The Slowfield

Marko was running through the slow field that surrounded Strangeling penitentiary.
Behind him he could hear Warden Phillips say to the guards, "Don't worry about him. He'll never make it through the slowfield. He could run all week and never get to the other side".
"How does it work again warden?", asked one of the new prison guards, a man named Walker.
"Its a kind of time warp", the warden replied, "That surrounds the whole penitentiary. Running through thats like running through molasses. We'll let him keep on running like that for a while then you and some of the other guards can go in there and fish him out".
Marko was running through the slow field.
Behind him he could hear other prisoners placing bets, using the prison clock, on how long the warden would allow him to keep running in slow motion before he ended the agonizing joke.
"I say he keeps him running a full hour", said one, a convicted murderer called Bill Haycroft, "What do you say, curly?".
"No I think the warden will want to make an example of him", said one of the Prison guards, a man called Curly Edwards, joining in the betting, "He'll keep him running all day".
Marko was running through the slow field.
On the other side of the field he could see a group of young kids who had gathered to watch.
The kids would often throw stones at the field just to watch them slowly float over to the other side but today they were just pointing and laughing, entertained by watching him struggle.
"You kids better not hang around here", said an old man slowly walking by infront of them.
"But theres a man trying to escape, look", said one of the kids, a young boy.
"And what if he does escape. You don't know what he's been convicted of. He might be dangerous", said the old man.
"He'll never get out", scoffed the boy, "No one ever gets through that field. He's stuck like a fly on fly paper".
"Well don't say I didn't warn you", said the old man, slowly trundling away.
Marko was running through the slow field.
He could hear them mocking and taking bets behind him and he could see the children grinning in front of him but he didn't care; they could mock and grin all they wanted because what they didn't know is that he had a plan.
He'd thought of it when he'd first seen the kids throwing their stones into the field and now his hand was almost inches away from it, the device he had asked his wife Becky to get hold of from one of his friends, a device for switching off the field.
She had thrown it into the field earlier that morning and it had been hanging there all day in mid air but no one had noticed it but him.
And now his hand was almost touching it.
Marko was running through the slow field.
He could hear the new guard, Walker, now marvelling at the field.
"Wow. It really is a wonder what human beings will invent, isn't it", he said.
"Yes. A wonder", thought Marko, "The warped instruments of torture that men will create to see their fellow humans suffer; the magnificent cages that they will construct to keep other human beings inside".
But he had to keep running because if there was a real wonder, Marko knew it was in the human spirit; the power to keep going until you fought your way through that torture or found a way out of the cage.
And he was almost there, his finger almost on the button.
Marko was running through the slow field.
He could hear the incredulity of the guards as they looked and saw him running through to the other side; he could hear the rising wave of chaos as the other prisoners, seeing that the field was down, realized that this was their chance to escape aswell; he could see the startled kids infront of him stop their laughing and turn and run but then he could see beyond them, a car waiting for him with his wife in the drivers seat, he could see its automatic door slide open, he could see his wife smiling as he got into the passenger seat and then freedom.