Escape

“Excuse me sir, could I have a moment of your time?”

“Leave me alone, kid.”

I had wandered the streets of the 35th district for well over an hour with no luck. Was I just not personable?

Other prisoners throughout the city, denoted as full time prisoners through their attire or easily identifiable as integrated members of society by their hair color, wanted no part in our plans for escape. If they did, I wasn’t even getting the chance to find out.

I sat down at a bench on main street, gathering my thoughts. A few minutes later, Diamond sat down on the bench beside me.

“Any updates?”

I shook my head. My disappointment was all the answer she needed.

“I’ve talked to Garnet and Malachite,” she said. “They said the support so far seems promising, but there’s still a lot of work to go.”

“I must be talking to the wrong people,” I sighed. “I haven’t gotten a single person on board with our plan.”

Diamond hopped off the bench, ready to get back to work. “Try lightening up some, kid. You’re always way too serious. I know this is important, but try to be more approachable. You’re a sweet kid, use that to your advantage.”

In a rare display of encouragement, Diamond ruffled my hair before setting off. She really could do everything. It was my turn to pull my own weight.

This plan was brilliantly crafted by Diamond after the rest of the squad provided her intel from our day to day activities in the district. The plan was brilliant, if we were able to pull it off. Re-energized after Diamond’s encouragement, I headed back into the city, ready to recruit more prisoners to support our cause.

The day finally arrived. Two weeks after we started recruiting for the escape plan, everything was finally in place. Squad Delta convened in the shared dormitory room of Diamond and Amber, ready to review the plan one last time.

“I ran my rounds through the dorm last night,” Garnet said to all of us gathered around the table. “There are a lot of people counting on us, so let’s get this done.”

It was more than just our lives at stake. Fellow prisoners, those who had been stuck in the Underworld for months or even years, were putting all their faith in us. If we managed to escape back to the surface, we could launch a full fledged attack against the 35th district to free the remaining prisoners. It was an ambitious plan, and one we had to take one step at a time. The first step, of course, was escaping the 35th district.

Diamond laid out a map of the 35th district on the table. It was a small miracle she was placed in record keeping following her questioning and examination. It gave her access to crucial materials we needed to devise the plan, and her smuggling skills were second to none.

“At 6:00 PM, a group of prisoners will start a fight here.” Dawn pointed to the main intersection of the 35th district. It was the most populated, bustling place in the entire district. A large commotion in a central hub of the district would require the attention of numerous police officers.

“This will be a staged fight between prisoners only,” she continued. “There won’t be any Dweller involvement. If a Dweller were to get hurt, it would put our comrades lives in exponentially more danger.”

“I’ll be watching this conflict unfold from the Main Street restaurant balcony,” Malachite said. “Once I see ample officers respond to the scene, I’ll make a break for it to relay the message.”

“Amber, you’ll be stationed by the police station. If there are still enough officers around to respond to another emergency, you’ll notify Crystal.”

Amber nodded her head eagerly. She was ready to set this plan in motion and return home.

“Ray, you’ll be keeping our retainers occupied,” Diamond said sternly. “I know you are not exactly on the best terms with them, but is this something you know you can do?”

I had to make up for my shortcomings. Any difficulties we had run into so far in the Underworld were because of me. This was my chance to right the ship. If I kept the retainers off our trail, it would give us the opportunity to escape.

“I can do this, Diamond. Trust me.”

We all exchanged glances around the table. I could see the nerves in Malachite’s eyes again, even if he did not betray his true feelings through his body language. Garnet and Diamond remained stoic as ever, as leaders should. Crystal still eyed me with disappointment, as though she had not forgiven me for the scuffle early in our time here. Amber, as always, flashed me a smile of encouragement. Her eyes were soft, as if she were looking at someone she would trust with her life. I could not afford to let her down.

Diamond rolled the map back up and placed it in her bag. “Alright, we all have some time to kill until 6:00 PM, so let’s make the most of our day. And remember, act natural. We can’t afford to draw any suspicion to ourselves.”

Without another word, we all left the dormitory room, counting down the hours until the operation began.

“Hey, idiot.”

“Would you stop calling me an idiot?” Dawn’s jabs continued to get on my nerves. The very fact that her rudimentary insults got under my skin likely prompted her to continue them.

“But that’s what ya are, idiot.” Ugh, here we go again. “You nervous or something? Ya look funny.”

Were my nerves that obvious? I thought I was doing a good job acting naturally. I guess not.

“Take it easy, Dawn,” Leo scolded her. “He’s probably nervous since this is his first time being alone with all the retainers.”

While Leo was right, he was also wrong. I felt out of my element, spending time with the six retainers alone, but that wasn’t the main driver of my nerves.

“Yeah, that must be it.” I lied through my teeth.

“That wasn’t convincing at all my man,” Orion said with a laugh.

Leo had a thoughtful expression. “Listen, kid. Take it from someone who is much older than you and has seen it all. We are one and the same. We’re all human.”

In the past I would have snapped back at that remark, but I hesitated. The rest of the retainers were captivated by him. It was clear he had a large influence over this young group, even if Orion was the de facto leader.

“At the end of the day, who was right, who was wrong, that doesn’t matter. The reality is, we are where we are now, and the people who made those decisions and fought those conflicts are long gone. To me, there’s no point in fighting the conflicts started by those over 200 years ago.”

“I can’t believe you would say that.” My eyes shot straight to Ariel, who was now on her feet. “We can’t just forgive the Surface Walkers for forcing us down here! They’re all complicit.” I was amazed she stood up to Leo, and even more amazed she voiced such a contradictory opinion. She was my enemy, but I understood her thought process.

Esther shuffled her feet nervously. “Calm down, Ariel. I know it’s a personal matter for you, but think about what Leo is saying. At this point, there is no ‘good’ or ‘evil’, we’re all just fighting to survive.”

Ariel got back in her seat. She was still angry, her lowered eyebrows betrayed that feeling.

“Sorry everyone,” Leo said, rubbing the back of his head. “I didn’t mean to ruin the atmosphere around here.”

“It’s all good!” Orion said cheerfully, trying to lighten spirits. “I know, why don’t we try and do something fun. It sure beats lazing around doing nothing!”

“Fine,” Ariel said sharply. “But you’re picking.”

The retainers all sat around the table playing cards. To say I was playing was a stretch, I had no clue how the game worked, and they were all taking advantage of that fact.

“Man you lost again!” Orion laughed hysterically as he pointed his finger directly in my face. If I didn’t have such self control, I likely would have grabbed his finger and snapped it at the joint.

“You’re really bad at this,” Dawn chimed in. “Like, real bad.”

“I don’t know this game okay.” I threw my massive handful of cards into the air, exasperated. These Dwellers were teasing me, and I was having fun? My mind must be playing tricks on me.

The Dwellers took turns winning each round. Everyone won at least once, except myself, of course. Apollo was particularly good at the game, although he seemed to be taking it far more seriously than the others.

All was calm.

The door to the mess hall flung open. Some man in a Dweller police uniform stood in the doorway, struggling to catch his breath.

“Is everything alright?” Orion was the first to react.

The man was hunched over with his hands on his knees. “Riot… main street…” He struggled to get his words out. I didn’t need to hear more, I knew exactly what he meant.

“A riot?” Apollo got up from the table and threw on his jacket. “Surface Walkers?”

The man nodded his head. I had to act, and fast. That was my only job, to keep the retainers occupied while the plan set in motion.

“Maybe we should calm down.” My suggestion was met with no response. All six retainers were quickly readying themselves to depart. “Uh, hey, what about me?”

“A bunch of Surface Walkers started fighting in the streets!” The man finally caught his breath. “I’ve never seen such a big fight! There’s like 30 of them!”

There was no chance I could keep the retainers here now. They were going to head to main street no matter what I did. All I could do now was try and slow them down. As they continued to pack up their belongings I ran up and stood in the doorway. Subtlety had gone out the window now.

“What the hell are you doing?” Apollo asked. His short temper was ever apparent. If I kept this up long, I would end up in a fight myself. If that were to happen, I would never make it to the holding area to rendezvous with the rest of Squad Delta. I was walking a fine line, and I feared falling off it.

“You are retainers!” I said, panic setting in my voice. “I know you are all trained for combat, but shouldn’t you let the police handle this?”

“This officer would not have come all this way if we weren’t needed,” Leo said plainly. He was right. If the police were asking for additional support, it meant things were getting out of hand. Hopefully that meant my other squad members were able to flee the scene.

“I don’t know what you’re getting at,” Orion remarked. He still sounded composed as ever, although his expression betrayed his true feelings. “Stop blocking the doorway.”

I stood my ground. Everything was happening too fast. I wasn’t sure what else to do at the moment.

Apollo put his hands on me. “Move, now. Or I’ll move you myself.” Even though Apollo was shorter than me, he had an intimidating presence. He meant business, and would toss me aside without hesitation. I wasn’t in a position to fight back, it would put our escape as a squad in jeopardy. We agreed that we would all make it out together.

Defeated, I stepped aside. A jolt of pain shot through my arm as I was thrown to the floor.

“Stop it, Apollo!” Dawn shoved Apollo off of me. He glared at her with hostile eyes.

“Whose side are you on anyway, Dawn!” He got back to his feet as Dawn helped me up. “Remember what he is! He’s a Surface Walker! He just tried to stop us from doing our job!”

Apollo, of course, was absolutely right, but how would Dawn react?

“Stop bickering you two,” Leo said calmly. “You have more important matters to attend to. Leo took the handcuffs off his belt and placed them around my wrists. “I’m sorry, Ray. I hope you understand why I have to do this.”

I didn’t say a word as I nodded to Leo, understanding if I were restrained it would allow the retainers to focus on their task at hand. Leo walked out the door before turning back to face his fellow retainers. “Now let’s go.”

One by one, the retainers filed out of the room. Tensions were still high, they left the room without saying a word. Dawn was the last to leave. As she reached into her pocket to grab the key in order to lock the door, Dawn knocked a small container out of her pocket onto the floor.

“Wait Dawn, you-” I heard the lock turn after the door was slammed shut. Whatever she dropped, it would still be here when she came back. Hopefully my charade stalled the retainers long enough to give the rest of my squad time to reach the armory.

How long had it been? I remained in the same seat Leo placed me in, my hands cuffed behind my back. I needed to figure out a way to escape. If the rest of Squad Delta made it to the armory without me, they would have no way in. I was the one who stole the armory key from Dawn. Without me, there was no way inside. And without our hazard suits, which were being stored in the armory, escape would be impossible.

I shifted in my seat as I began to panic. This entire operation was about to blow up because of me. My eyes were drawn back to the container Dawn dropped on the floor. At this point, I was all out of ideas.

I grabbed the container with my hands still tied behind my back and jarred it open. A small key spilled onto the floor. Could that be?

I fumbled the key in my hands behind my back, feeling around to find the keyhole on the handcuffs. The key slotted in perfectly. Dawn really dropped the key to the handcuffs as she left the room. Dawn was extremely diligent and cautious, could she really have done that by accident? It made no difference, I was home free now.

I punched out the window and fled the scene, ready to meet Squad Delta at the armory.

“What the hell took you so long?” Crystal greeted me with a mouthful of anger.

I was completely out of breath. It was a long run from the retainers’ office to the armory. “Sorry, I got caught up with the retainers.” I took quick, sharp breaths between my words. “But it looks like I distracted them long enough.”

All of Squad Delta was accounted for. Was our plan really going to work?

“Alright, Ray, toss me the key.”

I grabbed the armory key out of my pocket and threw it to Garnet, who was standing by the large metal door. Diamond stood behind him at the ready. According to her observations over the last two weeks, now was the time the armory would have the least staff on hand. If we came in knowing a fight would be on our hands, we would stand a chance.

Garnet swung the door open and Diamond charged in. She was light on her feet, astonishingly agile. She struck the two guards by the door in the neck, knocking them unconscious before they could even react. She waved the rest of us into the armory.

Diamond threw me and Garnet the rifles of the door guards. We dispersed quickly. By Diamond’s best estimations, there would be ten total guards in the armory. Two down, eight to go. And now that we possessed weapons, the fight would be a lot more even.

One by one, we took out the remaining guards. In some ways, it almost felt too easy. Before long, we were standing face to face with our hazard suits.

“Were they studying our suits?” Amber pondered. The suits were rigged up to some complicated electronics system, one I didn’t recognize. It looked like a far more advanced piece of technology than anything I had seen throughout the rest of the 35th district.

“There’s no time to wonder about that,” Garnet said forcefully. “The rest of you hurry up and change into your hazard suits. I’ll stand watch and change after you.”

Garnet closed the door to the vault and remained outside. The five of us remaining inside wasted no time changing into our hazard suits. My HUD sparked to life as I tapped away at the controls.

“I’m at 57% capability on my air filter and 44% thruster capacity. Everyone else?”

The rest of the group rattled off their numbers in rapid succession. No one sat below 50% on their air filter or 30% on their thrusters. We really did stand a chance of escape.

The crack of gunfire rang from outside the vault.

“We gotta help Garnet!” Malachite, still armed with the rifle he took from one of the guards, was ready to spring into action. The door to the vault flew open. Garnet dove inside, narrowly escaping an onslaught of bullets. He kicked the door shut from the ground.

Diamond ran straight to his side to help Garnet to his feet. “Get your hazard suit on quickly,” she said. “It’s time for us to get out of here.”

“There’s too many of them,” Garnet said. “They must have gotten information out of one of the prisoners in the riot. There’s an entire force of Dwellers out there.”

Garnet grimaced and grabbed at his leg. To Diamond’s horror, there was fresh blood dripping from his leg. A bullet straight to the thigh.

“One of you, come here and help me with Garnet!” There was a distinct panic in Diamond’s voice. Everything was falling apart.

Without hesitation I rushed to Diamond’s side. There was a gaping wound in Garnet’s thigh. There was no way he could run in this condition.

I kneeled down before him. “Diamond, help him onto my back.”

Gunfire continued to rain down on the door of the vault. We had no idea how much longer it would be before the Dwellers breached it.

“Stop,” Garnet said as he struggled for breath. “There’s no way all six of us are making it out of here, especially with my leg banged up like this.” He pointed towards a loose stone in the wall. “That caught my eye as soon as we came into the vault. Diamond, that’s the secret exit you told me about.”

Diamond’s eyes widened. During her time exploring the 35th district, she took note of every nook and cranny throughout the district. She noted the main routes, alternate routes, and potential secret passages closed off to the public. It was a huge undertaking, something only she would have the diligence to do.

“You aren’t suggesting-”

“I am,” Garnet cut her off. “If we all leave through the escape route, they’ll cut us off from the outside. I’ll remain here to create a distraction and hold them off for as long as I can. If I keep them here long enough, the rest of you will have time to escape. The path to the surface is so close. You can make it.”

I could see tears welling up in Diamond’s eyes, even through her visor. Garnet was her mentor, her leader, and her friend. Logically, Garnet’s plan was a good one, perhaps the only viable one. But that didn’t make the decision any easier.

“Garnet… I…”

“All of you are incredible,” he said with a smile. “I am proud to call myself the leader of Squad Delta. And I am proud to serve by your side until the very end.”

Crystal and Malachite pulled away the loose stones, revealing a pathway out of the vault. Garnet was right, we had an escape route. As we funneled into the tunnel, Garnet pulled Diamond close and whispered something in her ear. With a saddened look on her face, she joined us in the tunnel.

Garnet laughed as he reloaded his rifle. He was ready to go down with the fight of his life. “I never asked to be a hero!”

But you are one. Thank you, Garnet.

From outside the armory we could hear the sounds of rapid gunfire. After a few moments, silence. It was over, but Garnet’s death would not be in vain. The path to the surface was just ahead of us. Together, the five of us marched forward, ready to return to our world above. What we were returning to, none of us could possibly know. But we were able to live another day. We. Were. Free.