I jumped out of bed and looked at Donovan. He was peeking from his sheets, his eyes like white moons against his dark skin, his mouth foaming. I'd never seen him like this before, filled with utter terror, and it broke my heart.
"What do we do?" I asked. The wheezer had frozen, but it wouldn't be long before the blacksuits made their way here with their dogs. "Which one of us is it taking?"
Donovan didn't move, didn't speak. I ripped the sheets from him and he still didn't respond. Desperate, I grabbed his arms and hauled him out of bed. He was halfway over the edge before he realized what was going on, snapping out of his trance in order to flip himself over and land on the floor.
"Donovan," I said. He looked at the wheezer, then at me. "What do we do?"
"I don't know," he replied in a voice as soft as breath.
"Which one of us has it picked?"
"I don't know," he repeated. "You only know when the blacksuits come."
I cursed, slapping my hands against my forehead. I should have been more scared, but for some reason my head was clear. I guess it was because it didn't seem real, I expected to wake up any second. I threw myself at the bars, finding myself face-to-face with the wheezer, but it was motionless, not even a twitch to show that it was still alive. The prison was plunged into darkness and I backed away from the bars in panic.
"Think!" I shouted as soon as the red lights snapped back on again. "It can't end like this."
"But it has," Donovan said. "It's come to nothing."
I paced the cell, glancing down into the yard to see more figures emerging from the vault door. I counted seven blacksuits, two dogs. Then, to my surprise, the warden strode into the middle of the yard, staring up at the cells. He'd never come out during the blood watch. Something was wrong.
"They know," I said, my shoulders slumping. "They've come for us. They've probably got Zee and Toby too."
"No," replied Donovan. "That's Zee's cell down there. No wheezer."
I looked down and, sure enough, Zee's cell was unmarked. I couldn't make out any sign of life in the bruised shadows but I was sure Zee would be watching me. Maybe the warden didn't know. Maybe this was just some sick joke, a perverse coincidence. The lights flickered, then went out again, the only sign I was still alive the terrifying noises outside the cell-growls and footsteps and wheezes.
"Look," I said, taking Donovan's shoulders. "They only take one cellmate at a time, right?"
"Right."
"Then one of us is left. We still go ahead with this, okay? One of us makes the break. Once I'm free, I'll go straight to the cops. Doesn't matter if they throw me back in here, just so long as they investigate. If I'm quick, I might be able to save you. If you hurry, you might get back in time to save me."
Donovan nodded as the lights rebooted, then he flung his arms around me, squeezing me so hard I gasped for breath.
"Thanks," he said, his eyes filling.
"For what?"
"Thanks for giving me hope."
"It's not over yet," I said. I could hear footsteps crashing down the platform, the howl of the mutant dogs.
"I know," he replied. Then they were there. A command from the blacksuit sent the cell door crashing open and in a blink of an eye the guard was inside, a massive hand wrapped around Donovan's throat, pulling the boy out as if he weighed nothing, holding him up above the ground. I threw myself forward but the giant used his other hand to swipe me away. I felt like I'd been hit by a car, sliding across the floor and smashing into the bunks.
By the time I'd got to my feet again, the cell door was rattling shut.
"Donovan!" I shouted. The gas mask was sliding a needle from his belt, a syringe full of blackness and death, a cloud that swirled like a galaxy, full of flickers of yellow light. "No!"
But it was too late. The wheezer stabbed the needle into Donovan's neck and the boy went limp and silent.
"You can't do this!" I shouted. "Donovan, I'll come for you. I'll come for you!"
My words tried to give chase as the procession made its way down the platform, but they were powerless to stop this nightmare. I could do nothing but watch as Donovan and the other victims were dragged down the stairs and across the yard, my best friend disappearing through the vault door, swallowed by the shadows that would escort him to his death.
The warden was the last to leave, and as he stepped through the door he turned and stared up at the cells again. From this distance his eyes were just pools of blackness lost in the red leather of his face, but I could swear he was looking right at me. I felt my vision twist and flicker, a hundred terrible images flashing before my eyes-blood and bone and teeth and chains and screams-then the warden turned away and the carnage ended.
As the door closed behind him I struggled to cling to my sanity, to my reason, to my consciousness. But it was no use. I collapsed to the floor, calling Donovan's name and wishing with all my heart that they had taken me instead.
BREAK
MORNING CAME RELUCTANTLY, afraid of breaching the darkness that embraced both the prison and my thoughts. I hadn't returned to sleep after Donovan was taken, I just sat on the bed at the mercy of a million different emotions-crying then screaming then pounding at the bars then laughing hysterically at the night like a creature of madness.
My last words to Donovan never left my head. I'll come for you. My exhausted mind pictured me charging back into Furnace at the head of an army, shooting the blacksuits where they stood, stringing the warden up by his neck, pulling Donovan from his cell and embracing him with the same strength with which he'd held me. I'll come for you. And I would.
As soon as the lights came on I was up and standing by the bars, staring out at the yard with cold eyes. It was like a piece of me had been taken along with Donovan, the side of me that felt compassion, that felt fear. All that was left was hatred. I was going to get out of Furnace, then I was going to burn it so that nothing remained but a smoking crater filled with the corpses of its demons.
The cell doors opened with a deafening rattle and I made my way down into the yard along with hundreds of inmates. It was as if the other prisoners sensed something different about me too, an edge that hadn't been there before, like I would explode if anybody even touched me. They moved out of my way as I marched toward the canteen, throwing wary glances at me when they thought I wasn't looking and turning their heads when they saw that I was.
I was sitting at an empty table when Zee ran up to me. He slid onto the bench opposite, checking over his shoulder. His face was pinched, his eyes still red with tears.
"They took him," he said. He seemed like he wanted to say more, but gave up and hung his head. I didn't reply, just stared out across the trough room to see Gary taking a seat along with the Skulls. He nodded at me and I nodded back, and in that moment of symmetry my expression was identical to his-empty, inhuman.
"I'll come back," I said, looking away. "I promised him I would. I can't leave him."
"So it's still on?" Zee asked, raising his head.
"It's still on."
Toby met us just as we were leaving the trough room. He was red-faced and stressed.
"My cellmate," he said through strangled breaths, "wouldn't let me out until he knew where we were going. I didn't tell him, Alex, but the whole prison knows we're up to something."
"It doesn't matter," I replied, leading the boys across the yard. We joined the crowd for the chipping rooms, avoiding the inmates who were eyeballing us with a strange mixture of hatred and hope. Jimmy was there too, his sickly gaze never leaving me. I ignored them all, focusing on the task ahead. We had one shot at this, just one. If we messed up, then we were all dead.
Slowly the crowd shuffled through the passage into the equipment room. The blacksuit watched us all with his silver eyes, finger permanently on the trigger of his shotgun. I thought for a moment that he might be able to hear my pounding heart as I passed him, but he showed no sign of even noticing me.
Inside the equipment room I slammed on a
helmet and lifted a pick from the racks. Zee and Toby did the same. I thought for a moment that Gary hadn't made it, but he came in at the tail end of the crowd, his eyes narrowed with the same sliver of anxiety I'd seen yesterday. He spotted us and the expression vanished.
"Levels one to three, Room One," bellowed the blacksuit, waving his shotgun toward the portal. "Rest of you into Room Three, you know the drill."
We headed into the chipping room, our hearts in our mouths. Every few steps, I'd look up and meet the eyes of Zee or Toby or Gary. It was like there was a line linking us, one that only we could see. Or maybe it wasn't that invisible-the looks from the other inmates were growing increasingly hostile, like they could sense how close we were to making a break for it, to leaving them to rot.
We positioned ourselves near the front of the cavern, pulling our visors down to conceal the sweat that already ran freely down our faces. We started attacking the wall the same way we always did, Zee keeping an eye on the shadow that sat fat across the equipment room floor. As soon as that shadow disappeared we would make our move.
It seemed to take forever. We chipped and we hacked and we sweated, and all the time our blood pressure rose, our tempers frayed. Much longer and I felt like my heart was going to implode.
"Come on," hissed Gary in between swings. "We gotta move now."
"We wait," I said, my voice heavy with an authority I never knew I possessed. "We leave when I say."
He gripped his pick so hard that his deformed knuckles went white, but he didn't argue, just kept swinging and cursing.
"Alex," hissed Zee a few minutes later. "The guard, he's going."
I looked to see the black shadow sweep across the floor of the equipment room as the guard disappeared into the first chipping hall. I turned and nodded to the three expectant, terrified faces in front of me, and after checking that nobody in the room was watching us, we walked calmly toward the door.
So far so good, it was all going to plan. Until I heard a voice call out from behind us. I swung around to see Jimmy legging it across the cavern floor, his face twisted into a mask of panic. He didn't even wait until he was in earshot before shouting out.
"Don't you dare," he yelled. "I know what you're doing."
"We're not doing anything, Jimmy," I replied as calmly as I could. "Just working."
He ran right up to me, then grabbed my collar with his bony fingers. The other prisoners in the room were turning to watch, looking at us like we'd stabbed them in the back.
"I knew it," he spat. "You're doing it now. Take me with you or I swear I'll scream my head off."
He never got the chance. From nowhere Gary moved in, jabbing the handle of his pick toward Jimmy's face. The wooden pole made contact with one of the most sickening sounds I'd ever heard, and the boy crumpled, groaning.
"Let's go," Gary said. "No time."
I looked at Jimmy, struggling to get up and hold his broken nose at the same time, then I turned and fled toward the equipment room. We rounded the corner to see that it was deserted, and it was all I could do not to cry out with joy. I skidded to the floor and yanked on the loose board, pulling it away from the wall. Zee went to climb in but Gary shoved him out of the way, diving through the gap headfirst. Zee followed, and it was just as Toby started climbing in that all hell broke loose.
I heard panting behind me and turned to see Jimmy standing there, the front of his overalls drenched in blood, his whole body shaking. He pointed at me, his eyes full of the strength that his body lacked.
"Escape," he said. His voice was weak, but the word hit me like a slap in the face. I saw him take a deep breath, then he repeated it with more force.
"Jimmy," I called out. "It's not too late, just come with us."
But he wasn't thinking clearly. The blow to his head had scrambled his thoughts. All he cared about now was making sure we didn't leave. He called out again and again, each time the volume of his cry escalating until it became a shrill shriek that echoed around the equipment room.
"Get in," I said to Toby. "Now."
He hesitated a moment longer, then scrabbled past the loose board, vanishing into the darkness. Jimmy was still screaming the same word over and over again. I had seconds until the blacksuits appeared.
Not even that. As I bent down to climb through the hole, I spotted the guard emerging from the first chipping room. The giant paused, his silver eyes squinting in the light as if he didn't quite believe what was happening. It was all the time I needed. By the time he'd raised his shotgun I was halfway into the tunnel, the shot kicking up the dust where my feet had been an instant before.
Toby was waiting for me on the other side of the boards, his eyes so wide I thought they were going to fall out. I looked back into the equipment room to see the guard charging toward us, his vast body a blur. Behind him, coming through the door from the yard with equal speed, was another blacksuit.
There was a sparking sound ahead, from the other end of the tunnel.
"Oh no," I said, my heart sinking. Gary had found the fuse, and was trying to light it. "Run!"
We sprinted up the tunnel just as the blacksuits smashed through the boards behind us. They just charged right through the massive wooden planks, sending splinters flying into the air as they raised their shotguns again. I hurled myself to the ground as the guns fired, pulling Toby down with me, the shot slicing the air above our heads.
Ahead there was a hiss as the fuse lit. I watched the flame hurtle along the string, up the wall toward the gas balloons that were right above our heads. I hauled myself up, grabbing Toby's hand and throwing myself along the tunnel. Only a few more steps and we'd be free.
But the blacksuits were too quick. Just as I saw the end of the tunnel ahead, I felt an iron grip around my throat, hoisting me from the floor. By the squawk from my side I knew that Toby had been caught too. It didn't really matter now anyway. I watched the thin blue flame travel along the ceiling, almost brushing the first glove. We were going to burn.
The blacksuit turned me around to face him, narrowing his silver eyes at me. It was Moleface-the same guard who had tormented me ever since that first day in the house so long ago. His face split open into the shark's smile I knew so well.
"Got you," he said. Over his shoulder the flame flickered, almost went out, then burned fiercely as it reached the first glove. I willed it on. At least if we died here we'd take some of them with us.
"No," I replied, grinning insanely back at my captor. "I've got you."
The first glove swelled and burst into a ball of light and heat. Then the world exploded-darkness into a radiance that burned my eyes, silence into a thunder so intense it felt like my body had been crushed to dust. The rest of the balloons followed suit, the resulting fireball sweeping down the tunnel like the fist of God, a shock wave that catapulted us all into the cave.
I blacked out for a moment, the sound of ringing in my ears the only thing letting me know I was still alive. That and the pain, so agonizing that it forced me to regain consciousness. I snapped open my eyes to see the tunnel in ruins, slabs of stone and a curtain of dust and flames where there had once been a passageway. Somewhere in the distance I could hear a siren and the sound of people shouting, but Donovan's plan had worked, there was now a wall of rock between us and them.
I tried to get up but I couldn't move. Fears of paralysis flooded my mind, the thought that I would have to lie here until the guards clawed their way through the demolished tunnel. But looking down I saw a huge weight slumped across my legs. It was Moleface, although he was no longer a man in black but a man of black. He had caught the brunt of the blast, the fire burning off his suit and leaving his body a charred mess. I realized that he'd probably saved me, shielding me from the flames, and I smiled at the irony of it.
I tugged at my legs and finally managed to free them, using a nearby rock to pull myself up. My helmet lamp was smashed to smithereens, but the fires painted the cavern in a weak light. I made out a mangled shape in front of m
e, a broken boy that had once been Toby. It took me a moment to notice there was another person hunched over the scene.
"Zee?" I asked, peering into the gloom. The other boy stood and ran over to me.
"Alex! Jesus, man, I thought you were dead."
"Is Toby?"
"No, he's got a pulse, but he's smashed up pretty bad. Ain't no way he's getting into that river."
"Gary?"
"Ran ahead, the idiot," Zee said. "I tried to stop him lighting the fuse, Alex, I really did. He just shoved me out of the way. Only a matter of time now before he finds the river."
I limped over to Toby. His eyes were shut but he was breathing weakly, a trail of blood running from the corner of his mouth. I knelt down beside him and touched his cheek, and very slowly he opened his eyes.
"Did we make it?" he asked as his vision focused. "Are we free?"
I took his hand and squeezed it, but it just made him wince.
"We made it," I said. "But you can't go any farther, Toby. You'll die if you do."
"I don't care," he answered. "I don't care, I just want to get out of here. Don't leave me. Please don't leave me."
I looked at Zee but the boy just shrugged.
"He's had it if he goes in that river," he said.
Behind us I heard the sound of shifting rubble, a series of wet growls. It was the dogs. I could picture them tearing into the stone with their killer claws. It wouldn't take them long to break through.
"He's had it if he doesn't," I said. "Let's get him up."
I put my hand under Toby's armpit and pulled gently, Zee doing the same on the other side. Together we managed to haul him up and keep him steady. He screamed as he tried to walk on his broken leg, but he managed to stay conscious.
"Let's go," I said.
We had only just started walking when I heard a groan from behind us. I peered over my shoulder to see a shape rising out of the darkness, a giant hauling itself up from the debris and dust. It was Moleface; somehow, he wasn't dead. If he managed to get to his feet, then we were history.
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