Shudder (Stitch Trilogy, Book 2) (33 page)

Alessa glanced at the door to her
right. Number 88 – they still had a ways to go.

Her ears ringing from the deafening
screech of the sirens, Alessa peered quickly around the corner to
check for guards headed their direction. They’d managed to avoid
any run-ins so far, but she wasn’t sure how long that luck would
hold out.

The hallway seemed to stretch on
forever, and every blinking light on every lit keypad glared
accusatorily at Alessa, but Alessa kept her eyes straight and
blocked them out. She could barely make it down the hall as it was,
with Janie clinging to her hip. Alessa had her sister – finally –
and she couldn’t spare the strength to help anyone else right now.
Anyone except for Joe, that was.

Unconsciously, Alessa reached her
thumb toward her ring finger, twisting her ring around until she
could feel the cool stone buried in her palm. She fingered the ring
anxiously as they finally closed in on cell number 116.

The keypad was lit. Alessa’s hopes
soared.

Flashes of red colored the keypad as
she punched in the code and swiped at the scanner. Alessa couldn’t
even hear the clang of the releasing locks over the pounding in her
chest.

This was it.

With Janie at her side, Alessa flung
the door open. The flickering alarm lights illuminated the darkness
within, and Alessa strained to focus on the figure
inside.

“
Janie? Alessa?” A voice
sounded from the back of the cell. With a sinking heart, Alessa
realized it was female.

“
Sara?” Janie replied. Her
mind still spinning with Joe, Alessa struggled to place the girl’s
face. Sara… from the sorority?

Sara jumped to her feet, her eyes
wide. “What’s going on out there?”

At least she could stand on her own,
Alessa thought. “We’re getting you out of here, but we’ve got to
hurry.”

Sara nodded enthusiastically and
looked around, as if she might be forgetting her purse or
something. She shrugged and giggled lightly to herself. “I guess
I’m ready to go!”

Alessa turned to leave, but as she
did, a mark on the wall caught her eye. When she looked closer, she
realized the deep gouges carved into the concrete were letters –
names, actually.

Her name.

“
Sara, take Janie for a
minute.”

Sara scooted up under Janie’s other
shoulder.

Alessa dropped to her knees and
examined the methodically scraped lines to be sure her eyes weren’t
playing tricks on her.

A-L-E-S-S-A.

The lights flashed over the wall once
more.

And next to it, I-S-A-A-C.

Alessa. Isaac.
And then again, a few inches away:
Alessa. Isaac.
And
again, and again, and again.

With each flicker of the light,
comprehension dawned over Alessa. The walls – every inch of them –
were covered in Alessa’s and Isaac’s names. Joe had been here, all
right.

Alessa reached forward, tracing her
fingers over the gashes in wonder. The moment her fingertips
brushed the rough surface of the wall, a powerful rush of feeling
zapped through her body. Alessa closed her eyes, letting the
thoughts and emotions run over her body like a cool summer
rain.

What she saw brought tears to her
eyes.

Joe knew he wasn’t going to make it
out of here. He was scared and angry and confused, but there was
one thing he’d been sure about:

Joe had wanted Alessa and Isaac to be
together.

Alessa could see Joe’s final thoughts.
Her own face, lit up with laughter. A young Isaac tumbling off his
bike. And she could feel what he felt in that moment, hear what he
was thinking.

He wanted Isaac and Alessa to take
care of each other in his absence. He wanted them to be
happy.

All the guilt that Alessa had been
feeling the past several weeks melted away in that single moment.
She had it in her power to give Joe exactly what he’d wanted –
finally, she could love Isaac unreservedly, protect him, make him
happy, just as Joe himself would have done. And she could accept
Isaac’s love without condition in return.

Alessa brought her hand to her mouth
to stifle a low sob of relief. As her lip brushed against the
smooth metal of the ring at the top of her palm, she realized
suddenly that she’d been thinking of everything all wrong. Joe was
never the wedge between her and Isaac – he was the glue that held
them together, the metal that bound her and Isaac into
one.

How could she ever have lost sight of
that simple truth? She promised herself – and Joe – that she never
would again.

“
Less – are you okay?”
Janie breathed.

Alessa stood, nodding her head, her
eyes still trained on the revelation on the wall in front of her.
“Yes. Yes, I’m okay now. Let’s keep moving.”

The sirens continued to blare, but
with Sara’s help, their progress toward the exit was much faster.
They soon slipped out the side door unnoticed.

In the first dim light of morning,
they snuck through the alleyway toward the sewer grate that would
bring them to the rendezvous point.

Sliding underground behind Janie and
Sara, Alessa caught sight of a vast brigade of soldiers – Paragon’s
soldiers – assembling in the prison yard. A long caravan of
vehicles snaked alongside their neat rows, loading man after man
into armored trucks.

Her heart leapt to her
throat as it dawned on her that all those soldiers were coming
after
her
.
Paragon had realized that something big was happening; they weren’t
about to let the rebels go without a fight. And as long as Alessa
and the people she loved were with the rebels, they’d be right in
Paragon’s target.

It was time to execute the next phase
of her plan.

35. FLIGHT

The hike through the sewers was long
and winding and dark, but more frustrating for Alessa than anything
was the fact that she finally had her sister by her side after all
these months and she couldn’t talk freely about anything with Sara
tagging along. Not about Joe, or Isaac, not about her new empath
abilities – and most certainly not about her plans to steal away to
safety, far away from the rebels. Now she knew how Janie must have
felt on the drama last fall, to be so close and yet so
distant.

Alessa had taken a few moments to fill
Janie and Sara in on where they were headed, and both were eager to
leave Paragon for the new base at Raptor. Alessa had known she’d
have difficulty convincing Janie to flee the rebels, which is why
she’d originally planned to trick her into coming. But seeing her
sister again, the last thing she wanted to do was lie to
her.

Plus, if she could get
Janie on her side, the two of them
might
just be able to convince Isaac
to see reason. Alessa would much rather Janie and Isaac come with
her willingly, after all. But if she couldn’t find time to talk to
Janie alone, it looked like she was going to have to go with the
original plan of deception. Alessa could only hope that they’d
forgive her later.

The other problem was that she hadn’t
taken into account the possibility that Janie would be so weak. It
was one thing to slip away into the woods in full health – but
could Janie really make it in her condition? Isaac would help, of
course, but there wasn’t much any of them could do if those
creatures made a reappearance. Alessa didn’t think Janie had the
strength to defend herself…

She was worried about her
sister.

She seemed drawn and sullen – and
tired, too tired. If it wasn’t for Sara, Alessa would have been
practically dragging her through the sewer by now. Alessa had never
seen Janie so beaten.

“
Janie, how are you
feeling?” Alessa spoke quietly to keep her voice from echoing
through the tunnels – the last thing they needed was to attract
attention from Paragon’s guards.

Janie blinked and nodded an “okay,”
her breaths coming short and fast as she strained to keep upright
on Alessa’s and Sara’s shoulders.

“
Do you need a break?”
Alessa stopped in place. “Sara, let’s take a quick
break.”

“
Sure thing,” Sara heaved.
She looked like she could use a rest, too.

Alessa found a dry spot on the floor
and helped Janie down so she could catch her breath. She crouched
next to Janie and squeezed her bony shoulder, trying to ignore the
bite of the sharp bones under the skin.

Janie’s eyes seemed miles away.
Something was troubling her.

“
Janie, what’s wrong? Are
you hurt?”

“
No, no.” Janie shook her
head. “Just tired. And – and disappointed.” She sighed and looked
up at Alessa. “I promised Nikhil, Less. I promised he’d be okay.
Now I don’t even know if he’s alive.”

“
How were you even talking
to him? You said you got him a note?”

She nodded. “I dug a hole between our
cells.” She took a deep, shuddering breath and exhaled slowly. “It
was a long shot, but I was going crazy in there by myself – I had
to see if there was someone there. And then it turned out to be
Nikhil, and I knew I had to do something.”

Alessa knew that Janie blamed herself
at least partially for Nikhil’s disappearance off the show last
fall, when his storyline had intersected with Alessa’s without the
producers’ approval. Janie had known at the time that Alessa was
meant for Isaac, and that the whole “ghost” aspect was a setup, but
she hadn’t yet revealed any of this to Alessa and had even
encouraged Alessa to date Nikhil, staying in character to go along
with the love triangle she thought the producers were laying
out.

But it turned out Nikhil was the star
of a different drama altogether – one that was never meant to
overlap with Alessa’s – and the producers had punished him for his
unknowing transgression. Janie said she should have known, since
she had a contact within the producers at the time.

“
I taught him how to
resist the stitch,” she explained. “I promised him we’d find a way
to get him out, either from his cell or whatever drama he ended up
on next. And then one day I just never heard back…”

“
Maybe he
did
resist, and now he’s
biding his time on another show waiting for you.”

Janie sighed. “Maybe. I
hope. All I know is that
definitely
wasn’t Nikhil in that cell.” She shook off a
shiver.

Alessa chuckled. “No, the Nikhil I
remember had a little more… charm.”

Janie smiled. “We should keep moving.
I’m better now.”

Sara helped Alessa pull Janie to her
feet, and the three of them headed on down the tunnels at a much
swifter pace than before. Alessa guided them through the route
she’d memorized to the abandoned section of town where the old
train depot was located.

When they reached the right spot,
Alessa led them up through a manhole that opened into what was once
an underground railroad station. It had to be a hundred years since
it was last used, but the rebels had brought it to life once more.
The hushed chatter of hundreds of excited voices echoed down the
hall as refugees crowded the platform, waiting for the arrival of
whatever Carlos and Sato had rigged up to get them out of there.
Alessa had never seen the entire rebel force assembled together –
she was impressed.

After climbing from the sewer further
back in the tunnel, Alessa, Sara, and Janie picked their way
carefully down the tracks until they reached the platform and
clambered up onto it. The wide, open room was abuzz, the air
electrified with the tension of hope and fear. The planned hour of
departure was drawing near, and everyone was clearly anxious to get
going.

They worked their way through the
crowd combing for familiar faces, Alessa searching for Isaac’s in
particular. A handful of people Alessa didn’t recognize ran up to
Janie, gushing about how happy they were to see her. It was clear
to Alessa that Janie had really made an impact in the rebellion in
the months that Alessa had been captured, and she was proud of her
sister. She wondered if she would regret taking all of this away
from her.

As they skirted past a crowd of
stern-looking men – members of Carlos’s militia, Alessa suspected –
they finally stumbled upon some faces they knew.

“
Lizzie!” Sara shrieked,
dropping Janie’s weight onto Alessa as she ran to embrace her
friend from the sorority.

Regina and Michael – who’d been
conferring intensely beside Lizzie – both dropped their
conversation and smiled broadly at Alessa and Janie.

Regina strode to them and took Janie’s
hand, turning to Alessa. “I see you found your sister. I’m so
glad.” And then to Janie, “Welcome back.”

Janie lit up from within at the
commander’s greeting. “I’m ready to get back to work,
Regina.”

Regina grinned. “And you’ll have that
chance quite soon. Take the next few hours to recuperate, and I’ll
find you both when we reach our destination.”