Chapter 5.13

Waiting the rest of the day out was painful. We finalised our plans, Bella was to be our driver, Tommy and I would scout ahead, Theo was going to secure our escape in the sewage system, and Sargent would be our backup if anything went wrong. I thought he would have complained about being on standby, but he didn't. After that, all there was to do, was to wait. Sargent returned to his post at the FDD and told us he would return early in the next morning to set out. None of us could totally settle after that; no matter how we tried to occupy our time, we were restless. Bella even managed to beat Theo at her own game of cards. When it was time to sleep, we each stared blankly up at the dark ceiling, waiting for time to tick away, the silence heavy between us. We needed the rest, but no one really wanted to sleep. So we laid in silence.

At some point, we must have fallen asleep, because Anna's shook us all awake early the next morning. Theo was unchristianly easy to wake. There was a nervous energy that settled between us as we readied ourselves. Just as we were finishing our final checks, Sargent knocked lightly and slipped in the room. "Good morning." He announced.

"Morning." Theo acknowledged with a glance, pulling her hair back into a braid. After a few moments we were ready, with nothing left to be done, we left. Bella took the lead- she took us back upstairs and back onto the mezzanine, none of us had been there since we arrived, the top floors didn't seem to have been used for much, at least not to our knowledge. Instead of coming back the way we entered, Bella led us to the other side of the mezzanine, which followed around behind the glass lift to the left, where there were a series of locked doors. It was quieter, the bustle of below were distant mummers, and everything felt still. She opened a door at the end of the corridor, using a thick old key that didn't match the rest of the compound. It opened up into a damp, dark cavern; it took a few seconds for our eyes to adjust, but Bella and Sargent were already walking ahead. Underfoot, the floor was tarmacked, like a road. At the other end of the cavern, was a sole truck. I wondered where they stored their other vehicles, but I doubted I would get an answer, so we soundlessly climbed in. I sat in the passenger seat, next to Bella, and the others climbed in the back. I craned my neck to see; there was Tommy, sitting tightly next to Theo behind Bella, and Sargent sitting the far end, as far away from the other two as humanly possible. Then Bella turned the engine and the truck tumbled to life, spilling a pool of light into the cavern, she slipped off the hand brake and then we were off. Bella drove to the other end of the cavern, where it narrowed and finally came to a dead end. She broke, and Sargent slipped out the back and thumbed with something on the wall. His back was to us, so I couldn't see what he was doing exactly, I presume it was some sort of security system because in the next moment the wall broke apart to produce a passageway. There were more tunnels for about a mile when we started to notice it wasn't as dark as it was previously. The tunnel abruptly ended and joined with a shallow pebble stream, which was narrow enough for Bella to straddle with the car tires- we drove directly over it. The forest continued on either side of the stream, bustling with life. I opened the window and a mild spring breeze brushed its way in, bringing with it the smells of a spring forest, woodland flowers, moist dirt and pine trees. It was the first time we'd been outside for weeks; I think we all silently enjoyed the simple pleasure of fresh air and the sensation of real sunlight on our skin.

But soon that was gone, Bella drove up a shallow stone embankment to join a road that led out of the forest. What we set out to do was real again, and the closer to Canderhan we came, the higher our nerves went. I found myself watching for some hidden Garlantians that would jump out and thwart us before we could get into the city. But none came.

We got to the city outskirts about at around mid-day; Bella slowed the car, and I had the map laid out on my lap, carefully navigating the route to our designated hiding spot. Unfortunately, we'd forgotten that there were abandoned cars in the street and a few times the road was totally impassable for a large truck, we had to reverse and reroute.

When we'd finally arrived, we parked the truck in the blind spot between the three buildings; one was a warehouse, and I think the other was some sort of office block. Thankfully, Ian was right about the area being abandoned, there wasn't a soul in sight, Garlantian or otherwise.

"How far away are we by foot?" Bella asked.

"Above ground, I'd say about twenty minutes if you walk fast, but below, I'm not sure." Theo answered, she'd already taken the sewage map from me and was studying it in the footwell.

"Tommy and I will go and scout ahead, see where the children are kept and what the security is like." I swung my legs over her head, and she ducked, without looking up. Tommy and I took the other map- although we'd been living there for years (Theo all her life), I was unfamiliar with that part of the city.

We didn't see anyone for the first ten minutes, but we kept in the shadow of the buildings. Shadow appeared behind us as we started walking, I felt his presence before I saw him, and I was little comforted by it. I wasn't going to summon him until we got closer, I hadn't the need to, but I was glad he was there. Maybe he could tell I was anxious… or about to do something potentially stupid. We had to go through the shopping district, which was where we saw our first Garlantians. We heard a smash of glass first, Tommy physically flinched at the sound, and he shot a warning look at me. We tenderly glanced around the corner, keeping our bodies tight to the building. At first, we didn't see anything, but then I could sight of a pair of soldiers coming out of a food shop carrying an overflowing rucksack full of food.

I grabbed hold of Tommy's shoulders and Shadow bent over us, submerging us in cool dark shadow. Although I knew they couldn't see us, my heart still did summersaults as we stepped out into view. We crept forward, far more carefully than was necessary, our eyes fixed on the two soldiers raiding the shops. They smashed a further window and disappeared into another food shop, filling up more bags with junk food. We gave them a wide berth, using the opposite side of the street, far away from any broken glass.

It made navigating more difficult, but we stayed like that, under Shadow until we got to the apartment complex which held the kid's hostage. I navigated from memory, which meant I went wrong a few times and we had to backtrack, but within half an hour we'd made it.