Embers & Ice

Chapter Thirty-Five

It was like something of a dream. The institution felt completely barren as Hunter sprinted down the empty corridor. She took the second door into the boys toilets, taps dripping, no sound but the buzzing of electrical lights. It made her uneasiness rise like dust swept up in a cyclone.

Hunter slipped through the secret door and kept her hands on the wall to guide her as she hurried down the old wooden staircase. She winced at the sounds she made, but knew it was more important to hurry. Once she reached the old quarters and felt along the wall again, she swung open the door to their room and found Will sitting on the bed with a book between his hands.

“Hey, you’re-”

“We have to go,” she said and grabbed the book.

“What are you-”

Hunter intended to throw the book at the wall, snatch Will and run. But her hands froze when she saw the title ‘Holy Bible’ written in silver script on the black leather binding.

“You’re reading the Bible?” she gaped. “Where’d you get this?”

“In one of the other rooms,” he shrugged. Then his eyes narrowed. “Why does it matter?”

Hunter let out a laugh. For some reason she was angry, and she couldn’t understand why. Not when there were far more important things to worry about. “Because it’s bullshit. If there’s a God, why are we all being tortured like this?”

“Don’t ask me, I’m not a priest.” He reached for the book and snatched it back from her hands, almost protectively. “But I need something better to cling onto in this awful place Hunter, and after what we just saw with Benji, an almighty God is good enough for me.”

“Well cling to this then: we’re getting out of here.”

Will lowered his hands slowly. “What?”

“Come on, we don’t have much time. There’s something going on in the labs downstairs, literally every single security guard has disappeared. We’re completely alone up there, and it’s the best chance we’ve got right now.”

“But how?”

She grabbed his hand and smiled. “So far, I have no idea.”

“Great,” he sighed, but he didn’t protest when she started pulling him towards the door.

They crept back into the corridor, the chill sinking deep into their skin and the puddles from leaks in the pipes making their footsteps all the more obvious. But just as they were nearing the door to the stairs, Hunter heard something from behind them and they both spun around.

A light swished under the crack of the other door at the end of the corridor. Hunter and Will could hear voices, soft at first but now becoming louder. Someone was shouting to hurry, and they sped up. More light raced past, as if from a flashlight.

“Who is that?” Will uttered in her ear.

“I dunno,” she said, “but I have a feeling it’s something to do with what’s happening in Terminal One.”

“Terminal what? Hunter, what’s going on?”

She ignored his questions and snatched his sleeve, dragging him down the corridor and creeping to the door. The voices were dying out to the left. We’ll lose them!

“Does this door open?” She ran her fingers over the dark steel-trap door with a large latch and no padlock.

“I dunno, I’ve never-”

Hunter grabbed the latch and pulled hard towards her. It slid aside with surprising ease, and the door creaked in. Hunter smiled, put her hand on the door and pushed.

It led them to another dark corridor, but a little way down the left they could see a faint glow of light on the walls. This must be an old passageway that the scientists use. The electricity is running, so it has to be useful.

“This way,” she whispered and started creeping down the low-roofed corridor.

“Hunter, I know you’re curious and stuff, but I’m not exactly up for more punishment, okay?” She glanced back at him and could just see the crease in his forehead half-hidden by his hair. Light from up ahead danced like candlelight in his eyes. “I don’t want to go through what happened to Benji today.”

Hunter bit her lip. He’ll find out soon enough. She kept walking. “I hate to tell you this Will, but you don’t have a choice. Seven of us were picked for the demonstrations. Benji was only the first. You’re up after Mosi.”

Will kept silent as they walked.

When they grew closer to the light, Hunter saw that the corridor was a long underground tunnel lined with fixed light bulbs connected by wiring along the top. The scientists had vanished without a trace.

“I thought you said we were going to escape,” said Will as they walked. “What are we doing down here if the others are upstairs?”

“Why do you think that all the guards disappeared? Something Dr. Wolfe has kept hidden is suddenly a threat, and I’d give anything to know what it is. It could be the key to getting out of here.”

“Or it could get us into serious trouble.”

Hunter didn’t reply, even though her heart was skipping beats and her entire body felt clammy with sweat.

The corridor took a bend and there were two doors on their left and right. A flickering bulb in the corner gave them enough light to see the inscription on each door.

“Morgue,” Hunter read, “or Cell Block?” She turned to Will. “You pick.”

Will frowned. “What do they need a morgue for?”

She peered in through the small barred window. Inside the dark room there was a bank of square hatches like those used for the storage of safety deposit boxes. At the back was a giant black door rather like a furnace for cremation. There were other various objects in the room, but it all looked very morgue-like to her.

She backed away so Will could peer inside. “Do you think this is where he puts the bodies of those who die here?”

Will’s face paled and she wished she’d never mentioned it. He could only be thinking that this room would be his death bed sooner rather than later.

He swallowed. “I guess so.”

Hunter wrapped her arms around herself. The only thing she could do was put it in the back of her mind and stew on it later. “Come on, let’s keep going.”

They took the other door marked ‘Cell Block’. This corridor was lit also by light bulbs joined with wiring at intervals over cell doors like those in the old quarters. They were so old, they practically blended into the wall. There were faint numbers and letters etched along the top between each light bulb, about two meters apart. Hunter ran her hand down the wall as she went, feeling the moisture. It was danker down there than in the old quarters, if that were even possible.

It’s like we’re in a cave.

Hunter froze. Will bumped into her back and stopped too. Stretching on her toes, Hunter strained to see what was written near the ceiling and read the number ‘17’ beside the letters ‘DC’.

“Death Cave,” she breathed.

“What?”

“All this time, I thought Zac was referring to the entire institution as Death Cave, because it’s always so cold. But it came from the scientists, from the guards. From here. Look,” she pointed to the number on the other side that read ‘16 DC’. “These are all cells. Will,” she turned to him and swallowed down the sickly lump in her throat. “We just found the real Death Cave.”

Before Will could open his mouth, there came a very faint sound that raised the hairs on the back of her neck: A moan for help was coming from the cell on her left. Hunter turned her head and a scream fell out of her mouth.

There was a face between the bars.