James had requested that I keep on the work detail for the next week and so I did. 

I moved sandbags, I carried bricks, I was building Deluca for the man who'd beaten me into an overnight stay at the infirmary. 

But at the same time as James' people were watching me, everyone else was too. It wasn't just the guards, it was the people carrying bricks and sandbags with me. 

I'd been working for a few days and I hadn't been working with the same people. The shifts were constantly changing, the only person I saw every day was Henry. I never changed shifts and neither did he and every day he would put me in charge of a group. 

Maybe they knew... Maybe they could tell that I wasn't just carrying bricks while I was on the site. I was watching, observing, and getting ready. 

I was going to get out of here.

Ahri had been gone for five days. I had no idea what James had done to her or if she could even be alive. Even if he'd sent her out there alive, could she have survived the past week?

Ahri was strong, she could protect herself but it was a dangerous world. 

I'd been in here for too long but I had to make the perfect escape. I couldn't risk messing it up. Henry would have to trust me for my plan to work. 

So I worked, hard and well. I doubled my tasks when I could and I always got the job done. 

I had to get myself out to get everyone else out too. Then we'd have to find Ahri. 

Today was the day I'd pull my plan off. Today I was going to get out. 

"Carson," The guard called out.

"Here."

He marked it off on his clipboard and kept going.

"Krista,"

"Here."

"Frankie,"

I paused and looked around the room. As I found her in the crowd, she responded. 

"Here."

One of them had finally been put on my shift. Frankie and I would escape today. 

I wouldn't have to do it alone, it would either be a lot easier or a lot harder with Frankie. But things weren't going to change. She and I would get out today.

The guard called a few more names before he got to me. 

"Sasha,"

I'd gotten used to hearing my name again, it finally felt like me.

"Here."

When Henry finally ordered us to the construction site, I surfed through the crowd the find Frankie. I didn't want it to look like I was searching for someone but I had to find her. 

I finally saw her and as I made my way over there, she saw me too. We met halfway and kept moving with the crowd.

"Stay quiet, move fast," I whispered and she nodded.

"I have a plan to get us out of here. Just stay close, but not too close."

She nodded again and stayed quiet.

We got into the construction site they ordered us into ranks. Frankie and I stood next to each other. When Henry came around, he put me in charge of my rank. Today he also added a "Good morning Sasha. Glad to see you're still working on my shift."

I just nodded back and he continued to go around the groups. 

We were moving boards today. My group had to carry boards from one pile to all the other groups. 

I lead my group to the pile. I ordered them each to a station and told them how many boards they had to take there.

As Frankie and I went to grab our boards I whispered to her. "Henry takes a five-minute break about halfway through the shift. That's our moment, just keep an eye on him and stay close to me."

"I haven't seen the others in two days." Frankie starts to say as we both pick up a board. "He separated us and I guess we've all been rotating shifts." 

I sigh. "Not me, I've been on this shift since he put me to work. That's how I've gotten my plan perfected. Just follow my lead and we'll get out of here."

She nods and we begin carrying our boards to our groups.

I count my boards and survey my group. Today was a good group, everybody had done at least seven of their fifteen boards by the time I got through ten. 

I look up at the guards and watch as Henry goes to clock out for his break. Frankie looks over to me and I nod. 

As I set my eleventh board down and watch as Frankie does hers too, I look towards the edge of the construction site. The hole between the guards was open, just as I knew it would be. 

I spend a few seconds working myself up to run for it. I think about the hammer that I'd managed to hide next to one of the guard stations that was empty every other day and I stare out at the forest past the guards. 

It was so close, and today we'd make it.

I take a step forward, starting my run but then the guards all start blowing their whistles. I stop dead in my tracks, I'd been caught. I hadn't even done anything, and I'd been caught. 

I look around, panicking and then I see it. 

The real reason the guards were whistling. A herd of dead ones had wandered straight through the woods to the construction site. 

The guards had run into the site and were trying to get the laborers inside.

I ran to the guard station and reached for my hidden hammer, now I'd definitely need it to get out of here. 

Frankie came running to me. "Sasha, look at the herd."

I furrow my brow and look at the herd. I didn't know what I was looking for. I ran my eyes through all the dead ones when I suddenly saw it. 

A woman was among the herd. I'd almost missed her, she was covered in guts walking through them. I looked through more of the herd and she wasn't the only one. 

There must have been at least seven or eight people walking with the dead. But they wouldn't have just followed the dead here... No, they had led them here for a reason.

The guards had started to gun down the dead ones but it was only bringing more and more of them from all directions. 

Frankie and I look around us, chaos had ensued and my plan wasn't going to work anymore. But we could still make it out of here, we just had to make it through the dead.

"Those people brought that herd here." I tell Frankie.

She nods. "What do we do?"

I sigh and look back through the herd of the dead. Then something bright catches my eye. I do a double-take and confirm my thoughts.

Ahri was in there. Covered in guts from the dead and barely recognizable under her new pixie cut.

"Ahri is in there." I say, pointing into the herd.

"We have to get in there." Frankie tells me.

I nod in agreement. 

We start running towards the herd and Ahri sees us. She gets the attention of someone close to her and I watch in amazement as together, they lead a small group of the herd towards us.

The person she's with comes out ahead of the herd and pulls two sheets off of himself. Both were covered in guts from the dead and he hands one to each of us. 

I quickly throw the sheet over myself and so does Frankie.

He puts a finger to his lips and whispers, "Shhhh..."

We fall into the herd and I stay close to Ahri. It was weird, walking through the dead like this. It didn't feel right and I sure as hell didn't like the smell.

As the herd was thinning, I could see people running for the woods.

I didn't say anything as I followed Ahri and the man into the woods.

We were out. It had worked. Frankie and I had escaped from Deluca, now we just had to get the others. 

Fletch, Ahren, and Luna were still inside but if they'd managed to get me and Frankie out with a horde of zombies, we'd be able to get the others too.