by Holly Hook
Jaden rolls up his leather sleeve. I can barely make out the green swirl. “What did this do to me?”
“You made a good pawn,” Garrett says. “When you completed your mission, that tattoo pumped that green mineral right into your body. It changed you chemically. You've become just like everything else that lives in the depths and even if you did make it back to Earth, you'd never survive there. Go on.” Garrett waves him away. “You're free to go. Find yourself some deep cave to hide in for the rest of your life.”
Jaden's struck silent. I go to grab Weslie's arm, but Garrett shakes the gun and keeps it trained on me. The man is hyper alert.
And then I hear the sound.
The thousands of footsteps, coming this way.
The skittering.
The Dwellers. They're distant—maybe miles away—but they're approaching.
“They're coming,” Garrett tells us. “You have a new reality to dwell on down there, Elaine. You might not have to do that for very long, so enjoy the time you have. The elevator should be here right...about...now.”
The elevator comes into view. It's a metal cage with prison doors. It hits the ceiling with a loud thud that echoes through the room. The gate swings open with a horrible squeal that makes me want to cover my ears.
Inside it's dead. Dirty. Dusty. A rotten egg smell wafts out. This is an elevator to hell.
Shaft 17 is death.
Weslie whimpers. Whether it's with the knowledge that Antoine is down there or that she's going to die in worse depths than she can imagine, I don't know.
“In,” Garrett says. “Or the Dwellers will escort you--”
Jaden roars and rams into Garrett.
The two of them topple and the gun flies from Garrett's grasp. It slides across the stone. Jaden and Garret wrestle and Jaden raises a fist. Slams it down onto Garrett's face.
Weslie snatches the gun off the floor. “We need to get away from the Dwellers,” she says.
She’s right. We have the gun. We can handle Garrett. But we can't handle the Dwellers.
“Go!” Jaden yells.
“The exit!” Weslie shouts.
I check the exit. It's dark and the Dwellers will catch us in the cave way before we get back to Wompitt, even if we use our torches. There are too many. There's no outrunning them. I face the mine shaft that the noise echoes from. There’s the light in Garrett’s office, but we can’t stay in there forever.
“We won’t make it,” I say.
“Then what?”
“Go!” Jaden yells again. Garrett wrestles him into the light and he screams.
We've got to block the shaft.
It’s our only real hope.
The dynamite.
“Weslie, we're getting a crash course in explosives.”
I seize her arm and we bolt for the storage room. I yank the door open. Turn on the dim light. The stampede grows louder. We have little time. We could totally kill ourselves doing this but I'm not going down without a fight.
My senses all sharpen. I find the box of dynamite sticks and seize it. We might die. All of us. It’ll be a better death than what awaits in Shaft 17.
“I have the matches!” Weslie shouts. She's holding up a pack of them with one hand.
We don't have time to discuss our plan. Weslie bolts back out into the main room. The skittering is much louder now. The Dwellers will burst from the mine shaft any second.
Weslie tosses me the matches. I drop the box and catch them. Behind her, Jaden and Garrett still struggle on the floor. Weslie keeps the gun in one hand. Jaden stands. Moves closer to us. Garrett's trying to choke him. I want to gag.
The thunder of tiny feet grows louder. It’s a roaring river headed right for us. There are more Dwellers here than I’ve ever heard.
“Matches!” I shout.
She tosses them to me.
I grab a stick. I strike the match with my shaking hands. If the Dwellers make it out here, we're done. I light the fuse and sparks fly in my face. I'm holding dynamite. An actual stick of dynamite. I run towards the mine shaft. Towards the Dwellers. I catch a glimpse of thousands of points. Green and yellow and red.
They squeal and collapse over each other. They see what I have. What it is.
“Get back!” I shout, throwing it.
Another round of squealing goes up as they scurry back into the dark. I ignore the wave of sickness washing through me.
The stick of dynamite spins through the air, fuse spitting. It lands at the mouth of the shaft and rolls to a stop. The fuse sparks, angry and alive.
“No!” Garrett shouts. He releases Jaden and runs for the stick.
“Run!” Weslie shouts.
I seize the box of dynamite and run back towards the entrance. The fuse hisses. The Dwellers aren't going to mess with that. Garrett's got the stick of dynamite and he's trying to twist the fuse off. Jaden slams into him, making him drop it at the mouth of the mine shaft. The Dwellers squeal again. There's green slime running out of Jaden's mouth. That's what's inside him after all.
“Back!” Weslie repeats, pulling me towards the cave entrance.
"But Jaden!" I yell, pushing against her.
I can't leave Jaden out here.
“Find Antoine!” Jaden shouts. “Find him and get out of here!” He wraps his arms around Garrett's middle and pulls him over the stick of dynamite. Garrett doesn't resist. His eyes are huge as he eyes the fuse. It's almost gone. He's fleeing now. Fleeing to his Dwellers.
The two of them vanish into the dark. Into the seething mass of movement. They're gone.
“Oh, my God. Jaden!” Weslie shouts.
I grab her arm with my free hand.
Run into the cave tunnel.
The hiss of the fuse takes up everything. Darkness swallows us. I duck down and we go further into the tunnel.
The world erupts.
I stagger from the shock wave and crash into Weslie. We go down and the torch goes out. Crashes sound. Rocks crumble. There's a huge tumble and another crash.
Weslie's elbow strikes the side of my head and spots explode.
"Daddy?" I ask.
"I'm here."
I kick my feet in my chair. The door to the bare room's opening. An officer stands in the corner, arms folded and ready.
Daddy walks into the room. His wrists are cuffed. He's in orange like I feared. A second officer guides him to the chair opposite me. There's a table between us and he sits.
He has a beard now. Worry lines around his eyes. He's sad.
"Elaine," he says. He's lost for words.
I check behind me. Mom has left me here.
"I'm sorry," he finishes. "I didn't want things to end up like this for you."
I can't look at him. I just want to leave, but all the doors are closed.
"I love you, Elaine."
"Why did you do it?" I ask. I dare to face him. "Why?"
He swallows, gaze shifting to the two officers and back again. "Things aren't always what they seem. I want you to remember and think about that when you leave here today. Your mother is getting married soon. I want you to be careful."
I shake my head.
My mother is getting married to Garrett.
Garrett.
HIM.
This is Steven Wompitt sitting before me, the man who tried to stop the Society by killing its leader. By killing Garrett's father. By trying to make the world a better place and by trying to free all the slaves.
I stand.
"You were trying to warn me about the Flamestone Society," I say.
My father's eyes widen. "You know about them?"
I'm shaking. Emotion washes over me and I lose my composure. My father must know I'm missing. He knows where I am and that there's nothing he can do about it.
"Elaine!" someone shouts.
"I'm sorry," I say. I'm close to tears. "I'm sorry I never came to see you. I never knew. You tried to stop the Society from enslaving anybody else--"
"Elaine! Wake up!"
"--but now I'm going to finish it."
"Oh. Good. You're here." Weslie's shaking me in the dim light.
My head throbs where her elbow hit me. There's dust in the air. Smoke. It settles around us. The tunnel's still intact, but some of it's chipped off. There's still a bit of light coming from the processing office, but it's foggy and dirty.
The dynamite has exploded.
I'm alive. Weslie's alive.
We made it.
I sit up and lean against the wall. Everything spins. There's a wooden box next to us, shoved up against the wall. A pistol lying on top of it. Garrett's pistol.
I cough.
“Weslie?” I manage.
She leans over me, eyes huge. “I'm here. Oh my God, Elaine. We just blew up the Flamestone Society!”
“Well, part of it." I let my head fall back to the wall. My head still throbs. I just want the pain to stop. “...And Jaden,” Weslie says. She stands and bolts down the tunnel. “Jaden!”
“The place might be about to collapse!” I force myself to stand. I rush out into the main room. holding my head.
It's half caved-in.
An avalanche of stone now blocks off the entrance to the mine shaft. The lights are still on, but dust swirls through them, the remnants of the explosion. There's no Garrett and no Jaden. The air reeks of smoke. A fan blows and it rises towards the ceiling. I scan the rock pile for any blood or slimy green substance.
There's none.
I don't even see any crushed Dwellers.
“Jaden!” Weslie shouts.
“He's gone,” I say. “He's on the other side of that. And so is Garrett. And the Dwellers.”
“Jaden!” she shouts.
Weslie must not completely hate him after all. I hug her from the side.
"He's alive!" I shout. "He must be."
Weslie faces me. "You think so?"
"That means Garrett is still alive, too."
She lets out a breath. Walks closer to the cave-in. Weslie gets on her hands and knees and crawls around it, searching.
"No blood," she says. She faces me and relaxes. "No blood."
She's right. There's nothing seeping out from under the rocks. The mine shaft heading that way is blocked. The only way out of the processing office now is back where we came...and the elevator.
It still waits there for us to use, buttons and control panel ready. We can now go down after Antoine and the others without the imprisonment of the Dwellers.
Unless they're finding another way around. These tunnels are vast.
Weslie stands. Her eyes are wet. With what, I don't know.
“Jaden can survive in there," I say. "The Dwellers can't hurt him. And he doesn't need regular food like we do anymore. We might see him again, Wes.”
“That's what Jaden always called me.”
“Sorry.” I push the crate of dynamite with my foot. "We can rescue the workers, but we have to move fast before the rest of the Flamestone Society finds a way to get here. We have a lot of stuff to work with. We've got all these supplies.” I might see Shawn and Travis and Talia again very soon. We have their records. This elevator. We can find them...as long as we do it before the Dwellers find another way around.
But I have the most horrible feeling I'll see Garrett again.
And when I do, I'll finish what my father started.
"Come on," I tell Weslie. "We need to act. Now."
The Story Will Continue and Conclude in the Next Book:
FREED (#3 FLAMESTONE TRILOGY)
Out March 15, 2016
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