“Here’s what I can tell you,” Selan said. “Don’t try to leave the way you came in. There’s an open drain not far from this building. That direction.” She pointed. “It goes under the outside wall.”

“Why haven’t you used it?”

Selan sighed. “The girl who found it – they caught her a week later. Her name was Logan. She wasn’t here long, used to wander off when we were in the gardens. Scouting, she called it. She told us about the drain. Some of us wanted to try, others thought that surviving outside was far worse than being here. She left one night, and LT caught her. They made us watch what they did to her and it took two days. After that, nobody wanted to even look for the drain.”

“I might get lost.”

“You have a machete. You can bushwhack. Just follow the wall to the gully. It’s steep and treacherous, but you’ll make it. After you come out of the drain, turn south.” More of the females came closer, their faces grave.

“I don’t think those high windows are nailed tight,” Selan said. “They’re for ventilation. The slats might come out.”

“How would we get up there? We’d need to put the slats back after, or we’ll all be punished.”

The women stared up at two high triangular windows, at opposite ends of the barracks. “We don’t know this stranger,” Iris said, nodding at Sorrel. “Why are we risking anything for her? I don’t want another beating. The last one nearly killed me.” One of her eyes was half closed and she had a wide scar through an eyebrow.

“It’s a risk for her too, Iris,” Selan said.

“If we leaned up one of the bed frames, I think we could get up there,” Petal said. “Let’s at least try. If we have to destroy the slats to take them out, then –.”

“Give me your knife,” Petal said to Sorrel. “Iris, Selan, Odessa, take the bedding and let’s lean up the frame.”

The bed made a rickety ladder, but the women held it steady. Petal climbed up and ran her fingers around the small window. “I think the whole thing can come out, and then we can just put it back after,” she said. “I’m not sure she can get through it, though.”

“How will we hold it in place?”

“Just screw it back.”

Sorrel sat on the bed and waited. If she left now to warn Arc, Caroni and the others, she would be leaving Bibi with Colonel Drax that much longer. Indecision tore at her. In her mind, she heard her mother saying: Make a plan, One.