the doctor scream) and shot over to one and kicked their ladder out. One by one they’d swung backward at the top of a very tall ladder, their faces outraged, surprised, and terrified, right before they hit the ground.
Now, all was quiet. The prisoners below weren’t even interested anymore, since the violence was only sporadic and nobody had actually died yet. The doctor was starting to feel a bit heavy. He was a decent human shield as long as he didn’t wiggle, but something had to change, and it didn’t exactly help that I didn’t care a whole lot if he did get shot. There was a time in my life when I could have kept this up forever, but I’d been in prison a long time, and I couldn’t stay up here all night. God, it felt like this had been going on forever. When had it all started? Had it been only… it must be way after midnight. So it was just yesterday that they had grabbed me, held that mock trial, tried to operate on me.
What’s your next step, Max? I asked myself. Your next big plan?
CHAPTER 56
Hawk
Okay, Hawk, what are you gonna do? I asked myself. We’d gotten the three lab rats out of the ducts and were now moving through the underground tunnels again.
We had a few issues:
1. All three lab rats were raving, out of their minds, and desperate for dope.
2. Sure, we were in the tunnels, but where were we going? Not back to the Children’s Home, that was for sure, but where?
3. Fang was desperate to leave us. Well, he was good at that, wasn’t he?
4. I needed a place that would be safe for the kids, where they couldn’t get into trouble, where Moke, Rain, and Calypso could make noise while they were coming down off their dope. I didn’t know any place like that. The top of the unfinished building was safe in a way, but I knew one of my gang would end up walking off the roof by accident. And they couldn’t fly.
5. The longer we stayed in these tunnels, the more likely it was we’d run into trouble.
I counted these off on my fingers, my spirits sinking with every step. Finally, I edged past Iggy to talk to Nudge. Very quietly, I admitted that this was as far as my plan had gotten me. I didn’t know what to do now.
I felt like a total failure, and I hated having to admit a weakness to anyone. I mean, really hated it.
Nudge put her arm around my shoulder. I immediately hunched so it would fall off but caught myself and let it happen. I had to make some sacrifices here.
“It’s okay, sweetie,” she whispered. “You’ve done great so far. I’ve been thinking about your friends—they’re not great travelers right now, you know?”
I nodded and then I stepped right on top of something disgustingly squishy, because things had to be worse right now. Swallowing my swear, I said, “I can’t think of anywhere to put them where they’ll be safe.”
“I know a place,” she said, and left me to work her way back to Fang.
She knew a place? We had a place to go? I was furious at myself for not having thought through the plan this far, but also felt huge relief. For so long, I’d been the only person I could really rely on, really trust. I mean, I love my lab rats—they’re my family—but in a pinch? I was my own go-to person.
Even though I hardly knew her, my gut told me I could lean on Nudge. And Gazzy. And Iggy. I could. Fang, I wasn’t so sure about.
Suddenly Iggy pushed past me, holding Rain by the hand. “There’s a fire down the last tunnel, on the left,” he said. “I think the Sixes are here, and they’re sending scouts ahead. We gotta get out of here!”
“There’s an exit twenty meters up and on the right,” I said quickly. I knew this city’s tunnels like I knew the cracks in the ceiling of our sleeping closet at the Children’s Home. We might be moving through almost total darkness, but I knew exactly where we were.
“Let’s go!” Iggy said, and took over my place as leader.
Without stumbling, walking into the sewage, or turning face-first into a cement wall, Iggy led Rain and the rest of us to the exit.
“Where does this come out?” he asked me.
“One street off the main street,” I said. “It’s a bad area,