My heart kicks up a notch, fear pulsing through my veins, but it shouldn’t. The idea of the tunnel being surrounded by officers should settle me. It should give me hope that I might actually make it out of here with a heartbeat, but it doesn’t. Because for whatever reason, I find myself trusting this wild, terrifying man.
Sure, he’s an asshole with an attitude problem, but he’s also protected me at every point of this insanity. He’s kept me safe, made sure I wasn’t harmed, and deep down, I don’t think he actually wants to hurt me.
I slowly nod, and we keep moving toward the end of the tunnel, neither of us making a sound as we listen to the world outside.
Fifty yards, turns to twenty-five, and then only ten without a single word between us. The only noise I hear is the rapid boom of my pulse in my ears. The air starts to clear, the rotten smell quickly beginning to ease up and making it easier to breathe.
It can only get better from here. I hope.
There are bars on the end of the sewer line, and for just a moment, my world shatters. I should have seen this coming. Should have known it would be welded closed, but Stone doesn’t seem fazed by the bars. To him, they’re just another obstacle standing between him and freedom.
We pause just inside the opening of the tunnel, our backs up against the walls as we stand in complete silence. I peer outside. There’s still a little bit of daylight left, and from what I can tell, we’re somewhere deep in the forest. Thick trees surround us, going on for miles with overgrown foliage, giving me just a glimpse into what the next few hours, or maybe even days, might look like for us.
There’s no sugarcoating this. It’s not going to be pretty.
The tunnel seems to end in what might have once been a flowing creek that’s long since dried up, and if Stone is smart, he’ll have us follow the old creek, because surely it might lead us to water. But then, that might be too much of an obvious choice.
Fuck. This is going to suck.
We stand in silence for at least twenty minutes, listening, waiting for any sign that we’re not alone—a small branch breaking under a heavy boot or the subtle click of a gun, but when nothing comes, Stone finally lets out a heavy breath. “We’re in the clear.”
“Holy shit,” I breathe, having started to sweat from the nerves. He steps right up to the bars and wraps his hands around them, testing their integrity. “What’s the plan? Can you get through them?”
Stone looks them over, his hand dragging down his face as though deep in thought. “Don’t know,” he mutters. “These bars weren’t made to be broken.”
“True, but they’ve also got to be at least a hundred years old. The bars might not break,” I muse, stepping up beside him and brushing my hand over the decaying concrete. “But the walls might.”
Stone steps back, his gaze automatically shifting from the bars to the walls surrounding us, looking over the old cracks in the concrete and searching for anywhere that might have significantly weakened over time.
The sewer line was underground for a good portion of our walk; that much was clear by the tree roots that had grown through the tunnel’s walls over the years. But here at the end, the walls are exposed. If we could break through somewhere, we’d be free to run.
“Here,” he says a moment later, running his fingers over a portion of the wall that has signs of deterioration. “I just gotta figure out a way to get through it.”
I search around for anything we can use, but there’s nothing here but old sludge, mold, spiders, and dead rodents. But outside the tunnel . . .
I step right up to the bars, gripping them with both hands as I peer through to the overgrown bushland outside, searching the ground for anything I could grab, when my eyes widen, finding exactly what we need.
“Bingo,” I say, crouching down and slipping my arm as far through the bars as I can go, straining to reach. My fingers stretch out, landing on the edge of the old creek bed and digging at the years of overgrowth to the big rocks below.
I start pulling, trying to dislodge them from the creek bed, but after living here for so long, it’s not easy. The rocks put upa fight, and just as they start to wiggle, Stone sighs. “Anytime now.”
“I’d like to see you get your big, meaty arms through these bars,” I throw back at him. “Oh, wait. You can’t. So I suggest that because I’m the only shot you’ve got at getting out of this fucking tunnel, you shut up and let me do my thing.”
He wisely shuts up, and after a minute of wiggling the crap out of the rock, it finally loosens enough for me to pull it free from the creek bed. I roll it across the dirty ground, pulling it right up to the edge of the bars, but that’s about as much as I can help.
This rock must weigh more than a small human, and Stone has to step in to work the fucker through the gaps in the bars. It’s frustrating and takes longer than either of us cares for, but the moment he forces it through, he wastes no time, nailing the fucker right into the deteriorating concrete.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The sound of the rock slamming against the wall pounds through my head and echoes up the long tunnel, but Stone doesn’t let up, giving it all he’s got until beads of sweat dance across his skin.
The sun shifts lower, turning the sky a deep orange as we quickly begin running out of daylight, but he’s making headway, and piece by piece, bits of concrete crumble from the old tunnel wall.
His muscles swell, and even through the orange jumpsuit, I can tell just how hard they’re working. Concrete ricochets across the tunnel, and I cower behind him, my arms protecting my face as it turns into a wild rock storm. Until finally, we’re free.
Stone goes first, probably not trusting me not to make a break for it, and as he steps out into the real world for the first time in seven years, planting his feet on the overgrown bushland, he closes his eyes and breathes it in.
It feels like a personal moment, so I make a point to focus on getting one foot out of the tunnel, followed by the other, without somehow screwing it up. I take my time, but when I glance up and find Stone glaring daggers at me, I realize that perhaps taking my time is exactly what he doesn’t want me to do.
