Rubio takes off running.
He doesn’t check behind him to see if they’re catching up; he just slips past a pair of guards who are attempting to cut him off from the front and lets his eyes roam the hall, searching for anything that could lead them to escape.
Maybe an open window, a door to the roof, literally anything.
As he passes by cell after cell, he gets a good look at the prisoners in each.
Some of them look emaciated, others appear injured.
Barely any are on their feet; most are just lying curled up in their beds.
Compared to the liveliness of the previous floors, the prisoners on this Level are downright depressing.
Rubio feels his heart clench in sympathy.
He eventually loses the guards, giving him more time to find what he’s looking for.
Specifically, an area that looks weak, weak enough that even he could bust through.
The materials of the upper floors were indeed worse; he saw it when Thalia punched the guard earlier, their body dented the bars.
While he didn’t have that kind of strength, if he could find some rusted bars or a crumbling wall, he could make a small hole, enough for them to escape.
It’s as he passes by the next hall that he spots it, faintly caught by the light from the hallway; there were some window bars with spots of rust over them.
That was it!
Their ticket out of here!
He bounds over to the cell and promptly realizes he has no way in.
Astra was holding onto the key ring he stole from the guard back in their cell.
Somebody was sleeping on the bed, though, so Rubio took the chance to knock politely on the bars.
Again, and again, and again, until the man woke up.
“What is your problem?!
I’m tryin’ to sleep!” He rages.
“Heeey, do you think you could, uhm, perhaps tie your bedsheets around the window, please?” He questioned, hands clasped together and head tilted.
“Why in the name of the Ten Seas would you wake me up for that!?” Rubio doesn’t answer; he just stares at the man pleadingly.
“Ugh, fine, what do I get out of it?” The man questions, crossing his arms.
“Uhm…the chance to escape?” Rubio offers.
“Wait a second, you’re not a guard, are you?” The man looks him up and down.
“Hah!
I should’ve noticed!
Fine, I’ll help ya.
What did ya need me to do again?” With the man’s help, the bedsheets were tied around the window and passed through the bars to Rubio.
“You might want to back up.” He suggests.
The man moves until his back is flat against the wall.
Rubio inhales, tightening his grip on the sheets.
He worries he won’t have enough strength, that he’ll have gotten this far only to look the fool and ruin the escape attempt for everybody.
“Okay, okay, I can do this.” He mumbles to himself.
“Just get it over with!” The man shouts, and then doubles over into a coughing fit, no doubt from exerting himself shouting.
“Alright!” Rubio squeaks, letting the bedsheets go a little slack before pulling on them as hard as he can.
He might have actually underestimated himself, because instead of the bars falling off the hinges, the wall breaks around the window and goes zooming toward the cell bars.
He shrieks, dropping the bedsheets and curling in on himself.
The window hits the bars with a resounding clang!
When Rubio peeks his eyes open to check the damage, he finds the bars have dented.
The man in the cell whistles appreciatively.
“Damn, nice job!
I’ll see ya later.” He takes the bedsheets, untying them from the window and then retying them to the dented bars.
He drops the mattress and disappears from view, using the bedsheets to climb down.
“Hey!
Rubio!
There you are!
We’ve been looking all over, thought you left without us or something.” His attention is caught by Thalia, whose sprinting down the hallway at full speed, Astra a half-step behind her.
“Please tell me you have a plan.” He begs.
“Uh, yeah.
I just need one of you to bend the bars far enough that we could slip through, and then we’re out of here.” He answers.
“Perfect!” Thalia’s eyes light up.
It really was perfect.
They’d slip out of here quietly, maybe each find a boat to steal on the shore, and go their separate ways.
Rubio smiled just thinking about it.
…
Why wasn’t Thalia slowing down?
Just as he considered it, the noise of pounding footsteps reached his ears, and he found himself staring at a mob of guards chasing after them.
Oh…that was why.
Thalia rips open the bars.
Literally.
She tossed the two bars behind her, almost hitting Astra just as he caught up.
“What do we do no-!?” Astra doesn’t get to finish his sentence as Thalia clutches them both by the front of their shirts.
“No time for questions, we’re going!” She cries out.
“Wait!” Rubio tries to warn, but it’s too late.
She drags them behind her as she leaps out of the hole.
The hole that is six stories above ground.
Damnit!
There was nothing below him; wind rushed through his hair, and he felt a disturbance in his gut.
Logically, it all pointed to one thing.
He was falling.
But emotionally, he chose to block out this fact.
Nope.
If he closed his eyes and pretended it wasn’t happening, then maybe his delusion would come true!
Yeah, right.
“Uaaaaaagh!
Why’d you shove us!” Astra’s screeching voice could just be heard over the wind.
“I wasn’t looking!
How was I supposed to know this would happen!
Wasn’t it supposed to be the first floor!?
She shrieks back.
“The first Level!
All the Levels below six are below sea level; the rest are all above!
We were on the top floor!
Didn’t you listen to my in-depth explanation on the prison!?” Rubio shouts.
“Uh, no!
It was boring, that’s why I asked for basics!” She replies.
Rubio tries to squint his eyes open, in an attempt to assess the situation, but he can’t open them for more than a second before they water up from the wind.
He moves his arms to cover them, trying to avoid some of the pressure.
From what he could see, the ground was approaching fast, and there was nothing around for them to grab onto.
No convenient water either, though falling from such a height into water probably wouldn’t be so different.
The town sprawled before his eyes; if he wasn’t so focused on his immediate survival, he would’ve taken in the sights a bit more.
It was night, and the lights from the houses sparkled in his eyes.
The town was built with the prison as its centerpiece, sitting directly in the middle at the highest point.
They appeared to be built with the prison in mind, as they were all dark and boxy, similar to Riverium.
They drifted out from the prison, angling down the farther you went outwards.
The streets were horrifically steep, and they were falling right toward one of them.
“Ugh, hold on!
Don’t move!” Astra yells out, slightly above him.
Turning his head against the wind, he glances up and sees an expanse of colorful wings spreading out.
Something digs into his shoulder; it’s painful, and he almost struggles, but holds off as Thalia bumps into him.
She’s being held aloft by something as well; focusing on her shoulder, he sees it’s a talon, Astra’s.
For a second, a beautiful, glorious second.
They aren’t falling anymore, gliding peacefully on the wind as their free fall evens out.
“Too…heavy!” Astra’s voice strains.
And then it’s over.
They don’t quite free-fall, but their descent to the ground is disjointed.
Thankfully, most of their velocity was reduced, but when Astra is finally forced to let go, Rubio plants his feet too far forward.
Tripping backward, he rolls painfully across the ground as it scrapes at his clothes.
Dizzily sitting up, he places a hand on his head as he waits for the world to sit straight.
“I think I’m gonna be sick.” Thalia warbles.
Then he hears the distinct sound of vomit splashing across the ground.
“Eugh!
You got some on my shoes!” Astra shouts angrily, then there’s a cracking noise, and Thalia grunts in pain.
“Is the world still spinning for everyone else?” He questions.
“C’mon, get up.
We need to get out of here before the guards come.” A hand grasps his shoulder and pulls him roughly to his feet.
He stumbles around for a second, shaking his head to clear some of the vertigo.
“Stop right there!” Lo and behold, the livid voice of a guard could be heard from behind them.
Astra and Thalia bump into him from behind, pushing him forward as they run into the town’s twisting alleyways.