"Happy birthday dear Ray, and good bye," Mum smiles, the clock rung in her office, "RAY!" Emma screams and she cries, "What is this horrible smell?" Mum holds her nose, she opens the door to the dining hall, her eyes widen, everything was up in flames, "RAY! RAY! No, RAY!" Emma was on the floor crying, Mum flinches, "Ray..." She runs over to Emma, "Emma," She helps her up, "Mum, please, do something, Ray," Emma points into the flames, she takes the tracker out and she saw a green dot next to her, Emma, and a green dot ahead of her in the flames, Ray, "Did he set himself on fire?" She was shocked, Mum ran out, Gilda came out of her room at the same time, "Gilda, run to my room and get the babies and run outside! Hurry!" She orders, "Right!" Gilda nods, everyone was screaming and crying, Mum runs back to the dining hall with a fire extinguisher, "If anything, I have to save the brain, just say back Emma," Mum points the nozzle at the fire and presses the trigger, white foam sprays everywhere, it seemed to run out, "The sprinklers aren't working, what happened?! Emma you have to get out of here too, otherwise you'll end up getting- What? Emma?" Mum turns around and didn't see her, she takes out her tracker and see the green dot around the corner, she runs after her and sees a bucket laying on the ground, "Emma?" Mum searchers for her, she crouches down next to the bucket and looks at the tracker again, she reaches in and brought out an ear that was chopped off, Emma's ear. Emma ran out and met up with everyone else, everyone above the age of four was coming with them, four and under stayed with Mum, Phil was in charge of looking after them, we were coming back for them later.
As Ray dropped the match, Emma leap forwards and clasped her hands around it, not letting it touch the lighter fuel, "Nice catch huh?" She shows him the put out match, "What the?!" Ray was shocked, "Sorry but I'm not letting you die, and the other kids aren't either," Emma says, "Wait, the other kids?!" Ray took a step back, there was a knock at the door and Ray flinched, "Emma, I brought what you asked me for," Thoma held up a box, "Yeah and everyone's ready to go now," Lannion gave a thumbs up, "Thanks you guys, you were a big help," Emma smiles, "Alright Ray, time to change," Emma says, Lannion held up a new pair of boots and Thoma had a new set of clothes. Lannion and Thoma were putting sasuages and meat on Ray's old clothes, "Alright, you ready?" Emma asks, "Wait Emma, listen, I just think-" Ray was slapped in the face by Emma hard, "DO YOU STILL PLAN ON DYING YOU IDIOT! You should be getting ready to run away!" She grabs his face, "Hey Emma, all done here," Lannion and Thoma held their hands up, "Good," She nods, "What's this?" Ray saw all sorts of meats on his old clothes, "Your replacement," Lannion grins, "It'll create a specific smell," Thoma gave a thumbs up, Ray gasped, "Those braids," He saw them on the pile of lighter fluid, clothes and meat, "They were Anna's and now for the tracker, just give me your ear and I can take it out for you," Emma held a scalpel, "Wait a sec," Ray turns around, "If you're gonna die, don't make it here, I'll show you something cool so shut up and follow," Emma had a dark look on her face, Emma lit the match, "Now, let's begin, Norman," She throws the match into the liquid.
Natalie's POV
"Nat and I will climb up first, we'll help you guys once we get to the top," I heard Emma's voice, I perked up, "They're here..." I felt tears well up, after a month, it was so lonely, cold, sad to be so alone, "You guys hear that?Just do it like we trained and you'll be fine!" I heard Don's voice, "We're all gonna escape safely," Emma says, everyone cheers, I smiled, I threw down the rope, everyone gasped, "Who's there!" I heard Don's voice, "Climb up and you'll see," I walked over to the edge and grinned, everyone gasped, that's when I saw Ray, his eyes welled up, tears streamed down his face, "NAT!" He shouts. Everyone climbed up, and they started bombarding me with questions, my eyes flickered through, before I answered anything, "Where's Norman!" I frantically looked around, everyone sadly looked at the ground, "No... it's because of me..." I held my mouth, I had flashbacks of Conny but instead, they were now of Norman, I felt my head throb, "It's my fault, it's all my fault he's dead, they should've shipped me, I-!" I kept blaming myself, "Norman wouldn't run away, Emma and I told him to run to the forest but he wouldn't, he chose to go with Mum, he said he'll find a way to come back to us," Ray hold my head close to his chest, I heard the beating of his heart, "Ray..." I looked up at him, I realised he had a bandage on his ear, I gasped and put my hand on the white square and my eyes widened, "I had to cut it off," He smiled sadly, "But more importantly, what are you doing here? You're dead aren't you?" Ray choked back tears, "Don't worry, I'm here, I'm real, I did promise I'd marry you, how would you marry a dead person huh?" I giggled, all the kids laughed. They filled me in, they left the four and under at the house and in two years we'll come back for them, I told them how I survived and my entire fiasco on my suicide scene, "How'd that happen?" I gasped as I saw the burning house in the distance, I knew I could smell smoke but I thought it was my nose playing tricks on me, they told me... "RAY!" I held the collar of his shirt, "You weren't planning on dying were you?" I felt tears prickle, "I'm sorry, after you left, then Norman left, I just felt tired, so tired, I was exhausted to the point where I thought I was already dead," He wrapped his arms around me, I sniffed, he didn't smell like Ray, he smelt like lighter fluid, I scrunched my eyes tightly, "Come on guys, we need to head to the edge, I've already planned for our escape!" I ran forwards, everyone nods and runs with me, as we were running, we heard the sound of an alarm, "They're already being alerted," Emma says, "What now? We're still far away from the bridge," Ray says, "That's my escape plan, we're not taking the bridge," I smirked and I pointed my finger across the ravine, "We're crossing here," I said, they all gasped, "You think we can jump that?!" Don shouts, I chuckled, "In your dreams, I've spent the last month thinking of ways to cross it, and I've got just the plan," I shuffled around and brought out my bow and rope arrow, "When'd you make that?" Gilda comes over, "I made it the day of my supposed death, spent the last month firing nonstop arrows across this Cliff and to hook it to the other side, I tied the end of the sheet rope to the closest tree trunk, then I closed my eyes and took a breath in, I lined the arrow up with a branch across the cliff and fired, the instant I fired, I shoved the bow into Ray's hand, clutched onto the remaining rope and once it flew past a branch I tugged it back causing it to wrap around itself and the branch, "Phew," I fanned my face, I then proceeded to make another two ziplines, three in total, "Guess all those blisters were for something after all then huh?" I looked at my hands, Ray caressed my hands, "You've been so strong, for so long, you've done all this just for our escape, you believed in us that we'd come after you?" He looks at me, I smiled, "Why wouldn't you? We're family?" I smiled and hugged him, "Wait..." Ray looks at me as I got the coat hanger and positioned myself up, "You're not going first!" He tries to stop me, "Why not? it's only fair, I was the one who fired the lines? Call it occupational hazard," I kissed his cheek, while he was still in a daze I pushed off the Wall and ziplined onto the other side of the ravine, I patted my body down, "No way... I did it..." I muttered to myself, I felt tears prickle, "Who's next!" I smiled and waved my arm up and down, everyone made their way down, Jemima was too scared to cross so Ray tied her onto him, everyone held their breath when they crossed, the line sunk down further with the added weight but once they crossed, we all sighed in relief, I held my heart, Lannion and Thoma went alongside Ray and Jemima, they were a little scared as well, Nat and Don slowed Ray and Jemima down, I grabbed Thoma and Anna stopped Lannion, all that was left was Emma, "Come on, open your eyes, you're safe now," Ray says gently to Jemima, she slowly opens her eyes and we untie her from Ray, "You were so brave Jemima," I crouched down and pet her head, she wipes her eyes and smiles, she hugs me tight, I held onto her and stood up, "You two were so brave," I leant my head on Ray, he smiled and closed his eyes, "You two look like a married couple," Nat laughs, all the kids agree, "That's Phil's line," I lightly flicked his nose, "Alright Emma, you're the last one!" Don shouts, she positions her coat hanger on the line, all our eyes widen, Mum was panting, she reached us, she told Mum something and Mum pleaded to her, she jumped off and flew towards us, the instant she landed, we cut the ropes, they billowed in the wind, no one could follow us now. We all took off and ran into the forest, we were free. "We did it, we did it Norman, we actually made it to the outside," Emma wipes her eyes, "I'm sure Norman's proud of you, he's proud of all of us," I smiled and rubbed her back, "Today's a new beginning for us," Ray smiled and holds my hand. "Our very first morning, outside the Walls..." Everyone was emotional as we saw the sunrise for the first time in our lives, freely.
