Read Escape (Chronicles of Hart) for Free Online Page B

upon. They were probably looming in a corner waiting for Steve to return so they could shove them in and close the ground back up, leaving them lost forever. Walt looked over his shoulder cautiously, jumping at the sound of Steve walking back towards him after several minutes of silence.
    “Called for backup.” Steve said struggling to replace the phone in the tiny chest pocket of his uniform shirt, “I say we follow, both of us. Just until backup gets here,” He stopped to pull his flashlight back out, clicking it on with gusto “at least it will look like we tried,” he smiled to Walt knowing that neither of them wanted to face the girl anyway.
    Walt waited while Steve adjusted his holster, checking his gun clip just in case he needed it in the tunnel. Walt looked for an opening big enough for them to fit though. He crawled down shining his flashlight looking for lights, listening for sounds. When Steve joined him he knew they were too far behind to catch up. They trudged on anyway, knowing the consequences if they did not follow were worse than a walk through a murky tunnel.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    HIDDEN
     
     
    Ethan slowed his pace, looking frantically with his dim light from side to side. He hoped to see Grace paused for a break. He secretly worried that he had passed her already. He knew as a child she had been filled with energy, but after years of captivity he was concerned about her keeping up and ahead of the guards that were likely soon to follow. He was exhausted and having trouble breathing in the damp warm air. His breathing became heavier as the tunnel dipped further into the earth and his lungs burned from exhaustion. The air grew staler and thicker the farther in he went. Ethan could not breath, pausing to catch his bearings he dared turn his light off for a moment to conserve the battery life. He held his hands over his head to open up his airway, a trick he had learned as a child to help overcome severe asthma attacks. He crouched on the balls of his feet, taking deep painful breaths trying desperately to stifle off an attack. The guards had frisked him before tying him against the post in the cellar, his inhaler had been chucked somewhere in the piles of boxes surrounding him. He may have had a backup in the messenger bag of supplies he had toted in over the wall, but the contents had been spilled in a trail over the front steps and across the church floor. It was empty before they had reached the winding staircase. He knew he should have chosen a more secure bag for the supplies. Now scattered out of reach, he wasn’t sure they would have all the necessary tools to get through the tunnels.
    As his breathing calmed, Ethan heard noises in the tunnel behind him. It sent his heart racing in a panic. Standing quickly, he turned back to look and noticed that the tunnel was growing brighter like a train coming towards him with its high beams on. The lights were bright and numerous. Someone had a light and was following up behind him. It confirmed his hopes that Grace must be ahead of him, Ethan rose and continued on in the dark. He tucked his flashlight back into his pocket leaving it off, not wanting to give away his location. He tripped forward catching a face full of the putrid mud that infected the tunnel floor. The path was more intense than he had anticipated. More like an obstacle course than a gateway and without the light of his flashlight he was unfamiliar with the loss of his sense of sight. He only hoped that he could make do without it long enough to evade the guards closing in behind him, once they spotted him it would be over and both he and Grace would be dead. Rising from the slick muck he began forward at the fastest pace he could manage as his feet caught and he tried to rely on his other senses.
    Grace, with one hand grazing the wall beside her, came to a halt as her other hand finally made contact with something solid. With two hands she felt the stones in front of her and