Forbidden ~ after unlocked

Chapter 42 - Keefe

Keefe was frozen in place, thoroughly stunned, unable to register what he'd just seen. Feelings of shock thrashed his senses so hard he knew it couldn't all be his. He turned to look at Evren, who seemed paralyzed, her mouth hanging open, eyes wide. Along with the shock he felt from her, there was sadness, then guilt for feeling the sadness, and confusion at herself for feeling those ways and not understanding why. But Keefe understood.

Another boom thundered through the air, the corridor trembling. And that was when he saw it.

An exit.

The chuck of ceiling that had fallen left a gaping hole about 8 feet above them. Filled with blue sky.

Keefe grabbed Evren's arm, shaking her. "Look!" He pointed to the hole. "There's a way out."

Her gaze slowly followed his. She blinked hard, once. "We need to climb out."

Keefe glanced down at Sophie, who had—consciously or subconsciously, he wasn't sure—wrapped both of her arms around his neck, clinging to the side of his body. Her face was streaked with dirt, eyes fluttering as she fought to beat the drug. He wrapped one of his arms around her waist to support her. "We're almost out of here, Sophie," he whispered, "Hang on a little longer. Please."

Evren went first, mounting her foot on the boulder that Kalea was pinned under. He watched as she quickly found footholds, scaling her way towards the light, then as she gripped the edge of the hole and pulled herself over.

"It's safe up here!" Evren called down. "Pass her to me!"

Keefe did just that, lifting up Sophie to Evren's outstretched arms, and he felt his chest tighten. He hated to leave her side, even for the shortest moment. Sophie disappeared over the edge of the hole, and he was about to follow when something caught his eye.

He looked back to Kalea's arm jutting out from beneath the boulder and saw that a part of her cloak was also visible. A small glass bottle had caught the light, and he rushed over to grab it. The relief he felt was overwhelming when he realized it was a bottle of youth. He ripped open the pocket of the cloak and found two more bottles.

He shoved them in his own Neverseen cloak, which he forgot he had been wearing. He scavenged to see if he could find the leaping crystal, but it had been crushed with Kalea.

"Keefe, hurry up!" Evren shouted.

He climbed the rock, using the same footholds he'd seen Evren use. He barely kept his balance, ceiling and floor still quacking with huge lurches. Keefe had almost reached the top, he'd even gripped the ledge with a hand, when a thunderous boom, louder than any other he'd heard before, exploded in the air.

He felt the rock he was standing on suddenly give away. His stomach dropped as quickly as the boulder. Keefe looked down to see the corridor they had just been in had collapsed, the floor caving in and taking Kalea and the rock with it. Suddenly he was dangling by one arm from the edge of the hole, terror-struck as he watched the huge masses of stone and glass disappear from sight into the darkness below him, deeper and deeper into the cave-like hideout. Until all that was left to see was an endless pitch-black abyss.

His fingers were starting to slip. The ringing noise in his ears kept growing louder.

"Keefe!"

He snapped his head around to the sound of Evren's voice, which nearly made him lose his balance. She grabbed his arm with both hands, straining to lift him up to safety. Keefe gritted his teeth, mustering all the strength he had left inside of him. With Evren's help, he pulled himself up and over the ledge of the hole, collapsing onto the earth below him, panting hard.