minute to adapt.

When his vision returned he took those last few steps on the ladder and his first step on the solid ground.

Aiden looked at his surroundings, inorder to figure out where he was. It was an area densley packed with trees "A forest" he thought. "This is going to be a problem." A forest even in his old world was one of the worst places to navigate through.

He looked around trying to figure out which direction he should take. He pondered over the matter for a while before deciding to head in the oppasite direction of the sun.

Aiden knew they would send people after him. So he decided through them of the trail, by pointing them in the direction of his choosing. He may not know how good they are but they would mostly reliy on there instincts than carefully scope the land for any inconsistencies.

When first stepped out into solid ground and saw the sun he had an erge to head towards it. "Judging by the sun position, it should be in the evening." "Hmmm...I don't have many hours of sunlight left.

When he was done creating a fake track leading west, he covered his own tracks pointing east.

Not long after he left the metal hatch opened again. Six people stepped out of it one at a time. They all wore black combat gear except one who wore white, each of them hand numbers printed on their suits. They were the unite the Guard captain sent after Aiden.

The guards searched the ground inorder to pick up his tracks. One of the guards was observing the area and managed to pick up a trail leading west he reported it to the rest of his team. They all seemed to believe it was a trail felt behind by there target. The goup was about to head out, when Thiry-seven stopped them.

"Why?" The guard who picked up the trail asked.

Thirty-seven did not respond he simply headed east and stopped when he was ten feet from the rest of his team. There lay a slight imprint barely visible but it existed.

He examined the imprint judging by the density of the footprint and it's shape he could guess it belonged to a human, and unless there was someone else pass this area earlier it must belong to there target.

He called the rest of his team over when his examination of imprint was done.

"The target headed east. If look at the ground you'll see a set of barely visible tracks headed in this direction" He pointed to the cluster of trees that layed in front of him. "It seems he was trying to hide his tracks and created a pair of fake ones to send us on a wild goose chase.

"Let's go," Thirty-seven stood up and said, "We should try to catpture him before nightfall."

The six man team headed east.

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Aiden made his way through the forest trying not to trip over vines that filled the ground. " Why is this forest so big!" "Sigh," He complained as he's been travelling the woods for two hours.

The sun started to show a orange glint indicating the sun would set soon and night would take over.

Another hour pasted and night emerged it shrouded the forest in darkness making it difficult for him to see. As he was walking heard a sound coming from behind himself.

He ran to the nearest tree and crouched behind it. He heard crunching! sound peeking from behind the tree Aiden witnessed six people coming from the direction of the facility.

"Were they tracking me, but how?" Aiden gaze stayed on them "I remember covering my tracks, it's not exactly my expertise but it should of fooled them. Do they have someone good at tracking in their team?" He thought about that possibility.

"Well even if that is the case there isn't much I can do." Aiden said as he calmed his mind. "How do I go about this? Hmmm, His head was filled with ideas but most of them would end in failure. He would either end up gravely injured or if he was unlucky even end up dying.

Suddenly a loud roar resounded in the area taking him out of his thoughts.