Woke up again beneath Aberdeen, Same orange suit, same busted screen. They gave me a sentence, gave me a tool, Said work the mines, follow the rules. Oxygen low and the tunnels run deep, Guards don't care if the rocks don't keep. So I rode that elevator down with the rest, But I wasn't going where they expected next. Past the last light, past the working claim, Where nobody bothers to call your name. Left the tool where they'd expect it to be, Kept moving where the cameras couldn't see. Every meter took me farther below, No marker telling me which way to go. Klescher teaches you to follow the line. I figured I'd see what happened if I didn't this time. [Chorus] There's a long way out of Klescher, And none of it leads through the gate. You can serve your hours underground, Or decide you've served enough today. Let them count heads when the shift comes back, Let them search every tunnel they know. By the time they figure one man's gone, I'll be somewhere they don't go. [Verse 2] The deeper I went, the worse it got, Bad air, loose stone, places left to rot. Found an old route cut behind the mine, Half collapsed and forgotten with time. Suit kept warning, oxygen thin, No turning back would've helped me then. Every breath started costing more, Still sounded better than that cell door. Found a body where the passage bent, Don't know his name or how long he'd been. Had one good bottle still clipped to his side. I took it. He wasn't gonna mind. That's the part they leave off the tour— Nobody puts an exit sign on the floor. You want out, you learn what desperate means. Sometimes freedom ain't particularly clean. [Chorus] There's a long way out of Klescher, And none of it leads through the gate. You can serve your hours underground, Or decide you've served enough today. Let them count heads when the shift comes back, Let them search every tunnel they know. By the time they figure one man's gone, I'll be somewhere they don't go. [Verse 3] Found daylight through a crack in the stone, First ugly sunrise I'd ever called home. Climbed out bleeding, suit nearly spent, Still had Klescher dust ground into it. Then the comm started catching a trace, Two short bursts from somewhere off base. No words came through, didn't need 'em to. Only two people knew what I'd do. Crossed the ridge with the prison behind, Searchlights cutting through Aberdeen's sky. Then an engine turned over, low and rough, Hidden far enough out to be far enough. Jace was waiting by the passenger side, Looked at the suit, then looked me in the eye. Rancher leaned across and pushed open the door. Didn't ask where I'd been. Didn't need to. [Final Chorus] There's a long way out of Klescher, But I found where the old road ends. They can lock the doors behind me now, I ain't going through them again. Let them count heads when the shift comes back, Let them wonder where I went.
