The Subway (Now Available on Amazon!) (Unedited Version on Wattpad)

Chapter 33

"One."

"Two."

"Three!"

The wood was weaker than I had originally thought. It was so weak that when our feet collided with it, it gave so easily that our feet went straight through.

I pulled my foot free of the hole and got down on my hands and knees to peer through it.

The sight that greeted me almost had me in tears.

"Archer look." I said quietly.

Archer knelt next to me and peered through the hole.

"I don't fucking believe it." Archer said, his voice just as quiet as mine.

Through the small hole I could see the faint city lights of New York. There weren't many stars to see but I could see the navy blue color of the sky letting me know that it was night. I could also hear the faint honking of car horns in the distance, so that meant we couldn't be too far away from people.

"How long do you think we've been down here?"

Archer shrugged. "I don't know, but I'm sure as hell ready to leave." He stood up and proceeded to kick the wood over and over with renewed energy and I watched as pieces of rotted wood gradually fell away until there was a decent sized hole that we could both fit through.

"You go first and I'll grab the she beast." Archer gestured to Rose who was still sitting in the same spot squirming and glaring at both of us.

I nodded and carefully made my way through the hole. When I was out I stood up and took a deep breath. It felt like it had been forever since I had breathed in fresh air.

Well as fresh as it could get in New York.

I turned in a slow circle trying to figure out where we were.

There were a lot of old and abandoned buildings around that were boarded up just like the subway entrance had been, and it looked like the subway entrance had been right in the middle of it all.

A few seconds later Archer was pushing a squirming Rose through. I grabbed her by her arms and pulled her the rest of the way through before sitting her on the ground. I'm pretty sure if she hadn't been gagged she'd be pouting now.

She obviously didn't like being handed off from person to person like some old package.

Archer finally made his way out and when he stood up he took a look around before he started laughing.

I frowned, thinking maybe he had went off the deep end too.

"Why are you laughing?" I asked cautiously as I watched him with questioning eyes.

Archer turned to look at me with a smile so bright that it was almost contagious.

Archer rushed forward and scooped me up into his arms before spinning me around.

I yelped in surprise and when I was back on my feet I looked up at Archer with a confused smile.

"What was that?" I said through a small laugh.

Archer had his hands wrapped around my waist and was still smiling brightly down at me.

"We're free. We're actually free. We did it." He sounded like he couldn't believe it and I have to admit there were times, a lot of them actually, where I thought we wouldn't make it out either.

Standing here outside, seemed surreal.

"I know." I said quietly.

Archer rested his forehead against mine with his eyes closed and inhaled deeply almost like he was savoring the moment.

When he opened his eyes again his smile had lessened a little.

"We should call the police." He suggested and I nodded.

Archer let go of me and quickly brought his phone up to his face and shook his head ruefully.

I looked at him with a frown. "What is it?"

"I would get a signal now."

I simply shook my head. If I had to bet the whole no signal thing was probably those lunatics doing too.

As I stood there and listened to Archer give a very brief run down of the events that had landed us in the situation we were in to the operator after he dialed, I couldn't help but realize how crazy it all sounded.

We really had been through hell.

When Archer hung up he turned to me and gave a relieved sigh.

"The police are on their way."

For some reason I suddenly started to feel the tell tale stinging behind my eyes as tears started to form.

Archer, obviously thinking that something was wrong hurried over to me with a concerned expression.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

I shook my head and took a step forward before wrapping my arms around him and burying my face in his shirt.

It wasn't until right then that all the events of our time spent down there came rushing back. I really didn't think we'd make it out alive.

Archer seemed to now understand and just held me silently while I cried.

When the tears stopped flowing I pulled back and wiped the back of my hand across my eyes.

Archer slung one arm around my shoulder and silently led me to the curb of the abandoned street.

We sat there like that, just me, him, and a cuffed and gagged six year old, waiting for the police to arrive.