Davey
In Davey's opinion, the crowd gathered outside of the Refuge is depressingly small considering how the news of the place's closing was on the front page of every newspaper in town yesterday. There's maybe twenty newsies huddled about and a couple of worried looking parents. And by a couple, he means like two sets.
It is nearly noon and there has been no sign of movement from the decrepit building. It's making Davey antsy and anxious. He's sitting on the curb across the street from the building with Katherine, Crutchie, Race and Spot. Specs and Jojo stand a couple of feet away with the newsies from the other boroughs, ready to gather up the kids with nowhere to go. For the most part, everyone is gathered in uncharacteristic silence. It's haunting.
A clock somewhere starts to chime twelve and with each chime, Davey feels like his heart speeds up. The twelfth chime rings and echoes in the streets around them and the Refuge doors remain shut. He feels like he could be sick. What if Snyder decided he didn't want to follow the governor's order? How long would it take for something to be done and get those kids out of that place? He looks around at the group around him, all silent, but the anxiousness is clearly written across all of their faces. What would he tell Les? Geez, it had been hard enough to make him stay home today with the promise he would return home as soon as possible with news about Jack.
There is a loud bang in front of him and he throws his head up to cast his view at the Refuge, whose front door is now hanging wide open. It stays hauntingly like that for just a moment before a steady stream of kids start making their way through the door. Davey's breathe catches in his throat as he takes in the various states of all the kids. Most of them seemed to be walking relatively fine, though there were definitely a couple leaning on each other for support, but a good majority of them were sporting bruises of every shade imaginable. And the newsies could under no circumstances to be considered well fed, but in comparison to some of these kids it looked like the newsies ate like kings.
Davey stands from his seated position on the curb to get a better view of the kids streaming out as the crowd between him and the door swells. It appears that Specs has taken charge of organizing the crowd and is directing the kids down the street a bit to the rest of the gathered newsies. Jojo is greeting every kid with his trademark smile, which some of the kids looked downright confused by. Davey wonders when last these kids saw a friendly face.
Scrutinizing the last couple of kids trickling through the doors, Davey's heart sinks when he doesn't recognize Jack. He looks over towards Crutchie and sees him still standing alone. Crutchie had told him about his friend Mouse and it looks like he has yet to make an appearance yet either. He watches as Specs gives the door one last look before heading over to the crowd down the street. Davey sighs at the apparent sign the Refuge is clear.
Suddenly, a splash of pink is barging through his eye line as Katherine makes her way across the street towards the Refuge. Davey runs to catch up to her and grab her arm, "Where are you going?"
"In there. Maybe Snyder didn't unlock all the rooms or something. He's got to be here." Katherine's voice wavers as she reasons with him.
"You's can't go in there. I-I's go in and look. I knows where to look," Race's voice sounds beside him as he lays a shaky hand on Katherine's shoulder.
Katherine turns to glare at Race. "Don't you dare try and keep me from going in there Racetrack. I don't need your protection."
Race removes his hand from her shoulder and holds both of them up in mock defeat. "Aight, I gots it. You's comin' in with me."
It's apparently Spot's turn to chime in with, "Eh, you's not going in alone Race. Davey and I'll go in with ya." Spot gives Davey a look that threatens him to say otherwise. Davey had been planning on going in anyways, but the looks from the King of Brooklyn just confirmed it.
"Hey! Don't forget me; I'm coming in with yas." Crutchie pipes up.
Race weakly smiles, "Of course not. Can't forget Crutchie."
"So let's get going then," Katherine commands before turning and continuing her path through the Refuge door.
The moment Davey walks through the threshold of the Refuge, he has to fight the desire to walk right back out. The place just gives him an awful feeling. It's dark, the air is stale despite the couple of windows he can see from his position, and the place is eerily clean for having housed so many children. He risks a glance at Race and Crutchie, worried about what this place is making them feel if he, a person who has never been locked in here, is spooked. They both look a little pale, but besides that they somehow seem to be faring better than him, considering he can almost feel the fear etching its way across his face.
Spot clear his throat and Davey's attention returns to him. "How 'bout Davey, Race, and I check the upstairs and you guys clear down here?"
No one objects, so when Spot and Race start heading towards what Davey assumes must be the direction of a staircase, he follows right along. The stairs are narrow and creaky with no railings and just add to Davey's creepy impression of the building. At the top is a narrow hallway with all of its six doors propped open. Davey follows the pair in front of him in to the first room, which he immediately recognizes from Jack's drawing that got published along Katherine's article. There are even the giant rats scampering across the floor. The bars across the windows, which he had been able to see from outside, somehow look more ominous in here, where they cast strange shadows about the room.
The trio make quick rounds of the remaining five rooms, which are all mirror images of the first one they cleared. They are about halfway down the staircase when they hear some heavy pounding sounds coming from the first floor. Davey's heart races as they take the remaining stairs two at a times to race towards the commotion.
What they find is Katherine kicking a plain wooden door at the end of the hall. "It's locked," is all she offers in explanation. "All the other rooms we've checked so far have been open and empty, but this one is locked." She gives the door another good kick.
"That's the door to tha basement," Race explains.
"Stand back," Spot orders and the small group shuffles back away from the door. Davey watches as the other newsie looks over the door for a minute before raising his knee to deliver a directed kick at the door. He's successful, as the door slowly creaks open to reveal a pitch dark room beyond.
Davey looks around the small end of the hallway they are all cramped in to see if he can find a candle. Surely there is one lying around for the staff to use, right? He smiles a little when he finds what he's searching for on the small table just across the hall from him. The candle is small, but it will have to do. Luckily, there is a packet of matches sitting alongside it, so he doesn't have to search for those too. He quickly lights the candle and hands it over to Race's expectant hand.
Race fiddles with the candle for a minute. "Crutchie, uh, there's lot a stairs. And the candle don't do much for light…" he trails off.
"I'll be fine Race," Crutchie reassures.
With that matter settled, the group makes slow progress down the even more rickety stairs to the basement. The candle casts odd shadows about the empty room and Davey shudders. This place keeps finding new ways to make him uncomfortable. He remains rooted where he stands as Race and Spot slowly circle the perimeter of the apparently empty room. When they circle back around towards the stairs though, they come to a sudden halt.
"Um, hi?" Race starts saying to someone Davey can't see so Davey shifts around to stand beside the younger newsie.
Under the staircase sits a very small child with brown hair and green eyes wide with terror. The right side of his face is covered in a bruise and he's holding out what looks like a rusty nail as if it is some sort of protection. The rust on the nail looks caked on and too dark to truly be rust, but he really doesn't want to imagine what else it could possibly be right now-or ever, really.
"Mouse?" Crutchie's voice softly asks from behind him. The little boy looks over at Crutchie and visibly relaxes a little, but doesn't lower his makeshift weapon. "Uh, these guys and Katherine are my friends. The ones I told ya about. We's here to get you out." Mouse gives the group one more once-over before dropping his nail and running up to hug Crutchie's legs, nearly toppling him over.
Davey tries not to let his disappointment show as he starts to make his way back up the stairs. No Jack. The only place Race had mentioned Jack might be where Crutchie would have never seen him was the basement and now they knew he wasn't locked down there. He makes it to the top of the stairs to join Race and Spot, who both look a little dejected as well. Before he can ask if there is anywhere else to look, Race addresses the group, "There's only one more room I knows of, but I doubt he's in there." He looks down at where Mouse is hiding from view behind Crutchie's legs, "Why don't ya take 'im outside. It'll just be a minute."
"Just Snyder's office left?" Crutchie sadly questions. Race just nods. Crutchie reaches down to grab Mouse's hand with his free hand and silently leads him down the hall towards the door. Katherine silently follows and Davey wonders what's possibly going through her mind. She had been so sure that Jack would be here and Race seemed convinced they wouldn't find him.
Race leads the way down the hall, scuffing his feet a bit, to the door emblazoned with a gold plaque declaring it Snyder's office. His hand hesitates on the handle for a moment before twisting it and pushing the door open.
The room itself is nearly as plush as Pulitzer's office had been and stands out in stark contrast from the rest of the building's rooms. Davey scans the room before his eyes land on the door to his left. The locked door to his left. "Race, what's in that room?" He hesitantly asks.
He watches as Race slowly shifts his gaze from the open book on Snyder's desk towards the room in question. His eyes widen a little. "Just a closet, I thought. I's never seen a lock on it before though." He briskly walks over to fiddle with the lock. "You sees a key?"
Davey turns back to scan the desk and spots a large brass key in the jar of pencils. He pulls it out and notes it matches the type of lock on the door. His adrenaline starts racing again as he hurriedly passes the key over towards Race, who immediately inserts it in to the lock and twists it until there is a satisfying click signifying the lock's opening.
Race throws open the door to confirm Davey's mounting suspicion that Jack is locked inside. Jack doesn't make any move to indicate he's noticed the door's opening and Davey's initially not even sure that he's breathing until he stares long enough to see the slow and shallow rise and fall of Jack's chest. He overall looks a mess. He's leaning up against the sidewall of the small room, his head ducked to his chest and his legs stretched out in front of him. Davey's not sure if it is the lighting or actual dirt, but he looks entirely brown and he's sure it is hiding a lot of Jack's apparent injuries. His once-blue shirt is missing a sleeve and is ripped to shreds; his waistcoat, suspenders, and shoes are missing entirely.
Davey's view is blocked when Race hesitantly starts walking into the small room to kneel by Jack. The younger newsie reaches out, but after watching his own shaky hand hover over Jack's shoulder for a couple seconds, he retracts it and says, "Jack?" There's no response. "Jack?" He repeats after a couple moments without answer or indication that Jack has even heard him.
Davey releases a breathe he didn't know he was holding when he finally hears Jack whisper back, "Race?" Jack's voice sounds airy and strained.
Race's shoulders visibly lose a little of their tension. "Yeahs. Davey, Spot, and I here's to get you out. Katherine's waitin' outside with Crutchie."
Jack slowly lifts his head to lean it against the wall behind him, and releases a shaky breathe. He says something, but all Davey can make out from where he is frozen is "safe".
"Refuge's closed Jack. For good. We gaves your drawings to Katherine and she got 'em to the Governor. He's closed this place for good. So now we've come to get yous all out."
When he doesn't get a response from Jack, Race turns to Davey. He thinks he can see tear tracks on the younger newsie's face. "You's see any key for the cuffs out theres?" he asks, gesturing to Jack's hands, which lay cuffed across his lap.
Davey turns to search the office and finds Spot standing behind him, holding out a singular brass key. Davey wonders how he had forgotten the Brooklyn leader's presence. Davey takes the key and hands it over to Race, who slowly reaches for Jack's hands to uncuff them. Davey winces as he watches how the cuffs stick to Jack's wrists as Race removes them. Jack doesn't react. Race drops the cuffs and key behind him, before saying, "Come on Jack, 's time to go."
Davey hesitantly takes a couple steps forward and into the room, carefully stepping over Jack to rest on the opposite side of him as Race. They both carefully place one of his arms over each of their shoulders before slowly standing, lifting Jack to his feet. Davey can hear Jack's breathe hitch at the motion, but he's more concerned with how light Jack feels.
Once standing, Jack slowly slides his arm off Davey's shoulders to wrap it around his own midsection while whispering something that sounds like 'sorry'. Before Davey can object that Jack certainly has nothing to be sorry for, Race is saying, "Let's get out of here," and they start making slow progress out of the Refuge. Spot takes the lead, followed by Race and Jack, while Davey awkwardly shuffles along behind them, more than a little concerned that Jack might just fall over and take Race with him.
When they finally make it to the front door, Davey can see Katherine, Crutchie, and Mouse sitting on the top step waiting for them. They all jump up to greet them when they come out and Davey watches their faces fall when they see Jack. The Manhattan leader is trying to stand up a little straighter and smile; already putting on a front to try and hide how he's really feeling. Outside in the light, Davey can tell Jack really is covered in a layer of dirt and wonders what injuries it is hiding.
Jack looks to Crutchie, slowly raising the arm he's had wrapped around his waist to set it on Crutchie's head. "You's okay," he whispers out, and it's unclear whether he is questioning or confirming. Davey winces out just how painful Jack's voice sounds. Crutchie gently smiles, saying, "I'se fine. Definitely more okay than you's right now." Jack's hand weakly slides off Crutchie's head to return to hugging his midsection.
Jack turns to look at Katherine, who looks like she's trying to hold herself back from enveloping Jack in a hug. "Race told me," Jack gets out before having to take another shaky breath. "Thank you."
Katherine's eyes are starting to glimmer with the beginnings of tears as she says, "Your drawings did all the work. I just got them to the right person so he could do what's needed to be done for a long time now." Everything suddenly gets darker as a large black cloud moves overhead, threatening to pour. Katherine clears her throat before commanding, "Let's get away from here. Follow me." She walks down the front steps of the Refuge before waiting for them to follow.
Davey watches as Spot whispers something to Race before walking back into the Refuge. He wonders what on Earth the King of Brooklyn could possibly going back inside for, but lets the thought slide as he watches Race and Jack. The pair is making slow progress down the Refuge's front steps to join Katherine and Crutchie at the bottom.
Katherine's apartment is only about four blocks from the Refuge, but by the time they reach the building Jack's head is drooping and he's leaning even more heavily on Race for support. Davey also notices that he's obtained a limp, favoring his left foot, which gets progressively worse the farther they get from the Refuge.
Katherine rushes them inside the building and leads them up to the second floor. Davey stays no more than a couple inches behind Race and Jack as they slowly make their way up the stairs, concerned they might trip. Katherine stays close to Crutchie's side, with Mouse sandwiched between them. Once inside the apartment, Katherine declares, "I'm calling a doctor. Please, sit anywhere." No one objects.
Before Katherine can go, Davey asks, "Hey Kath, where's your washroom? The doctor's job will be a whole lot easier if he's not covered in dirt." He gestures towards Jack, who seems to only be upright because of Race's hold on him.
Katherine blushes. "Oh, um. Down the hall, first door on the right." She starts to walk away before turning back and adding, "The box of his stuff Race gave me has some clean clothes in it and is in the guest room; first door on the left."