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disappeared to.
    Ethan reached into his pocket and removed a small flashlight that the guards had overlooked. The light from it was dim and quickly absorbed into the darkness of the long tunnel. It cast an eerie green cloud into the tunnels thick air. He looked around for a moment, searching for Grace in the light. “You already left, didn’t you...” he mumbled into the darkness, disappointed that she hadn’t waited for him. Looking forward, his light didn’t capture Grace anywhere ahead in the tunnel either. He began to move quickly, hoping to catch her. The path was difficult, his shoes caught in the mud making suctioning noises when he pulled them out. He tried moving faster to avoid sinking in, stumbling twice where the deep mud became stone slab raised slightly higher as the softer areas had sunken in over time.
    Ethan was not a very athletic kid. He had never played any sports, so keeping a steady fast pace was tiring on him. If his life had not depended on his escape, he would have stopped for a break by now. Adrenaline was kicking in, giving him an edge as his senses became familiar with picking out obstacles within the tunnel. He hoped he would catch up to Grace soon. He worried that he might have passed her. Every couple of minutes he would whisper, “Grace?” to see if she was close enough to hear him.
    Ethan’s shoes were filling with water. He felt like he was walking in a swamp as muck sloshed around inside his socks. He wished he had thought to dress better for this excursion. He should have packed something warmer for Grace too. Underground the air had a damp chill to it that was pleasant against his flushed skin while he worked up a sweat walking. Soon, however, the cold air would be a problem. Grace was only wearing thin layers and could easily catch a chill or pneumonia from the exposure in the passageway and he needed to get her out alive.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    TUNNEL
     
     
    Grace moved quickly, cautiously testing her footing with each step after almost falling over what was probably a tree root. She made her way through the tunnel hoping that there would be no fork in the road along the way. With no light, she couldn’t check the map Ethan had given her. At every support beam Grace would pause, quickly pushing a hand in front searching for a wall before her, afraid of walking into it head on. She was disappointed a little bit more each time she swiped her hand through the air and felt nothing in front of her.
    The tunnel inclined slowly, growing steeper as Grace moved on. Downwards it grew danker and darker. The air was almost too thick to breath.  Like soup it caught in her lungs making it harder to press forward. Grace pushed on determined to make it to the next checkpoint before the guards caught up. She knew the entrance to this tunnel was still passable with the junk caught up in the opening preventing it from closing safely behind them. It was a dead giveaway as to where she and Ethan had disappeared to. With all of the commotion the moving floor had caused in the cellar they would have to be incompetent not to realize they were down that hole in the floor. She was wondering how far behind they were when her foot slipped from under her. It sent her sliding down a wet hill and it took her a moment of fumbling to regain her footing. She was covered in mud and sweat, lurching forward through the soupy muck, ankle deep in parts. As the caked mud began to dry on her arms and back in a breeze from below, she became uncomfortable and cold. The drying mud cracked on her skin as she moved.
    Behind her a dim light bounced against the ceiling as it ambled along like a humble green cloud in the distance. She quickened her pace and it began steadily growing farther away, but she would not let up until she was through the checkpoint and had closed it behind her. She hoped the guards had not caught up to Ethan. He was surely somewhere behind her, he hadn’t kept pace and when she whispered his