My Shooting Star

Chapter 10 - The Refuge

(Mush POV)

I regain consciousness and my vision unblurs. I find myself on a bottom bunk of a hard, cold cellar type room. There's gotta be at least thirty kids in here. I could see rat droppings on the ground and water leaking from a pipe. This is the worst place I have ever seen. But my surroundings were nothing to what was in store for me and the other kids.

"Well, Well, Well, fresh skulls for CRACKIN" I lie as still as possible as I hear footsteps walking around the room. I hear a loud clang of metal hitting metal and a boy slightly jump. That's gotta be Snyder. I feel a hand snatch me and throw me onto the ground. I grunt and look up in fear.

"Oh look it's onna da newsies" he glares at me. 
"We'll see if da strike was worth it now!" He strikes me repeatedly with the bat, to the point where I can't breathe or move.

"Anyone else want a taste of my bat?" Snyder sneers and turns out "Thought not"

I have never been in a worse situation. I think of y/n to calm my nerves. Beautiful, Beautiful y/n. She can calm the fiercest storms, heal the worst injuries, make time stop. I start to calm down. I think of her long curly h/c locks, her awe-inspiring e/c eyes, her funny and fierce personality. The way she lights up a room simply by walking in. The way she can take the worst circumstances and make them better. The way she walks by and you smell a faint scent of daisys. What if.. no I couldn't dare say it... I think I'm in love with y/n.

Then I hear a faint tap at the window that brings me out of my trance.

(Y/N)

The boys and I are hiding out in the dark alleyway with the refuge in sight. It's around three a.m and Mush has been held captive for almost ten hours, and I swear, they better not have even laid a finger on him or they will feel my small but mighty wrath.

"Okay, gather around!" I say as we crouch down to huddle closely.

"Here's the plan," I say firmly, "Jack, you're going to be the decoy."

He mutters a curse word under his breath.

"Don't try and protest, you know Snyder wants you the most, he would trade you in for Mush any day. It has to be you, it won't work any other way." I insist.

He thinks for a moment and nods. He knows what needs to be done.

I drag my finger in the mud, making a map of the refuge.

"Albert, Race, you've both been in and out of here a good amount of times. You know the escape routes, correct?"

Race nods and points to every nook and cranny that could help us.

"Good. Davey, you have the dust bombs?" I ask.

"Yeah, and it wasn't easy getting the materials from the science lab at my old school." He grunts.

"Okay, Davey, you go with Jack, and don't hesitate to use those. We don't need any of you getting captured." I say with force.
"Finch, Elmer, you two are on lookout. Use the horn if you see any trouble, and run as fast as you can."

I look at the refuge, and back at the map.

"What about you? What are you gonna do?" Jack asks.

"I'm gonna break him out." I say confidently.

"No way," Race says, "You aren't going alone, it's too dangerous."

"Actually, I am going alone because I am the only one small enough who can fit through that window." I say, pointing to the pipe leading up to the dimly lit window, barely big enough for meto climb.