Chapter 5.15

We waited until night had fallen again, then we made our way back to our locations. Sargent went with Theo in the tunnels, so we'd know when she was in position. I waited with Tommy in the garden, crouching in the darkness and the silence. The moon rose while we waited, casting the garden in an eerie silver glow, giving just enough light to see the basic features in each other's faces. Tommy stared at the loose panel almost obsessively and I was about to give some words of encouragement when we heard movement behind us. We whipped around and stood, ready for a fight. We relaxed when we saw it was Sargent. He put his arms up in fake surrender. It was time to start.

I gave a deep silent breath and pushed my way through the broken panel. My eyes navigated the darkness, I counted the bushes and found the gap, trying my hardest to avoid any rustleing. I beaconed Shadow and his form cloaked around me, turning me invisible.

There were four men guarding that area, two on each corner of the building, then two more each a quarter down. I was thankful that they didn't appear to be directly guarding the container. I eyed them cautiously, even though I knew they couldn't see me. I walked directly past them and they didn't bat an eye. Even still, my heart hammered in my chest and my blood rushed to my head, for a few moments it was the only thing I could hear.

I edged my way to the container. I couldn't hear anything inside, and I became nervous that it was in fact empty and they were already gone. My heart pounded louder. There was a padlock that wasn't there before. Shadow reached out and crushed it in his hand. Then I slowly inched the door up, every few centimetres stopping and checking neither of the guards had heard. When there was a large enough gap, I clambered in, wincing as my shoes hit the floor and clattered.

Inside, was pitch black, even though it was nigh time outside, my eyes still needed a second to adjust.

Twenty pairs of eyes stared back, all scattered to the edges, laying on top of each other for comfort and warmth. The smell of piss and sweat washed over me and I tried not to gag. It was almost as bad as Theo when she had stale shit all over here. None of the children moved. They just stared.

"I'm here to get you out." I whispered. No response. I knew how afraid they were, but it didn't cross my mind that they would refuse to move. Shadow separated himself from me. I knelt down to eye level and I felt Shadow do the same. I spoke to the nearest two kids, a boy, about eight sitting in an older girls lap "I want to help you get out of here. To somewhere safe. Do you want to come with me?"

The little boy looked at his sister and they seemed to have a conversation with just their eyes. The girl holds out her hand and the boy quickly copied her. I pulled him off his sister to staying position, and she clambered up on her own, still holding my other hand. I peered out the gap in the door, checking that neither of the guards were looking, then slid out. The two children follow me, neither of them were wearing shoes so they were quieter than me. Their eyes follow me curiously, and I bent in front of her and tapped my shoulders, she understood and climbed on my back, her arms curling around my neck and her feet jabbing into my waist. The boy was much smaller, so I scooped him up in my arms. Shadow immediately covered us, and the two gave a little yelp as his cool shadow washed over their skin. My eyes flash to the two nearest guards, but neither of them seemed to have noticed the sound. Then I slowly sulked forward, very aware that I now held two lives in my arms. They were still and quiet; when I got to the fence, they silently slipped off and waited patiently as I removed the panel so they could crawl through. Vaguely, I could hear Tommy whispering to them on the other side and I knew they'd got there safely.

When I returned to the container, it seemed like their mistrust had lessened a little. A few more kids actively stepped forwards to be taken. I repeated the process, sometimes taking one of the older kids on my back and carrying a smaller one in my arms. Each time I returned, the previous two had already been taken by Sargent to the sewers. It was painfully slow work, but it was exhilarating that it was really working. However, it was taking too long; although the remaining kids didn't need as much encouragement as the first few, it was taking about 15 minutes per run, a few hours later and I was still ferrying kids. It was the longest few hours of my life. I started taking three smaller kids at once, one on my back and one on each arm. I was quickly exhausted, I tried to control my breathing as much as I could, but at some point, it wasn't enough, one of the guards noticed something was amiss. He broke his statue stance and narrowed his eyes in the darkness. He looked at me and I froze. I knew he couldn't see us, but it felt like he could. Of course, he wouldn't have just narrowed his eyes at us if he could actually see me. I was afraid, that made the kids afraid. They buried themselves in my chest and clutched my shirt with my hands. I daren't move. I felt like any sort of movement would give us away. I saw the guard rest his hand on the gun at his waist, he searched the darkness for something amiss and we held our breaths as he passed us. We relaxed a little and I contemplated moving again, but then I realised that he was heading towards the storage container. If he inspected it closely, he would notice that the lock was broken and then he would realise most of the children had escaped. I slowly put the children I was carrying on the floor at my feet, careful that they were still in Shadows reach.

Take them to Tommy, I thought, hoping he understood, then slipped out from under Shadow, and quickly flitted to the shadow of the building. From the outside, I could barely see the three small children through Shadow's mist as they started shuffling towards the fence. Relived he understood my meaning, I went about dealing with the guard. He didn't notice me flitting behind him, even when I reached out, grabbed him with one arm over his chest and took his feet out from under him. I controlled his fall, which knocked the wind out of him. He looked up with confusion, and before he could shout I punched him in the face, his head bounced against the pavement, and I heard an indistinguishable snap of his skull against stone.

It wasn't as quiet as I wanted, and I was afraid that someone would have heard. There was only one girl left, I couldn't leave her, so I took a gamble and climbed back in the storage container. She was at the back, seemingly uninterested in leaving the safety of the dark dirty corner she crouched.

She had pale bruised skin under a layer of dirt from weeks of neglect, but her eyes were bright, unlike the rest of her complexion, they shone with watchful intelligence. Her matted hair flopped on either side of her frame. She looked at me with confusion.

"We're here to get you out." I whispered, trying to obscure the haste in my voice.

Her head titled slightly like she didn't quite understand the notion. So, I held out my hand, she stared some more, as if she couldn't understand what to do with the hand I offered her.

Instead, she scrabbled upright on her own, fumbling over her malnourished body as if it wasn't her own.

I felt her watching me- she didn't take her eyes off me, even as I lifted her into my arms and slid out the door. She was thin; I felt her ribs under my fingers, and it felt like even holding too tight could break her. But she didn't complain, she stayed silent, her eyes never once straying from me.