Zee budged me over and sat down.
“I’m going to head home, sleep in a proper bed for once,” he said dreamily.
“And wait for the police to arrive?” I asked. “Come on, Zee, as soon as we’re out of here, they’re going to be looking for us. If we go home, they’re just going to cart us straight back here, and straight into the hole.”
Zee’s face fell, as did Toby’s.
“So what do we do then?” asked the new kid, sliding down the wall and drawing his knees up to his face. “I’ve got nowhere else to go.”
“We’re all kids, Toby,” I replied. “None of us do. We just have to stick together. We’ll be okay.”
“Long as I get my burger,” added Donovan, smacking his lips.
“What about this place?” asked Zee. “I mean, do we tell anyone about it? About what goes on here?”
“Yeah,” I offered. “We have to. We can file an anonymous report to the police or something.”
“Like they’ll ever believe it,” said Donovan.
“We have to try,” I added. “What about everyone else here? We’ve got to do something to help.”
“Feel free,” the big guy said. “You go off and be heroes while I sit and eat my burger.”
“Enough about the burger!” I yelled, laughing. “There’s more out there than fast food. Come on, D, we’ll be free, we can have anything we like.”
“Free?” came a voice from the door. I snapped my head around so hard I thought I’d broken my neck. Standing there was Jimmy, the beanpole kid that Zee, Monty, and I had ridden down to Furnace with in the elevator. He was even skinnier now, his overalls hanging off him like a tattered shroud on a skeleton.
I’d hardly seen him at all since that first day, he’d been hanging out with a group of kids that kept themselves to themselves. He’d walked past my cell a few times, but never stopped to say hi. I guess he’d never heard us talking about escaping before. I mentally kicked myself. Anyone could have been outside, even the guards.
“Where are you going?” he went on. “You getting out of here?”
“Nowhere.”
“No,” Donovan and I said in tandem.
“Just dreaming,” added Zee. “Talking about what we’d do if we ever got out. You know, you must have done it.”
Jimmy stared at us like he could see right through our lies.
“Everyone knows you guys have been acting weird,” he said. “Rumor is you know a way out and you’re not saying. Figured you’d tell me though. We got here together, we can leave together.”
“Ain’t no way out, kid,” said Donovan, getting up from the bed and walking up to him. “Got your head screwed on all wrong. Now scram.”
Jimmy kept staring at me. One more, I thought. Surely one more person wouldn’t hurt. But it was one more person to spill the beans, one more to ruin everything. It wasn’t worth the risk.
“Sorry, Jimmy,” I said eventually. “Donovan’s right, we’re not going anywhere. There is no way out of Furnace, remember.”
“Now scram,” Donovan repeated. This time he planted his hands on Jimmy’s chest and sent him stumbling backward. The boy hit the railings but his eyes never left mine.
“Last chance,” he said. “Take me with you.”
I just turned away. We all did. And when we looked back at the platform it was deserted.
WE SPENT THE next couple of hours panicking. What did Jimmy mean when he said everyone knew we were acting weird? And what rumor? If the inmates were starting to suspect something, it meant the guards might be too, and if that was the case, then it was all over.
But there had been no alarms, no blacksuits at the door, no dogs chasing us from our cells. If the warden even suspected we were planning to make a break for it, then the chances were we’d already be dead.
We voted on what to do about Gary. Zee and Toby figured we should just not tell him, make a run for it and hope he didn’t figure out what we were doing. Donovan and I thought it was probably best to let him know. We’d made a deal, after all, and the Skull had let me keep my life. Besides, he was big and strong and he might just come in handy if things got tough. The vote was a tie but Donovan only had to put a little pressure on Toby to make him change his mind. Physical pressure, that was, in the form of a Chinese burn.
Nobody else was willing to deliver the news, however, so I ended up traipsing down the stairs. The Skulls were nowhere in sight, and I made my way to the gym. From the howling inside I didn’t really want to go in, but when I told the two sentries on duty I had some important news for Gary, they let me pass.
Inside was a bloodbath, a Skull and a Fifty-niner going to work on each other with unrestrained fury. Gary was watching, but when he saw me he jumped off his bench and walked over.
“Something to tell me, little man?” he sneered. He wiped his hand across his face, his swollen knuckles leaving a trail of blood on his lips.
“Tomorrow,” I said. “During hard labor. We’re all going in the chipping room. Get in there too. You’ll see when we make our move, just follow us.”
He looked at me, and for the first time I actually saw a hint of emotion. To my surprise, it resembled anxiety, there for a second then gone.
“What if I’m put somewhere else?” he asked. “You’re not going without me.”
“Doesn’t matter,” I replied. “They don’t check. Just get in there, Room Three. Stay close. And don’t tell a soul, okay?”
He didn’t move, just stood there with his dark eyes fixed on mine. Then he turned and walked off, climbing back on his bench and watching the fight as if nothing had happened. The Skull in the ring was on the floor, the Fifty-niner stomping on his chest, and I made my way from the gym as quickly as I could to escape the sound of snapping ribs.
Back upstairs we went through the last few details of the plan, with Toby posted outside to make sure there were no more eavesdroppers. There wasn’t really much left to say, however, and after a period of silence Zee and Toby decided to head back to their cells for some rest. Neither Donovan nor I could face the thought of dinner, so we just lay on our bunks and waited for lights-out.
“You know what it means if we fail, don’t you?” he asked.
“Yeah, we die.”
“In the most horrible way possible,” he added. “Truly in the most horrible way possible.”
“I’m not sure if it really matters though,” I said quietly. Donovan protested but I just carried on. “I mean, even if everything goes wrong and we end up in the hole, or worse, we still managed to beat Furnace.”
“How’s that?”
“Well, we figured a way out. We actually found a way of escaping. It doesn’t matter if we make it or not, we still beat the system. Right now, Donovan, right now we’re free.”
“I don’t really get you,” he said. “But I hear what you’re saying. We’ll be legends, man, whatever happens.”
He didn’t really understand, but then neither did I. It was just a feeling, a weight lifted from my chest. Furnace’s walls seemed a little bit weaker, the air a little bit lighter, the space a little bit bigger. It was still the same place but it didn’t have the same power. We’d found a way to break it before it had found a way to break us.
At least that’s what I thought when the cells locked and the prison went dark. Everything changed when I woke up some time later, deafened by the siren and bathed in a pool of blood-red light.
TAKEN
I SAT BOLT UPRIGHT in bed, my head spinning. It was the blood watch, here for another harvest. I couldn’t believe it, they couldn’t be, not tonight.
The crimson light made the entire prison shimmer like I was seeing it through a heat haze, as if the fires of hell were burning right beneath us. I stretched my neck and looked down into the yard as the vault door swung open, unleashing a series of screams and wheezes that could only come from the gas masks.
“Alex,” came Donovan’s voice from above me, laced with fear. “Just don’t move, okay? For once, just stay in be
d and keep your head down.”
I lowered myself back and pulled the sheets over my head. Donovan was right, just stay quiet, stay hidden and they’d pass right by. There was a series of wet cries as the wheezers split up, each heading for a different flight of steps. I pictured them jerking and convulsing as they made their way along the platforms, their piggy eyes picking out victims to be devoured.
There was a scream, distant. It was on the far side of the prison. The first wheezer had chosen. A second cry followed, like a dying bird, from below us. Two down, three to go. Another shriek, followed by a chorus of pleas from the chosen inmate. A fourth, this time way above, the sound echoing down the prison walls in case any of us missed it the first time around. Only one wheezer left. One more victim.
“Not us,” I prayed, so softly I couldn’t even hear myself. My breath hit the sheet over my mouth, the air stale and warm. “Please, God, just one more night. Not us.”
A scream, so close it could have been from inside my bed. I curled up even more tightly into my sheets. Stay quiet, stay hidden, they’ll go away, they’ll just go away.
I heard another scream, but it wasn’t from the gas mask. It was a cry of rage, of anger, of despair. It was Donovan. I pulled the sheets off my head and sat up to see the monster standing right outside the cell, all rust and stitches and glass eyes, all leather and syringes and dried blood. It had one hand in its pocket, and pulled it free with a sucking sound.
“No!” screamed Donovan. “NoNoNoNoNo!”
Its soiled hand struck the bars of the cell, marking out a crude X on the metal. Then it slung back its twitching head and screeched, the sound quickly mimicked by its twisted siblings.
I jumped out of bed and looked at Donovan. He was peeking from his sheets, his eyes like white moons against his dark skin, his mouth foaming. I’d never seen him like this before, filled with utter terror, and it broke my heart.
“What do we do?” I asked. The wheezer had frozen, but it wouldn’t be long before the blacksuits made their way here with their dogs. “Which one of us is it taking?”
Donovan didn’t move, didn’t speak. I ripped the sheets from him and he still didn’t respond. Desperate, I grabbed his arms and hauled him out of bed. He was halfway over the edge before he realized what was going on, snapping out of his trance in order to flip himself over and land on the floor.
“Donovan,” I said. He looked at the wheezer, then at me. “What do we do?”
“I don’t know,” he replied in a voice as soft as breath.
“Which one of us has it picked?”
“I don’t know,” he repeated. “You only know when the blacksuits come.”
I cursed, slapping my hands against my forehead. I should have been more scared, but for some reason my head was clear. I guess it was because it didn’t seem real, I expected to wake up any second. I threw myself at the bars, finding myself face-to-face with the wheezer, but it was motionless, not even a twitch to show that it was still alive. The prison was plunged into darkness and I backed away from the bars in panic.
“Think!” I shouted as soon as the red lights snapped back on again. “It can’t end like this.”
“But it has,” Donovan said. “It’s come to nothing.”
I paced the cell, glancing down into the yard to see more figures emerging from the vault door. I counted seven blacksuits, two dogs. Then, to my surprise, the warden strode into the middle of the yard, staring up at the cells. He’d never come out during the blood watch. Something was wrong.
“They know,” I said, my shoulders slumping. “They’ve come for us. They’ve probably got Zee and Toby too.”
“No,” replied Donovan. “That’s Zee’s cell down there. No wheezer.”
I looked down and, sure enough, Zee’s cell was unmarked. I couldn’t make out any sign of life in the bruised shadows but I was sure Zee would be watching me. Maybe the warden didn’t know. Maybe this was just some sick joke, a perverse coincidence. The lights flickered, then went out again, the only sign I was still alive the terrifying noises outside the cell—growls and footsteps and wheezes.
“Look,” I said, taking Donovan’s shoulders. “They only take one cellmate at a time, right?”
“Right.”
“Then one of us is left. We still go ahead with this, okay? One of us makes the break. Once I’m free, I’ll go straight to the cops. Doesn’t matter if they throw me back in here, just so long as they investigate. If I’m quick, I might be able to save you. If you hurry, you might get back in time to save me.”
Donovan nodded as the lights rebooted, then he flung his arms around me, squeezing me so hard I gasped for breath.
“Thanks,” he said, his eyes filling.
“For what?”
“Thanks for giving me hope.”
“It’s not over yet,” I said. I could hear footsteps crashing down the platform, the howl of the mutant dogs.
“I know,” he replied. Then they were there. A command from the blacksuit sent the cell door crashing open and in a blink of an eye the guard was inside, a massive hand wrapped around Donovan’s throat, pulling the boy out as if he weighed nothing, holding him up above the ground. I threw myself forward but the giant used his other hand to swipe me away. I felt like I’d been hit by a car, sliding across the floor and smashing into the bunks.
By the time I’d got to my feet again, the cell door was rattling shut.
“Donovan!” I shouted. The gas mask was sliding a needle from his belt, a syringe full of blackness and death, a cloud that swirled like a galaxy, full of flickers of yellow light. “No!”
But it was too late. The wheezer stabbed the needle into Donovan’s neck and the boy went limp and silent.
“You can’t do this!” I shouted. “Donovan, I’ll come for you. I’ll come for you!”
My words tried to give chase as the procession made its way down the platform, but they were powerless to stop this nightmare. I could do nothing but watch as Donovan and the other victims were dragged down the stairs and across the yard, my best friend disappearing through the vault door, swallowed by the shadows that would escort him to his death.
The warden was the last to leave, and as he stepped through the door he turned and stared up at the cells again. From this distance his eyes were just pools of blackness lost in the red leather of his face, but I could swear he was looking right at me. I felt my vision twist and flicker, a hundred terrible images flashing before my eyes—blood and bone and teeth and chains and screams—then the warden turned away and the carnage ended.
As the door closed behind him I struggled to cling to my sanity, to my reason, to my consciousness. But it was no use. I collapsed to the floor, calling Donovan’s name and wishing with all my heart that they had taken me instead.
BREAK
MORNING CAME RELUCTANTLY, afraid of breaching the darkness that embraced both the prison and my thoughts. I hadn’t returned to sleep after Donovan was taken, I just sat on the bed at the mercy of a million different emotions—crying then screaming then pounding at the bars then laughing hysterically at the night like a creature of madness.
My last words to Donovan never left my head. I’ll come for you. My exhausted mind pictured me charging back into Furnace at the head of an army, shooting the blacksuits where they stood, stringing the warden up by his neck, pulling Donovan from his cell and embracing him with the same strength with which he’d held me. I’ll come for you. And I would.
As soon as the lights came on I was up and standing by the bars, staring out at the yard with cold eyes. It was like a piece of me had been taken along with Donovan, the side of me that felt compassion, that felt fear. All that was left was hatred. I was going to get out of Furnace, then I was going to burn it so that nothing remained but a smoking crater filled with the corpses of its demons.
The cell doors opened with a deafening rattle and I made my way down into the yard along with hundreds of inmates. It was as if the other prisoners sensed something differe
nt about me too, an edge that hadn’t been there before, like I would explode if anybody even touched me. They moved out of my way as I marched toward the canteen, throwing wary glances at me when they thought I wasn’t looking and turning their heads when they saw that I was.
I was sitting at an empty table when Zee ran up to me. He slid onto the bench opposite, checking over his shoulder. His face was pinched, his eyes still red with tears.
“They took him,” he said. He seemed like he wanted to say more, but gave up and hung his head. I didn’t reply, just stared out across the trough room to see Gary taking a seat along with the Skulls. He nodded at me and I nodded back, and in that moment of symmetry my expression was identical to his—empty, inhuman.
“I’ll come back,” I said, looking away. “I promised him I would. I can’t leave him.”
“So it’s still on?” Zee asked, raising his head.
“It’s still on.”
Toby met us just as we were leaving the trough room. He was red-faced and stressed.
“My cellmate,” he said through strangled breaths, “wouldn’t let me out until he knew where we were going. I didn’t tell him, Alex, but the whole prison knows we’re up to something.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I replied, leading the boys across the yard. We joined the crowd for the chipping rooms, avoiding the inmates who were eyeballing us with a strange mixture of hatred and hope. Jimmy was there too, his sickly gaze never leaving me. I ignored them all, focusing on the task ahead. We had one shot at this, just one. If we messed up, then we were all dead.
Slowly the crowd shuffled through the passage into the equipment room. The blacksuit watched us all with his silver eyes, finger permanently on the trigger of his shotgun. I thought for a moment that he might be able to hear my pounding heart as I passed him, but he showed no sign of even noticing me.
Inside the equipment room I slammed on a helmet and lifted a pick from the racks. Zee and Toby did the same. I thought for a moment that Gary hadn’t made it, but he came in at the tail end of the crowd, his eyes narrowed with the same sliver of anxiety I’d seen yesterday. He spotted us and the expression vanished.