They’d be safe, and all these terrible people would go to jail.
But the minutes ticked by.
What if Nurse decided to check on her? What if someone else got sick, and a matron brought them down? What if Auntie—
She heard the elevator hum, and instinctively stepped back, looked wildly for a place to hide.
Then braced her shoulders. If the doors opened and she didn’t see Dorian, it was over anyway. Everything. She’d be punished, beaten, tossed into the box. She’d be sold at auction like a—like a painting or some fancy necklace.
A thing. She wouldn’t live as a thing.
When the doors opened, she nearly cried out. Slapping a hand over her own mouth, she leaped in with Dorian.
Forgetting the gum, she gripped Dorian’s hand.
“What the—”
“Sorry. Gum. I used it on the latch. SB? Subbasement, right? That’s got to be it.” Mina pressed the button.
Authorization required for that level.
They both jumped a foot.
“Swipe card, try the swipe card on the pad. It has to work. It has to.”
Dorian gripped her own wrist to steady her hand, swiped the card. Mina pushed the button again.
Authorization verified.
The elevator started down.
“Someone could be down there,” Dorian said. “What do we do if somebody’s right there?”
“I don’t know. We—we run, or try to fight. I don’t know. We got this far. Oh God, oh God, I guess I never really believed we’d get this far, so I don’t know.”
It took forever, or seemed like it as they wrapped arms around each other.
Then the doors opened, and still wrapped around each other, they stepped out into dim light.
“It really is a tunnel.”
“It goes both ways.” Dorian pointed right, then left. “Which way is out?”
“We have to pick one. You pick. I feel like I might puke again.”
Dorian chose right. “We should run. We might not have much time. The Matron Monster might need her swipe.” She shoved it in her back pocket in case they needed it again. “Maybe she’ll think she dropped it, but maybe she’ll put it together.”
Hands clasped, they ran. The tunnel echoed, so they spoke in whispers, filling each other in.
Then the tunnel forked.
“You pick this time,” Dorian said when they stopped.
“We went right,” Mina replied, “so this time left. It has to lead somewhere because that’s how they removed that poor girl. We just keep going until we escape. Then we have to determine where we are. You were in New York, I was in Devon. We could be anywhere now. We break free, find out where we are, get somewhere I can call my parents. And the police.”
“The police? But—”
“All the others, Dorian.” In the dim, yellowish light, Mina’s soft green eyes went fierce. “We have to think of all the other girls, like us.”
Maybe she felt bad for them, but Dorian’s instinct said just get out and run.
“My parents will know what to do,” Mina told her. “They’ll come get us, no matter where we are. I miss them so much, and my stupid little brother, too. I know he’s a pest and annoying, but not always. And I know I get pissed at my parents sometimes. I mean, so clueless, right? But I never ever felt afraid until the Academy. They never ever hurt me. And your mom—”
“She’s not like them.”
“You’ve been gone all this time. She’s got to be worried. She—”
“She’s not like your parents, okay?” Everything inside Dorian hardened, coated over even the fear. “I felt afraid plenty, and she hurt me when she felt like it. If we go to the cops, they’ll send me back to her or toss me in juvie or a foster. I might as well stay here.”
“Don’t say that, don’t. My parents will take care of you, too. I promise. I swear it. Nobody’s going to screw with you. They won’t let that happen. And they won’t let these—these fucks get away with everything they did.”
Rather than argue, Dorian shrugged. Mina had plenty of smarts, but she didn’t know how the real world worked.
“Did you hear that?” Dorian’s hand vised on Mina’s.
Voices echoing, footsteps running.
“They’re coming. We need to run.”
“No, no, they’ll hear running,” Mina hissed. “Like we hear them. Keep walking, close to the tunnel wall, keep moving, but quiet, quiet. Look, look up there! A ladder in the wall. We climb up, right? It has to be a way out.”