Free Whisper Gatherers by Nicola McDonagh Page B

then pushed me through.

Chapter Ten
    Another Place Of Hiding

    This corridor was wide and brightly lit by one long fluorescent light tube that stretched all the way along the ceiling. Grey and cold, it stretched a goodly way. “Keep moving until you get to a black door,” Orva said.
    In the distance, a dark oblong shape came into view. I ran swiftly towards it. It was huge. Big enough for a whole tree to go through. “Why is it so vast?”
    “I have no idea, perhaps whoever built it had something in mind. Perhaps they needed it to be large so that they could get large things through,” she said and looked at me as though I was a bub. She knocked twice, then three times on the door and I heard the same sequence tapped back. Orva took a big metal key from her backpack, inserted it into the lock and turned. The door made a heavy clunking sound as it opened. I strained my neck in an attempt to see what was beyond it.
    “Stay close to me. Follow each step I take as if you were my shadow.”
    We stepped out into semi-darkness. I sucked in outside air and coughed. Dreng stood before us and put his finger to his lips. Orva tilted her head to the moonless sky, sniffed, then motioned for us to follow. I did what she told me, mimicking her quick strides.
    It was hard to keep up, at first, her legs being longer than mine, but I managed without too much loss of breath. Although I was disorientated and had no clue where we traipsed, the familiar high-up search lights that ringed the perimeter fence, blasted on and I calmed as we moved past less shady objects I recognised. As the dimness faded I realised that we were at the outer edges of Cityplace.
    The dazzling lights that lit the sky and made the stars run for cover, came closer into view. We stopped. “Cams and Flashlighters are everywhere. The whole place is on alert looking for you. That Daniel male blabbed about the exit we took. Now all strive to find the portal. Although it is well hidden and impossible to open, they are aware of its existence. Who knows, perhaps some Meek may stumble on its unlocking device.”
    “Where to now?”
    Dreng stepped forward and said in a loud whisper, “To a secret S.A.N.T. safe place. Ye will be secure there for sure.”
    Orva pointed to a large container. It was one of the many huge waste bins that flanked the outer perimeter of Cityplace. No one but the Sanitary cleaners were allowed access to them. Although, once when playing, ‘hide-and-I’ll-go-seek’ with Santy Breanna, Deogol and I hid behind one. She found us super quick of course and gave us such a scolding that we never went back.
    “It is a basic hideaway.”
    “What, more basic than the underground thingy?”
    “Afraid so. But, there is a vidscreen and companel for us to communicate.”
    “No steamshower?”
    “No.”
    “A pooplace at least?”
    “Well, there is an organicwastebox.”
    “I will have to relieve myself in a thing that does not flush?”
    “Indeed. But it is hygienic in its own way.”
    I pressed my head on the sticky outer surface of the container and emitted a lengthy groan.
    “Ah, come on now, ye will adapt, ye are S.A.N.T. trained.”
    “Only partially, I have not yet gone to camp.”
    “Ye will thrive, I know it.”
    I pulled away and wiped the sludgy stuff from my forehead. I did ask once what the containers were made from. Santy had no clue and merely said, “They are fashioned from the stuff they are fashioned from. Best not to wonder at things that are of little concern.”
    Orva lay flat on her back and shuffled herself underneath the vastly box. Then reached up and twiddled something. A small flap flipped open and hung down. “This is how you enter and leave. Come follow me inside.” She pulled herself up and out of sight. I sank to the floor, as Orva had, and wriggled my way through the gap; which was indeed a tight fit.
    The interior of the wastebin was a large cylindrical space that boasted nowt more than a small bed against one of