Rats: Shai's Story

The Escape

Author's Note: I hope you all are enjoying this story so far!

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 Shai had never been in a car before. She had rarely ever seen any either. The only time she had really seen them were at the derby or the trucks that bring food to the Drop Off. The feeling of sitting in the front seat as Jasper sped down the empty road. She kept a tight grip on the sides of her seat. Mikko had his elbows up on the back of Jasper and Shai's seat and was leaning forward to talk to them. He was mostly giving Jasper directions on how to get to the camp.

"I need you two to be completely prepared," Mikko said for like the tenth time since they had left his house. "Shai, somebody may want to talk to you, so I need you to be able to sound like a man."

"What do I do?" she asked him. "Just drop my voice lower?"

"Basically, yes," Mikko agreed. He took two fingers and placed them at the bottom of his throat. "Talk from here."

Shai took in a deep breath and placed her fingers on the bottom of her throat, in the same spot Mikko had his fingers.

"What do you want me to say?" she said in her normal voice.

"How about the alphabet?" he suggested.

Shai furrowed her eyebrows at him. "I don't know what that is."

"Okay," Mikko said raking his hand through his tangled hair, leaving it even more tousled. Shai looked over at Jasper and he shrugged his shoulders. "How about 'my name is Officer Nicholby' then?"

Shai wondered why he had given her Jasper's name, but then she remembered about how he thought they were married.

"My name is Officer Nicholby," she tried saying from the bottom of her throat.

It felt odd and Jasper started laughing at her. She swung her arm out and hit him in the shoulder.

"A good rule for the car, Shai. Don't hit the driver," Jasper told her.

"Try again," Mikko told her.

Shai took a deep and bit down on her lip quickly. She tried saying it again, but this time she focused even more on lowering her voice. It came out much better than her first attempt at saying it. Jasper chuckled at her. Mikko took his elbow off of the seat and swung his hand to hit Jasper in the shoulder.

"What did I just say about the hitting?" Jasper yelled.

"It's my car. I don't need to follow the rules," Mikko told him. "Turn right here."

Jasper turned the car off the smooth strip of road they were riding. The car started to shake as the ground underneath them became rough. A large house came into view. Shai had never seen a house that big before; even the ones in Bright weren't this big. The windows still had all the glass in them and a large porch wrapped around the entire house. As they got closer the fence came into view.

The large metal posts tore through the sky and were laced together with wire. Large loops of sharp wire were wrapped around the top. The house seemed so quiet and beautiful. How could it be attached to something so cold and deadly?

Mikko told Jasper to pull over after they had drove beside the fence for a minute. Mikko opened up his door and ran outside. Jasper and Shai both got out of the car and joined him in front of the gate. A rectangle was cut into the fence and Shai realized that it was a door.