Lockdown

THE LAST NIGHT

AFTER HARD LABOR WE showered and ate, then retreated back to our cell. Toby and Zee were already there, chatting excitedly about something or other when we strolled through the door. Their heads jerked up, their faces creased with anxiety.

"So?" asked Zee, drawing the word out.

"Guards caught us," Donovan answered. "They destroyed the gloves, sealed off the room, and took Alex and me through the door. They turned us into monsters, and now we're back to eat you."

He threw himself at the two smaller boys and they jumped back to avoid him.

"What's got into him?" Zee asked as Donovan fell onto the bottom bunk, giggling. "Did he inhale some gas or something?"

"I'm not sure," I answered, pushing Donovan out of the way and sitting on the foot of the bed. But I did know: he was drunk on hope, on excitement. We all were. "Everything went to plan, though. It's all ready to go. Tomorrow's the day."

"Tomorrow?" Toby said, turning pale. Zee grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

"Don't cave now, Toby old boy," he said gleefully. "Too late to back out."

"I just didn't expect it to be so soon," he replied as the color slowly returned to his face. "Are you sure we're ready?"

"Nope," I said. "You're welcome to wait here for a couple of years, but I'm going now, ready or not."

"And me," said Zee, adding a soft little whoop as he punched the air.

"So what are you gonna do when you're out?" asked Donovan. "First thing I'm gonna do is grab the biggest burger I can find, all relish and onions and bacon and-oh mamma, my mouth is dripping."

"I just want the air," I said. "Give me a beach and a sea breeze and the sound of seagulls and I'll be the happiest man on earth."

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.