Both boys reeked of blood and sweat. At least this had brought their little death match to an end. That was one thing to appreciate.
A scratching sound whispered in front of us. Heavy feet dragged on the ground and my pulse jerked at the base of my throat. I knew before anyone spoke. They were following us.
Rasping breath suddenly cleared the barrier of the wall. Receptors snapped and hissed, poisonous serpents reaching, seeking victims.
With a curse, Fowler snatched the arrow I still clutched in my hand. Shoving me behind him, he lunged forward, using the sharp point to stab it into the head of the first dweller to break through.
“Go!” he shouted, his voice a shattering boom in the tight space. “Get her back inside the castle.”
I yanked another arrow from my quiver, intent on helping. “I’m staying!”
Fowler jerked his arrow back out of the dweller’s head and stuck it into the next one to emerge. “They’re coming in fast!”
He was right. They were like water pouring from a spigot.
“Luna, let’s go!” Chasan grabbed my hand and started hauling me away from the dwellers streaming into the tunnel.
“No! Fowler!” I strained to break free of his grip.
“I’ll be right behind you!”
“Let him slow them down.” Chasan tugged on my hand, pulling us ahead into the tunnel. “He’ll be fine.”
I moved, half dragged by Chasan, my heart pounding. The growls and rasping breaths of dwellers swelled behind us. After a while I couldn’t hear the swift thunk and pop of Fowler stabbing them anymore.
“Fowler,” I cried.
Chasan yanked on my hand again. “He can take care of himself. We would have heard him scream if they got him.”
If they got him . . .
I’d just left him. In all our struggles together, we had never abandoned each other.
I would not abandon him now.
With a grunt, I kicked Chasan in the back of his leg. He yelped, his grip loosening. I spun around, my sweating palm flexing around the arrow still clutched in my hand. The hard fall of my boots echoed all around me as I rushed forward. The ripe, bitter odor of dwellers filled my nose. They were close, filling the space with dampness. Toxin dripped off their faces, the copper sweetness sitting like metal on my tongue.
“Fowler,” I hissed, trying to hear or sense him amid the creatures slogging their way toward me. “Fowler,” I tried again, lifting my bow and notching the arrow, ready to let it fly.
A hand knocked the bow to the side. “Why did you come back?” Fowler didn’t wait for an answer. He spun me around and we started running, trying to stay ahead of the mob. Chasan met us.
“You were supposed to get her out of here,” Fowler accused.
“She kicked me,” Chasan snarled.
I turned my face toward Fowler as we continued. “I wasn’t leaving you. Don’t ask me to do that again.”
He said nothing, and we fell into silence as we dashed up the tunnel, all pounding hearts and labored breaths, trying to get as much of a lead as we could.
Finally, we reached the end. Fowler seized my waist and lifted me up. I slipped my hands into the carved handholds and started climbing. I worked fast, hand over hand, legs pushing. The boys were behind me, their charged breaths floating up to me, egging me on faster.
Memory told me I was close to the top. I reached out a hand to feel for the open space above me. I met with the hard metal of the grate instead.
My heart constricted.
I looked down in horror. “Someone shut it!”
For a long moment, neither one of them said anything. There was just the roar of blood in my ears and the sounds of the dwellers below, frothing like stew in a pot.
I turned back to the grate and pounded at it. It was a dead end. Nowhere to go above and dwellers below.
We were trapped.
TWENTY-FIVE
Fowler
I PEERED DOWN into the darkness at the swarm of dwellers, hoping they didn’t suddenly start climbing. Clinging to the handholds, muscles straining, I looked back up at Luna. Her body shook as she fiercely pounded the grate.
“Keep hitting,” Chasan shouted below me.
“I am!” she cried, her voice cracking in a way I had never heard from her.
“Harder!” he added. “Someone has to hear you!”
Luna added her voice, shouting. We all joined in, screaming for help.
Luna’s unseeing gaze dropped down, her dark hair wild about her pale face. Her shoulders heaved with exertion. “How long are we going to be able to hold on like this?”
That’s when I noticed she wasn’t simply shaking from pounding on the grate. “Don’t you dare let go,” I warned, a lump lodging in my throat. “You’ll hang on for as long as we need.”
“Fowler,” she choked out over Chasan’s shouts. He didn’t let up.
“Luna!” I removed one hand from its grip in the handhold and used it to support her, bracing it under her thigh.
“Don’t! You’ll fall!”