I handed him my baseball bat and conjured another for myself. “Go wild, kid.”
Kallie conjured a bat of her own, and we went full-on vandals as we tore the room apart. Oberi changed back into a unicorn; she neighed loudly and stomped on the Warden’s desk with her front hooves. It cracked under her weight. Ava must’ve grabbed some papers off the desk, because a tearing sound filled the room.
Bang! Crack! Tear!
The satisfying sound of absolute destruction filled the space as we obliterated all the Warden’s belongings and trashed his office. I swung my bat toward the window, and it shattered to bits. A heavy gust of cold air swept through the room, sending a shiver down my spine. I hadn’t realized how warm it’d gotten in here. It was like a sauna, which meant the room would soon be engulfed in flames.
Good. Let the Warden’s prison fucking burn—
My thoughts halted as a huge explosion rocked the building. I swayed on my feet, and my ears rang.
“We got what we came for. Time to go.” I said. “Kallie, let’s portal the hell out of here.”
“We’ve got to get to the Lair,” she insisted.
“We’re more powerful than ever before,” I said. “Marcus can break the ward on the Institute, and you can portal us anywhere.”
“In the state he’s in?” Kallie demanded. “He can’t write his name, let alone paint a door.”
Marcus was still laughing maniacally, swinging his bat at pieces of furniture.
He looks like he’s in a sword fight with the toppled wardrobe, Oberi said.He’s barely functioning.
“The Institute’s ward is stronger than the one on the Warden’s office,” Kallie said. “Marcus and I have been trying to break the ward since we left Cellblock 9, but it’s over a hundred years old and self-sustaining, generating its own power. It’ll take time we don’t have. The fastest way out of here is to get to the Lair, where I can make portals through Marcus’ art, because it’s already there.”
“Then let’s get moving,” I said quickly.
We fled the Warden’s office and back down the stairs. I hefted Ava up onto Oberi’s back, and climbed on behind her before we went running down the hall. By now, the flames engulfed the walls, but Ava ordered the fire aside so we could get through. I shot my magic outward, and a hole blasted through the side of the building.
We made it out into the prison yard, where the sounds of screams were deafening. Fire crackled and burned from behind us, and the intense heat followed us as we ran across the grass. Inside the building, we could hear the dying screams of inmates as they were burned alive. Those who had survived seemed to be crowded near an area of the fence, their voices so distant I couldn’t make out what they were fighting about. They were on the opposite side of the prison yard, and we were almost to the trees beside the lake.
“They’re trying to jump the fence,” Ava told me. “People are climbing on each other to get out, but they can’t get past the noxite or the barbed wire.”
She wasn’t concerned, but rather narrating out of habit, to help me understand what was happening. It was strange how cold and uncaring her voice had become, but I felt the void within me as well. We should be asking how we could save them— hell,ifwe could save them.
But we were done trying. The only people we could save now were ourselves.
The screams weren’t the only sound. Sirens blared above our heads, and a guard barked orders into speakers mounted on the guard towers. “Back away from the fence!”
As if the inmates would actually listen. Gunshots rang out over the prison yard, and inmates cried out in pain as they were killed on the spot.
The sound of a diesel engine revved, then came the noise of spinning tires before a vehicle took off across the prison yard, gaining speed as bullets clinked off the metal frame. The screams turned to cheers as I heard the sound of tearing metal.
“Holy shit, someone’s stolen the submarine bus!” Ava told me.
Metal clanged as the bus plowed into the fence, blasting straight through it, judging by the sound of twisting and groaning. The bus continued driving, the sound fading into the distance. The crowd roared in excitement as they shouted cries of freedom.
Good for them.I hoped the poor bastards on that bus got the hell off Darke Island, never to be seen by the Warden again.
“We’re free!” Marcus changed directions and raced toward the hole in the fence.
“Marcus, no!” Kallie cried. “The Lair’s closer. We’re almost out.”
“I’m faster than bullets. Faster than lightning!” Marcus laughed.
“The spotlights—” Kallie started, but it was too late. The guards had already spotted him, and gunshots sounded. Marcus cried out, and Rishi howled.
Not good.
