“We have to take a detour, Ruby. I need you to take care of the girls,” Charles said.

“Where are you going?”

“Our friend was taken the same time as us. He was a crew member on the ship. We have to get him out somehow.”

“You said we couldn’t risk taking anyone with us,” Sammie cried.

“We have to try Sammie, think of his family.”

Charles stroked his wife’s face and stared intently into her eyes. Ruby stared in awe. They were a beautiful couple. Ruby would be sad to see them killed by Hallaw guards because they were acting foolish.

Ruby wasn’t sure if he’d just had this epiphany when they had escaped, or if he had planned to figure out how they’d escape then go back for him. Anger flooded through her, they’d almost made it.

“Mawri sweetie, Ruby is going to get you to the outside. We’ll see you there,” Sammie said. Her eyes were wet and she didn’t sound very confident.

Charles took the gun he’d taken from the guard out and handed it to her. “Use this if you need to.”

She studied the gun. It was foreign to her. He quickly pointed how to ready it, charge it, and where the trigger was. She nodded and hoped it wasn’t the last time they’d see each other.

Ruby watched as they walked back towards where they’d come from.

Ruby grabbed a small hand in each of hers and headed towards the darkness.

“Okay girls, let’s get out of here. We’re going to play the quiet game.”

They moved slowly down the hall. It was quiet and there was no way to know how deep the tunnel they were in went or where they’d be when they reached the end of it. Occasionally, a bug or animal of some kind scurried past and Ruby had to keep herself from shuddering. The light she and Rori put off gave them just enough light, but she could still step on a snake or something unseen just ahead.

Just as she had that thought, footsteps echoed around them. It sounded like the Hallaw guard was coming straight towards them. Ruby pushed the girls into an alcove naturally made in the rock around them and squeezed in front of them. The opening was small and the three of them just fit. She prayed the baby didn’t make any noise, but the little girl was smart and seemed to sense that they should be quiet.

The guard came close to them and sniffed the air. The Hallaw were a race of people with scales and an affinity for water. They could breathe on land and underwater, which made it easy for them to sneak up on their enemies. She searched her brain for anything else she might have read about them in her brother’s book. Ruby could only help their sense of smell was not great. She held the gun ready at her chest, hoping she wouldn’t have to use it.

The guard moved past them walking back towards the cells. He would soon discover his comrade inside theirs and come after them. They needed to hurry. Quietly, she slid from her hiding place and helped the girls after her. She grabbed Rori’s hand and pointed for her to grab Mawri’s. The tunnel had gotten thinner and they couldn’t walk three wide anymore.

Ruby thought she saw light up ahead and sighed with relief. Not knowing the planet she wasn’t sure what they’d run into, but getting out of the tunnels would be a good first step. They made their way towards the light, but it just seemed to get further and further away. They’d been walking for over an hour when Rori tugged on her arm.

“Mawri keeps sitting down, I don’t think she can walk anymore.”

Ruby picked the small child up and let her rest on her shoulder. She was tired and Ruby hoped they found her parents soon.

Footsteps came from the wall this time and Ruby readied herself having nowhere to go. The walls of the tunnel had narrowed.

The wall burst open, a door she hadn’t seen allowing someone to spill into the tunnel in front of them.

“It’s us, it’s Charles. We know how to get out of here.”

Sammie peered out behind him and pulled her sleeping child from Ruby, pressing her to her chest. 

“How do we get out of here?” Ruby was relieved to see them.

“We can go out at the end of the tunnel. We’ll be in a control room, which leads to the outside. Not sure what we’ll run up against when we get outside, but if we can make it to one of their service ships, we can hide underneath and get out on a safe planet.

“The guard was going back towards the cells, soon our escape will be discovered,” Ruby said.

Charles nodded, “I managed to steal one more gun. We need to move fast.”

They moved quickly down the tunnel. Rori tripped and cried out. Charles moved back and scooped her up. They heard footsteps moving quickly behind them and started to run.

The light finally started to get brighter up ahead and they determined they were finally reaching the end. Once they did get to the end of the tunnel, there was a ladder leading up to a door. Charles climbed the ladder and pushed the door open looking around. He nodded, jumping back down and helped each of them up into the control room.

It was a hundred degrees and equipment buzzed all around them. He slammed the door shut as shouts were heard below them. They didn’t have a lot of time before the Hallaw were on them.

“Our best bet when we get out of here is to hide in the woods. If we run through the open field out back we’ll be shot or captured for sure. If we can find a ship somewhere on the planet that would be better, but we have to take this one step at a time,” Charles whispered to them.

“The woods are a terrible place to hide on my planet,” Ruby said. “What if there’s something worse in there?”

“That’s a chance we’ll have to take,” Charles said. “I managed to get one of their weapons and we can rely on our survival skills in the woods.

Ruby didn’t want to tell him the survival skills she’d been taught were a little different, but she did realize they didn’t have many options.

They moved slowly past the equipment. She wondered what it did. There had to be a way they could report what was happening on Hallaw, and with the Craintors. It couldn’t be okay to hold people prisoner, could it?

They made it to the edge of the room and listened at the door. There wasn’t any yelling, but it would still be hard to determine if there were guards outside. Finally, Charles went for it, opening the door and rushing out looking both ways. They all followed him and ran towards the trees, which seemed impossibly far away.

Still, they didn’t hear any yelling and nothing gave her the impression they were being chased. They didn’t stop running until they made it deep into the woods and knew they couldn’t be seen from outside the trees.