I pick up a bottle of Honesty and clutch it to my chest. The box is huge—designed to be moved by forklifts. This must be another temporary storage for the syrups we make during the day. I turn the bottle over in my hands, staring at the crystal clear liquid in a daze.

There’s more. The familiar voice murmurs in my mind. 

“Help me with this box,” I say to the others, grabbing one corner. 

Bennett looks at me like I’ve gone crazy. “We need to get out of here.”

“Trust me,” I say. “This is important.”

Dani takes a second corner without question, shooting Bennett a warning look. 

Bennett folds her arms across her chest, glaring at us like we’re insane.

“We can’t move this quietly by ourselves—”

Without a word, Jenna stands and takes a third corner, giving me a serene smile and a nod. Together, we shift the weight enough that we can slide the box to the ground without smashing glass bottles all over the floor. 

Bennett tuts, tapping her foot impatiently. I ignore her, sure that the Blessed dose is guiding me, just like it led me to Lena.

I open the second box, and inside find another stash of Honesty, but this time in much bigger bulk bottles, less like the water bottles, and more like those in the stock cupboard at Emotiv. I wave to the others. “Grab a bottle each.”

Dani and Jenna each take one without question, but Bennett ignores me, staring at the doorway to the pit.

“Bennett,” I bark, lifting a bottle from the box. “If you want out, you need us. Now take a bottle.”

I shove the bottle against her chest, and she grabs it reflexively, but not without scowling at me first.

This way. “Okay, this way.”

Behind the pallets of storage boxes, a large double door beckons to me. 

“Hurry,” Melly whispers. “Wardens are in the pit.”

We quicken our pace, heading straight for the doors and barging through, not caring to stay silent any more. 

“If we hadn’t assed about with these bottles…” Bennett mutters, her complaints fading into grumbles as we come into the corridor beyond the doors—a delivery tunnel, long and dark, with a soft glow of light coming from the far end.

Waiting for us with their back turned, a man in warden uniform stands checking his watch. Bennett curses. “Fucking knew this was a set-up—”

“Calm down,” I hiss. “It’s Ike.”

“Where have you been?” Ike spins around, staring at the bottles in our arms. “This isn’t a shopping trip, Kyla.”

Trust me. “Trust me,” I say, holding Ike’s gaze. 

He frowns for a moment, searching my face. “We can’t take them,” he says, his eyes flicking to Bennett and Jenna.

“I’ll scream,” Bennett says without hesitation. “Then no one gets out.”

Ike glares at her, his hand flexing around the nightstick at his side. 

“Ike,” Melly’s voice comes from his radio. “They’re on you. Go, now.”

He grunts and turns down the tunnel, jogging away. We follow close behind, first me and Dani, with Bennett and Jenna behind us. 

The tunnel is long and damp—built from bricks that gather moss and algae, slipping and squelching underfoot. Our hurried steps rebound from the curved walls, the sound mingling with the drip, drip, drip of water from the ceiling. 

The pathway bends to the right, curving so the doors are blocked from sight behind us. 

“Keep going,” Melly’s voice crackles on the radio. “They’re at the storeroom now.”

“Have to get a little further,” Ike says. “There’s a junction up ahead.”

Go right.

“Go right at the junction,” Ike continues, “then straight on.”

“Why don’t we... just follow you?” Jenna asks.

Ike doesn’t answer, just keeps running towards the junction.

He’s not coming.

“I… can’t… carry this… anymore…” Jenna pants.

I twist around to see her flagging behind us. Bennett’s struggling too, though she’s too stubborn to ask for help. They both wheeze and falter, their steps becoming more clumsy the longer we run. 

They’ve been in reform so much longer than us. Underfed and overworked, their muscles have all but wasted away, good for nothing more than the short bursts of energy needed in the pit. Long periods of running or exercise are a thing of the distant past for them.

Dani reaches for Bennett, taking the bottle of Honesty from her grasp and motioning for her to keep up. Bennett answers with a scowl, almost a permanent feature of her face at this point.

I do the same for Jenna, who is far more appreciative. She grasps my hand as I take the bottle from her. “Thank you,” she says breathlessly.

“It’s okay,” I reply, trying not to grimace at the added weight. “Just keep up.”

We press on, Dani and Ike ahead of me as I reach the junction.

The doors far behind us burst open.

“There!” a voice yells, “after them!”

Go right.

I race around the corner, hot on Ike’s heels, with Bennett and Jenna lagging behind. 

“Keep up!” Ike calls. “We can’t slow down!”

But it’s too much for them. They stumble and curse as their legs give out again and again, before they scramble back up and stagger on.

The tunnel splits and multiplies, joining and crossing Skycross’s underground utility networks. Train tracks trail along the floor beside us—a transport system for deliveries throughout the city. They cross our path at the next junction, almost tripping our feet.

Jenna goes down behind us, shrieking as she falls.

“Jenna!” Bennett screams, stopping and going back to her.

“Come on,” Dani calls, “keep up!”

But Bennett ignores us, and we can’t stop. We press on to the next junction, where a series of vertical bars block our path forward.

Go left.

“Left!” Ike says under his breath, and we skid around the turn, almost colliding with the bars as we go.

The weight of the bottles in my arms makes the dash more tiring than I could have imagined. What might have been a simple sprint a few months ago now feels like an uphill crawl. My thighs scream in pain from the effort, muscles burning in protest as we run.

High-pitched screams shake the walls behind us, then silence descends on the tunnel. Bennett and Jenna have been caught. I glance back, wondering whether I should go back for them.

“Don’t you dare,” Ike calls out. “Keep running, Kyla.”

I nod and catch up, huffing as the bottles bump against my thighs.

Go right.

“Right!” Ike says, and we skid around the turn again.

He skids to a stop, and we run a few steps past him before realising that he isn’t with us anymore.

“Keep going,” he calls. “I’ll distract them.”

He widens his stance and whips his nightstick out from his belt, turning his back to us and staring back down the tunnel.

He’s not coming.

“What?” I shout. “No!”

“Yes!” Ike cries. “Dani, take her.”

Dani nods resolutely and grabs my shoulder, somehow carrying two bottles under one arm. They push me forward. “Go!”

Voices rebound down the tunnel, crying out in confusion about which way we might have gone. 

“We’ve still got time!” I shout. “Just come with us!”

Ike doesn’t even turn around, just waves us off without a second glance. I can’t see his face, so my mind fills in the blanks for me. With nothing else to reference, it paints Caleb’s face over Ike’s, dribbling black ooze trailing down his chin, staining his grey warden uniform with a blossoming black wound which spreads along his chest, his eyes turning into black pits…

Our pursuers round the corner, racing towards Ike, their rifles pointed right at him.

Dani tugs at me again. “Come on Kyla!”

I groan my frustration, pulling away from Ike, forcing myself to give just one more burst of speed. This is it, this is how it ends. There was never any chance of helping anyone, of changing anything. The system is too big, too powerful. 

“Hands up!” the wardens shout at Ike behind us, but he doesn’t answer. “Get your hands in the air now.”

Go left.

We round the corner just as the air fills with a crackle of electricity, buzzing in my eardrums, almost blocking out Ike’s pained screams. His cries of agony morph into my brother’s, sparking a reaction that pumps even more adrenaline into my veins. Fire burns down my legs, my muscles screaming at me to stop, to keep going, to take a break, to never stop running…

I grit my teeth and run on autopilot, directing Dani around each junction. 

Stop. Look up.

“Wait,” I call, pointing above our heads to a metal grate just within arm’s reach.

Dani stops and peers up with me, right into Lena’s frightened blue eyes.