I started to notice that each door had a number inscribed on the panel in the middle. When I started paying attention to them, I realized they were going up in sequence. That could mean we were being led further away from the main building. It could also mean we were getting closer to it. It could mean anything.
Still, it did prove we weren’t going around in circles. The numbers were over two hundred in sequence when I was certain we were actually in hell and the corridors went on forever. This was our purgatory.
“We need to try some doors,” I ventured. The numbers might not be repeating themselves, but it didn’t mean the prison wasn’t on some kind of looped layout. Perhaps the doors were our tickets out of there.
“Which ones?” My father asked. It was a fair question. Every door looked the same, there was no way to distinguish one from the other.
“Blind luck,” I replied. The others stopped around me, nervously waiting to see what was behind door number one. “Stay here and I’ll see if it’s safe.”
I didn’t hesitate when opening the door. We didn’t have the luxury of fear. Everyone was counting on me and I needed to find a way out.
Behind the door was another hallway. I should have known. I indicated to the others that they should wait and continued on alone. The door slammed shut behind me, echoing off the walls and reminding me how alone I was.
The next door was unlocked. I swung it open and peered through. A set of eyes stared back at me. This was obviously not our way out. Before I could recoil and slam the door closed, the male guard grabbed my wrist. As I twisted around trying to get out of his gasp, a jarring pain shot through my arm.
I yelped at the sudden hurt but he didn’t release me. All I could think about was getting back to the others. They needed to use their powers to help me so I could help them.
“Let me go,” I begged.
“I’m not trying to hurt you, you’re doing that to yourself,” he grumbled back. I tried to release my arm again and was met with the same iron fist. “Quit struggling.”
“Then let me go.”
“I’m trying to help you.” An involuntary snort came from my mouth. He was trying to help me? Somehow I didn’t believe him.
“No, you’re not. Let me go or my people will hurt you. I swear, they won’t hold back. The big, bad aliens will get you.” I would have said anything to get him to release me. My thoughts were consumed with getting back to the group. They were relying on me.
“Amery, just stop. Lochie sent me.” His words stopped me dead in my tracks. Any mention of Lochie did that to me.
But it was public knowledge Lochie and I were together. The guards could easily use that information against me. “You’re lying.”
“He said you’d say that.”
“Did he now? Let me go!” I stared him in the eyes, waiting for an opportunity to take him by surprise and wrench my wrist free. I only needed to catch him off-guard once. I wouldn’t waste an opportunity.
“You really don’t believe me, do you?” He asked, like he could scarcely believe it. Clearly he didn’t know me very well. Of course I didn’t believe him.
“No, I don’t. Now let me go before they burst through that door and force you to.”
“Lochie said to tell you ‘to do what he says for once in your life and follow instructions’.” For the second time, I was struck dumb and frozen.
It was easy to imagine Lochie saying something like that. I could hear the phrase with his own voice if I concentrated. He always said I never listened to him, never followed his instructions. That was mainly because he enjoyed bossing me around and I enjoyed doing the exact opposite of what he wanted.
I looked at the guard as if for the first time. He was wearing the standard issue guards’ uniform but it was disheveled and ill-fitting. He also seemed to lack the physical prowess of the other guards. There were no muscles bulging from underneath his shirt.
If the guy wasn’t a guard, and Lochie did send him, did that mean Lochie was okay? Alive? Well? I didn’t want to hope but my heart was expanding in my chest anyway.
“We need to go, Amery,” he urged.
My time for thinking was over. It was either take a leap of faith and potentially lead my group into the hands of the enemy or somehow get away from him and continue going around the prison forever.
I had to believe Lochie sent him. He wouldn’t leave me in prison, he would try to get me out. I decided to put my faith in Lochie. “Fine, do you know the way out of here?”
He nodded. “I have a map. We can go out the same way I came in.”
“My group needs to come with me.”
“How many?”
I didn’t really know. It wasn’t like I’d done a roll call before we left. “A couple of dozen, maybe.”
“Come on then,” he said, finally releasing his grip on my wrist.
He held the door open and waited while I returned down the short corridor and told the others to follow me. “The guy is dressed like a guard but he isn’t one,” I warned them. I didn’t want any revolts on my hands if they thought I was dealing with the enemy.
“My name’s Caden, by the way,” the guy said as we headed off.
“Is Lochie okay?”
He hesitated and my heart contracted in my chest at the delay. I was certain I didn’t want to hear what he was about to say. But I had to hear it anyway.
“He’s sick. Very.”
“Does he have much time left?” A lump was caught in my throat, threatening to break me apart.
“Enough to get you back there.” He didn’t elaborate and I didn’t want to ask for more details. If we continued down that line, I wouldn’t be able to walk any further.
I went to safer topics. “How do you know Lochie?”
“We’re cousins. I owed him a favor and he called it in.” I wondered how big the favor would have had to have been to be repaid by breaking into a prison and springing the most wanted race on the planet.
The winding corridors weren’t conducive to conversation so we went the remainder of the way in silence. We encountered several more guards which were taken care of immediately.
Without Caden’s map, we would never have made it out of there by ourselves. The place was too vast and expansive to be able to negotiate with only luck. Which was probably the point. I doubted anyone had escaped from the place before, not without tunneling out.
My thoughts went to Garrick’s team. They didn’t have the same advantage we did. I hoped they fared okay and were safely on their way out. But there was nothing I could do about it until my group was safe. They were equally as important.
“Brace yourselves, there might be an alarm,” Caden warned as he placed a hand on a red door. Daylight played in the gap underneath. I covered my ears with my hands and he pushed on the door.
The alarm was instant. And loud.
Caden didn’t pause as he rushed into the daylight. We trailed after him. I chanced a glance up to the guard boxes that stood high above the walls but they seemed empty. I hated to think what preparation Caden had done before entering the prison.
“Over here. And be careful,” he said as we reached the fence. He had cut a hole in the bottom, the wires bent backwards so they wouldn’t be so sharp. It was barely big enough to crawl through. I waited until everyone had gone through before going myself.
Outside, the sun was high in the sky. It had to be close to midday. And it was hot. Like the depths of hell hot. I took a look around, squinting in the sunlight. There was nothing but desert in all directions.
“Where the hell are we?” I asked. Already my clothes were sticking to my skin. The jumpsuit was not appropriate attire for the desert.
“Arizona,” Caden replied.
I wanted to express my shock but there was no air in which to breathe. I followed diligently, walking at the back to make sure nobody was left behind.
When we were a distance away from the prison, we stopped. “We need to wait for Garrick’s team.”
Caden shook his head vehemently. “We can’t. We need to keep going or they’ll find us.”
“They’ll get here soon.”
“We need to go now.”
I sat on the burning ground. I would have jumped up again from the heat if I wasn’t so stubborn. I forced myself to stay there, determined to wait for Garrick. I had to believe he would catch up to us. We only got out first because we had help. Garrick would get the others out soon.
“Amery, this is stupid,” Caden started, sounding very much like Lochie. Perhaps they had an annoying gene and it ran in the family. His mother certainly had it too.
I tried to change the subject for a moment. “What have you got planned beyond this? Are people waiting?”
He stood looking down at me, reminding me of a giant. “We have cars waiting a bit further on.”
“Cars? As in plural?”
“Yeah. Lochie figured you wouldn’t come out alone.”
A smile quirked my lips. Perhaps Lochie knew me better than I realized.
“But it will all be for nothing if we don’t leave now,” Caden finished.
I crossed my arms like a two year old might when putting on a tantrum. There was no way we were leaving Garrick and half our people. We had an agreement and I had no intention of going back on it.
Every other one of the Truconians with me sat too. We held our own little silent protest so only Caden remained standing. I was proud of them all. Every one of them had a loved one still in the prison. We wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt if we gave up on them so easily.
It seemed like we were sitting forever. Every rustle in the stale breeze made me search the horizon for Garrick. The sun was beating down without mercy, making the temperature even hotter. We had no water, which definitely would have come in handy.
“Amery, it’s been twenty minutes. They aren’t coming,” Caden said, showing me his watch as proof. I didn’t know what time it was when we started waiting so it meant nothing to me.
I looked around at the faces of my group. They were all pink with sunburn, their jumpsuits saturated with sweat. I had to think of them too. They had a shot at surviving, I owed it to them.
Reluctantly, like every fiber in my body protested, I stood up. “Okay. We should go.”
Relief relaxed Caden as he rolled his eyes. “Finally.” Yep, it was definitely genetic.
We started with a slow pace, everyone exhausted already. “So how far are we going?”
“See that hill over there?”
I could only see one. “Way over there?” He nodded. “I think I preferred my chances back in the jail.” At least he laughed at my joke.
There was no conversation as we walked. If anyone had the energy, they used it to focus on getting to the hill. Even when we reached it, we had to find the strength to go over it. Thoughts of being caught helped spur us along.
Finally, we breached the hill and saw what was on the other side. A row of cars were lined up by the side of the road. Some of them strangely familiar. “Hayden and Harmony are here?”
“Lochie said you’d know them,” Caden replied.
I ran down the side of the hill, letting gravity move my legs while I tried to stay upright. If I had any lingering doubts about Caden’s intentions and identity, they were all wiped away at seeing Hayden and Harmony.
They had saved me before. When I needed help and shelter, they were the ones who came to my rescue. They voluntarily harbored fugitives without asking any questions and they helped to rally a tribe of others to assist us later too. I already owed them my life and I guessed I would add another one to the tally board. It didn’t surprise me Lochie had called them in again.
There was no time for a soppy reunion as we all climbed into the cars. When I was sure everyone was in, we left. I rode with Hayden, sitting in the front passenger seat. “So you saved my butt again. I think I’m going to have to start being your servant to repay you.”
Hayden grinned, the same relaxed smile he always wore. I doubted anything fazed him. “You’re fighting the man, Amery. That’s all the thanks I need. When the establishment is brought down, then we can all rest.”
He believed in every single conspiracy theory ever invented. I loved the fact he was so passionate about the truth that it was the one factor in his decisions above all.
“It would be nice to rest,” I sighed. The old van didn’t have air conditioning, but even the wind through the window was better than the outside sun.
Hayden filled me in on what he had been doing since I last saw him. In fact, it was difficult shutting him up. He and Harmony had been investigating a group of people he suspected of a mass conspiracy.
According to his sources, they were committing mass murders and getting away with it. He didn’t want to give away any names, in case they found out and came after me too. While I thought that was highly unlikely, I went along with it anyway. I didn’t need anyone else coming after me.
At least the conversation helped to distract me from the other team. Somewhere, Garrick was still back there. So was my mother. And dozens of other Truconians too. Whatever discomfort we were going through, theirs was a thousand times worse.
We drove for less than an hour according to the clock on the dashboard. The desert had disappeared by then, swallowed up by trees and a more lush landscape. Hayden pulled the car into a street that was barely visible. I didn’t even see it until we were on it.
“Where are we going?” I asked, my curiosity piqued.
“Camp Holloway.” He said it with enthusiasm, like it explained everything.
It didn’t. “You’re taking us to a summer camp? Won’t there be people there?” Surely Lochie had thought this through more. He had to realize it was summer, which meant there was a good chance the camp would be overrun with kids and counselors.
Hayden’s smile was a mile wide. “It’s abandoned. The camp closed down two years ago with the economic collapse that was perpetuated by the government who wanted it to happen so they could push through their communist agenda.”
All I understood was the camp closed down. Now it sounded like a better plan. We drove for a few more miles before pulling up at the camp.
Rundown dorm cabins formed a U shape around the central meeting area. Closing the square was a much larger building, presumably the dining or activities hall.
We climbed out of the cars as Caden addressed us all as a group. “There’s running water but no electricity here. Sorry about that. Feel free to make yourselves at home, there’s food in the mess hall.”
Everyone went inside while I lingered to speak with Caden and Hayden. “We have to go back for Garrick and the others. They’ll be waiting for me.”
They exchanged an uneasy glance before Caden replied. “We can’t-”
“We can. We have to,” I interrupted. We were wasting time. There were empty cars now, there was a safe haven, we had to go back.
It was Hayden who spoke first. “It wouldn’t hurt to go back for a look.”
It wasn’t possible for me to love him more at that point. “Good, let’s go.”
“Wait a minute.” Caden held up his hand to stop us. Precious time was being lost, it was driving me crazy. “Amery, you have to stay.”
“No, I’m going.”
“The only way these cars are leaving is if you’re staying here.”
“Why?” I was about two seconds away from hitting him across the head. And I didn’t condone violence.
“Because Lochie said he would kill me if anything happened to you. I like my life. So you’re staying.” I opened my mouth to protest but he stopped me. “Do we stay or go?”
Damn it. “Fine, go. But don’t come back without Garrick and the others.”
Hayden placed his hand on my arm. “I love Garrick too, we’ll find him.”
I watched them all leave again, feeling more useless than ever. I really wanted to be with them. At least I trusted Hayden. And if Lochie trusted Caden, then I guess that should have be
en good enough for me too.
A hand rested on my shoulder, startling me. I spun around to be face to face with a woman I didn’t know. “I can take you to Lochie, if you’d like. He said to bring you as soon as you were ready.”
I nodded. There was nothing more I could do here. But I wasn’t going alone either. “I need someone to come with me.”
“Makes no difference to me.” She shrugged and pointed to a green sedan parked next to the cabins. “We’ll leave in five minutes.”
I hurried into the hall, seeing the others already making themselves at home. I hoped we weren’t being too complacent. While the summer camp did make a good hiding place, I wasn’t stupid enough to think all our problems were over. The authorities would be out looking for us in full force. They warned us there was nowhere to hide and I believed them. Our clock was definitely ticking away loudly.
I found Senph finishing off a bottle of water in the commercial kitchen. “We’re going for a drive.”
She crumpled up the bottle and threw it in the trash. “I thought we were staying here.”
“They are. We’re not. You and I need to go.”
Senph sized me up, no doubt wondering whether it was worth the fight to challenge me. There was no way I was leaving her behind. Not only couldn’t I trust her not to start building another army of followers, but there was something much bigger at stake too.
Finally, she sighed. “Fine.”
“Good. We’re going now, come on.” She opened her mouth to protest but thought better of it and closed it again. She followed me out without saying another word.
We met the woman at the car and set off. There was a mix of trepidation and excitement at the thought of seeing Lochie. The fact Caden hadn’t answered my question about how long he had left didn’t go unnoticed.
I just hoped we weren’t too late.
CHAPTER 15
The drive was tortuous and long – almost four hours to be exact – as we made our way back to Portview. Lochie was at his home, too ill to be anywhere else.
Our driver explained that all the hospitals were overcrowded so people were being told to stay home because there was nothing they could do. I knew Lochie would have chosen that option anyway, too stubborn to seek help.
Project Integrate Series Boxed Set Page 106