"Go." Zach pushed Cole out the door and slammed it shut. Zach whipped his belt off and tied it around the door handle. He stuck out his hand. "Shovel." With minimal hesitation, Cole handed his friend the shovel he had been holding, and watched as Zach tied the other end of the belt around the grip. Zach slammed the blade into the dirt outside. "That should hold him in there for a while." He paused, looked back at the door, and then back to Cole. "We have to go."
Cole nodded and ran down the tunnel wanting to get out of here as fast as possible. Zach's footsteps were close behind, and Cole didn't stop until they reached the top of the stairs that led into the main level. Only at the top did he pause to let Zach catch up.
"Did he follow us?" Cole asked.
"Still need to move as fast as we can," Zach said. He gasped for air and headed for the new shovelers barracks. "What are we doing anyway?"
"We have to get to the top room."
"I know," Zach said. "You said that back there."
"I thought maybe with everything going on you you didn't hear me."
It had been a lot to take in, Cole was all too familiar, but in his time with Zach, he was a man who moved on quickly and didn't cling too much to the past. It was good in their profession, and it was even better now in their situation. It didn't even seem to phase Zach now that the world hadn't ended and their entire existence was a lie.
"But how exactly do we get to the top room?"
"Root, remember? He can help us. He's been there before."
"Right," Zach said. "But he's in prison." The men exchanged questioning looks. "Not much help to us there."
Cole nodded. He hadn't quite figured that part out yet. He vaguely remembered Root telling him that nobody got out of prison, which seemed absurd, especially given that Cole was now free. Unfortunately, Cole wasn't familiar with the prison system, or really security of any kind. It was the one time in his life he wished he had had more interactions with them.
"I think," Zach kept talking, "that I might be able to talk to a buddy of mine. His parents were security. He probably knows a thing or two."
"Do we really need to bring another person into this?"
"I mean, what other choice do we have?"
Zach was right. Short of wandering down to the prison and trying to break Root out themselves, Cole wasn't sure what else they could do. They wouldn't get far, just the two of them, so any insider information they could gather ahead of time would prove useful.
"Fine," Cole admitted. "But we need to keep him in the dark as much as we can."
Zach held up his hands. "No argument there. Once we figure out what we're really dealing with maybe, but not now."
Even then, Cole thought, he didn't want to cause an uproar across town. Not yet. They had a long way to go before that would be their top concern, so he shrugged it aside as they walked into the barracks. The doors swung open and a security guard greeted them immediately.
"Tightening up security?" Zach joked as the guard stopped them from walking forward.
"Yes," he said matter-of-factly. "All shovelers are now required to be with their enforcer at all times."
Panic ran up and down Cole's spine. It was stressful enough to worry about being watched by enforcers in the machine rooms, but breathing down their necks would make it impossible to go anywhere else. Besides, Cole's enforcer may have been dead for all he knew. He wondered what the punishment for that was.
"Where are yours?" The guard asked, raising his eyebrow.