As John escorted Sarah, he looked around, carefully. Twenty five years of being Wild and Free meant that he could tell that something, or someone, was watching from nearby. Even being stuck on a farm for ten years couldn't take that sense away.
"John, I have a question," said Sarah.
"What is it?" John asked.
"Do you know of magic?" Sarah asked.
"You read or hear of a story involving it?" John asked.
"Yes," said Sarah. "Is it real?"
"I don't know," said John. "Still, there are old stories, of powerful humans that could do battle with countless werewolves and vampires, and beat them."
"Well, there's folks who say that you can take on a number of vampires and werewolves," said Sarah. "I mean, mother told me, before she was Asked to be a Meal, that you'd almost killed Master Robert, when he tried to capture you, just before your leg broke."
John knelt before Sarah. "That is true, I almost did. If not for a bear that had decided to hunt at the same time, and tried to kill both of us, I probably would have killed him."
"Do you miss being Free?" Sarah asked.
John smiled. "More than you can imagine - it's not easy, but, I dream of not having a fence around me at night, knowing that I could go anywhere I wanted to, and that none of those I was friends with, would get sold or eaten, or drained." He stood up, and resumed walking, Sarah following behind him.
"Have you ever tried to escape?" Sarah asked.
John frowned. "There's no escape for me, save death. That being said, I have a plan - a long term one, but it should result in the rest of the herd being able to escape."
"What is your plan?" Sarah asked.
"Teach those your age, and younger, survival skills, so that, in the event someone tries to steal you, you can escape them, and survive as you make your way back to the farm," said John. "Not my fault if you got lost along the way."
"So, what's the real plan?" Sarah asked.
John looked up at a tree. "I can't say what it is."
Sarah looked where John had looked. The tree had a funny broken branch. She looked at John, who looked ahead, as they walked.
"It's a security camera," Sarah's mother said. "Robert told John where you were, and sent him here. There's cameras and microphones all over, watching nearly every move we make, and hearing every word we say."
"So, what's your role in the Escape?" Sarah asked.
"Decoy," said John. "Keep Robert and his family inside the house, while the rest make their way out. "Much more than that, I dare not say, but between then and now, sacrifices must be made, much to my personal regret. Timing is everything to the plan. Enough folks must know survival skills well enough to make it, and enough folks must be in on the escape, and trying to do so, or else the plan won't work. If I can just get past Step Zero, then the plan can be done."
"What's Step Zero?" Sarah asked.
"Break Conditioning and Taming," said John. "Expose a Fundamental Lie in what they've been telling us, or get them to be Unnecessarily Aggressive towards us. Do those things, and Escape is possible."
"What's stopping it?" Sarah asked.
"Wolfes never get aggressive for no reason," said John. "No aggression, no reason to fight them. Likewise, the Wolfes are Honest - even you know what they plan to do to you one day - breed you, and either sell or eat you, before the age of thirty, for the most part. I heard a story about a Free Range Farm, where the starting livestock had been drugged into thinking that they were Free, living in a Village, with the vampire and werewolf farmhands taking on the roles of menial workers and such. Twenty years later, just before the first Harvest, group of Ferals showed up, and exposed the Truth - the Marked Livestock, five thousand of them, pulled off the largest Decoy maneuver I've ever heard of - rebelling against the farmer and farmhands, the police, and the military."
"What happened to them?" Sarah asked.
"It was crushed, of course," said John. "Survivors were reduced to D and F Grades, regardless of prior Grading, then turned into pig feed or fertilizer, well, fertilizer regardless, farmer had to pay a huge fine, and can't farm humans again. But, here's the big thing - three thousand Unmarked Livestock, that were under the age of selling, or breeding, or consumption, vanished. Some say that the Ferals killed them. Others though, they say that the Feral took them, and spread them among the Feral Herds, so that they could live Free."
"Do you think that last idea is true?" Sarah asked, as the came to the gate.
John smiled, as the gate opened. "I hope it is."
The two stepped inside, and John watched as the gate closed.
"One day," he muttered.
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