X-Marks: Stealing Shadows

Run

"Could have been easy," Ric said and dropped his heavy boot on the first step, "But children, just love to play games."

The three men stood at the bottom of the stairs.

I tucked my bag under my arms. Ric's hungry eyes twitched on me. I had made myself a target, and if I ever wanted to make it out of here, I could never let them find out why.

We turned our feet back up the stairs. The weight of their glares drilled into my back and weighted my shoes.

I heard their callous whispers behind me.

"What's she hiding in there?"

"The red one."

"Her."

We ran back down the stairs to the tunnel again. I ran further and further behind. The stairs were like spikes beneath my clunky boots. I stumbled over and grabbed the railing to balance. I had made a mistake and maybe my last.

Ric's gripped me against the edge of the railing.

"Help!" I screamed and dug my nails into him.

But it was no help.

The tall man tugged at the bag on my shoulder.

"Help!" I screamed again.

The men carried me up the stairs with the bag close at my side. I kicked my legs into the gray-haired man's chest. I would not let anyone take from me. Not them or anyone else again.

"Shut the girl up already!" Ric said and handed the crowbar to the tall man.

I twisted my neck from Ric's grip and looked down the stairs. Below Mat's hands were on my leg as he pulled me down.

"Let her go!" Mat said and planted his feet on the first step.

He could have turned away, ran out of that tunnel and never thought of me again. Just like I had done to him. But he was trying everything to keep me. I hadn't cried. Not until now.

Evee took hold of my thighs and Ocean pulled my bag from my shoulder and into her hands.

The men dropped me to the stone steps.

"If we want one, we'll have to take them all," Ric said.

The others stood at the top of the stairs, and the men stood below as I laid like a rag between them. The quake was no longer distant and shook the concrete from the ceiling.

Ric lunged off the bottom step and towards me.

But before he could reach me the earth rocked with a force that lifted me from the steps.

Below, the stairs crumbled under the three men and devoured them whole. An arm of steel broke the wall deeper on it's way back out again.

Ocean and Evee pulled me from under my arms.

Evee shouted and looked back at the missing steps below. Her lips moved, but her words were masked by the siren from outside.

"Can you walk?" Ocean said louder.

I straightened my ankles and felt a slight ache. Nothing was broken so I stood and looked down at the stairs, now jutted with steel beams and wooden planks.

We moved back up the stairs and wherever the walls would let us. Above, rocks fell as we stepped around the rubble and pools of water

Mat led us into a dark tunnel where he blew out our only lantern.

"Don't even breath," he said and flattened his body against the damp wall.

Between us, the sewer passed below like a river. I flattened myself against the wall and listened to the steps from the far end.

"Clear the area," a woman said.

Her steps clacked against water beneath her as she paced around the fallen rubble and a strobe of light scanned inside the tunnel.

"Once it's cleared," she continued as the light flashed just before our bellies, "Terminate the entire camp. Just like Blackstone."

"Yes officer," a man's voice said.

The chill of a drop of water crawled down my neck. Everyone terminated. This place and all we knew would be gone. If we thought we had any choice to leave, any choice at all it was already gone.

The clack of her heels carried further and further away until we could not hear her anymore as the debris fell faster between each quake.

With our backs still against the wall, we stepped from the tunnel and through a door on the other end.

The outside air was filled with a choking fog. It was the same yellow fog that invaded all my worst dreams. The others watched the sky. The same disbelief poured from their opened mouths.

We were here again.

"What now Mat," Ocean said.

Mat looked down every path.

"I don't-," he stuttered.

The sirens were close enough to shake my eyelashes. If we had a chance, it was moving away faster than the sun overhead.

"Run," I said and gripped my bag, "We run, and don't stop."

Around our corner, Ally tanks rolled through the forest. Each larger than the last.

Everyone we loved, we would lose again.

And all we could do was run.