Meanwhile, outside the walls, the rest of the group was lying unconscious on the dusty earth. WICKED guards had gotten the jump on them and knocked them out to kidnap Charlie. Bits suddenly sat up.
"CHARLIE!" She yelled.
The others jolted awake, and slowly sat up, rubbing their heads.
"What the shuck happened?" Asked Will, who was feeling along the ground for his knife.
Joan stood up and looked at the wall.
"They knocked us out and left us here." She said, mostly to herself.
Marley stretched her arms, reaching up as high as she could. She sighed and crossed them over her chest.
"And they took Charlie!" Bits exclaimed, whirling around.
Joan rested a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry, Bits, we'll get her and Cleo back before they finish the mission." She comforted the girl. By they, she meant Thomas and his group.
Bits looked up at her.
"But, what if I go before then?" She asked quietly.
Joan shook her head violently.
"That's not going to happen. We are going to find a cure." She said sternly.
Bits hesitated, then nodded her head.
Marley looked questioningly at them.
"If you "go"? Go where?" She asked.
Joan glared at her.
Evelyn's head snapped around to stare sharply at Marley.
"She's not immune, dumbass." She hissed under her breath.
Marley turned her head to look back at Bits.
"Ooh, sorry, my bad." She smiled awkwardly, and Evelyn face-palmed.
Will rolled his eyes and slowly stood up, supporting himself on the launcher he was holding.
"Once you ladies are done, you can slim it and help me figure out what to do and how the shuck we are going to do it." He said, grunting with the effort.
Marley turned to look at him.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.
"Yeah, fine. The shank just hit me really hard." He mumbled.
Evelyn glared at the walls.
"Those bastards. They deserve everything coming for them." She growled under her breath.
Bits started coughing, and Joan looked over at her worriedly. She walked over and thumped her on the back until it subsided.
Marley and Evelyn exchanged a glance, and Will was fumbling around with his weapon, trying to find the trigger.
Joan was standing at the wall, tracing her fingers over the indents made by my knives. Evelyn, Marley, and Will were sitting in a huddle together trying to come up with a plan. Bits had traced the footsteps of the guards and Charlie over the the wall. She squinted and counted them. There had been five guards, so why was there six footprints?
Unless Charlie had gone along with them, which was highly unlikely, given her tendency to fight whenever she was overpowered. But unlike Cleo, that rarely ever succeeded. Bits stood up and traced her hand along the wall until it ran over an indent.
She turned and looked over her shoulder at her friends.
"Hey guys! Over here, I think I found something." She called out to them.
Joan walked over and looked around the indent.
"Could be a secret door, or just a normal dent." She said doubtedly.
Bits slapped her arm gently.
"No, you slinthead. Look how flawless this wall is. If there was a dent, they'd probably fix it." She said, motioning to the expanse of the wall.
Will came up behind them.
"Well, obviously, I can't give you my opinion on this, but if it was a door, how would you open it?" He asked, lightly ruining his palm over the indent.
Bits looked back at Evelyn and Marley, who were gathering up their things. She turned and felt along the wall, crouching down until her fingers touched the ground. There was another indent on the ground, identical to the one on the wall.
The shape was oddly perfect, like a rounded rectangle or cylinder. She recognized it.
Bits turned to look at Will.
"Hey Will, can I see your launcher?" She asked him.
He looked at her, confused.
"Sure, because I can't." He said, handing her the weapon.
Joan looked at him, also confused. Will sighed.
"She asked if she could see the Launcher, and I'm blind, so I said I can't see it." He said exasperatedly.
Joan shook her head.
"No, I understand the joke you tried to make, but why would you give a child a dangerous taser-weapon-shooter thingie?" She asked, putting her hands on her hips.
Bits glared at her.
"You think I can't use a Launcher safely?" She asked indignantly.
Before Joan could answer, Bits put her finger to her mouth.
"No, shush. You don't even know what I'm going to use it for." She said, turning around and kneeling on the ground.
She popped open the latch holding the grenades, and she took two in her hand. She put one in the wall, and the other on the ground.
She stepped back, handing the weapon back to Will, who stared down at it.
"What did you do?" He asked, not raising his head as he felt around the weapon for any changes.
Bits looked at the silver electricity connecting between the two orbs, creating a solid line that cut through the stone and steel until a clear path through the wall was shown.
Joan motioned for them to come, but Bits was already walking in, looking around for any hidden objects.
They reached the other end without meeting anyone else. At one point, Will heard a small clicking sound, and looked behind them, but of course he couldn't see anything. Marley looked too, but she said that there was actually nothing anywhere except the smooth steel walls and ceiling.
When the group had left the shadow of the tunnel, it had started to seal itself back up behind them, until there wasn't even a mark left in the smooth gray wall.
They continued down the streets in the midday sun, trudging along with the crowds of people in a tight formation so they didn't get split up.
Soon, they reached a semi-empty courtyard. Will turned to face the group.
"Okay, I'm just going to take role." He said.
"Joan?"
"Here." She said, shifting on her feet, looking nervously around.
"Evelyn?"
She looked up from a plant she had been studying.
"Here."
"Marley?"
"Here." She called from a bench halfway across the courtyard.
Will looked up.
"Why are you so far away? Get over here." He called at her.
She shrugged and stood up. Will took a deep breath, and it came out as a sigh.
"Alright, and last but not the shank, Bits?"
She raised her hand.
"Here."
Will nodded in satisfaction.
"So at least we're all here. So while we were walking, I devised a plan." He said.
They all looked at him attentively.
He pointed at the WICKED headquarters looming in the distance.
"That there is our target. I bet that's where both of them are. We are going to split up and go after them once we enter that building." He said.
The group nodded, and Bits shuddered.
"We just escaped, and to think we have to go back…." She muttered under her breath.
Joan reached over and wrapped her arm around the girl's shoulder.
Will cleared his throat.
"So, me and Joan will try and get Cleo, Marley, Evelyn, and Bits are going to get Charlie." He said commandingly.
They nodded, and started off towards the WICKED towers.