“Levels one to three, Room One,” bellowed the blacksuit, waving his shotgun toward the portal. “Rest of you into Room Three, you know the drill.”
We headed into the chipping room, our hearts in our mouths. Every few steps, I’d look up and meet the eyes of Zee or Toby or Gary. It was like there was a line linking us, one that only we could see. Or maybe it wasn’t that invisible—the looks from the other inmates were growing increasingly hostile, like they could sense how close we were to making a break for it, to leaving them to rot.
We positioned ourselves near the front of the cavern, pulling our visors down to conceal the sweat that already ran freely down our faces. We started attacking the wall the same way we always did, Zee keeping an eye on the shadow that sat fat across the equipment room floor. As soon as that shadow disappeared we would make our move.
It seemed to take forever. We chipped and we hacked and we sweated, and all the time our blood pressure rose, our tempers frayed. Much longer and I felt like my heart was going to implode.
“Come on,” hissed Gary in between swings. “We gotta move now.”
“We wait,” I said, my voice heavy with an authority I never knew I possessed. “We leave when I say.”
He gripped his pick so hard that his deformed knuckles went white, but he didn’t argue, just kept swinging and cursing.
“Alex,” hissed Zee a few minutes later. “The guard, he’s going.”
I looked to see the black shadow sweep across the floor of the equipment room as the guard disappeared into the first chipping hall. I turned and nodded to the three expectant, terrified faces in front of me, and after checking that nobody in the room was watching us, we walked calmly toward the door.
So far so good, it was all going to plan. Until I heard a voice call out from behind us. I swung around to see Jimmy legging it across the cavern floor, his face twisted into a mask of panic. He didn’t even wait until he was in earshot before shouting out.
“Don’t you dare,” he yelled. “I know what you’re doing.”
“We’re not doing anything, Jimmy,” I replied as calmly as I could. “Just working.”
He ran right up to me, then grabbed my collar with his bony fingers. The other prisoners in the room were turning to watch, looking at us like we’d stabbed them in the back.
“I knew it,” he spat. “You’re doing it now. Take me with you or I swear I’ll scream my head off.”
He never got the chance. From nowhere Gary moved in, jabbing the handle of his pick toward Jimmy’s face. The wooden pole made contact with one of the most sickening sounds I’d ever heard, and the boy crumpled, groaning.
“Let’s go,” Gary said. “No time.”
I looked at Jimmy, struggling to get up and hold his broken nose at the same time, then I turned and fled toward the equipment room. We rounded the corner to see that it was deserted, and it was all I could do not to cry out with joy. I skidded to the floor and yanked on the loose board, pulling it away from the wall. Zee went to climb in but Gary shoved him out of the way, diving through the gap headfirst. Zee followed, and it was just as Toby started climbing in that all hell broke loose.
I heard panting behind me and turned to see Jimmy standing there, the front of his overalls drenched in blood, his whole body shaking. He pointed at me, his eyes full of the strength that his body lacked.
“Escape,” he said. His voice was weak, but the word hit me like a slap in the face. I saw him take a deep breath, then he repeated it with more force.
“Jimmy,” I called out. “It’s not too late, just come with us.”
But he wasn’t thinking clearly. The blow to his head had scrambled his thoughts. All he cared about now was making sure we didn’t leave. He called out again and again, each time the volume of his cry escalating until it became a shrill shriek that echoed around the equipment room.
“Get in,” I said to Toby. “Now.”
He hesitated a moment longer, then scrabbled past the loose board, vanishing into the darkness. Jimmy was still screaming the same word over and over again. I had seconds until the blacksuits appeared.
Not even that. As I bent down to climb through the hole, I spotted the guard emerging from the first chipping room. The giant paused, his silver eyes squinting in the light as if he didn’t quite believe what was happening. It was all the time I needed. By the time he’d raised his shotgun I was halfway into the tunnel, the shot kicking up the dust where my feet had been an instant before.
Toby was waiting for me on the other side of the boards, his eyes so wide I thought they were going to fall out. I looked back into the equipment room to see the guard charging toward us, his vast body a blur. Behind him, coming through the door from the yard with equal speed, was another blacksuit.
There was a sparking sound ahead, from the other end of the tunnel.
“Oh no,” I said, my heart sinking. Gary had found the fuse, and was trying to light it. “Run!”
We sprinted up the tunnel just as the blacksuits smashed through the boards behind us. They just charged right through the massive wooden planks, sending splinters flying into the air as they raised their shotguns again. I hurled myself to the ground as the guns fired, pulling Toby down with me, the shot slicing the air above our heads.
Ahead there was a hiss as the fuse lit. I watched the flame hurtle along the string, up the wall toward the gas balloons that were right above our heads. I hauled myself up, grabbing Toby’s hand and throwing myself along the tunnel. Only a few more steps and we’d be free.
But the blacksuits were too quick. Just as I saw the end of the tunnel ahead, I felt an iron grip around my throat, hoisting me from the floor. By the squawk from my side I knew that Toby had been caught too. It didn’t really matter now anyway. I watched the thin blue flame travel along the ceiling, almost brushing the first glove. We were going to burn.
The blacksuit turned me around to face him, narrowing his silver eyes at me. It was Moleface—the same guard who had tormented me ever since that first day in the house so long ago. His face split open into the shark’s smile I knew so well.
“Got you,” he said. Over his shoulder the flame flickered, almost went out, then burned fiercely as it reached the first glove. I willed it on. At least if we died here we’d take some of them with us.
“No,” I replied, grinning insanely back at my captor. “I’ve got you.”
The first glove swelled and burst into a ball of light and heat. Then the world exploded—darkness into a radiance that burned my eyes, silence into a thunder so intense it felt like my body had been crushed to dust. The rest of the balloons followed suit, the resulting fireball sweeping down the tunnel like the fist of God, a shock wave that catapulted us all into the cave.
I blacked out for a moment, the sound of ringing in my ears the only thing letting me know I was still alive. That and the pain, so agonizing that it forced me to regain consciousness. I snapped open my eyes to see the tunnel in ruins, slabs of stone and a curtain of dust and flames where there had once been a passageway. Somewhere in the distance I could hear a siren and the sound of people shouting, but Donovan’s plan had worked, there was now a wall of rock between us and them.
I tried to get up but I couldn’t move. Fears of paralysis flooded my mind, the thought that I would have to lie here until the guards clawed their way through the demolished tunnel. But looking down I saw a huge weight slumped across my legs. It was Moleface, although he was no longer a man in black but a man of black. He had caught the brunt of the blast, the fire burning off his suit and leaving his body a charred mess. I realized that he’d probably saved me, shielding me from the flames, and I smiled at the irony of it.
I tugged at my legs and finally managed to free them, using a nearby rock to pull myself up. My helmet lamp was smashed to smithereens, but the fires painted the cavern in a weak light. I made out a mangled shape in front of me, a broken boy that had once been Toby. It took me a moment to notice there was another person hunched over
the scene.
“Zee?” I asked, peering into the gloom. The other boy stood and ran over to me.
“Alex! Jesus, man, I thought you were dead.”
“Is Toby?”
“No, he’s got a pulse, but he’s smashed up pretty bad. Ain’t no way he’s getting into that river.”
“Gary?”
“Ran ahead, the idiot,” Zee said. “I tried to stop him lighting the fuse, Alex, I really did. He just shoved me out of the way. Only a matter of time now before he finds the river.”
I limped over to Toby. His eyes were shut but he was breathing weakly, a trail of blood running from the corner of his mouth. I knelt down beside him and touched his cheek, and very slowly he opened his eyes.
“Did we make it?” he asked as his vision focused. “Are we free?”
I took his hand and squeezed it, but it just made him wince.
“We made it,” I said. “But you can’t go any farther, Toby. You’ll die if you do.”
“I don’t care,” he answered. “I don’t care, I just want to get out of here. Don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me.”
I looked at Zee but the boy just shrugged.
“He’s had it if he goes in that river,” he said.
Behind us I heard the sound of shifting rubble, a series of wet growls. It was the dogs. I could picture them tearing into the stone with their killer claws. It wouldn’t take them long to break through.
“He’s had it if he doesn’t,” I said. “Let’s get him up.”
I put my hand under Toby’s armpit and pulled gently, Zee doing the same on the other side. Together we managed to haul him up and keep him steady. He screamed as he tried to walk on his broken leg, but he managed to stay conscious.
“Let’s go,” I said.
We had only just started walking when I heard a groan from behind us. I peered over my shoulder to see a shape rising out of the darkness, a giant hauling itself up from the debris and dust. It was Moleface; somehow, he wasn’t dead. If he managed to get to his feet, then we were history.
“Can you hold him?” I asked Zee. The boy nodded and I slipped out from under Toby’s arm. I ran over to the injured man, looking around until I spotted a block of stone light enough to lift but heavy enough to do some damage. I hefted it above my head, and was about to bring it down when the shape moved, fast. It swung an arm out, catching me behind the knee and making my legs buckle. I collapsed to the floor, the block of stone almost braining me.
Moleface grunted as he stood, wiping the blood from his eyes and patting out the fires that still burned on his exposed flesh. His injured face quivered and shook, and it took me a moment to grasp that he was attempting to smile.
I tried to get up but the giant placed his foot on my chest, pinning me like a butterfly. Then he bent down and picked up the same piece of rock I’d been struggling to lift, holding it effortlessly in one mammoth hand.
“Alex!” came Zee’s voice behind me. I could barely breathe, let alone yell, but somehow I managed to answer.
“Just go.”
Was it really going to end like this? So close to escape yet about to be crushed by the very guard who’d made it all happen, the one who’d shot Toby and framed me. I struggled against his weight but it was just too much.
I was distracted by a shape materializing behind the giant, another face, a single gleaming silver eye. I couldn’t believe it, the blacksuits were indestructible. I looked up and saw the rock held above my head, waiting for the moment it would fall and snatch away my life. At least it would be quick. I fixed the black-suit with the fiercest gaze I could muster. I wouldn’t go screaming and crying and begging for my life.
The stone block dropped, smashing into pieces millimeters from my head. I thought for a minute that his aim had simply been poor, but something else was going on in the shadows above me.
The second blacksuit had his burned hands around the throat of his twin, a grip so fierce that it forced Moleface down onto his knees. With the weight off my chest I rolled to my feet, backing away but not taking my eyes off the scene.
Moleface threw an elbow behind him, connecting with his attacker’s hip so hard that it sent a crack echoing around the cavern. But the man wouldn’t let go, tightening his grip around his victim’s neck. Gradually Moleface’s flailing arms dropped to his sides, his body tumbling to the rock.
The other guard stood unsteadily for a moment, then crashed earthward as well. I noticed that his injuries were even more extreme than Moleface’s. Without his suit I saw that the man was just a mass of scars, some still containing stitches. Under the skin muscles bulged and twitched helplessly, as if trying to escape the broken body. I didn’t understand what had just happened, but there was no time to try to work it out. I was about to make my way back to Zee when the giant spoke to me.
“Alex?” he said. The voice was as deep and booming as always, but there was no malice in it this time, no evil. He sounded scared. The figure turned his head to me, and I saw that only one of his eyes remained silver. The other was normal, a pale green that looked at me in desperation. It was too dark to see clearly, but I thought I recognized that eye, and the look it threw me—fierce and defiant.
“Alex,” the guard gurgled through a mouthful of blood. The voice raised and lowered its pitch, like it was breaking. “Don’t forget your name.”
“What?” I asked.
“If they catch you, just don’t forget your name.”
“Come on!” yelled a voice behind me. I heard the scrabbling from the tunnel. The dogs were getting nearer.
“Who are you?” I asked. But I didn’t need to. I knew that voice, I knew that eye. A massive explosion rocked the other side of the cavern as Gary blew the hole, filling the entire room with light. I saw past the guard’s twisted face, his stitched skin and spasming muscles, saw the grapefruit-sized birthmark on his arm, now so familiar.
“Monty . . .” I said, moving toward him. But it was too late. With a sigh the man—the boy—lowered his head, his one silver eye fading along with the dying light of the explosion.
“Come on!” came Zee’s voice again. I ran back to them, my head spinning so fast I thought I was going to be sick. The scrabbling and growling behind us was growing louder by the second, and we hobbled across the uneven ground as fast as we could.
Fueled by fear we took less than a minute to find the crack in the rock. It was no longer a sliver. The explosion had ripped a massive hole in the floor, and way below it raged a river. We walked to the edge of the drop and peered down. It was impossible to tell how far below the water was—its flow just a gray streak in the shadows. But the air was sweet and cool, the foam settling on our skin and easing the pain of our wounds.
There was no sign of Gary.
“You sure you want to do this?” I asked Toby. “You can’t even stand, let alone swim.”
“I don’t care,” he replied. “I just want to get out of here.”
I nodded.
“You ready?” asked Zee.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. In that second a thousand thoughts flashed through my mind—the day I was caught, the day I arrived here, the guards, the dogs, the warden, Kevin being slaughtered, Ashley falling to his death. Monty, taken and twisted and turned into a monster, into a blacksuit.
Then I thought about Donovan, snatched in the middle of the night, awaiting the same horrible fate.
I’ll come for you.
“I’m ready,” I said. Taking one last look at Zee and Toby, I leaned over the edge and let the cold air embrace me. There was nothing but death behind me, and probably nothing but death ahead, but at least this way I would be free.
And smiling at the thought, I jumped.
Alexander Gordon Smith, Lockdown
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