"Can you hold him?" I asked Zee. The boy nodded and I slipped out from under Toby's arm. I ran over to the injured man, looking around until I spotted a block of stone light enough to lift but heavy enough to do some damage. I hefted it above my head, and was about to bring it down when the shape moved, fast. It swung an arm out, catching me behind the knee and making my legs buckle. I collapsed to the floor, the block of stone almost braining me.
Moleface grunted as he stood, wiping the blood from his eyes and patting out the fires that still burned on his exposed flesh. His injured face quivered and shook, and it took me a moment to grasp that he was attempting to smile.
I tried to get up but the giant placed his foot on my chest, pinning me like a butterfly. Then he bent down and picked up the same piece of rock I'd been struggling to lift, holding it effortlessly in one mammoth hand.
"Alex!" came Zee's voice behind me. I could barely breathe, let alone yell, but somehow I managed to answer.
"Just go."
Was it really going to end like this? So close to escape yet about to be crushed by the very guard who'd made it all happen, the one who'd shot Toby and framed me. I struggled against his weight but it was just too much.
I was distracted by a shape materializing behind the giant, another face, a single gleaming silver eye. I couldn't believe it, the blacksuits were indestructible. I looked up and saw the rock held above my head, waiting for the moment it would fall and snatch away my life. At least it would be quick. I fixed the black-suit with the fiercest gaze I could muster. I wouldn't go screaming and crying and begging for my life.
The stone block dropped, smashing into pieces millimeters from my head. I thought for a minute that his aim had simply been poor, but something else was going on in the shadows above me.
The second blacksuit had his burned hands around the throat of his twin, a grip so fierce that it forced Moleface down onto his knees. With the weight off my chest I rolled to my feet, backing away but not taking my eyes off the scene.
Moleface threw an elbow behind him, connecting with his attacker's hip so hard that it sent a crack echoing around the cavern. But the man wouldn't let go, tightening his grip around his victim's neck. Gradually Moleface's flailing arms dropped to his sides, his body tumbling to the rock.
The other guard stood unsteadily for a moment, then crashed earthward as well. I noticed that his injuries were even more extreme than Moleface's. Without his suit I saw that the man was just a mass of scars, some still containing stitches. Under the skin muscles bulged and twitched helplessly, as if trying to escape the broken body. I didn't understand what had just happened, but there was no time to try to work it out. I was about to make my way back to Zee when the giant spoke to me.
"Alex?" he said. The voice was as deep and booming as always, but there was no malice in it this time, no evil. He sounded scared. The figure turned his head to me, and I saw that only one of his eyes remained silver. The other was normal, a pale green that looked at me in desperation. It was too dark to see clearly, but I thought I recognized that eye, and the look it threw me-fierce and defiant.
"Alex," the guard gurgled through a mouthful of blood. The voice raised and lowered its pitch, like it was breaking. "Don't forget your name."
"What?" I asked.
"If they catch you, just don't forget your name."
"Come on!" yelled a voice behind me. I heard the scrabbling from the tunnel. The dogs were getting nearer.
"Who are you?" I asked. But I didn't need to. I knew that voice, I knew that eye. A massive explosion rocked the other side of the cavern as Gary blew the hole, filling the entire room with light. I saw past the guard's twisted face, his stitched skin and spasming muscles, saw the grapefruit-sized birthmark on his arm, now so familiar.
"Monty…" I said, moving toward him. But it was too late. With a sigh the man-the boy-lowered his head, his one silver eye fading along with the dying light of the explosion.
"Come on!" came Zee's voice again. I ran back to them, my head spinning so fast I thought I was going to be sick. The scrabbling and growling behind us was growing louder by the second, and we hobbled across the uneven ground as fast as we could.
Fueled by fear we took less than a minute to find the crack in the rock. It was no longer a sliver. The explosion had ripped a massive hole in the floor, and way below it raged a river. We walked to the edge of the drop and peered down. It was impossible to tell how far below the water was-its flow just a gray streak in the shadows. But the air was sweet and cool, the foam settling on our skin and easing the pain of our wounds.
There was no sign of Gary.
"You sure you want to do this?" I asked Toby. "You can't even stand, let alone swim."
"I don't care," he replied. "I just want to get out of here."
I nodded.
"You ready?" asked Zee.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. In that second a thousand thoughts flashed through my mind-the day I was caught, the day I arrived here, the guards, the dogs, the warden, Kevin being slaughtered, Ashley falling to his death. Monty, taken and twisted and turned into a monster, into a blacksuit.
Then I thought about Donovan, snatched in the middle of the night, awaiting the same horrible fate.
I'll come for you.
"I'm ready," I said. Taking one last look at Zee and Toby, I leaned over the edge and let the cold air embrace me. There was nothing but death behind me, and probably nothing but death ahead, but at least this way I would be free.
And smiling at the thought, I jumped.
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