Ascent: (Book 1) The Ladder (10 page)

            “What about the Sick?” asks a voice from the crowd.

            “What about the Ban?” asks another.

            “There is Remedy above us. And if we leave here, we never have to go to the Ban again,” Joe answers.

            “Come on guys,” Lauren says. “Do any of you really want to stay here for the rest of your lives?”

            The crowd goes silent.

            “Can any of you name one person who has left here?” She continues speaking to a still silent crowd. In all the years that they’ve been in the Mines, no stories have ever been told or heard of anyone who has left. Some days one of the kids is working. The next day that kid is gone and another sleeps in their bunk. No one knows what happens to those who are gone.

            “This is our chance to leave. To really escape the Mines. To live—” Joe is interrupted by the parting crowd and the voice of Mason.

            “Live? With a few Mud Slingers?” Mason laughs.

            Lauren looks back at Joe who drops down from the bunk ladder.

            “And you’re all listening to this one?” Mason points directly at Lauren. “Of course she wants to go. She’s been in the Ban more than anyone. And isn’t she the one who went up the Ladder and came back down with the Sick that almost got all of us?” His question is accusatory.

            Though many of the kids did not know who the suspect was, word got around the Mines quickly. Most of them did not know who the blame fell on but they knew someone was at fault for it. The kid’s murmurs start to side with Mason’s logic.

            Marvin looks up at Joe, worried. Joe looks at Lauren. They both know Mason has a large sway over the others. If they don’t get them on their side quickly, they’ll never get anyone to follow them up.

            “We know what happens if we stay,” Joe claims.

            “We get food, a place to sleep and security.” Mason appeals to the kids.“Are those things up there? Can you promise those things to all of us, Slinger?”

            The debate is quickly getting lost. “Once we get to the surface, we can make our own decisions. Our own choices. We don’t have to live the way we’re ordered to.” It is with those words that Joe realizes his mistake. So few of them have ever tried to make their own choices. While they may be unhappy with their circumstances, the fact is the majority of these kids have only known orders and being told what to do. The idea that they could have a say or a choice has never crossed their minds.

            Mason just smiles. He knows Joe just won his argument for him.

            A teenage boy hops down from a higher bunk. “I’m going.” He turns to look at Mason. “I’m bored anyway. Besides, I got the Sick once already. It doesn’t bother me.” The kid joins Joe. “I’m Chris.”

            Katya and Frederick walk up behind Joe and Lauren. “We got three. This is Lance, Dina and Gary.”

            Being of similar age, Gary walks up to Marvin and stands next to him.

            “Joe knows what to do,” Marvin tells Gary.

            Mason steps slowly up to Joe. “Nine of you. You think you’re just gonna go up the Ladder, again? You think I’m gonna let you?”

            “You don’t have a choice, remember?” Lauren exclaims as she rushes around up to Mason and punches him in the stomach.

            Mason topples forward and Katya joins the fray, swinging her fist to uppercut Mason’s head, knocking him backwards and to the ground.

            Joe laughs at the sight. “Ok, let’s go. Anyone else is welcome to follow.”

            The nine of them rush to the entrance of the Bunks. More murmurs start up. Those not following are having second thoughts.

Chapter Fifteen

            The sounds of mumbling and feet shuffling through the dirt are focused behind the group. The few stragglers left in the Junction walk slowly toward the Bunks. Lauren tries to convince them to follow but her words go un-heeded. After all the work days, most of them just want to lie down and sleep. Some of them don’t even notice the others that file in behind the group walking out of the Bunks.

            Joe looks back. “I see we got a few more,” he says to Lauren as three more kids join them.

            “We may need some of them to distract the Guard,” Lauren tells Joe.

            “We can’t leave any of them. If they’re following us, they have to make it out, too.” Joe is determined.

            Marvin looks up at Joe. “What about everyone in the Bunks?”

            “We’ll just have to come back for them. We’ll take who we can, first.”

            “Joe.” Lance moves to the front of the group. “I was talking to Katya—we have to do this fast. The Guard can’t stop us all. We just have to rush him.”

            Joe looks to Lauren for another option. A less direct option.

            Lauren shakes her head. “If it was just two of us, that might work. But now we’re at twelve and…” Lauren looks back. “Growing.”

            “Ok. Then we’ll just go out there. But everyone stay together. Let’s decrease the chance of getting separated.”

            Joe slowly walks out from the tunnel. The lights of the Junction have already dimmed for lights out but it’s still bright enough to see anything or anyone moving around. The group walks out of the tunnel and huddles together as one mass of kids.

            The Guard swings his flashlight beam from the Eatery tunnel to them. He smiles upon seeing who stands at the front of the crowd. Joe and Lauren step back slightly.

            “You two?” The Guard glares. “I don’t know how you got out of the Ban but I have to admit, I’m incredibly excited about it.”

            “We’re going up. All of us,” Joe tells him.

            “No. I’m sure that’s not happening.” The Guard hits a switch on the wall. An alarm sounds throughout the Junction. “I should let you go, though. The less of you the better. But I have a job to do. And unlike the others who gave up, I intend to follow my duties.” The Guard steps toward them. “You’re my prisoners.”

            The Doctor steps out of her office “What is going on?”

            “It’s best if you get back inside, Doctor. I think violence might be unavoidable.” The Guard raises his hand in order to halt the Doctor from coming any closer.

            “Violence? They’re children.”

            “They’re dangerous criminals, ma’am,” the Guard says flatly.

            “Criminals..?” The Doctor frowns. “Why would you say that?”

            “I agree. It’s a harsher word than I would have chosen.” The Boss walks up beside the Guard. “I don’t know what any of you are thinking. But it stops, now. Every one of you get back to your bunks.”

            The sound of the alarm ringing in the Junction sounds throughout the Mine.

It echoes loudest in the Eatery and the Bunks. Another crowd of kids stream out of the Bunk tunnel. The Guard and the Doctor both look at the Boss. There’s too many of them. The Boss looks at the Doctor and pulls out a metal rod.

            The Doctor shakes her head in protest.

            “Drastic measures. We tried diplomacy. It’s time they learned obedience another way.” The Boss swings the rod down and it immediately extends to a three foot stick.

            A few of the kids, seeing the weapon in the Boss’ hand, decide it’s better to not try their luck and they shrink back into the tunnel.

            “We just lost some,” Chris calls from the back.

            “We’re not gonna get them all out,” Lauren tells Joe.

            “Then we take who we can.” Joe turns to the crowd. “If you’re going, let’s go.”

            Joe runs to the Ladder followed closely by Lauren who pulls Marvin along.

            The Boss points his stick at Joe. “Shut that one down,” he orders the Guard.

            “Please stop. Just go back to your bunks,” the Doctor pleads with the rushing crowd of kids.

            They don’t listen as the Doctor watches in horror while the Guard pulls off one of his gloves, revealing a metallic hand. Joe slows his footing. The others pile in behind him as they look at something they’ve never seen before. All except for Joe.

            “You’re the missing Warden?” he says in disbelief.

            “No one is getting out of my jail ever again,” the Guard says as he aims his robotic hand toward Joe. In the palm of his hand, an opening glows a vibrant blue. Electricity crackles inside the opening and one spark sets off blue bolts of electricity that shoot toward Joe. The electrical bolt strikes him and dances around his body from head to toe, and dropping him to his knees.

            “Joe!” Marvin yells as Lauren pulls him back, away from the bolts.

            “Stop this!” the Doctor yells.

            Chris, Katya and Lance pick up a few stones from the ground and throw them at the Guard. He turns his attention to them but they split up and rush toward the Ladder. The Boss readies himself for their attack. He raises the stick to strike the closest kid but the Doctor leaps on him from behind and jabs a needle in his neck, injecting him with Remedy.

            The Boss manages to throw her off of him before he falls to the ground. “They were safer with us. I just wanted to…” he says before falling asleep.

            The Guard sees the Boss on the ground. “I guess it’s time for a new Doctor.” He turns to her, causing wild bolts of electricity to crackle throughout the Junction. The Guard doesn’t care what or who they hit. The bolts strike light bulbs, burning them out and causing the Junction to go even darker.

            With the Boss asleep, Chris, Katya and Lance turn to the Guard and rush at him. They throw their combined weight into him, knocking him to the ground. The electrical bolts swing upward and into the vertical tunnel, shattering some of the bulbs in the opening. Lauren helps Joe back to his feet. The bolts don’t seem to be fatal to him, just strong enough to incapacitate him and destroy small, fragile objects.

            “The Boss is knocked out. We have to go. Now!” Lauren yells.

            Lauren puts Joe’s arm over her shoulder and helps him move toward the Ladder. Chris, Lance and Katya try to keep the Guard down while Frederick, Dina, Gary and Marvin race to the Ladder. Frederick is the first to climb it.

            “Hurry up!” Katya yells up to him.

            Frederick climbs halfway before a wild bolt hits him, knocking him off the Ladder and back to the dirt floor. Lance tries to grab the Guard’s arm to keep it from hitting anyone else. A few of the other kids make it to the Ladder and begin climbing. Dina is the first into the tunnel.

            The Guard frees his arm from Lance and fires a bolt at those nearest the bottom of the Ladder. It knocks them back, away from the Ladder, just narrowly missing Marvin’s feet.

            “Marvin!” Lauren yells up.

            “Get him. I’m fine,” Joe tells her.

            Chris tries to hold the Guard’s legs down while Lance and Katya grab hold of his arm and pin it to the ground. Joe looks around for a weapon but only manages to find a large stone. It will have to do. He picks it up and walks, quickly as he can, to the four of them grappling on the ground.

            “Move,” Joe tells the others.

            Lance and Katya release the Guard just in time for Joe to slam the stone down on top of the robotic hand.

            “Go,” He tells them.

            Chris, Katya and Lance race to the Ladder. They are the last ones to go up. Everyone else has made it into the tunnel. Joe watches the Guard push the stone off his hand before making his way up the Ladder.

            The Guard looks at the smashed metal hand as yellow sparks fly from it. He runs after Joe. Not quite halfway up, Joe feels a hand grip his ankle before he’s torn from the Ladder. He hits the ground, the air escaping from his lungs. He gasps to inhale but manages only a weak cough.

            “You call that a cough?” The Guard walks to a lever on the wall. “I know something that will really make you cough.” He pulls the lever and a hissing sound echoes through the Junction. Along the bottom of the wall, a fog sprays into the cavern. “I should have done this a long time ago.”

            Joe gets to his feet and looks around. It’s not just the Junction. Fog rolls out of the other tunnels as well. “The whole Mine is gonna get the Sick,” Joe warns him.

            “That’s right,” the Guard replies gleefully. “Not long after that will be the silence of the prison. And none of you will ever escape me again.”

            The Guard and Joe turn their heads to the Bunks as the sound of mass coughing emanates from the tunnel.

            They look back at one another. The Guard’s expression moves from glee to incomprehension. “It should be hitting you by now. Where are your symptoms?”

            Though worried about the others, Joe manages to put on a show of confidence. “I got a vaccine. I can’t get the Sick.”

            The Guard looks at the fog along the ground then at his damaged hand before walking to the Boss and picking up his metal stick. “Then I suppose I’ll have to do this the old fashioned way.”

            The Guard begins to step toward Joe but the Doctor leaps on him. Her attack throws off the Guard’s balance, forcing him to his knees.

“Go. I can’t hold him for long,” she says through her own cough.

            “What about the others?” Joe asks.

            “You brought Remedy. They’ll be fine.” She struggles with the Guard.

            Joe backs up to the Ladder. “It’s not enough for everyone.”

            “Go!” The Doctor yells one more time.

            The coughing from the bunks gets louder as some of the kids wobble out, the vertigo already affecting them. Joe turns to the Ladder and climbs up it as fast as he can.

            The Guard throws the Doctor off of him and watches Joe near the tunnel. It’s too high for the Guard to really do anything now. Joe looks toward the Bunks and sees some of the kids walking out. They struggle to stay on their feet.

            The Guard looks back in that direction and sees the kids. “No more prisoners will escape.” His voice, again, takes on a cold, emotionless tone. He slowly walks toward the kids.

            “No!” Joe yells. He knows what the Guard will do. And they’re all too weak to defend themselves.

            The Doctor falls against the Ladder and looks up. “Go. Climb.”

            “But he’s going to…” Joe watches the Guard.

            The Doctor pulls another lever and a slow sliding door starts to cover the tunnel entrance. “I’ll take care of it. Go. Lead them out.”

            Joe stares down at her.

            “You’re the only one who can get them to the Steps. Please, go.”

             “How did you—”