then at his steady, glowing walls. “No, no! They can’t have them, they can’t take them from me again! Not again!”
The steady pounding of boots reached them from somewhere on the opposite side of the immense, glowing room. Denver couldn’t tell how many there were, but more than one or two, that was for sure.
“How do we get out of here?” Marit asked.
But Gru seemed not to hear them. “They’ll try to claim my babies for themselves! I won’t let them!” He scurried back into the gloom like some kind of insect seeking the shadows.
Marit grabbed Denver’s arm, pointing to the hallway they’d entered through. “We have to go, now!”
But that led straight back to the lobby, which had to be crawling with gov soldiers. “Do you think we can get out that way?”
“I guess we’ll find out.”
Marit led the way. Denver hurriedly tucked his ID away and followed her, Laramie hot on his heels. The passageway they’d just come through seemed longer than before. Halfway there, the double doors at the end burst open. Spotlights blinded Denver.
“Freeze! Get down on the ground!”
“Shit!” They turned back the way they’d just come, running faster now.
“Stop now, or we’ll shoot!”
“Fungi.”
“What?” Marit asked breathlessly.
Denver didn’t get a chance to answer. He dove to the ground, dragging Marit and Laramie down with him. The sudden crackling sound and smell of charred plastic over their heads were all the confirmation he needed that the gov agents weren’t firing their electrical weapons to stun. On the bright side, smoke from the weapons now filled the hallway, making it harder to see more than a meter in front of their faces. If Denver couldn’t see, the soldiers couldn’t, either.
“Let’s go,” he said, jumping to his feet. Another blast hit the wall next to them. The heat and nearness of it drove Laramie back to his knees.
Denver yanked on his brother’s arm. “Get up!”
“I’m not going to leave you behind!”
Maybe, but better they get taken together than split up. And better to die at his brother’s side than leaving him behind.
Just then, Gru burst into the hallway behind ahead of them, a complex rig of tubes and spouts attached to his back. “You want to burn me out?” he shrieked. He moved faster than Denver would have thought he could, right past the three of them, running straight at the gun-wielding guards at the end of the hall. “I can fight fire with fire!” Flames spurted from the massive nozzle he held in both hands, surging down the narrow passageway. The agents ducked behind their shields, their shouts lost in the deafening roar of the flamethrower in the narrow space. “I’ll never let you take my babies!”
“Get a move on!” Marit yelled.
Denver grabbed Laramie’s hand and hoisted him to his feet. They ran back the way they’d just come, through the strange, glowing room, aiming for a dark spot that could only be another hallway. Bootsteps echoed through the room, but it was impossible to tell from which direction.
“We’re running straight at them,” Laramie said.
“Here.” Marit skidded to a halt in front of a door, yanking on the handle. “It’s locked.” She pulled out her cutter and went to work on the lock.
“You won’t take me alive!” Gru screamed, sending more flames down the hallway as he backed into the cavernous space. The soldiers still cowered behind their shields, but it sounded like the ones coming from the other direction were almost on top of them.
“Come on, come on, come on…” Denver mumbled, more to himself than Marit.
“Got it!” she cried, throwing the door open. They staggered through and slammed it shut behind them. Unfortunately, there was no way to secure it now that Marit had destroyed the locking mechanism. Wherever they’d ended up was pitch-black.
“I can’t see shit,” Laramie gasped.
Marit’s cutter again flared to life, illuminating yet another hallway. “No soldiers, at least.”
They ran, eventually pushing through another door into the chaos of the lobby. People hurried in every direction—some toward the fight still raging behind them, others toward freedom.
“The front door will be blocked,” Marit said.
“Follow the locals,” Laramie said, pointing to a group of Eyrie residents that included the identical sisters who’d tried to sell them drugs earlier. “They’ll know the way out.”
They fell in with the group of civilians, keeping their heads low. They passed through another set of doors, down a maze of