Chapter 62: Secret Tunnel

PLEASE Read and Review! Thade182, Beth, Laura, and Layne...I love you!

* * *

Cold floor met Alex's face, pain burst through his nose. He rolled onto his back and spit the blood out of his mouth. "Dakota, you still there?" He wished that someone would take the tape off.


"Nope, they took him to another cell, they don't trust me," a voice said. He sounded proud of that fact.


So many voices, no faces. Alex thought. "Who's there?"


"Jagger, cell guard," the voice said.


"Oh yeah," Alex coughed again. "I remember you. Hey, could you do me a favor, I'm getting really tired of not being able to see, could you-ow!"


Jagger ripped the tape off his face, then his arms and ankles. "Better?"


Alex blinked and his eyes adjusted to the light. "Well I think I lost a few eyebrows and eyelashes but hey, I can see." Alex looked up at Jagger, he sat in a small chair with his arms crossed. Alex scooted back up against the cell wall, rubbed his wrists and breathed heavily.


"You look like you hurt," Jagger observed.


"Yeah, funny thing, when Xander and Karma get angry all hell breaks loose," Alex said laughing.


"Oooo, you got caught up with those two huh? Not a good thing." Jagger sympathized.


Alex sighed. "So what happens now?"


"Well, they bring in some people to read exactly what laws you two have been accused of breaking, then they'll 'look at the facts' in the most 'unbiased' way possible, then they'll find y'all guilty and sentence you to whatever they deem a worthy punishment."


"Great, you never were one to beat around the bush," Alex sighed.


"Hey, things aren't pretty, so why make them look that way?"


Alex sat and stared at the brick walls. The biggest thickest bricks ever made. No one, not even Kristopher, who could walk through solid objects, could get through the cell walls. Even Karma's superhuman strength could not break them. Escape, unthinkable.


"Is there any way we can possibly help Dakota?" Alex asked.


"Get rid of Paul and Ariel," Jagger said flatly.


"Well if that's all," Alex laughed. "Impossible." Though everyone hated them, no one even thought about trying to 'impeach' them. "Any other suggestions?"


Jagger sighed. "I can't believe I'm doing this again," he stood, glanced around, then pushed a brick. Scraping and grinding of rock on rock made Alex cringe. It moved back to reveal a tunnel. He put his hand out to it.

"This particular tunnel will show you the way to the outside world, however, I'm not letting you leave yet."


Alex didn't know what to say. "Right. Now I'm lost, you show me a way out and...you won't let me take it?"


"Two reasons, one, we can't get Dakota out too, and two, your friends are coming and they may convince the Council to let you go, and if not, then I'll let you go." Jagger explained.


"But what if they can't convince them, Dakota can't escape," Alex worried.


Silence filled the room for a moment. "It's time." Jagger stared. He saw past the walls and bars, past the dark rooms.


"What?"


Jagger looked at Alex. "Tomorrow it will have been fifty years since Paul and Ariel first became Council members, if David and Riley challenge them, they can take their places."


"Will they?"


"One can only hope."