25.

"Are you ready yet? Are you ready yet?" I knew that repeating that phrase over and over again wasn't helping, but I just couldn't seem to stop myself. I couldn't help but think about what would happen if we got caught. Maybe they would put us in separate rooms. Maybe they would beat us. Maybe they would starve us. Maybe they would dehydrate us. Maybe they would just save themselves the trouble about worrying about us anymore and just kill us.

Like they'd killed Trey.

"Are you ready yet?" I asked, needing to keep my mind off of Trey.

"Almost."

"Hurry," I pleaded.

He sighed. "You're more than welcome to give this a try. But I was the best lock picker that my training group had and-"

"Let me try!" I said impatiently, nudging him with my leg to get him to move.

He sighed and handed me the needles before moving off to the side. I crouched down and got to work at the lock. "He's still out. He'll be out for about an hour more." my grandpa said of the man we'd knocked out using one of the pain pills that grandpa had gotten. It was actually a pretty cool technique that grandpa had used to do it. I'd never seen it before and he'd promised to teach me once we were out…

The lock clicked and I smiled triumphantly. "We're out."

"How did you do that?" My grandpa sounded a little disappointed that he hadn't been the one to do it.

I shrugged. "Newer generation. Come on; let's go."

Silently, we crept into the dim hall, looked both ways, and took off on silent feet. We would be able to hear anyone coming because the Circle had no reason to sneak around in their headquarters; their footsteps would be heard. And anyways, it was late at night and they were supposed to have someone guarding us. They wouldn't be suspicious until the guy who'd been guarding us woke up.

"Which way?" I asked when we reached a part that split two different ways.

"Whatever we do," he said, "We have to stick together. This is a maze and we might not be able to find each other again if we split up. Now let's see…" his face lit up suddenly. "Do you have that needle?"

I nodded confusedly and held out the two needles. He walked towards the wall and picked up a small rock. He came back and took the needle. "Find a puddle of water."

"There's one right there," I said, pointing towards a corner a few yards away. "Why?"

"This rock," he said as he began to rub the rock over the needle. "It's a lodestone."

I racked my brains, but came up with nothing. "A what?"

"Lodestone," he repeated. "Magnetic iron ore." He continued rubbing it over the needle.

"Why…?"

"We need to go north," he said.

"Yeah…" I said, still not getting it. "I know. But how is that going to help?"

'Well," he answered quietly as he continued rubbing the needle with the rock. "If I rub this needle with the lodestone, I'll magnetize it. Basically, I'll turn it into a compass needle. If we can get it to float on the water without breaking the surface tension…" He slid the needle into the water and I held my breath. It floated and I let the breath out. Then, it turned and pointed straight to the mouth of the tunnel on the right.

"That's the way we go," my grandfather said. "We need to keep this needle and the rock." He pocketed them. "Let's go."

"That was so cool," I said in amazement as we headed down the tunnel. "It pointed north, just like a compass would."

He smiled. "Well, it was probably a few degrees off, but it was close enough. These days, so many new gadgets are made that people forget that we can still rely on older means to help ourselves. I learned that trick when I was growing up in Nebraska."

"Really?" I asked.

He nodded as we jogged along at a steady pace. "I was always really into science and history – well, mostly history – but anyway, I had learned about magnetic iron ore in science and I decided to try it on the lake once and it worked."

"Wow," I said.

He smiled. "Stick with me, kid. I can teach you a lot of things. I think that's one thing the younger generation doesn't understand. We from the older generation are just as good, if not better."

I smiled. "I'm not a kid, grandpa."

"You are to me," he responded. "Mind if we pick up the pace a little bit?"

I shrugged and we sped up.

A little bit later, the paths split again and my grandpa looked at the watch he had stolen from the guard. "We have about ten minutes until he wakes up," he said. "We have to get a move on."

We found another puddle of water that pointed us in the right direction. "We're lucky it rained lately and caves leak," he said as we sprinted down the proper tunnel.

"Very lucky," I replied, keeping pace with him easily. I was glad that we had been working out every day, or it might have been a lot harder. He had been very wise for working out every day that he was held captive. Otherwise, it would have been extremely hard for him.

There was a strange roaring in the distance. "What's that sound?" I asked.

He didn't reply.

And then we reached the end of the line and I saw that we were behind a giant waterfall. The noise was deafening and I was being sprayed with water, which I gratefully drank in after the spring. I saw my grandfather doing the same. Finally, he said, "We have to jump."

"What?"

"It's the only way!" he insisted, looking at the watch. "The guard is probably up by now."

I knew that he was right, but I didn't like it.

"Come on," he said, holding out his hand. "We'll jump together."

"Don't let go," I said as I grabbed his hand tightly.

He smiled. "On three, then. One. Two."

"Three," I said and we leaped together through the water and into the darkness.