He laughed. “Okay. Go on ahead. But be quick. I’ll meet you up front at noon.”
“Can’t wait,” Meghan said with a girly giggle before shoving both of them through the open door.
She blew out a heavy breath as their trio tried to seem unhurried. When they turned the next corner and disappeared from the guard’s view, they took off at a faster clip.
“That took forever,” Reyna said.
“We’re late,” Meghan said. “I can’t think about it.”
The rest of the trek was tense. None of them knew if the cameras were working or if they were being followed already. They kept expecting someone to jump out at them and steal them back to the basement…back to hell.
None of them dared to speak. Reyna found she was even holding her breath, as if one exhale would threaten everything they’d worked for. Her gut was twisted up in panic and anticipation. She never stopped hoping they’d make it out, but she couldn’t think beyond that. There was only this one moment and then the next. Putting one foot in front of the other and facing down the dark alley.
“We’re here,” Meghan whispered as they approached a giant black double door. She whispered a silent prayer and then entered her code. It flashed red. “No. No. No.” She typed it in again. Again…red.
“Meghan,” Reyna hissed.
“It won’t open.” Her eyes darted around the hallway wildly.
“Try one more time.”
Meghan swallowed and input the code a third time. Red. A fourth time. Red.
“We need to get out of here,” Jodie said. “Entering the password that many times is going to be a red flag. We can’t get out this way. We need to find another.”
“There isn’t another way,” Meghan said.
“Then we fucking find one.”
“Hey!” Reyna cried, shutting them both up. This couldn’t all be for nothing. “This isn’t helping anything. Let’s try one more time, and then we’ll find a different exit.”
“You try it,” Meghan said, pushing Reyna toward the keypad. Reyna poised her finger over it and nodded. “0-7-1-5-0-1-1-0-9-2-1-5-2-1-7.”
Reyna’s finger moved to press the enter key, praying that the code would work this time, when the door suddenly slid open on its own. All three women jumped back. Then an Asian human man with thick dark hair peeked his head around the corner.
“Tye,” Meghan said, launching herself into his arms. “I have never been happier to see you.”
“You took too long,” he told her, pulling back and opening the door farther. He was about average height, wearing a black uniform similar to a delivery driver. “Xavier didn’t want me to come look for you.”
“Bastard,” she hissed. Then she collected herself. “We need to get moving.”
Meghan ushered Reyna and Jodie forward, and Tye took stock of the fact that there was an additional person. “Pick up a stray?”
“That a problem?” their stray asked.
“Not at all,” he said with a bold smile.
They all passed through the door and into a giant loading dock that was empty save for an enormous delivery truck.
“Get in,” Tye said, opening the doors. “Xavier is driving.”
All three vaulted into the back of the truck, which was freezing and chock-full of blood.
“What the…” Reyna whispered.
“Move to the front,” Meghan directed them without explanation.
Bypassing all the blood and supplies, they reached the front and found two sets of dark coveralls bearing the same logo as the truck waiting for them.
