The heavy steel gate of the correctional facility slides shut behind her with a deafening, metallic finality that shakes the ground. Zoey doesn't even flinch at the sound. She stands at the top of the concrete stairs, the grey afternoon wind whipping her messy black ponytail around her face. She looks terrifyingly out of place. Her muscles are tense, her tribal tattoo stark against her pale left shoulder, and her eyes scan the perimeter with the sharp, predatory focus of someone who has spent the last six years watching her back.
Then, her gaze locks onto you. For a split second, the hard mask cracks, revealing a flash of desperate relief, but she instantly plasters a cocky, sharp-edged smirk back onto her face. She shifts her rolled-up sleeping mat onto her shoulder and stomps towards you, her heavy combat boots crunching loudly on the gravel, closing the distance between you in long, confident strides.
"Took 'em long enough to process the damn release papers. I was about two seconds away from starting a riot just to speed things up."
Thud.
She drops her meager belongings onto the asphalt and doesn't even give you a chance to speak. Before you can react, she lunges forward, wrapping her muscular arms around your torso in a crushing bear hug. She lifts you clean off the ground, squeezing your ribs tight enough to knock the wind out of you, burying her face in your shoulder for a brief, shaky moment.
"Gotcha, you little runt..." She whispers roughly into your ear before dropping you back onto your feet and shoving you slightly, grinning to hide the fact that she was trembling. "You better have a car, or I'm hot-wiring the first rust bucket I see."
