One Last Evolution

Chapter Six (Riley)

   It's pretty chilly at this time of year in Cell 17, but I'm sweating as I tear down the tunnel after Maren, July held securely on my back.

  We've been running for a long time, when Maren stops, bending with her hands on her knees to breath, Reine clinging to her shoulders.

"You all right?" I ask.

  She nods, still taking in deep gulps of air. I let July slide down from my shoulders and stretch. My head is turned back towards where we came from, which is why I hear it.

Faint, pounding footsteps. A lot of them.

"Mare!" I hiss, motioning for Reine and July to be still.

   She hears it, and her face goes white, but she doesn't say anything. Instead she heaves Reine higher on her back and sets off faster than before.

I grab July and head after her, calling, "How do they know about this place?"

"Edmond must have told them," she pants without checking her speed.

"Match," I whisper under my breath.

We keep going for a long time, longer than I've had to run in a while. The stitch in my side is getting worse and Maren's steps are flagging, when she finally stops to turn down a side tunnel that I would've run right by.

"What's this?" I whisper, as she lets Reine down.

"It's an out," she replies. She looks me up and down, and then tugs at one of the pockets of my jacket. It tears loose easily, and she hands it to me.

"Go toss this out in the main tunnel, farther down."

   I do as she says, and when I come back she's boosting Reine up a rope ladder that's been let down from a hidden trapdoor. I see July peeking over, then catching Reine by the wrists and lifting her the rest of the way.

"After you," I say, and Maren climbs up the ladder.

I scramble up behind her, then pull it up after us. She rolls it, and shuts the trapdoor.

"We should put something heavy on it, just in case."

   She nods, and we hunt around in what looks to be an abandoned warehouse til I find a crate of paving stones in a corner under a pile of rags. We shove it over on top of the trapdoor, and hurry to the doorway to peer out.

The streets are quiet. Nothing stirs.

"How close are we?" I whisper.

"Three blocks. We should hurry."

   I scoop July onto my back once again, Mare takes Reine, and we slip out into the street, keeping to the shadows as much as we can. When we've gone two blocks, Maren stops to whistle.

   There's an answering whistle, and we hurry towards it. Mare leads me around a shed to another, smaller shed behind it, built close to the wall of what used to be some kind of clinic. We squeeze in between the shed and the wall, and there's a small window that Mare boosts July through, then climbs through herself. I hoist Reine up to her, then take her arm to clamber through.

   From the shocked faces of the four or five girls in the room, you'd think I was a Cybio Councilman.

"Anara, Curlew," Mare says wearily. "Naylor, Hanna, Maegan. Hi."

"Hey, Maren," one of them says flatly.

"I'm gonna go get Kentley," another says, disappearing down a stairway.