Page 122 of Last Seen

The fingers are nimble, and Halley is soon freed.

“Can you sit up?” Cat asks quietly.

Halley does and swoons immediately. Nothing works. Her limbs are Jell-O. The sliver of light that comes from the penlight in her sister’s lap is excruciating after the days of darkness. A migraine takes hold almost immediately. The world spins.

Cat starts rubbing life into her, and soon enough, the vertigo ceases, and her limbs have feeling again. The pain in her head dulls to a familiar throb.

“How did you know where I was?”

“Later. We have to move. Now.”

The urgency in her tone brings Halley’s painfully ungovernable mind back into focus. With her sister bolstering her, she manages to stand, then take a few steps. Her head is splitting, and her legs still feel rubbery but now can hold her weight, and the room isn’t moving like the deck of a ship at sea. “Okay. I’m okay. Let’s go.”

They exit the chamber into a long hallway with greenish sconces lining the walls. They disappear around the corner into darkness.

“Where are we?”

“Under town. Fallout shelters. In case there’s some sort of major disaster. Oak Ridge is to our west—if it was ever hit or melted down, the winds would come directly over us. It’s to save the people of Brockville from the apocalypse.”

“Oak Ridge?”

“The nuclear facility. Halley, please, hurry. We can talk about all this later. We don’t have much time. We’ve created a diversion, but the guards will be back soon enough.”

“Guards?”

“Later. Please.”

She follows her sister into the greenish light, fighting to keep the worst of the headache at bay. “You saidwecreated a diversion. Who iswe?”

“You’ll see.”

The tunnel forks left, then right, then left again. They walk on for what feels like a mile, moving through this underground warren. At each junction, Cat moves with assurance. Halley’s head hurts too much to keep up the line of questioning. Her sister, alive. Her sister, rescuing her. Her sister. With her.Mehas becomewe.

They hit a steel door. Cat pulls a set of keys from her pocket and turns the lock. The door opens into a cafeteria-style room with long tables, at which are seated several women and children. All heads turn. Everyone is silent. She’s never seen such a somber group. These children should be laughing and playing; instead they are pale and stricken. Their mothers—she assumes these are their mothers—rise from the tables.

One, a woman with red hair and a small healing bruise on her left cheekbone, stands. “Is it time?”

Cat nods. “As we planned it. Up and out of the northwest entrance, straight into the labyrinth. Heather is waiting. Hurry now.”

They rise as one and move like zombies, all of a piece, together, toward the door. No one will meet her eyes. Cat is counting under her breath.

“Gray. Where is Gray?” she asks sharply, and one of the women turns.

“He went with Heather.”

Cat curses under her breath. “All right, move, move. Hurry. We’re out of time.”

Time. There is no such thing as time. Time doesn’t exist in the dark.

But they are moving toward the light. The path they follow angles upward, finally stopping at a set of concrete stairs. The women and children wait, and Cat splits them apart like an arrow as she hurries up the step and unlocks the door. “Stick together. We’ve marked the path. Look for the small bows in the greenery. Meet me in the graveyard.”

“You must lead us, Catriona,” the last woman says, and Cat smiles.

“You are leading us now, Gretchen. You’re going to be fine. I’m right behind you.”

Halley realizes Cat is tugging on her arm. “Come on. You too.”

“Are they ... okay?” she asks. “God, these people seem like they’ve been brainwashed.”