The Hunt - Megan Shepherd Page 0,81

and a supervisory position. The most powerful of the powerless, Lucky remembered taunting him, and Dane’s smug retort: Not powerless. Not at all.

Apparently, he’d been talking about weapons.

Kill-dart guns, specifically, that Dane could access in the event the wild animals caused an uproar. It seemed the kill-dart guns were locked away in a hidden panel in the medical room, but the code to access it was written right here. Not letters or numbers, but a certain shape Dane needed to trace on the wall to make it open.

Lucky practiced tracing the same symbol on the dust of his floor until he had it memorized. He went to his cell door—he had left it cracked open when he’d come back in with Mali—and closed his eyes to listen. A few kids were snoring. One of the animals was chasing dream-rabbits in its sleep. He carefully pushed the door open, wincing in case the hinges squeaked, but they never did.

He stepped out slowly. The clock above the door indicated Night was three-quarters over already; Cora and Leon better hurry. The blue glow of the lights cast a cold look over the cell room. He passed by the fox’s cell, and the fox looked up at him curiously. He held a finger to his lips and took another step but tripped over a deck of cards.

The deck went skittering across the floor and he froze, one foot still in the air. Someone grumbled in her sleep on the upper level of cages. Was that Jenny’s cell? The blood rushed in his ears. . . .

“We aren’t idiots, you know,” a voice said.

He jerked his head toward Shoukry’s cell. The boy’s face loomed between the bars, and Lucky’s breath stilled. He could say that the lock of his door had broken . . . or . . .

“Don’t worry.” It was another voice, from the opposite direction, and Lucky spun to find Makayla looking out from her own cell. “We didn’t tell Tessela before,” she said. “We aren’t going to now.”

Snores came from the direction of Pika’s cell. She, at least, was still asleep.

“You mean you’ve known this whole time that we can get out of our cells?” Lucky whispered.

“Makayla and I caught on pretty quick,” Shoukry said. “Jenny and Christopher know too. It isn’t so surprising—there have been rumors for a while about kids gaining psychic abilities like the Kindred’s. Is it you, or Cora?”

Lucky hesitated, not sure if he could trust them.

“That’s what I thought,” Shoukry said. “Cora.”

“Dane didn’t know,” Makayla answered. “We made sure of it. Slipped a few slivers of the reverse revival pods in his dinner cakes so he’d sleep deeply. There are benefits to being in charge of the food.” She grinned in the shadows. “We know about your friend in the drecktube too. He breathes really loud.”

Shit. Lucky knew Leon would be trouble.

“Whatever you and Cora and Mali are planning,” Makayla asked, “is it going to get us out of here, maybe even home?”

Lucky looked in the direction of the drecktube. “That’s what we hope. It’s a long shot. But if Cora can—”

“Don’t say it,” Shoukry said. “The less we know, the better. The Kindred have ways of extracting information from your mind that involve lots of tubes and lots of pain. Just, whatever you’re planning, don’t stop. I’ll cover for you the best I can.”

“I will too,” Makayla whispered.

“And me,” another voice said, probably Jenny’s. “And you can count on Christopher too.”

Lucky blinked into the darkness. He had told Cora that they couldn’t leave the others behind, and now he was certain. All this time, the others had been watching out for them. He wasn’t sure how to express how much their trust meant, so he settled for a nod of thanks.

He moved faster now, knowing the others were on his side. He passed by Cora’s empty cell, and then he was in the hallway. He didn’t need to worry about being quiet, but he was all too aware of the ticking clock.

There was less light here; he could barely make out the shape of the medical room. By memory, he walked forward with his hands out until he reached the supply cabinet. He pushed it away from the wall and felt for the seams of a secret panel. When he thought he’d figured out its location, he traced the symbol from Dane’s instructions.

Something beeped. The panel clicked open.

Behind it was a drawer. He held his breath as he reached in. His fingers brushed something cold