Ester began to answer Evie's question, but she was suddenly interrupted by the voice of a man. Evie whirled on him, an almost dangerous look in her eye, though in reality, it was more comical than dangerous. Her face, not to mention her personality, was not suited to show any sort of truly threatening expression. The odd look on her face quickly faded when she realized it was another mutant, accompanied by Ava. Evie gave them a short smile, her thoughts quickly moving on to their escape route. Her mind inevitably came again to the thought of being caught, but this only made Evie more ready to get out of the circus grounds.
The new mutant who Ava had brought, however, seemed to have one more priority before they left. Evie noticed him approaching the bound mutant from behind. She raised a hand to her mouth, concerned and uncertain as to what he would do, but since Ester made no move to stop him, Evie decided to stay still. With a sudden movement, the chain was unlocked. The mutant's reaction was almost instant, as he fell to his knees with a horribly pained expression.
Evie let out a near silent gasp, pressing both hands hard to her mouth in an attempt to stifle it. As the poor man writhed on the ground, debris from the ground rising around him, Evie quickly realized that his pain was probably caused by the new mutant's sudden proximity, though the why entirely escaped her. She had done something similar without this extreme of a reaction. She could not figure out why it was different this time.
Slowly, her eyes filled with tears until she could hardly see the man. He was in such apparent pain, and so obviously struggling against it as the quavering pebbles around them seemed to indicate, that Evie could not help but feel for him and wish for any way to help him, any way at all. Finally, a single, large tear fell, releasing the dam until tears fell silently down her cheeks.
Finally, the worst seemed to be over, and Evie composed herself a bit better, stifling an urgent desire to gather the man into her arms and comfort him. What if something was different from before and she caused another horrible reaction? She could not risk that. Suddenly, he sneezed, giving Evie a start and jarring her from her thoughts. He slowly rose, giving a shaky smile to Ester. Perhaps he was alright for the moment?
Taking this as a cue that it was time to leave, Ava began to set off, calling softly back to them. Evie fave a resolute nod back to her friend and followed after. There was no time to lose, morning would come swiftly and they had to be far away by then.
The group quickly hustled to the edge of the grounds, a few close encounters, but nothing terribly risky, though Evie managed to fall a couple more times. Finally, they reached the edge of the grounds, and Evie peered out into the night. Her heart jolted when she saw the large, mostly open ground they would have to cover. She quickly spotted a large thicket of trees not too far from where they stood, which would be a good place to hide for a moment and regroup. She pointed and whispered softly, "There!" She scanned around the group, making sure everyone had seen the area she was indicating.
Hoping they would all follow, and make it, Evie set off first. She carefully scanned the circus tents for any watchful eyes as she hustled, but it was too late into the night for that. All the time they took gathering the various mutants seemed to have placed them at the time when the 'watch' was sleepiest, though it was purely by luck rather than planning.
Finally, Evie made it, quickly turning and counting to herself as the others entered the thicket.
One...
two...
three...
four...