Griffin took the other rope and the two Eight Group members jumped in the stream, following the rope into the Dome.
I watched the two of them disappear.
When the second rope was curled in Griffin’s hands, he helped push me over the sloped wall before climbing up and releasing the other knot, dropping to join me on the other side of the barrier.
I started running toward the pipe, motioning at Matt, who was at the junction to direct people where to go.
“Go, go, that’s everyone!” I snapped quietly.
“We have two minutes before the lights go back on,” Griffin hissed behind me.
I stopped.
“That really only took five minutes?”
“It’s amazing what adrenaline can do, huh?” he chuckled. He guided me into the pipe and I crouched down, walking through, trying to control my shivering. I understood now why Rin had made us spend hours searching every nook and cranny of Fort Daniels for blankets and clothes, knowing we would be freezing by the time we reached the fort.
There was a small crowd of people around the base of the ladder, all waiting for their chance. I could feel the winter air snaking down the tunnel and chilling all of us who were already frozen from the water.
I watched as each person followed another up the shaft to the water towers, trying not to let myself think that we had successfully managed the breakout until we were all safe in Fort Daniels. But as the last two people began making their way up the ladder before us, even the person who had been ushering people up the ladder, I began to see we had, indeed, succeeded.
Griffin helped me up the ladder since my frozen limbs refused to work efficiently. When I reached the top, Jake, another Commish Kid, grabbed my hands and hauled me out of the hole.
“Go, get to the fort,” Griffin told us, quickly climbing out, tossing the rope to me, which I failed to catch and had to stoop to pick up. Jake ran out of the gate, following the path in the snow. The clouds were covering the moon, keeping the snow from being illuminated, but I still saw the final people running to the hedges and slipping into the shadows.
Griffin strained as he moved the grate back into place. Once it was maneuvered to cover the ladder, he quickly kicked the metal doors shut and fixed the padlock to make it look like it was still locked, despite being broken.
“Come on,” he whispered, grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the fenced off area, closing the gate behind us and wrapping the chain, locking it once more before running with me through the snow, being sure to keep me from falling as my body locked up from cold.
We reached the hedges and Griffin motioned the final Commish Kids guiding people into the tunnel, telling them everyone was out. Griffin was the last one in, shutting the doors and locking out the winter.
He caught up to me as I walked clumsily, my teeth chattering and my body quaking.
Griffin’s arm snaked around my shoulders and pulled me close.
“It will be alright,” he assured. “We’ll get you warmed up.” He rubbed my arm and walked with me, keeping me from collapsing into a shaking mess on the concrete ground. “Lily…you were amazing. We couldn’t have done this without you.”
I smiled, but the warmth I felt at the statement and the sense of achievement did not fight off the chill as we walked through the quiet, cold tunnel toward the fort.
Griffin ascended the small ladder before me into the bunk room and then reached down, pulling me up easily. The first noise that reached my ears was a dull roar as people laughed and cheered together in the main bunker.
That noise made the reality hit.
We had succeeded.
One hundred and thirty-five people were free of the Commission of the People, and our revolution was stronger.
Griffin walked into the main bunker with me where people were cheering, hugging one another and laughing at the incredible feat we had accomplished. The smiling was infectious, and even though my teeth were chattering and my cheeks were frozen, I found myself grinning.
Clark made his way to me and threw his arms around me, spinning me once as I let out a startled squeak.
“We did it! We did it!” he chanted. I laughed and hugged him back, feeling an incredible sense of accomplishment and relief wash over me.
“You are shivering like crazy!” Clark laughed.
“Why aren’t you?!” I gasped as he set me on my feet again.
“Everyone is cold,” Griffin noted. “Rin said that there are blankets and clothes somewhere…”
“I’ll show you,” I offered, eager to wrap myself in a blanket as well.
“Hey, everyone!” Tori called over the crowd. “Can everyone form a line over here?” She motioned in front of her. “We’re going to get blankets and dry clothes for everyone so no one gets sick!”
The Commish Kids followed Griffin and me to get blankets and clothes as people began to form a line, though families and friends were too excited at seeing one another again to form a singular line, grouping together in a lumps, smiling and hugging one another joyously.
I walked into one of the storage rooms and began handing stacks of clothes to everyone, including Griffin. The experiment grabbed the top set of work clothes from the factory above and shoved them into my arms.
“Get changed. Go on, we got this,” he ordered with a smile.
“What about you?”
“I’m not cold.”
I looked him over and then took the clothes, smiling.
“Thank you.”
“Go on,” he repeated, jerking his head into the room. I stepped behind some crates of canned goods and stripped off my wet clothes, shivering, extremely grateful for the dry, scratchy uniform.
Gathering my wet clothes, I returned just as Griffin handed the final batch of blankets to Clark, who carried them back into the main bunker. Now that I was not so focused on how cold I was, I looked over the experiment that Mark had trusted enough to break out other experiments in our time-crunch of an escape.
He was tall and broad with tattoos on his arms and even a few on his neck. His bulging muscles were extremely impressive and his extremely short haircut made his face look fiercer and stronger than it already was.
He smiled.
“Better?”
“Much.”
“Come on, we’ll hang these up,” he said, grabbing my wet clothes and walking into the main bunker, past the experiments receiving clothes and blankets. Some experiments and humans were holding blankets up for others to change behind while older adults helped younger teenagers get the proper fit on the dry uniforms.
I saw Dean hugging Miranda tightly as Julie hugged the both of them, crying. For how annoyed I got at Dean being trigger-happy and not particularly smart about what he said, I was happy to see the display.
I followed Griffin into the strategy room, where he hung my wet clothes over the back of a chair.
“You helped a lot of people today…”
“So did you,” I said, smiling. “So…you’re Griffin.”
“Sergeant Griffin Thomas,” he smiled extending his hand to me. I took his hand, surprised.
“Sergeant?”
“I was in the military before the Commission took me.”
“What did they take you for?”
“War crimes I didn’t commit,” Griffin growled. “I took the punishment for my colonel’s crimes and when I tried to explain the truth, it turned into treason. In the end, we both were taken in. My colonel was killed and I ended up on the table.”
“I’m so sorry…”
“It’s alright,” he shrugged, leaning on the table with a sigh. “Truthfully, I feel very fortunate that I was on the table when I was. It allowed me to meet Mark and the others of the Eight Group, and eventually led to this.”
“How did you meet Mark?” I asked, leaning on the table with him, both of us absentmindedly watching people receive their blankets and clothes in the main bunker. “He must trust you a lot for what he asked you to do today…”
Griffin looked at me, suspicious.
“How much do you know about what Mark and I did today?”
“I know that you got all these experiments out.”
“And even though we killed a lot of security guards today, humans, you’re okay with that?” he pressed.
I sighed, remembering the bodies in the orange-lit room.
“I don’t know if being ‘okay with it’ is the right way to say it,” I said, picking at my nails. “I understand it.”
“Good answer,” Griffin said. “Mark probably trusts me less than I trust him, to answer your question.”
“What?”
“Mark does not trust easily,” Griffin shook his head. “He has an incredible ability to read people. He’s careful and he’s smart, and he knows how to cover his tracks. I met him not long after his vocal cords had been scarred. His neck was all wrapped up and he had bruises everywhere and all I could think about was how stupid he was to fight with Dana and the scientists…” Griffin smiled, looking at his feet. “And then I learned that, at that time, he made a fuss on purpose to draw all the attention and punishment on him and save other members of the Eight Group after their failed rebellion. Seeing that, I realized that what happened in the Commission did not dehumanize me.” He turned to me very seriously. “It made me more human than I had ever been before.”
“How do you mean?”
“In the military, we learned to follow orders, watch out for the men around us, and to protect the man to your right and your left,” he explained. “We were brothers and we cared about one another. And then when trouble came into my life, they abandoned me, afraid of the repercussions. That loyalty we were supposed to have for one another vanished in an instant.
“I found out that a lot of it had to do with keeping their jobs, paying their way through school, or providing for their family…” He shook his head. “There’s none of that down in the Commission. We care about each other because we have to, not for any other reason. It allowed me to connect with people in a way I never had before, horrible as it was.”
I looked back out to the experiments and humans who were interacting so easily, despite the knowledge that all had committed some sort of crime and a few were not even human anymore. They didn’t care.
Griffin sighed heavily. “I’m worried about Mark…I don’t know what Dana is going to do when he finds out about all this…”
“All the experiments missing?”
“The experiments, the humans…all the dead security agents…the computers smashed…”
“The computers smashed?”
“I might have gotten a little carried away…” Griffin admitted with a chuckle. “But it will keep them down for at least two weeks, so that buys us some time to be sure that we can’t be caught.” He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Thankfully, the security was so flustered over three Ward Tens being out that they kept getting in the way of the Eight Group. It’s going to make the whole thing more believable that Mark was not involved.”
“We owe him a lot…”
“Yes, we do,” Griffin agreed strongly. “Incidentally, Josh told me that he has a little sister. Do you know where she is?”
“She should be there,” I nodded to the group in the main bunker. Griffin leaned back on his hands.
“Good, he should get some reward for all he’s doing…” Griffin smiled. “I just hope that Dana doesn’t flip his shit.”
“He probably will,” I whispered, looking at my feet. “I guess I’ll be able to find out a little more tomorrow…and I’m sure the Commission meeting will cover this on Saturday.” I sighed and shook my head. “We just need to wait for a while, let everything quiet down and plan our next move.”
“What is the next move?” Griffin inquired.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’ll have to think it up.”
“You should probably get some sleep,” he told me with a nod. “The adrenaline will wear off pretty soon and you’ll crash.”
“…I don’t know how I’m getting back home…” I chuckled. “Mark usually drives us.”
“I wouldn’t expect him here any time soon,” Griffin shook his head. “I don’t know much about the security protocols, and I’m pretty sure no experiment has ever actually broken out of the Commission before…”
“What about four-eleven forty-one?” I asked before I could help myself. Griffin’s head snapped in my direction, his eyes wide.
“How do you know about him?”
“Rumor,” I shrugged. “Seems like all the experiments know him.”
“Know of him, yes,” Griffin nodded. “But…I’m pretty sure he’s just a story. The Commission has been around for, what, seventy years? And has been doing experiments for sixty of those years or so…if 41141 actually existed, someone would have more solid information. Those cells are solid as they come, and the Eight Group is damn effective at their jobs. The only experiment who could break out…” He trailed off, his eyes cast down in thought.
“Eyna?”
“Yeah,” Griffin breathed.
“I saw him,” I said. “In Ward Ten, in the corner when I got Tori,” I clarified when I saw Griffin’s startled expression. “He was all alone.”
“Yeah…he’s gotten really sensitive lately,” Griffin nodded. “Last time he was in the Dome, he had to be removed because the noise of the other experiments caused him to collapse. I guess they cleared some cells around him to act as sound buffers…”
“What ward are you from? Are you from Ward Ten?”
“Nine,” he corrected. “Tori’s the only Ten here.” Griffin nodded, watching Tori walk around the room, telling people where they could hang their wet clothes, getting very creative as space became more limited.
“How old is she?” I hissed, surprised by her young face and skinny frame.
“Nineteen,” Griffin answered. “She was taken when she was seventeen and was on the table a week later.” He closed his eyes, shaking his head. “She’s had a really tough time in the Commission, but she’s extremely caring and sweet. She’ll be good to lead the experiments.”
“Lead the experiments?”
“Don’t you know about the ranking?” Griffin asked, confused by my confusion. “There is a pecking order, and Ward Tens are at the top, well, except for Eyna. No experiment in this room would dare go up against Tori.”
As Griffin finished the sentence, Tori began walking toward us, smiling.
“Lily.”
“Hello, Tori,” I smiled.
“You’re even prettier than I imagined,” she grinned. I wasn’t sure how she could say that when she was so beautiful herself. She had light blonde hair that fell in natural waves and bright blue eyes and burned with excitement and power. “It’s nice to finally meet you,” she said, extending her hand.
“It’s very nice to meet you, too.”
“I’m sorry if I just sort of yanked you away back there,” she said, cringing with a sheepish grin.
“No, no, no,” I assured quickly. “Sorry, I just kind of…”
“Yeah…” Tori nodded, lowering her head. “Eyna does that to people. It would probably help if people actually spoke to him and he didn’t feel like everyone was either going to run away or beat him.”
“They’re afraid,” Griffin sighed. “I am, too. He scares the shit out of me.”
“Well…me too, but still…” Tori murmured. She turned to me and smiled brightly. “Can I give you a hug?”
“Of course,” I laughed, standing up as she threw her arms around me and squeezed. I cringed and then laughed as she jumped slightly.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!” she chanted.
“You’re welcome,” I chuckled. “But really, this was Mark’s plan, you should thank him.”
“Oh, I plan to hug the life out of him when he gets here,” she assured with an infectious giggle. “But, it will probably be awhile and a lot of these people are pretty hungry…”
�
��Oh, I’ll show you where the food is,” I nodded. “We better keep an eye on our rations, though.”
“We also need to start removing tracers,” Griffin added, standing straight.
“Do you mind if I’m not a part of that?” I laughed nervously.
“Fair enough. You’ve done enough for tonight.”
I walked through the groups of people in the main bunker. At first, I was startled when a group of strangers turned to me, one woman grabbing my arm.
“Thank you so much,” she breathed, tears in her voice. She threw her arms around me, hugging me tightly as the two teenage girls and older man hugged me as well. For several long moments, I could only stand motionless, in shock, and then I smiled, hugging the woman back, feeling my heart burst and tears in my eyes. She began crying. I wasn’t sure how long we held each other before we broke away. I had to push the tears from my cheeks and chuckle awkwardly before nodding and smiling, turning to lead Tori and Griffin to the food and medical supplies.
I was stopped by several groups and people were thanking me left and right, hugging me and crying as I bit back my own tears of relief and happiness. I finally made it to the store room and sniffed, pointing at the food rations and medical supplies, trying to clear the lump in my throat.
Everything that we had been through in planning and executing the escape was worth it for the gratitude.
“It’s okay to cry,” Tori smiled, placing a hand on my shoulder.
“Do you want another hug?” Griffin grinned knowingly.
I laughed, pushing my tears away with the heel of my hand before nodding. His huge, muscular arms enveloped me and pulled me off my feet, holding me as I giggled, the tears spilling down my cheeks without me wanting them to.
As people were fed and tracers were being removed, I hid in the strategy room, starting to feel the exhaustion as the adrenaline wore off and the release of tension racked my body, pulling me down like lead weights attached to every limb. I fought to keep my eyes open as I sat at one of the tables, watching the seconds tick by on my watch. It was approaching three in the morning when Clark gently touched my shoulder to get me to lift my head.
“We really should think about how we’re getting home…”
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