DAY 18

(Day 11 continued) Ayanna screams and kills any chance of remaining undiscovered. Bruce snarls and Errol sighs. The game is up. They shout their proclamation of peaceful surrenders before the police anticipate something worse and shoot. But the outside presence is no police officer. Instead, a small, hooded silhouette is backlit by a mobile phone light and cries out in shock, just as alarmed as the three escapees.

George and Jay are two drunk teenagers spending their Friday nights in the woods with booze stolen from George’s dad’s drinks cabinet; each set of parents told their son is staying at their friend’s house. Even through their haze, they struggle to believe their night has taken this twist; drinking the derelict lodge with three old people who’ve broken out of their care home. In the dark, it is hard to tell that without his medication, Bruce is dangerously pale. He admits he is freezing and suggests it would be dangerous to stay here, at their age. Jay, George’s friend says not to worry and from under a pile of wooden planks, drags a pack of firelighters, several musty sleeping bags and some wool hats.

The flames dance satisfyingly high.

“We’ve been doing this since the first lockdown. What else are we gonna do? We can’t go out. Sometimes we bring girls here.”

“Once… and that ended well.” Interjects George.

“Yeah well… That’s why we have all the sleeping bags and that.”

“What about you?” Asks Ayanna.

“We’re fine, got thermals under here and we can use the tarp.”

Bruce wakes first, at 5am, feeling horrific, short of breath. By sunrise, the boys return their sleeping gear to the dirt under the planks for next week and ask the escapees if they would like dropping anywhere. By the time they make the car on the edge of the forest, Bruce barely manages to keep himself up, stopping to cling to a tree. Ayanna bursts into tears and Errol sighs. For the other two, this is the end of the line. Ayanna asks the boys to drop them back at the care home. Errol does not yet know where he would like to be taken, but says he has adventure left in his old bones yet.