Free The Condemned by Claire Jolliff Page A

these bastards as she could. The fact that now it had become necessary for their escape was irrelevant. She’d probably have done it even if he had not told her to.
       Beriael, carrying his wife, took the rear and Alecia followed Amato as he once again took to leading the way through the prison.
       They came across nobody while they walked in silence, constantly on the lookout for guards, and Alecia was starting to feel fairly confident once again. The woman had calmed down enough to walk on her own and she’d fallen into step behind Leci, Beriael still trailing behind to guard them from the rear as Amato led the way.
       Roughly ten minutes after they fled the Clone Enclosure a siren began to blare around them. Alecia clamped her hands over her ears; it was loud enough to drown out her own thoughts and could only mean one thing.
       She looked up at Amato.
       His lips were moving but she couldn’t tell what he was saying. She dropped her hands from her ears but the siren was too loud and she couldn’t make out what he was trying to say, she held her hands up in a gesture of helplessness. He shook his head in frustration and then turned and broke into a run. The others followed with a sense of heightened urgency. The whole of the prison staff would now be on the lookout for renegades on the run and if their fortune didn’t hold and they were spotted, there would be trouble.
       Whether the alarm had been raised because their own escape had been discovered or due to that of the Clones, Alecia wasn’t sure. The fact that they had earlier seen suited men hurrying in the direction of her cell but that they had heard nothing until now implied that the people who had the power were trying to keep her newfound freedom as quiet as possible in an effort not to raise panic. Even the Officials could not sweep out of sight a few hundred Clones running loose throughout the building.
       It occurred to her that perhaps the siren was neither an alert regarding themselves or the Clones, but was a warning for them; ‘we know you’re on the run, we’re coming for you. There is no escape.’
       She pushed the unsettling thought to the back of her mind. If she were forced to start assessing their chances of getting out she might lose all motivation to carry on trying. She poured her faith blindly into Amato and hoped that it wasn’t misplaced.
       It felt as though they had been running through this maze forever. The endless corridors melded into one, they all looked the same, stark white walls and harsh glaring lights that hurt her eyes, reflections bouncing from the shiny marbled floor. The combination of that and the blaring alarm caused her head to ache, a throbbing just behind her eyes that made her feel a little dizzy and sick. Not wanting to hinder their progress, Leci didn’t complain. She very much hoped that the apparent randomness of their flight was not so and that they weren’t just running in the hopes of stumbling across a door that led to the outside. When Amato paused before yet another door she almost ran into him.
       She managed to stop herself and leant against the wall, grateful for the opportunity to rest a moment. She closed her eyes to stop the floor from swimming in front of her and allow a sudden wave of nausea to pass. When she opened them again it was to find the other three all watching her. The Clone woman looked concerned and offered a tentative smile, Beriael looked impatient and annoyed but she was getting used to seeing that expression on his angry face, Amato was watching her closely.
       ‘You OK there Firebug?’ He had to shout to be heard above the siren, the four of them stood in a tight circle in order to be able to hear one another speaking.
       ‘Leci.’ She offered.
       ‘Leci. You OK?’
       She nodded. ‘I’m fine. I just... I dunno, it’s kinda scary an’ at the same time I don’t really believe it’s happenin’, y’know?’
       He grinned