I roll onto my back and twist my hands to get a firm grip on the chain binding my wrists. While using my legs as leverage, I straighten myself and snap the chain binding my hands and feet in two. I use telekinesis to unlock my cuffs and drop them to the floor. I do the same with the pair around my ankles.

“John!” Sam yells from down the hall.

I crawl to the front of the cell. “Right here!”

“What’s going on?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing!” I yell back.

Other prisoners shout through their cell bars, too. The guard who fell in front of my cell grunts and struggles to his feet. Blood flows from a gash on his head.

The ground shakes again. It’s more violent and lasts longer than the first time, and a fog of dust barrels down the corridor from the right. I’m temporarily blinded, but reach my hand through the bars and yell to the guard, “Let me out of here!”

“Hey! How’d you get your cuffs off?”

I see he’s disoriented, wavering a few steps to his right, a few to his left, ignoring the other guards who run by him with guns drawn. He’s covered in dust.

A thousand gunshots come from the right end of the corridor. A roar of a beast answers them.

“John!” Sam screams in a pitch I’ve never heard from him before.

I make eye contact with the guard and yell, “We’re all going to die in here if you don’t let me out!”

The guard looks towards the roars and terror spreads across his face. He slowly reaches for his gun, but before he can touch the grip it floats away from him. I know that trick—I saw that in Florida on a midnight walk—and I watch as the guard spins in confusion and runs.

Six becomes visible in front of my door, the large pendant still around her neck, and from the second I see her face I know she’s pissed at me. I also see that she’s in a very big hurry to get me out of here.

“What’s down there, Six? Is Sam okay? I can’t see anything,” I say.

She looks down the corridor and concentrates on something, and a set of keys comes floating down the corridor, right into her hands. She inserts them into a metal panel on the wall. My door unlocks. I run out of my cell and I’m finally able to see down the corridor. It’s extremely long, with at least forty cells between me and the exit. But the exit is gone, as is the wall it should be on, and I’m staring at the giant horned head of a piken. Two guards are in its mouth, and drool mixed with blood falls from its razor-sharp teeth.