Chapter 1
They left a note. It was scrawled quickly, in a hurry so great it could hardly be read. I sometimes wished I hadn't taken all that time to decipher it. The results of my labors were worse than I could have imagined.
I should have known from the notice on their door the next morning, promptly informing us that there was a new official in charge. The exact words were as follows:
The occupants of this residential have been removed for breaking code fifty-five.
That was all. The whole family, there that night, gone in the morning. The only clue to what was about to happen was the note that I deliberately tried to ignore until it was almost too late.
Midnight, December 15th was when it happened, suddenly and unannounced. The men burst in, not making any noise but slipping in like ghosts. Garbed in black, they are invisible. Somehow, I stir. My eyes flash open and I hide, not even knowing what I am hiding from. Shouts erupt from the other parts of the orphanage, ended abruptly by shots, the same muted sharp ones that had cut off the noise from the house across the street the night the inhabitants disappeared.
Without a sound, I slip into the tunnel under the floor, replacing the floorboards as I had rehearsed. I creep along the beams until I reach a large room that cannot be found by someone who does not know of the hideout. There, I wait.
Other kids start to arrive. All of them are lanky and thin, one with glasses, another with two different colored eyes, and yet another clutching a stuffed cat in her arms. Yet, despite their unwantedness, they look at each other not as competition but as the only people in the world willing to accept them and protect them.
A boy with a skunk streak arrives, his eyes wide with disbelief.
"So you weren't kidding about this place."
I watch my blond locks bounce around my chin as I shake my head. "Obviously, or we'd all be in trouble."
We glance around nervously. Two of our group has not arrived. Just as we are about to give up hope of their safe arrival and move so we aren't found, a black-haired boy materializes. The metal tracks across his teeth gleam in the darkness. He grins in relief at catching us.
"Sam. Thank goodness." The girl with different colored eyes runs up to him, as fast as she can without loosing her balance on the beam we are on and embraces him. He hugs her back.
"Everyone, follow." Everyone looks at me. "But first, we have to do roll. Glen."
The boy with the black hair and skunk streak responds with the customary. "Here."
"Lara"
The girl with the stuffed animal squeaks.
"Daren."
The boy with glasses huffs a "here."
"Sam."
"Here," the boy with the black hair and braces announces.
"Jenna."
The girl with dual-colored eyes responds with a muffed word, her face still buried in her brother's chest.
I hesitate. "Olivia."
Silence. My chest tightens in regret, but nothing could be done now.
Glen breaks the silence.
"Maddie," he calls, with only a ghost of humor.
Though my throat is tight, I find space to respond, strongly.
"Here."
They all looked at me expectantly, so I lead them across the beams and towards a solid wall. As I approach, I scan it with my eyes to find the words I had written across it, 'Emergency Escape Only."
Finding them, I turn onto the next beam and hurry to the hidden miracle. Placing my hands under the words, I push. A grinding sound fills the air, causing me to pause and glance up. Footsteps still echo far above our heads.
I start to push again, but the stone door is silent now, as if someone had slicked a squeaking metal hinge with oil. I move it effortlessly across the concrete floor of the hideout.
At last, the stone slides far enough for each of us to fit through, one by one. I stand aside, sliding my feet nearly off the beam and motion for the gang of misfits to slip past me and into the narrow tunnel beyond. Each passes me in grim silence, filing by with eyes cast down and frowns set upon their lips. Glen goes last, and I step in after him, pushing the rock back into place with his help. Right before it gets too far shut, I reach out and scrub off the chalk words that had revealed its location to me only moments before. Then, solemnly, I push it into its place, sealing us off from our home with a final sounding crunch.
After the door is closed, I reach into the pack I have brought, the one that I always have, just in case. I pull out a small lantern, lighting it quickly with the match I have with it. Glen's face is the first to flicker into view with the budding flame, then, slowly, the others appear, each looking equally wide-eyed and confused. Or, rather slightly fearful and unknowing just what the enemy is, just as I do, but there is nothing to be done about that. Gravely, I stride forward, the misfits parting for me, and I hear Glen follow close behind. Once at the head of the group, I lead them away in silence, only our footsteps sounding in the stone tunnel, and our breath, huffing now, swirling around and bouncing off the walls.
It only takes up us a short time to come to a fork, at which I turn and lead the way to the right. At the next fork, I turn left. After several more turns, enough to make anyone else become helplessly lost, anyone that had not wandered these tunnels night after night, determined to discover their secrets, we come to a small room, one wall of which contains a wooden ladder. The misfits glance at the ladder and then back at me, their eyes questioning. I shake my head.
"We'll camp here for the night. Outside, it's more dangerous. Here at least, we wont be discovered and killed in our sleep."
The children disperse, curling up against the walls and using their arms or each other to cradle their heads. I gaze around with affection and sadness, hoping that our escape plan will work and we'll get out. I stand until Glen grabs my wrist and leads me to an unoccupied spot on the wall, pulling me down gently with him and pushing my head onto his chest. Craning my neck back to look at him, I smile gratefully and he grins tiredly back.
As I close my eyes and settle against him, I wonder what happened to the rest of the orphanage. I wonder if there will be a sign on the door, advertising to the world that the inhabitants of the building had violated some kind of new code. I wonder if anyone would care, and I figure that even if someone did, they would just let it go like they had the neighbors, passing it off as nothing, as though an entire household disappeared everyday.
Last of all, just before I drift off, I wonder what kind of nightmare has begun now, and how I'm going to get my band of misfits through this alive.