The Seven by Sean Patrick Little Page A

Holly had been thinking it, too, but she didn't want to be the one to bring it up.
    "No!" Sarah was horrified. "I'm not going to leave him!"
    "We don't have a choice, Sarah!" John shouted. "The military is going to be in here in an instant. We can't move Andy! He'll be okay. We need to get Posey and Kenny out of here!"
    "No!"
    Andy's mouth opened. His breath was coming in short, seething gasps. "Go! Get out...of here!"
    "You have to come with us, Andy!" Sarah shouted. "All for one, one for all and crap like that. Please!"
    Andy grabbed her with one oversized hand. "Don't...make me...throw...you!"
    Indigo stepped in and yanked Sarah from Andy's grip. "Come on!"
    Holly delicately lifted Posey into a fireman's carry. The difference in their sizes was painfully evident as Posey's dangling arms and legs almost touched the floor when Holly stood up. John ran over and grabbed Kenny. Indigo pushed Sarah through the door first, and the others, without Andy, followed. John kicked the door shut behind them and the newly re-programmed security protocol locked the door shut.
    They were in a long, dark tunnel. Holly's sensitive ears could hear drips of water in the distance. She also heard...the soft shuffle of leathery wings. A bat!
    "I can't see anything," said Indigo.
    "Hush!" Holly said. "There's a bat in this tunnel! He can get us out." Holly reached out mentally, implanting images of friendship and assistance into the bat's mind. The bat replied in kind rather quickly. Holly caught images of what the bat was experiencing, walls and shapes being lit up by echolocation. In seconds, she began to receive images of the tunnel's surroundings. There were some boxes near the door, but the rest of the tunnel was vacant. It had a damp floor from being subterranean, but it wasn't muddy or flooded. The tunnel went straight for about two hundred and fifty yards, and then began to lead upward in a long, low, shallow incline. "This way," said Holly. She began to walk forward, Posey's feet bouncing off the ground occasionally as she walked. The others followed closely behind her, silent, listening to her footsteps.
    As the tunnel began to incline, Holly could see a pinpoint of light in the distance. The bat projected images of freedom into her head: Cave mouths, open sky, a forest. It was a long way, but it was freedom.
    "We're almost there," she said. "The bat says we're almost there."
    "Thank him for me," said John. "And ask him not to fly into my hair."
    Holly could feel the fresh air on her face. The air was becoming cleaner and pine-scented. The entrance of the tunnel was blocked off with tree boughs and leaves. To anyone walking through the woods, it looked like a lump of branches. Holly set Posey down and pushed through the tree branches. She popped up in the thick, pine forest, not far from where Andy and Sarah had emerged the previous day. From her vantage point she could see the yard of the Home lit-up like a Friday night football field from portable halogen lights and vehicle headlights.
    "This isn't good," she said. Indigo, John, and Sarah quickly scrambled up to see what Holly was seeing.
    The yard of the Home was full of soldiers. Military vehicles had set up a perimeter around the Home. A helicopter was in flight to the west with a searchlight swinging from its belly.
    John cursed under his breath. "Get back into the tunnel!"
    "What?"
    "Get back in!" John shoved Holly and she nearly lost her balance. "This is bad! They've got a copter!"
    "So? A helicopter can't see us in the dark!"
    "Didn't you ever watch an episode of COPS ? Those helicopters are probably equipped with those high-tech infrared cameras. Our body heat stands out in the forest like blips on a radar screen. If that helicopter passes us, they'll locate us for sure!"
    They ducked back under the relative security of the tunnel. John pulled the tree boughs back over the entrance. He slumped against the wall next to Holly. "We screwed the pooch on this one."
    "Don't say that,"