"Oh."
We had reached the cable cars on the north side of the city and were heading straight to the air lock.
"No biohazard suits?" I asked.
"Don't worry, the landing areas are safe zones. You only had them on before because you were heading into an untested area," Laurie said, but I still hesitated.
"Do you really think we would be going down there without suits if it was dangerous?" she asked, clapping a hand on my arm and steering me into a waiting cable car.
The ride down still took my breath away but the excitement I had felt before was replaced with fear. I wiped my sweaty palms on my trousers and counted my breaths in an attempt to stay calm.
At the base of The Wall where the cable cars turned around, a small group of people were gathered. I noticed some of them getting out of the car ahead of ours and could make out people in the car behind us too. They were all dressed like me and were surrounded by Wardens.
There were plenty of scars and bulging muscles coupled with grimaces on faces that looked in no way approachable. I wondered if any of them weren't Dwellers. I hadn't been planning on making new friends anyway.
The Wardens were fanning out to create a circle around the prisoners.
The door slid open as we reached the ground and Laurie pointed me towards the other prisoners. I stepped out and felt the softness of the dusty ground beneath my feet and the wind blowing in my face. It was like learning to breathe all over again. I had never noticed how stuffy the city was but suddenly it was clear. At least I would get to experience a bit more of the outside world during my sentence.
I peered around, looking for Taylor. He wasn't hard to spot standing to one side of the group. I swear he was taller than I remembered. At least six foot maybe even more, with his brown hair still falling into his eyes.
I made my way to his side and he put an arm around me.
"Did they let you see your dad before you left?" I asked.
He nodded. "After the trial. Mom too."
"I guess orphans don't get visitors," I smiled bitterly.
"They said they were going to try and see you after they left me." Taylor held me at arms' length and looked into my eyes with an annoying amount of concern. I shook him off.
"I've been alone since I was twelve, don't start giving me the poor little orphan look." I walked away from him towards the rest of the group. Taylor trailed behind, trying to wipe the pity from his face before I smacked it off.
The last cable car came to a stop and a group of Wardens twice the size of those that had escorted me, including Unibrow, disembarked. They were surrounding a huge man who was held between them by hand and leg manacles attached to chains. His arms were roped with tattoos of various violent looking weapons and he was actually snarling like some kind of animal. He was tugging on the chains as though determined to cause as much difficulty for his captors as possible.
His head was shaved completely bald and he had a nasty gleam in his eyes as they darted about, taking measure of all the other convicts. His gaze connected with mine and I took an involuntary step backwards. I quickly turned away.
"Time to move." Laurie had appeared next to me and I jumped a little as she spoke.
"Where to?" I asked.
She pointed across the open area to a tunnel entrance which was barely visible amongst the rocky terrain. The assembled group started heading towards it.
"Transport takes you underground. It's safer, plus you don't know which direction you're travelling which helps with security." As she strolled along next to me companionably it was easy to forget she was a Warden. I was aware of Taylor following behind us, his eyes boring a hole in the back of my head.
The tunnel opened up ahead of us like a dark mouth ready to swallow us whole. The other convicts and Wardens were already disappearing rapidly downwards and out of sight as we moved to follow.
As we arrived at the tunnel entrance, we were met with a huge metal staircase that descended deep underground. Each step was dimly lit with yellow lights but they didn't give enough illumination to show much of the surrounding cavern which dropped away from us.
"Line up, keep up the pace!" Unibrow shouted.
The other Wardens started to urge the remaining prisoners on. We lined up for the stairs, four abreast. Laurie was on my right by the wall, Taylor on my left and another Warden, who I christened Fish-lips, to his left. Bodies were packed in front and behind us, uncomfortably close together.
I looked back for one last glimpse of sunlight and saw the Wardens holding the chained man at the rear.
My boots clanged noisily as they made the transition from stone to metal and I started the descent.
All I could hear was the pounding of feet which echoed dully in the confined s