You run.
They're not far behind, but the sound of their footsteps is lost in the maze of tunnels.
They have dogs.
You duck into a smaller tunnel, you have to run in a crouch here, because you're a tall boy. You and Chris put pepper here last week and if you're lucky, some of it is still strong enough on the slick, damp floor to confuse the dogs.
Sharp left turn into another bigger tunnel and you almost slip, but you catch the helpful hook of rusty steel that pokes out of the wall right at the turn. You've been running ever since they spotted you, Upground, right outside Morrix Digs. You haven't been Upground much, but you've all got the quickest routes back down memorised. You made it. They followed, of course, but it hardly ever happens that they catch anyone down here.
Hardly ever, famous last words, and you have time to finish that thought before you stumble on something and go sprawling on your face in the half-inch of stagnant water that covers the bottom of the tunnel.
You fall hard and you know how to fall but sometimes even training isn't enough. You feel your knee twist and something tears and cracks in your foot. Your forehead smacks into the rough concrete of the wall. You clap your hands over your mouth to muffle the scream.
You can handle pain. It's just a question of riding the wave and not think about what's broken and is it permanent and will the dogs find you and will someone from below find you first and if they take you, will Chris ever know what happened. Don't think about that, just lie here frozen as the stinking water seeps through your clothes.
The pain dies down from a scream to a dull roar, and you relax one muscle after another and try to move. You think your kneecap is dislocated. That's not too bad. You think something is broken in your leg. That's very bad. You hope it's the splint bone rather than the shinbone, because you can still walk with a broken splint bone. You move your foot and hiss and admit that it's not the splint bone but something worse, something in the foot. You don't think you'll be able to walk.
The pain is making your head swim, and you want to cry, but you can't, they'll find you and you can't cry when they can burst in here any minute. That's a rule you've made for yourself. If they ever catch you, they won't catch you crying.
You can hear the dogs now.
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