Nada's Escape

29- Egress.

In the shadows Finley has an enormous box on a leaning trolley, scavenged from the gatehouse.

"I hope you're not claustrophobic." He says with a wry smile. I do too, I think, seriously nervous now. Finley's interlocking fingers give me the boost I need to jump in. I curl my knees to fit and the flaps close over my head. I hear the stretch and snap of sticky-tape closing me in but thankfully I can still feel the cool of the night through the tiny gaps in the cardboard. The trolley tips and it's a bumpy walk to the main gate.

I hear laughter as he talks to the warden but I can't hear the conversation through the walls. Past the gates Finley walks me for too long I feel but finally we stop and the top of the box is ripped open.

I jump into the muggy air rather enthusiastically, toppling the box onto its side and the ripping the opening as I struggle to stand. Hedges form a web of darkness under a sky loaded with clouds.

"This is going to be so obvious tomorrow." I bemoan as Finley pushes the box and trolley under a hedge. Tonight they look invisible but I know they won't stay that way for long, especially if someone decides to use the secret path inside the hedge.

"I think the warden on the gate will cover for us, but even so." Finley replies. We're done for, I hear unspoken. Still that's all the time we have for conversation. I follow Finley at a jog through the hedge paths, throwing myself along those tunnels of darkness.

The dark is not as comforting as it should be. There are snippets of memory caught in it every way I twist my head. The body slumped in the dark of the toilets, the dull gleam of a blade, even the eyes of Lily widening in horror. Even as I feel the wasps reawakening in my belly, I focus on my breath hissing in and out through my teeth.

We pass the turn off for the meadow quickly and turn down a path that, I think, loops around to the far side of the village. I sense the brightening artificial light over the hedge to my left at the same moment I hear voices. Casual in tone but getting closer.

I grab Finley's sleeve, but he's already retreating to the hedge wall. My heart flutters and I think I see the dead monster in the dark reaching for me. I force my hand to run along the wall, searching for an opening. There must be one somewhere. But the stretch of hedge here is thick, straight and un-broken. I pace backwards, ignoring every illusion my eyes are reporting in fear, gulping in huge breaths. This is bad.

A real light breaks the corner before us and I hardly believe it. Clasped in a hand is a fluttering mass of golden light. Fireflies? My reflexes are quicker than my brain though because I'm ducking low and pushing through the hedge at this point. Still processing the light and the form of two people, a man and a woman, I pull Finley in after me. I am vaguely aware that we are too close but all my attention is on those two voices and the glimmer through the leaves.

I don't distinguish words, just proximity and tone. One is instantly familiar: Finley's father. Barely calm even after 30 horrible seconds, the syllables resonate without meaning in my ears. The woman's voice is a perfect complement to his: low and rich, playful but calm.

They've missed us. Even though the Huntsmen are meant to be super warriors they can't hear our frantic breathing or smell our fear. So I have nothing to do but wait, becoming more aware of Finley's arms around me, my hand fisted between us in his shirt and the awkward pressure of my fingers on his waist. I fear to move but the heat in my cheeks is increasingly distracting me from even from survival.

"Wow," Finley whispers into the space between us when I'm sure that they're gone. "I had no idea this was here."

I'm quick to shy and unstick my fingers from his shirt in the musky darkness. My shoulder brushes his chest as I turn from him and I sigh. I didn't realise we were that close.

I gingerly lead the way through the middle of the hedge, having to feel my way. "Where are we going anyway?"

"A place to hide until the search dies down," he whispers in reply. "Well, the only place I can think of really. We're going to have to cross the streets soon."

Finley leads me through only a few deserted streets. Streetlamps filled with the same fluttering golden glow I'd seen in the woman's hand lights a mixture of dirt and cobblestone. We sneak through the front gardens of some great hulking houses, probably in the same street as Finley's house, as he had pointed out yesterday.

Had it been only yesterday that he'd shown me the streets of the Huntsmen village? I pray that Finley is not stupid enough to try and hide me in his bedroom. At the side of a building with an overgrown garden, Finley pulls aside a small wooden door. I enter before him but it is pitch black. Finley passes me, catching my fingers lightly, leading me along a hall he obviously knows well.

To my relief our joined hands don't glow, though that would be a useful superpower for this situation. Past two sets of door jambs Finley drops my hand. He scrambles on the ground and then a cloud of dust hits my nostrils. I hear a great creak like he's ripping apart the floorboards. I shuffle forward, arm outstretched for anything, but Finley has moved further away. Torchlight appears and I take in the rug thrown back, large trap door open. Finley is in the hole in the floor moving the torch about. With a grunt he pulls himself out, torch beam swinging recklessly for a moment.

"It's not luxurious," he sighs.

"Whose house is this?" I ask, having a good look around me. Large furniture slumps under sheets, huddling around the walls, leaving the expansive centre of the room bare.

"No one's. It's been abandoned since I was a child. I used to play in it." Finley shrugs. I come up to the hole, looking down in to see dirt walls, musty sheets and perhaps a cardboard shoebox. Finley passes me the torch.

"What should we do?" He asks, and a horrible cold dread settles in my stomach. I don't know if I can think about anything. But I force my mind to unstick and process the coming days.

"I lie low. We wait for the ribbons to come in. Leave with all the girls." I nod. "If you don't give us up that is." Finley darts towards me at those words.

"I won't," he whispers fervently and I can feel his face draw closer, well within the danger zone. Luckily with the torch down I can't see his eyes. "I'll be back tomorrow with supplies." Worry laces his words.

"I'll be fine." I reply, but to my surprise my voice hitches halfway. A sobbing thought that I am definitely not fine coughs into existence in my mind. I shove it down and jump into the hole. I can't lose it just yet.

"Go before they find-" the body, I can't say. So the trapdoor slams down over me and I am left clutching that single torch. I can't even hear his footsteps leaving. How long will the torch batteries hold out against the darkness?