SONDER (IV): tmr thomas

006: I shouldn't have done that

Dawn 6

"I don't think we are far enough away yet," Jay instructs. "Just a little bit further."

"I will go insane if I am kept in this tunnel any longer." It feels like we've crawled halfway around the building. "Would you just cut it out and let us go?"

Jay shakes his head back and forth. "Not yet."

He scoots past the grate below us, trying to keep his huge body as small as possible. I stop though, ignoring him. I hit the top of the crate, and it swings down.

"What are you doing?" Jay can't turn around to fight me on it.

"Getting down!" I tell him, my voice a harsh whisper.

"Shut up!' Michelle's whispers echo through the vent. "Do you hear that?"

I stop moving, and so does everyone else. I lie down, trying to get closer to the sound, below. There are footsteps beneath us.

I grab the grate pulling it back up. It doesn't stick in place though. My fingers, stuck between the air spaces in the between the metal. I can feel my fingers burning, blood pooling in the parts where my circulation is getting cut off.

"We need to keep moving," Michelle whispers quietly behind me, not daring to let the others hear her voice, in case the people below can.

"The grate won't shut," I tell her. "We're stuck."

Not only would the grate swing down, letting the people below us know that there are people in the tunnels above them, but the grate is so large that we wouldn't be able to cross through. Michelle and I have been separated from the others. We are so shucked.

I hear a gun go off below us. My hands press firmly into the metal tunnel. Michelle shoves me forward, my hands catch the other side of the hallway. I grab Jay's legs, and he pulls me over.

"We need to get out of here." I tell him. "Now."

The metal grate slams into place as Michelle yanks it up. She climbs over top of it. It creaks beneath her, and I hold my breath. I can feel it falling deep in my chest though it isn't happening.

Jay begins to move, and I follow him. Our movements are harsher, more rushed than before. The vents groan against the weight of our sweaty palms and heavy knees. We move further and further away from the gunshot.

"The walls aren't sturdy," Michelle tells him. We need to get down."

"Not so close to the guns," Jay counters.

"If we don't get down now, we are going to fall through the ceiling, and that will definitely draw guns."

"We can't crawl our way out of here, at least, not before they notice we are gone," Sheil's voice carries backwards to us. "We need to run."

"You sticks," Jay grunts. He continues forward but stops at the next grate. He throws it down, lowering himself out of the hole legs first.

I follow behind him, sticking my feet down into the hole. He grabs my thighs, gently guiding me to the ground. While he helps down Michelle, I peer down the hallway. I have no idea where we are. Actually, maybe we've just gone further into WICKED's headquarters. I wish I had been a Runner.

Michelle grabs me, pulling me out of the middle of the hallway. She slams us into the wall, and puts a hand up against my mouth as she pulls us down onto the ground.