The Defiant
Chapter Forty Nine

This time, I could tell it was night. The Aerzhu dimmed the lights in the hallway, leaving just enough light for the night vision of the motion-sensing cameras I had no doubt were poised just out of sight. The silence in the cell block seemed more tangible than usual, even though there was never any noise unless we had visitors.

Our daily meal had been delivered a few minutes before lights-out. I leaped on the tray and wolfed the food down, regretting my lack of appetite the night before. Apparently the Aerzhu only planned to feed us once a day for however long they would hold us. I was convinced that they would never let us go. We knew too much, including the location of their base.

A few hours after the lights dimmed, I was on the verge of sleep, and by the loud snoring filling the hallway, I knew at least Five was asleep as well.

Between snores, a small noise woke me, like a shuffle of feet on a dusty floor. It occurred to me that that was probably what it was. Jolted out of my half-asleep haze, I scrambled to the bars and strained my eyes, trying to see into the darkness.

I saw an outline, vaguely human shaped. Suddenly there was a loud pop, and the lights went out entirely. Blinking in the sudden darkness, I was startled to make out a voice, coming from the hallway to my left. Five’s snores shut off abruptly as he awoke.

“Get up! The cameras are off, but I don’t know how long they’ll stay that way,” Eight’s voice hissed. What was she doing?

I heard the telltale click and electronic beep of a door lock. Five’s cell door swung open.

“Eight, what are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m rescuing you. Come on, let’s go.” I heard the sound of feet dragging on the floor, and then it stopped.

“What?” Eight said, sounding exasperated.

“I’m not leaving without them,” he said. I felt a sudden rush of affection for Five.

“We are going. Now, whether you like it or not. We don’t have time for this.” A scuffling noise, like Eight was trying to drag him behind her.

“No. If they don’t go, I don’t go.”

Eight sighed. “I won’t be able to change your mind, will I? Fine.” Five more beeps as the doors to the other cells were unlocked.

“All of us, Eight,” Five admonished.

“No. I’ll let you all go, but she’s the reason—”

“You know that’s not true. Let One out, or we won’t leave.”

“Guys, just go. I’ll be fine here—” I said.

Five interrupted me. “We go as a group, or not at all. What will it be?”

Eight unlocked my door, grumbling, and I stepped out into the hallway, trying not to run into anyone in the darkness.

“Which way?” Three asked.

“At the end of this hall, there’s a locked door that leads to an atrium. I know the officer who guards it, and he sleeps through his shift, but the atrium’s floored in công nghệ dính. StickyTech. It’s an anti-intruder technology, invented in Vietnam. If it detects human footsteps on it after its hours are set, it glues the intruder to the floor and alerts the guards.” This công nghệ dính must be the squeaky material I remember from being taken to the memory doctor and Halliday’s office.

“Then how do we get past it?” Four asked.

“Crawl,” Eight said simply. “It’s created to detect footsteps, and there’s a flaw in the manufacturing that means it won’t detect weight that’s not in the shape of a human footfall. If you don’t know it’s there or how it works, công nghệ dính is a great anti-burglarizing technology, but the Aerzhu’s security systems are a bit outdated.”

“So we just crawl across and try not to wake up the guard?” Two said incredulously.

“How do we know we can trust you?” asked Three suspiciously. “This could all just be a set up.”

“Why would I release you and then trick you into letting the Aerzhu capture you? You were already in prison.”

“Well, you’ll excuse me if I don’t jump on the helpful-Eight train right away, considering the last time we were locked up was because your so called ‘morality’ was different than ours,” Three retorted.

“Guys. Maybe you can pick up this argument later, but we’re running a risk of being caught every extra second we stay here,” Two interceded.

“Fine,” Eight bit off.

We crept forward, making as little noise as possible, despite Eight’s assurances that the cameras weren’t equipped with audio sensors.

When we reached the metal door, Eight stepped forward with the key card and scanned it under the lock. It swung open automatically with a harsh screech of rusty inches. We all simultaneously cringed and froze, waiting a moment in tense silence, but no alarms sounded.

I peered inside the dimly lit atrium, which appeared awfully bright next to the pitch darkness of the hallway. The guard Eight had told us about slumped in a chair at the opposite end of the room, head lolled to one side, mouth open. Seven more equally spaced entrances stretched into darkness. I was reminded forcibly of the room we’d woken up in when this all started.

“Which one?” I hissed at Eight.

She pointed at the third on our right, the doorway right next to the guard. “It leads outside the compound. The others go to other cell blocks.”

I carefully knelt down onto the floor inside the doorway, making sure not to touch the StickyTech. Then, heart in my throat, I reached out a hand and laid it on the floor. No alarms went off, and I breathed a sigh of relief and beckoned the others on, crawling carefully into the horribly exposed atrium.

I saw cameras in the corners, and assumed Eight had shut those off as well, otherwise we’d have been caught. The floor clung to my hands and knees as I crawled, a disgusting feeling. I was relieved when I finally reached the designated doorway and stood up, watching the others crawling toward me like the world’s largest toddlers. I was struck with an urge to laugh.

Once everyone was safely inside the passageway, Eight motioned us forward down a long concrete hallway, similar to our cell hallway, but without the doors lining either side. Five led the way as we walked as quickly as we dared without making noise.

We reached a flight of stairs and climbed them silently. At the top, a few more feet of concrete stretched before us, terminating in another locked metal door, our final obstacle to the outdoors.

Five surged forward, the rest of us in tow.

“Five, wait!” Eight whispered, but as Five turned around to look at her, he put his foot on the floor, and a harsh metallic click echoed down the corridor.

“Shit,” Eight swore. “Pressure sensor. They move them every few days and don’t tell us where they are so no one can get in with inside help. I didn’t think there’d be any down here…”

“Is it going to blow up?” Five asked, panicked.

“No, but if you move your foot, it’ll lock down all the doors in this sector and sound an alarm.”

“What do we do?” I asked.

“Seven, take the key. Go unlock the door and HOLD IT OPEN. We’ll get across the sensor. Watch my footsteps carefully and do not deviate from my path,” Eight whispered urgently. She edged along one side of the wall, then jumped forward to the center of the hallway, then planted her right foot, then left on the floor and jumped clear, like she were playing some weird form of hopscotch.

The rest of us followed suit with no problems, although there was a moment while Seven teetered with her weight on the outside of her foot when I thought we were done for. She rushed up the hallway and scanned the key, planting her foot in the door. Thick night air rushed into the corridor.

“The rest of you, go outside and wait. Seven, open the door as wide as you can and hold it, standing outside. It’ll begin to close as soon as Five takes his foot off. If we don’t make it out before the door closed, we’re stuck in here.”

We followed Eight’s instructions, leaving the hallway and standing in the courtyard outside, a square of grass bordered on all four sides by buildings. An alley led away between two walls, and I could see water, a river.

“If Five and I don’t make it out of here, take the alley down to the river bed and follow it upstream to the Aerzhu ship impound. The key I gave Seven should let you in. It’s my adoptive father’s; he has nearly unlimited access. It will release the lock on the Defiant shuttle’s control systems, as well. I’m sure the Defiant itself is up in orbit on autopilot, as it wasn’t made to handle planetary landings.”

“But you will make it, right?” Seven asked, still holding the door. “It’s only a few feet.”

Eight sighed, running her hands through her short hair. “I don’t know how fast this door will close. Ten feet might be too much.”

“I can hold the door open—”

“No, you can’t and you shouldn’t try. The locking mechanisms are much stronger than you. Just stand clear after Five’s foot leaves the pressure switch.”

“But—”

“No. We’re doing this.” She turned and kissed Five quickly, desperately. Then she yanked him off the pressure switch, and the compound exploded into a scream of sound.