Jenny Plague-Bringer(146)

Chapter Forty-Seven




Mia climbed the slippery metal rungs inside the vertical tunnel, struggling upward against the air blasting down from the huge intake fan above. The wind was so loud that she and Sebastian couldn’t possibly hear each other unless they shouted, which could draw the guards. Mia didn’t feel like talking, anyway. They’d heard the gunfire echoing from below, and she had felt Juliana’s death like a ripping sensation deep in her heart.

Juliana’s last wish was that Mia and her baby escape the base alive. Her friend had died to protect her, despite her betrayal with Sebastian, for the sake of the little baby. If Mia survived, she and her baby would owe their lives to Juliana.

They stopped climbing when Sebastian, above her, reached the top of the vent. She held on tight, trying not to think about the long, hard drop below if she slipped from the small rungs.

She watched him inspect the giant fan that was in his way, underneath a mesh screen that kept out falling debris. They needed to stop the fan and move the screen aside before they could leave. High-speed wind pounded her face, and she had to scrunch her eyes to watch him inspect the machinery.

Sebastian found the bundle of wires feeding electricity into the fan, grabbed it, closed it eyes, and pulled as hard as he could. An explosion of sparks hit him, scorching his face and hands. The hair at the back of his head caught on fire, and he smothered it with his bare hand.

Mia tried not to cry out in pain as stray sparks landing on her, burning her arm in three places.

“Sorry,” Sebastian whispered, and she could hear him because the fan was quietly slowing to a halt.

The screen beyond it was secured in place by a ring of large screws, and they had no screwdriver. Seth tried the keys on the ring taken from the prison guard until he found a key tooth he could wedge inside the heads of the screws. Turning the screws this way was slow and difficult, and sliced up his fingers until the key was dripping blood, but he managed to gradually remove each one. Mia winced each time he cut himself.

A light flashed over the top of the vent, fully illuminating it in the night. With the alarms ringing, the guards in the watchtowers were swooping the spotlights looking for trouble.

Sebastian climbed up the narrow gap between two fan blades, and one of them scraped open a wide swatch of flesh along his hip.

“Careful,” he whispered down to Mia, his teeth clenched tight with the pain. “The blades are sharp.”

She climbed a little higher, waiting while he heaved the metal mesh to one side like a manhole cover and poked his head into the open air above. Mia smiled. She hadn’t seen the stars in months.

He pulled the screen back into place and ducked as another spotlight hit the vent shaft.

“Now!” Sebastian whispered when it was gone. He pushed the mesh aside and climbed out. Mia threaded her way between the blades, imagining them springing back to life, cutting her in half. She was five months pregnant, and her enlarged stomach took a horrible scraping from one of the blades as she squeezed past it. Sebastian took her hand and helped her out onto the narrow circular ledge surrounding the intake fan. He touched her bleeding stomach to heal her, and she couldn’t help smiling at the soothing warmth.

“No rungs out here,” he whispered. “About a five-foot drop. I’ll catch you. The spotlight’s coming back already.” Sebastian dropped to the ground below.

When he was ready, Mia pushed herself off the edge, landing in his arms. She looked up at him, feeling for a moment the deep affection that had existed between them under Alise’s spell. She was having his child.

Whatever she felt in that moment, she felt it alone. He stood her on her feet, already looking for their next move.

“The warehouse,” he said, pointing to the long brick building against the western wall of the base. A pair of S.S. guards flanked the door. “There’s a road that forks off toward it. I think there must be a side gate there. Probably safer than trying to go out the front.”

“If there’s a gate, there will be more guards,” Mia whispered.

“You stay here,” Sebastian said. A slanted corrugated tin panel stood over the intake vent, blocking rain and snow from above, but also creating a pocket of shadow, further darkened by the coal smoke from the ventilation system’s furnace exhaust. She thought might be able to hide from the spotlights if she kept herself small enough. “I’ll deal with the guards first and signal you when it’s safe,” Seth told her.

“Are you sure?” she whispered, but he was already running, avoiding the spotlights. She heard a distant clink of metal against concrete, and both guards at the warehouse turned their heads towards it, away from Sebastian’s approach in the shadows. She heard it again, and a third time, and the guards raised their pistols in that direction.