Free Clockwork Twist : Waking by Emily Thompson

boy's words.
    “Who were those men?” Twist asked, looking back to the closed door.
    “Pirates,” Halil said.
    “More pirates?” Twist gasped, exasperated. “I'm sick to death of pirates!”
    A loud siren bellowed off the metal walls.  Twist looked around for the source, his hands over his ears, but the sound died again before he could find it.  Halil immediately started to shovel coal into the small glowing hole in the front of the boiler.
    “Hurry,” he said as he worked, “there are more shovels over there.  Take one and help me.  That sound means they want more speed.  If they catch you not working, they'll beat you.”
    “Oh, this is not on,” Twist said to himself as he searched for a shovel.  He found one and fell into rhythm beside Halil, shoveling. “I get taken halfway around the world by pirates.  I get attacked and thrown off an airship by pirates.  Now I'm turned into a coal shoveling slave by pirates.  I'm not having it anymore!”
    “You can't escape,” Halil said in a hushed tone, stopping to stare at Twist in fear. “They'll beat you.”
    “Only if they stop me,” Twist said, pausing in his work as well.
    “They will,” Halil said, nodding quickly. “No one escapes.  If you try more than once they kill you!  Besides, we're under water.  How can you get out?”
    “I'll wait until the ship is on the surface,” Twist said.
    “They lock up the slaves before they go anywhere near the surface,” Halil said. “And at night too, when everyone goes to sleep.”
    “And they keep you here otherwise?”
    “Well, yes,” Halil said. “There are other slaves too, but I only see them at night.”
    “Then that's when I'll escape,” Twist said. “When they come to get us.”
    “But you … you can't!” Halil said, clutching his shovel fearfully.
    “I'm not spending my life in this horrible place.  I'm going to Nepal, I'm going to save her, and then I'm going home.  That's final.”
    Halil stared at him in fear and wonder, his mouth open but silent.  The siren bellowed again, for longer this time.  Halil turned with a frightened yelp and redoubled his efforts to shovel the coal into the boiler.
    “Wait, no,” Twist said, staring at the rumbling, bulging, furious steam engine. “Stop shoveling.”
    “But they'll—“ Halil began.
    “Beat us.  Yes, I know,” Twist said. “Just stop.  They'll come in here if we don't do what they want, right?”
    “Yes.  And they'll bring things to beat us with.”
    “Just wait,” Twist said, watching the door but standing close beside the metal face of the boiler.  He held his shovel in one hand, and held his other hand close to—but not yet touching—the engine. “Do you know the way to the bridge of this ship?” he asked Halil over his shoulder.
    “I think it's forward, on the level above us,” he said. “I've only been there once.”
    “Lead me there, and you can come with me back to the surface,” Twist said. “But whatever you do, don't touch me.  Not for any reason.  Do you understand?”
    “No,” Halil said instantly.
    Twist smiled back at him. “Can you do it anyway?”
    The siren bellowed for a long moment as the two stared at each other.  Halil finally nodded to Twist, clutching at his shovel but remaining still.
     

 

     
     
    It was only a few moments before the wheel in the center of the door began to turn.  Twist pressed his palm onto the warm surface of the steam engine's face, and let the enormous pressure, rage, pride, and blazing fire pour freely into him.
    “What are you two doing?” growled one of the two thugs who opened the door and stepped inside. “This is no time to rest!”
    Twist's blood pulsed fast and hot through his veins, his vision sharp and his body tight.  He walked towards the thugs as they both came into the room.  One of them smiled at him unkindly, holding a thick, baton-like stick in his wide hands.
    “You need to learn your pla—“ he began to say, before Twist