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“I’m not going to the park and leaving Forge behind,” I said.
“You are going to the park, Amber,” chorused Atticus and Forge in unison.
“You can’t help Forge by hanging round our corridor, Amber,” continued Atticus solo.
“I could search the area, and keep shouting into air vents until I find him.”
“You can’t go wandering off alone in total darkness,” said Atticus. “Even if you did, you wouldn’t find Forge. He’s not just an unknown distance away from us horizontally, but he climbed down a ladder, so he’s on Level 51 now.”
“I slid down a long slope as well,” said Forge. “I think I’m on Level 53, but I could even be a level or two below that. You have to forget about me, Amber, and help Atticus get the rest of our corridor group to the park.”
I groaned. “All right. We’ll call you again when we get to the park, Forge, and discuss how to help you. Good luck.”
I ended my call, and we hurried back to where the rest of our corridor group was complaining about the taste of the ration bars and handing round a bottle of water to drink.
“We’re going to move to our local park now,” said Atticus.
“Why the park?” asked Shanna.
“Because that’s our area evacuation centre, and it has an emergency power supply.” Atticus started pulling bags out of the store room.
“Does that mean the park lights will be on?” asked Linnette hopefully.
“Yes,” said Atticus. “I doubt the lights will be on at full sun brightness, they’ll probably be running a version of the moons and stars programme, but they’ll be on. Now everyone will have to carry their lantern, their bag, and also some of our bottles of water and ration bars.”
“Why do we have to drag all those bottles of water along with us?” asked Reece. “Surely the park has an emergency water supply as well as emergency power.”
“The park has a vast emergency water supply called a lake,” said Atticus. “If you don’t want to help carry the water bottles, Reece, then you can drink the lake water.”
“We can’t drink lake water,” said Margot. “It’s had fish and ducks swimming in it.”
Atticus sighed. “The lake water would be filtered before we drank it, but if we take our bottled water with us then we can drink that first.”
Ruby’s voice spoke from Atticus’s communicator. “Listen closely, everyone. You should have all received instructions to move to the park. We’ll be using the standard convoy method, with me leading my corridor group to the north end of each of your corridors in turn so you can join us.”
She paused. “My group is ready to move now. Atticus, I hope you’re listening, because we’ll be coming to corridor 11 first, and then moving on to corridors 13, 14 and onwards in turn.”
Atticus pressed the green button. “I’m listening, Ruby.”
“Good. My group is heading for corridor 11 now.”
Atticus wound his communicator strap round his left wrist. “Amber, get your communicator working. You’ll be leading our group, while I bring up the rear.”
I wound the handle on my communicator, and checked it was working. I was already wearing my backpack. I slung a bag of ration bars over my right shoulder, picked up a bottle of water with my right hand, and my lantern with my left.
“Shouldn’t the eighteen-year-olds be in charge of this?” asked Linnette.
“They should have been, but they’ve all gone to a Lottery candidates’ event. That means it’s our job to take care of the younger teens and get everyone to safety.” Atticus loaded himself up with bottles and his lantern, then looked round. “Can anyone manage to carry the last bottle of water?”
“I can.” Casper was already heavily loaded, but wedged the extra bottle under his right arm.
“If you start getting tired, Casper, you must ask someone else to take a turn carrying the water bottles.” Atticus made a last rapid headcount, and nodded. “Amber, lead us down to the north end of the corridor.”
As I headed down the corridor, I saw a gaggle of lantern lights appear at the end. When I got closer, I saw the familiar faces of the seventeen-year-olds from corridor 12. I didn’t know all their names, so I wasn’t sure which one was Ruby until a blonde girl sitting in a powered chair smiled at me.
“Hello, Amber,” she said. “We’ll move a bit further on, and then wait for you to lead your group out behind ours. This is a very wide corridor, but most of the space is taken up by the slow belt running down the middle. I don’t want anyone tripping on the edge of that in the darkness, so we’re moving in single file.”
She waved her arm above her head in a beckoning gesture, and her powered chair started moving. A line of white lanterns followed her past the end of our corridor and then stopped. I was about to lead our group to join them, when Atticus’s voice came from the communicator.
“Ruby, do you want me to bring the manual wheelchair from our emergency store room?”
“We’ve brought ours with us,” said Ruby. “I’m hoping the charge on my powered chair will last long enough to get me to the park, but I’ll have to use the manual chair after that. You might as well bring yours too. It will be useful for transporting heavy bottles of water.”
Atticus groaned. “Why didn’t I think of that? Wait where you are for a minute, Amber, while I get the chair.” There was a clanging sound followed by a clunk. “Casper, can you load your luggage onto the chair, and push it please?”
There was a short silence before Atticus spoke again. “Sorry for the delay, Ruby. We’re ready to go now. Lead us out to join the others, Amber.”
As I started moving, I was startled to hear the sound of a hunting horn from behind me. I turned to see what was going on, and a figure seemed to leap out from nowhere. It was swathed in a black cloak and wearing the red-eyed helm of the hunter of souls.
