Luan let an indignant huff escape his lips as he brushed himself off. He felt it unfair of the facility to realize he was missing so soon. They must have lied to him about not checking the cameras and only checked every once in a while. Or maybe one of the other patients tried to stop by? Despite knowing it was childish, Luan felt an urge to throw a tantrum fit. He was finally out of the facility with a taste of freedom, but destined to go back? Luan would not easily accept that fate.

So, he broke into a sprint. Trying his best not to trip, he maneuvered between the trees. Every time he saw the helicopter's spotlight start nearing again, he would throw more of his caution to the wind and slightly change directions. The attempts at avoiding being seen and speeding up began to take their toll. Luan was unable to more and more of the branches. Soon, the reaching limbs clawed at him, becoming a nightmare of taloned claws. They left their marks along his skin, tore open his clothes, and stole his slippers. 

At one point, he slammed straight into a thick branch, but he just got back up. Luan began stumbling as he continued. Very out of it, he didn't even notice the small stream in front of him. Slipping on the wet bank, he tumbled straight in. The stream was barely deep enough to cover Luan completely as he sprawled in it face down. As soon as he tried to breathe in the water, he lurched up, sputtering. He noticed he was completely drenched as he coughed and wiped some water out of his eyes. With a small jolt, he pulled his way out of the cold water. As the cold seeped in, all he wanted to do was curl up to find some semblance of warmth. The cool autumn night had turned freezing after the water.

Dragging himself along, Luan's speed had greatly diminished. At least, he could again see the tall trees, making it easier to avoid any more branches. His anxiety gave way from almost completely blind panic to haunted inner ramblings of bad outcomes. Almost worse, he could feel the biting cold which intensified the bite of his cuts as the underbrush tortured his now battered feet. Still, he continued. Slowly, Luan focused more on more of his mind on moving his body forward in a straight line. Time flowed by in seconds like molasses and hours like water, but Luan did not care to measure it. He didn't notice the end to occasional passings of the helicopter's spotlight or when dawn began breaking.

What finally caused him to hold still was when his feet met pavement. Luan had come across a paved road.  In the sun's early light, he could see it was well kept with no overhanging branches. Clearly, the road was traveled on enough to warrant its care. The only thing that really offset Luan about the scene was how the trees were swaying in barely any breeze.

"Oh, that's me."

His first words spoken after leaving the facility came out as a scratchy, weak whisper caused by exhaustion. All of his remaining energy flowed out as he crumpled to his knees in a heap. The only thing he could bring himself to do was crawling his way behind the nearest tree before curling up with his knees to his chest.

Luan's breaths deepened immediately.

~✩~

The Director of Helix Life had been reading over proposals. They were for the next step of the Elevated DNA Project. Most of the suggestions suggested drastic changes to the DNA he would never approve at this stage or wanted to completely restart using other animals to explore different possibilities. In his opinion, the DNA part had already been finished. The patients could carry children or impregnate others, they were hardier than humans, and had a significantly higher learning capability. Furthermore, all of the chemical imbalances that could be caused by different body types or personalities had been sorted out.  The physiology for the patients had even been studied as much as it could until the patients grew older. The oldest now was 28 and he had convinced her to stay at the facility despite her earlier inclinations. Anyway, he felt the need to focus on something entirely different.

His thoughts were interrupted as his secretary burst into his office and said, "Sir, one of the patients is missing and we have gone into Code 72."

"Why wasn't I informed already and which patient?" he replied with furrowed brows. Code 72 sent the facility into immediate lockdown as guards swept the building, but mostly just quickly conveyed an escapee patient was most likely still in the building.

"You turned off your radio and announcements for your two o'clock meeting, Dir. Patient Luan is the one. He was last seen when left in his room for the night, Room 02."

The Director hummed as he thought. Luan was the smaller, Asian looking 17-year-old. Preferred being called "he" and always asked to wear sweatshirts. The Director believed Luan had even gotten lost, sending everyone into a frenzy. However, he had always been found quickly before anyone could think to declare him escaped. Something was different this time, even if Luan was one of the calmer patients who didn't seem the personality to try and escape. Maybe he was more stubborn than his past interactions led his doctors to believe.

With this interesting development, the Director decided to go to the main guard station. Meaning, he was in on the action when they finally got the tracker in Luan's bear up and found him outside the facility. The Code was changed to Code 74 which enabled a helicopter and guard to be sent out of the facility after Luan. Unfortunately, the foliage was stopping any direct visuals from the helicopter and the tracker could only be so accurate. The men on the ground were slowed down by the tight trees and needing to be very thorough. Even worse, the transmitter stopped working. In addition to finding slippers, the men came across a stream they assumed Luan fell into. After the stream, there were no more broken branches and strips of caught clothes to follow. If only the trackers didn't set off the patients' immune systems when they tried it, the water would not have been able to fry it.

Just before dawn, the Director called off the search. The code changed once more to Code 15, allowing everyone to leave after reporting while keeping security tightened. Now with more time to go through the security feeds, they found out Luan escaped through the air vents and garage. The Director promised himself to prevent future escapes that way. However, as he pondered the escape, his mind drifted off to his problem from earlier. With a grin, he decided not to immediately bring Luan in even if they did find him...