All the prisoners begin to follow me. For the first time since being chained to the front of my group, I catch sight of Bree, way, way back. She and Charlie are attempting to liberate Jack and Penelope from their cages. I’m about to scream at them that there’s no time when they manage to get the cage open. The dogs leap down and start running toward me and Ryan. Bree and Charlie clasp their hands together and run at full speed through the fire and smoke, jumping over smoldering body parts and hunks of metal. I want to run to Bree, to sweep her into my arms, but I know I have to keep going forward. I have to trust that she’ll follow.

Ryan is right beside me as I run. Out of all the prisoners, we’re the only two completely free from our shackles. The others are still bound together. They’re all running at different speeds and attempting to maneuver in different directions around debris. It’s slowing us down, giving the slavers a chance to regroup. There’s no way we’ll be able to get all the prisoners free. But then I have an idea. Maybe we can use this to our advantage.

I tell Ryan my plan and he looks at me like I’m crazy. But when he looks back and sees the bikes racing toward us in a line, he knows this is the only chance we have of defeating our captors. We pass the message back to the prisoners and one by one they nod their agreement.

The bikes are gaining on us, and the slavers riding them swing their whips over their heads, ready to strike us down.

“NOW!” I shout.

All at once, the prisoners fan out in a long line, stretching the chains that connect them so they’re just level with the necks of the approaching riders. One by one the slavers are caught in the trap, the chains pinging them from their bikes and throwing them to the ground.

Some of the bikes keep rushing forward before crashing and exploding, while others skid to their sides and halt. Ryan and I rush forward and grab the spare bikes. Now it’s up to us to keep the remaining slavers at bay while the prisoners escape. Molly’s using a dropped axe to start smashing apart the chains and freeing the prisoners. Once they have their arms freed they’ll be in much better positions to steal bikes.

Ryan and I also grab discarded tools, brandishing them as weapons as we start circling back and forth on our bikes, facing off with the remaining slavers. We’re trying to keep them at bay long enough for the rest of our group to be freed.