Adam - The Fall
"Under my roof, he's under my protection. Let me talk to him first," Dionysius insisted from a distance as Adam put on his slightly damp clothes.
"You'll be arrested with him if you don't tell me where the guy is!" The shout quickened Adam's heart. Shedding official blood wasn't in his plans.
"He's upstairs, first room on the left," the host spoke low, dejected.
"Men, quickly!" The order was followed by fast steps on the stairs. A few seconds later, the door of the room was being kicked in... Adam was doing the same with the wooden planks fastened to the window from the outside.
When the door opened, men dressed in blue leather and chainmail rushed to grab Adam while the boy fled through the window. The capture was a failure. Guards shouted orders as the boy climbed onto the balcony roof and ran around the house. It didn't take long for the guards to do the same, either climbing the stairs the old man had used the day before to nail the boards on the upper floors or exiting through the broken window. The wood under the boy's feet was sturdy and not too steep, despite being wet. The young man's steps were quick and careful; a fall from that height would be the end of his escape. After the first turn, Adam realized that the back of the house extended into a long garden full of trees. It could be his way down... it had to be!
And it was. One leap before the second turn, and Adam felt the ground beneath his feet after grabbing onto a wide branch and gaining the momentum he needed. Without looking back to check if the pursuing guards had done the same, the boy ran forward. The mud on the ground seemed to grip his feet as he tried to run, and sometimes his boots almost made him stumble. The terrain was completely surrounded by barbed wire; vegetable gardens spread out in all directions under the trees - cabbage, lettuce, beetroot, orange, apple - his surroundings were a world of edible obstacles that Adam carefully navigated. The end of the fence was near, a little more and he would be out of there, free to hide in a dark corner or descend a waterlogged trail. The fence was already too close... a low wall half the height of Adam, made of boards cut into sharp points. The young man felt his legs flexing and propelling him upward, his right foot had already crossed the fence when a black shadow blocked his vision. His head throbbed; something had hit him.
"Here, I got him!" A fat, dirty man bellowed at the top of his lungs, wielding a wooden handle as thick as a leg. Adam's eyes were half-closed, he strained not to close them. He needed to keep running, but his body betrayed him; he couldn't move. The fat man looked at the knight, then raised that club above his head and brought it down forcefully towards the boy's eyes.