huge hole in their roof.
The double glass doors to our main room were unlocked and I went inside. It was dark. No sign of Clete anywhere. I tiptoed over to our sleeping closet and opened the door. It was empty, too.
Please, just be here and be okay, I thought.
CHAPTER 47
Kneeling down, I pounded my fist on the floor three times, then three times again, then once.
“What is that, some kind of code?” Fang asked quietly from behind me, and I almost jumped a foot in the air.
A trapdoor opened in the floor right next to Fang’s foot, and Clete’s relieved face popped out. “I’m glad you’re here,” he said. Then he saw Fang’s foot, followed it up to Fang’s swollen, black-and-blue face. “Oh, you got out.”
“Yes,” Fang said, holding out his hand for Clete. After looking at it for a moment, Clete took it and came out of our go-to hiding place, then closed the trapdoor and kicked the blankets over it.
“You must be Clete,” Nudge said, coming through the door. Iggy and Gazzy were behind her.
“I thought you were gonna wait till I came back or called you,” I said irritably.
“We’re not big on waiting,” Iggy said. “Is this Clete?” He homed in on Clete and immediately began touching him lightly all over. I knew it was to get an idea of Clete’s height and weight, but Clete took a big step back. “Hi, I’m Iggy,” Iggy said much too late.
“Gazzy,” said Gazzy.
“I’m Nudge,” Nudge said, smiling. Clete seemed to relax a bit.
“Are we gonna go rescue everyone now?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Put your shoes on. Any guard action while I was gone?”
“Yeah,” Clete said, putting on his sneakers. “Lots of searching and yelling—but it’s all over at the actual prison, probably because you got Fang out. Been quiet over here since then. We gonna do tunnels, this time?”
“Yep,” I said, feeling grim. “We’re gonna do tunnels.”
“Are these kids locked up?” Gazzy asked.
I nodded. “They were yesterday. Locked with a chain and a metal cuff around one wrist.”
“I can do those,” Iggy said.
“Right,” said Fang. “Then we’ll walk out of there?”
“Back into the tunnels,” I said, pulling the door open and making sure the courtyard was clear.
We all crept out and I led them behind the dumpster. Very quietly I braced my back against the concrete-block wall and put my feet against the dumpster. I moved it slowly and almost silently, an inch at a time. The Flock immediately put their hands on it, moving it much more easily than I had always done by myself.
“Here,” I said, pointing at the ground. “Sewer. I usually don’t use this one ’cause it’s under the dumpster, but it’s the closest one.”
Nudge knelt and carefully moved the round cover, revealing the black tunnel below. She looked up and smiled. “This is just like old times.”
I had no idea what she meant by that, but lowered myself down, knowing that rusty metal rungs were set into the tunnel wall, starting about two feet down. In a minute all six of us were down the ladder and standing on either side of the filthy sewage flowing down the middle. Fang was last, and he had somehow managed to pull the dumpster most of the way over the manhole cover before replacing it. They were all so much better at this than I was.
“We’re not far from the Labs. This way,” I said. Three small lights clicked on and I stared at Nudge, Gazzy, and Iggy—all of whom had tiny flashlights shining from their wrists.
“Oh, not those fancy watches again,” Fang groaned.
“You just wish,” Nudge said, waving her hand around.
“Um, I was going to lead the way by memory,” I said, “but light is always good.”
I still led, but the way was lit dimly by their little watch lights. Was it better to not see what was around you, down here? Maybe. I hadn’t known there were quite so many rats and bugs and slimy things—and those were the things that were alive. The rest of it… better not to think about. We were on our way to rescue my family, at last. It felt like a year since Clete and I had seen them, doped up and hallucinating.
“Oh,” I said, trying to sound casual or professional or something. “Um, one last thing. Two last things. One, I’m not totally, totally certain that the kids will be able to walk; and two, they might, just maybe, you know, try to resist being rescued.”
Behind me,