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"See you soon, kiddo." His throat bobbed as he nodded, then moved out of the way so my group could get past.

Swallowing my emotions, I looked straight ahead and focused on my job.

I was going to get these people to safety, no matter what.

We'd been tasked with setting an explosive at the door to the boiler room. They'd considered putting it inside, but that seemed likely to draw too much attention — the goal was to distract, not destroy.

We hurried through the remaining cell blocks, and I watched as another team quickly worked their way from cell to cell, unlocking the doors.

The other prisoners weren't privy to the plan before now, so some were ecstatic, while many were scared. I soaked up the few cheers of joy that rose before the unlocking team shushed them.

But freeing people wasn't our task, so we hurried out of the cell blocks and into the ship proper.

We had to get our explosives set as soon as possible to give everyone a good chance at making it to the top deck and off the ship.

Passing through several more hallways, we finally reached one of the many stairwells that were spread across the massive floating prison.

Our target was three decks down.

Prisoners worked the boiler room, so that was the place least likely to seem suspicious if we were caught.

By some miracle, we made it all the way down without seeing another living soul.

Liam reached the heavy doors leading to the boiler room first. He nodded at one of the prisoners, and she pulled the explosive package from inside her shirt and set it against the boiler room door.

It wasn't large, and it wasn't strong, but it would hopefully be enough to draw attention away from us.

Another prisoner bent and began manipulating the package.

After a minute of work, it was ready.

"Light it," he said, stepping back.

My heart raced as Liam bent down. He lit the makeshift fuse, then leaped away, and everyone dashed towards the stairs.

We had to climb ten floors.

Gods, let no one see us.

We trudged up the metal steps in silence for what felt like an eternity, and still nothing happened.

No sound. No alarms.

Had we messed up?

An enormous BANG reverberated through the ship, and I nearly tripped in surprise.

All six of us paused, listening.

A distant alarm began to ring.

Then voices. "Fire! Fire!"

That was it. Our chance to make a run for it without being cut down or filled with bolts.

We dashed up the remainder of the stairs, a little ember of hope flaring to life inside me.

"This just might work," I whispered.