by Summer Lane
All of this pain…and for what?
We came to Sky City to recruit troops for the militia.
What a useless mission. We’ll die here, in a hole in the ground, and no one will ever know what happened to us. I curl my fingers into fists, furious.
I wish there were some way to make Omega pay.
Some way to turn the tables, to take them down.
I try to talk, but my voice is still nothing but a soft whisper. My throat burns like fire, and every time I swallow, I get a horrible flashback of the interrogation – Connor’s smug, leering face and endless hands holding my head underwater, drowning me.
I shudder.
“That’s a girl,” Manny says.
At first I think that he is talking to me, but when I turn around, he’s kneeling, speaking to Arlene through the cell bars. Arlene is sitting up, leaning against the bars, holding Manny’s hand. Her face is pale, powdery white. Her wavy gray hair, usually in a messy coif on top of her head, is hanging in strands to her shoulders. She looks infinitely older – infinitely more tired.
There is a bandage around her neck. She touches it with her fingers and then touches her lips, slowly shaking her head.
“I understand, my girl,” Manny says, using his fondest term of endearment. “I know. I’m sorry.”
Arlene shakes her head again.
She locks gazes with me, and her eyes widen.
Cassidy, she mouths.
“Arlene,” I whisper.
She nods.
She looks around the cellblock. Rivera is hunched in a tight ball on his cot. Elle is brushing Bravo’s coat with her fingers through the bars. Vera is pacing again, and Uriah is sitting. Everyone looks exhausted. Spent.
Arlene taps on the bars with her fingers.
I lean forward.
She points to herself, then to all of us. Her tired, watery eyes crinkle with amusement as everyone stops to watch her, like a sad game of charades.
“You want us to do something,” Elle says.
She smiles, bobbing her head.
She points to herself again, then touches her temple, then draws a circle with a tree in the center of it in the air.
“You know something about Sky City,” Vera states. “What?”
Arlene pauses for a moment, weary, then leans forward. She drags her finger along the accumulation of dirt and dust on the floor. In big, bold letters she writes:
ESCAPE
“You know a way out,” I say.
“Oh, my god,” Vera sighs. “Finally.”
Arlene looks for another patch of dust on the floor. She draws a circle, carefully illustrating what seems to be the thirteenth level of Sky City. She draws the cellblocks, the communications center, and the arsenal. She pauses, looking up to make sure that we’re all following her.
She draws an X on the corner of the map, near the arsenal.
“Is that a way out?” Vera asks.
Arlene raises her hands, yes.
“What is it?” Elle says.
Arlene sighs. It must be frustrating, being unable to communicate what she’s thinking. She looks at Manny, then draws a long pathway from the corner of the X, stopping suddenly. She then draws a tree.
“It’s a passageway,” Manny says. “Well, how about that. Sky City’s got more secrets than my mother-in-law when Arlene and I got married.”
Arlene gives him a sharp look.
“Sorry, love,” he grins. “But we all know the woman had issues.”
Arlene looks at all of us.
It’s an escape, she mouths. I can get us out.
She reaches into her pocket, holding up her access card.
“They didn’t take it away from you?” Vera gasps.
“Didn’t think of it, most likely,” Manny replies. “With all of the commotion we stirred up in the medical chamber, they probably never thought to check Arlene for weapons or valuables since she was already in the hospital.”
I fold my hands together under my chin.
“So. There’s a back door out of Sky City,” I say. My voice is soft and my throat still hurts, but I make an effort to project my words so that everyone can hear. “All we’ve got to do is get from point A to point B.”
“Impossible,” Vera replies. “We’re locked up in a cell, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“I noticed,” I reply. “There’s a way. We just have to think this thing out.”
“Cassidy,” Uriah says. “When they interrogated me, Connor threatened to kill all of us – soon. We’re not giving them any valuable information. They have no reason to keep us alive.”
“So we need to hurry.” Colonel Rivera suddenly chimes into the conversation. “You’re all supposedly military geniuses – come up with a plan.”
I smile.
“Challenge accepted,” I say.
Chapter Nine
I stand up and lean against the cell bars. I watch Uriah. He is sitting in the corner of his cell, quiet. I do not doubt that the torturous interrogation that he endured from Connor was just as traumatizing as mine – if not worse.
I run a hand through my dirty, unwashed hair.
How long have we been prisoners here?
Two days? Four?
I don’t know. I’ve lost track of time. The absence of daylight in the bunker is confusing. There is no separation between night and day. My internal clock is screwed up.
“Are you ready?” Elle whispers.
She is kneeling on the floor, one arm leaning against her knee. She looks old and wise at that moment, and I find myself smiling.
“Yeah,” I say. “You?”
She nods.
I give her two thumbs up.
I am dizzy and lightheaded. I haven’t eaten in at least two days – possibly longer, if my internal clock is as messed up as I think it is. The food rations that we’ve been given in the cellblock have been barely enough to keep a flea alive – plus, I’ve been unconscious during mealtimes.
My stomach growls. Loudly.
Elle hides a grin behind her hand.
“Somebody get this girl a hamburger,” Manny grins. His weathered, wrinkled face looks calm and collected. Despite the situation, he is happy just being near his wife – and knowing that she is alive. “I’m ready to go home. How about you, my girl?”
I smile.
“More than ever,” I reply.
Boom, boom, boom.
Footsteps outside in the bunker hallway shake me out of our conversation. I tense. Uriah suddenly sits up straight and rolls to his feet, coming to the corner of his cell. Manny does the same, so that they are standing near each other.
The door opens with a bang, shedding white light into the dim cellblock. Two guards walk inside, each of them with miniscule food rations in their hands.
“Breakfast time,” the first one says, tossing something into my cell. I don’t move to pick it up. It looks like a plastic bag of beef jerky.
“Come on, red,” he sneers at me. “Eat up.”
As tempting as it is to eat, I pick it up and toss it through the bars, across the hall, and straight into Uriah’s cell.
A boisterous, boyish grin spreads across his face.
“Thanks!” he yells.
One of the guards curses me and reaches through the bars, making a lunge for me. I grab his outstretched arm and snap it sideways against the metal. He screams. I can see the outline of white bone protruding through his flesh. The guard with him charges toward my cell, but I am just out of his reach, keeping a firm grip on the first guard’s arm. He continues to scream, overwhelmed with agonizing pain.
His companion – a guard with short black hair – swipes an access card through a computerized panel on my cell. The door pops open and he hurries inside to stop me. I let go of the guard’s arm, take a step back, and duck just out of his reach, rolling into the hallway. He spins around, confused. And then he realizes that I am no longer in my cell – he is.
I am so tired – starved, dehydrated and beaten
from torture – but I am filled with adrenaline. And that is what gives me the strength to kick him in the chin. His head slams against the cell bars. I grab the collar of his shirt and slam him against the bars two more times, shoving him across the hall. Uriah and Manny grab his head and shoulders.
Uriah twists his neck. There is a sickening crack, and all is silent, except for the quiet whimpers of the guard with the broken arm. I lean down, grab the dead guard’s access card, and swipe open the cell locks for Uriah, Manny, Arlene, Colonel Rivera, Bravo and Elle.
Uriah kneels down and relieves the dead guard of his gun and magazines. He stands up and takes the conscious guard, slams the butt of the rifle against his head, and he goes limp – out like a light. I take his weapons and belt, then sling the rifle over my shoulder.
Elle gathers up the food rations that have been dropped onto the ground and stuffs them into her jacket. Smart girl. Heart pounding against my ribcage, I motion toward the door.
We have maybe sixty seconds to make it down the hall before someone notices what’s happened in the cellblock. Guards regularly patrol this level, and I don’t want to blow our only chance to escape.
Manny slips his arm around Arlene’s waist. She looks pale and weak – I hope she can keep up with us. But I figure Manny will take care of that.
We move to the end of the hall, falling into team formation. It is so natural, we don’t even have to think about it. Uriah heads up the front, I follow, then Manny, Arlene, Colonel Rivera, Elle and Bravo, and then Vera brings up the rear.
Uriah slips into the hallway. Although the artificial white light of the bunker is dim compared to natural light, it seems to sear my eyes after being trapped in a shadowy cell for days.
My eyes water as we run down the hall, keeping close to the wall. There is no one in sight…until we round the corner. We follow the curve of the wall, looking at Arlene. She is breathing hard, pointing to the right.
There are only so many places you can go in a place that curves in a circle, so we keep moving forward. I keep the rifle that I took from the guard tucked into my shoulder.
“Whoa, heads up!” Uriah shouts.
I duck. A gunshot flies over my head. Three guards are coming up behind us. I whirl around and slide into a kneeling position, popping off three shots.
Hit, hit, hit.
I may be tired, but my aim is still as good as ever.
Three dead guards hit the ground, blood soaking through their fatigues, staining the floor. I get to my feet, never looking back. Bravo growls.
We run.
We reach the corner – the place that Arlene marked with an X on her map in the cellblock. The arsenal is on the left – a huge steel door.
“We should take weapons!” Vera yells.
“No time!” I say.
A siren screams in the distance. The cellblock is flashing with red lights.
“We’re dead if we don’t hurry up!” Elle warns.
The corner between the arsenal and cellblock is a simple door. It’s unmarked, steel. Nothing special. Arlene throws her card to me. I catch it neatly in the palm of my hand and slide it through the panel near the door.
I pray to God under my breath, willing the computer system to accept it.
The panel blinks green.
I breathe out.
A gunshot echoes through the halls. It ricochets off the steel walls, making my head ring. Uriah fires off two shots. Guards are pouring out of the elevator, coming toward us from both sides of the rotunda.
The door opens.
“Go, move it!!” I yell.
My throat is tight, burning. I keep shouting despite the pain.
Manny goes first with Arlene, then Elle, Bravo and Vera.
“Go on!” I tell Colonel Rivera.
“We won’t make it – there’s too many, Hart!” he replies.
“JUST GO!” I command.
He hesitates, but only for a moment. He swallows his defiance and runs through the door. I go next, and Uriah follows last. He shuts the door and it seals with a click. We find ourselves in a small hallway.
“What the hell is this?” Vera screams, panicked. “There are no doors! It’s a box!”
Arlene rushes to the end of the hall. It looks like a garage door. She makes a wind up motion with her fingers.
“It’s an emergency hatch,” Manny says.
There’s one more access panel. Arlene slides her card through, and it blinks green once more. The guards outside hit the door with their weapons. Gunshots echo against the walls.
It’s only a matter of seconds before they unlock the door.
The metal panel on the wall rolls up. Behind that, there are two steel doors. They slide open. It’s an elevator. I don’t even have the time to be impressed. I just run inside with the rest of my team. Arlene slams her fist against a single button, glowing red, on the wall. The doors begin to slide shut just as the guards break through the door at the end of the hall. They sprint toward us. It is a solid barrage of gunfire and yelling.
The steel doors shut.
The elevator drops.
“Oh, my god,” Vera says. “Where is this thing taking us?”
Arlene points down.
Vera rolls her eyes.
I am sweating, buzzing. I look at Uriah. He touches my hand – briefly – and then the elevator stops. I tense, look at Arlene, and she nods.
The doors open slowly.
I brace myself for an attack, but there is nothing. Only darkness.
Uriah is the first one to step out of the elevator. As he crosses the threshold, motion sensors catch his movement, and lights flicker on. We are in some kind of underground passage. About a hundred yards down the hall, there’s another steel door.
“We can’t let the elevator go back up there,” Elle says.
“We’ll destroy it,” Colonel Rivera replies.
I exit the elevator. It’s cold down here. Silent.
It’s unsettling, like being buried alive.
I look down at the belt that I took from the guard in the cellblock. There’s a couple of grenades there. Manny wiggles his eyebrows.
“You send that grenade up there, you’d better make sure the elevator leaves fast,” Uriah warns.
I don’t disagree.
I look at Arlene.
“It will go back up, right?” I ask.
She bobs her head, yes.
I pop a grenade off the belt and hold it in my hand. I look at the elevator.
“Okay,” I say. “Here we go!”
When everyone has cleared the elevator, the doors begin to slide shut. I pull the ring on the grenade and toss it inside. We run to the end of the hall, toward the last set of steel doors in the hallway. The elevator leaves our level. I hear a deafening boom as the grenade detonates in the shaft. Something explodes – I hear a cable snap, slamming against the inside of the wall.
“Open it, Arlene!” Manny says.
The passageway rumbles. Arlene opens the last access hatch. The airlock in the wall opens with a hiss. Everyone rushes through it. I am the last one through, pulling the airlock shut behind me.
We are locked in total darkness.
The silence of the tunnel is deafening – if that’s even possible.
“Anyone think of bringing a flashlight down here in the mouth of hell?” Vera deadpans. “Of course not.”
I feel Uriah’s hand on my arm.
A beam of light illuminates the hallway.
Uriah’s rare and boyish smile flashes against the light.
“There’s a light on this rifle,” he grins.
He pops the flashlight off the gun and beams it down the hallway. There’s nothing but a long, endless stretch of passageway as far as the eye can see – an eternal stretch of darkness.
Under normal circumstances, I would be afraid. But I am so relieved to be out of Sky City – and away from Connor and the interrogation room – that I don’t care. This is sweet relief.
“We’d better mov
e quickly,” Manny advises. “Mark my words – they’re going to be coming fast.”
“Or they’ll have somebody waiting for us at the exit,” Vera murmurs.
We move at a brisk pace – running and then jogging.
“How long is this passageway?” Uriah asks Arlene.
She holds up two fingers.
“Two miles?” Vera exclaims. “Wow.”
“Sky City really is the ultimate doomsday bunker,” I say. “They’re prepared for anything.”
“How could Unite go rotten, though?” Elle asks. “I mean, Unite was started during World War Two, right? Omega must have infiltrated before the EMP to get control of the entire base.”
“It was a pretense, all of it,” Colonel Rivera grumbles. “A ruse to get their sticky fingers on the militia’s secrets. They’ve been bad for a long time – that’s my suspicion, anyway. A very long time – if not from the very beginning. Killing Arlene was their way of getting rid of a woman who was about to tell Cassidy – and the rest of her team – that Unite couldn’t be trusted.”
There is a long pause.
“But why not just capture Arlene, like the rest of us? If this whole base is Omega, why try to assassinate her at all?” Vera points out.
“My guess is that not everyone here is working for Omega,” Rivera replies. “I would be surprised if the entire population of Sky City was aware that we are imprisoned down here. The corruption runs deep, but Alan’s attempt to kill Arlene could be something more sinister. He may have had orders from someone else. We’ll never know because he’s dead.”
I ask, “What tipped you off, Arlene? After all this time?”
Arlene is nothing but a shadow in the darkness.
Her voice is a breathy whisper – barely there:
“They wouldn’t destroy the insurgency base. I knew something was off, so I asked questions. And they shut me out.” She shrugs. “Alan White tried to kill me. I don’t why he waited so long to try…I just don’t understand.”
She stops, overwhelmed. The effort to speak must be very painful.
“What happens when we get to the end of this tunnel?” Vera asks. “We had an escape plan – but what then? We’re hundreds of miles away from the valley. We’re in the high mountains, for god’s sake. There’s no food, no water. Just wilderness.”
