Stay...Alive

Chapter 13

The look of Timothy's defeated, pain face stuck in her brain and pricked at her heart for hours on end.

Then everything about the face would change except for the eyes, revealing Buckley dying on top of the pile of rubble.

Now both are up there with Pauline. Pauline who Victorine didn't even get to say goodbye to. Pauline who died without even knowing what happened to her brother. Or where he was. Or if she'd ever see him again.

At least Pauline didn't die suddenly. Or die without getting a proper burial. At least she didn't die like Edd, who no one knew about and no one could mourn for. He died with no one to miss him.

Unlike poor Thelma. Thelma who was scared from the start. Thelma who got what she feared most. Thelma who didn't deserve to die, just like Lee said.

Oh God, Lee. Lee didn't get to see Victorine one last time. She didn't die surrounded by the people who loved her. Death came to her as she lied on the ground in a burning, collapsing building. She'd been mourning the whole trip, and Victorine had tried her hardest to comfort. But it didn't work. Victorine would give again to see again.

At least Victorine had tried. At least her death was commemorated. At least it wasn't just a fright like Anais' death was to the people at the mansion. Poor Anais had lost everything. She'd just her hometown, her family, her friends, her mind, and her sense of trust. Timothy had thrown away her affection, and she couldn't even handle it. She died out in the cold, alone, no one to hold her or talk to her as she died after a life of pain. And Timothy used his last breath to apologize to her.

Anais...Thelma...Edd...Buckley...Lee...Pauline...Timothy.

Timothy.

Tim-

Victorine woke with a start to someone shaking her shoulder. Victorine glanced behind her to see an excited Primus. The blonde lady stood behind him, smirking. The blonde lady had spent quite of time on the hole in the past few days, so Victorine knew exactly what that smirk meant. Victorine tried to get up quickly, but her arms were shaking too much from the dream. She leaned on Primus when she stood up.

"Okay, guys," the blonde lady whispered, "stay as quiet as ya can. One of the people digging got all caught in 'er inmates sob stories, so we might be pickin' up more people than we planned, so..."

Barely listening to what the blonde lady said, Horace started to slide down into the crater.

"Just so you know, this isn't the first hole I've climbed into," Horace quipped. Victorine seriously doubted that statement. One by one, they crawled down into the hole, where they found an uneven, narrow tunnel going both ways. The air in the tunnel was so hot and dry it was hard to breathe. The blonde lady went ahead to lead the way. She gestured to the four others, and the group followed. They went left for a few feet, Victorine constantly trying to avoid piercing her feet on sharp rocks.

Slowly, they sneaked a few feet through the tunnel to a cell a little down the way from theirs. A brunette lady who was almost too tall to fit in the hole jumped down, followed by a group of prisoners. She held a big tool in her hand back of sharp rock and metal. A pocket knife was tied to the end of it. The brunette lady held it like a rife.

"Nice," the blonde lady mumbled as she ran her hand over the brunette lady's weapon. Victorine squinted to try and recognize someone from the batch that followed the brunette lady. Fortunately, she spotted someone with frizzy hair and a boy who hit his head crawling into the hole: Gina and Lane.

She urged to give both of them a hug, but the group moved through the thin coves too quickly. The prisoners silently rallied behind the blonde lady, and the brunette lady took a sharp turn and ran down the tunnel, possibly to get people out from the other side of the aisle. Victorine knew that that was where Anita and Asha were, as well as Parker and Jacey.