Let's Escape Together *BOOK 1*

|768--876| Goodbye, Grace-Field House

"Thanks for waiting, you guys!" grinned Emma, a hand to her ear, the trio running into the forest as they cheered. Ray stared, watching as his siblings were bombarded with questions from both girls, asking if they had broken all of their tracking devices.

"Let's go to the wall!" they triumphed, and before the boy knew what was going on, everybody was making a mad dash to the wall.

"Hey, Don!" he yelled over the wind, catching up to the dark-skinned boy.

"Huh?"

"What the hell is going on?! Do they all know?!" he jerked his head back to the other children, "about the House, about the escape?!"

"Yup," he chorused along with Azalea, the boy's eyes widening in shock.

"How..."

"Emma and I told them," she responded, recalling back to when the girl had informed both her and Norman about her plans.

"Hey 'Zalea, Norman, I think we should tell everyone," she stated as the pair were hanging up laundry, "thanks to Don and Gilda... I see that they, and probably everyone else aren't as immature or naive as we think..."

"Emma..." she murmured, starting to consider the idea.

"And, realistically, if we're going to run from the monsters, I think it's better that they know the dangers and willingly join our escape, and Mom doesn't suspect anyone else, only the oldest kids, so we can catch Mom by surprise."

"At first, we told five more: Anna, Yvette, Thoma, Lanni and Nat," Don stated, "we used every chance we could."

The boy's eyes widened in recognition.

"You... you used that opportunity?! T-then... for the past two months, the ones working for you..." he trailed off, the pair grinning.

"Don and I are gonna climb up first," Emma instructed once they reached the wall, "then we'll pull everyone up."

"Ok!" the children chorused.

"Just do it like we trained, and you'll be fine!" assured the boy, "we're all gonna escape safely."

Ray gazed back at the children.

He lost count of how many times his eyes widened and he was shocked by the girls.

"H-hey, wait..."

"Yeah?" Emma gazed up from helping the children up the wall.

"The four-year-olds and under aren't here?!" he whisper-yelled, agitated.

"I thought about it... what you said before," the girl admitted, "I'm not taking them, I'm leaving them here for now."

"For... now?" he echoed, disconcerted. Emma recounted to both him and Azalea - who was stuck talking to Mom - that she had informed Phil, who advised that they could leave him behind then come back for them, claiming that 'he could wait'.

"We'll come back within two years," she finished, "then I'll escape with Phil and the others, and all of the kids in the other four plants!"

Once everybody was stable and on top of the bridge, they immediately ran forward in a straight line along the wall. Azalea stole a glance at Ray; once he felt her burning gaze, she instantly reddened upon remembering Norman's letter.

𝙸 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚁𝚊𝚢. 𝚈𝚎𝚜, 𝙸 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎-𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚑𝚒𝚖.

"Something wrong, Zaza?" he raised a brow, swivelling his head to turn to her. She opened her mouth to respond when a loud, ear-splitting siren echoed through the night. Alarmed, the children skidded to a halt.