Phoenix Fire

7 - The Great Escape

HILD

I woke with a start. Pretty boy had a hand over my mouth so I didn't let out a cry.

"Hild." He hissed.

I mumbled something into his hand.

"Oh sorry." He pulled his hand off my face.

"For fucks sake pretty boy what on the face of the-" I began.

"You can still run right? You told me you were a fast runner." He whispered.

"I don't know it's been a long time since I tried." I felt my brow crease in confusion.

"The guards, they've moved from their normal position." I felt my blood chill. Pretty boy and I took it in turns to keep a look out, sleeping in shifts, watching in case there was a chance to escape. In all my eight months here the guards had stayed in their positions, so we'd kind of given up that plan, but kept the rota going just in case.

"But we have a plan." I moaned, exasperated.

"Yes but it might not work, we were basing it on a lot of assumptions."

"But what about Helena? We can't just leave her." I nodded at the sleeping girl beside me. She only ever looked peaceful in her sleep. She never told me, but I knew she was dreaming about her sisters. That they were all alive and together again.

"We'll have to come back for her." He grimaced.

"We're the only people she's got." I shot back.

"Yes and it'll be much easier to get her out of here if we have weapons, or other people with us. She would have been a liability in the, as you call it, kaboom plan anyway." We both knew he was right. She would have been a liability, and it would be much easier to help her escape from the outside rather than the inside. "If it doesn't work we'll go back to your plan, but this is the best chance we've had since we got here. We will come back for her. I promise."

I steadied my gaze. "Okay." I said.

I untangled myself from Helena's body, and shot one last look at the sleeping girl. I felt my heart break, just a tiny bit, imagining her waking up with us gone, not knowing where we were. PB pulled my arm, and I forced myself to look away. We slowly made our way to the end of the cavern, where the stairs led upwards.

It was four floors upwards. The next floor was where the other workers slept, the ones who worked in the furnaces and forges, they were given straw beds. The next floor up was the furnace room, which smelt of sulfur and coal. After that it was the forges. After that we would have to make a run for it, through some low stone corridors, to the small secret hole in the wall at the end of one of the tunnels. Pretty boy had run past the guards once, nearly made it out, spotting the unguarded hole to the outside world. They'd caught him, of course, and beaten him for it. We knew from the other workers that you'd never make it out the main doors, or the gates that were beyond them. They were well guarded. But the hole in the wall had been made by some desperate men with pickaxes months before I'd got there. PB told me that it was a small hole, just big enough for him to get through at a squeeze, and easy for someone as small as I was. We'd stayed up talking about the path we'd take if we ever got the chance. Now was our chance.

We made our way up the first floor, careful not to wake anyone sleeping. I had prepared myself for a sprint or a fight, but there were no guards here either. The furnace room was hot, and I couldn't imagine working here all day. The forges with their work stations were all neat and tidy.

"Are you ready to run?" He asked as we made our way up to the last level.

"As ready as I'll ever be." I said.