“Ahead, quickly!” I cried. Perhaps just one of the mines had gone off accidentally. The Allies were nowhere near Kraków yet; surely the Germans had not set them all off. But there was another explosion and another, the first detonation setting off some kind of chain reaction. These sounds came not from above, though, but from below the ground, close and soul shaking.

There came another explosion that threw us to the ground. We all lay motionless for several seconds. I could not move and it seemed as if I was already dead. We pulled one another to our feet and brushed off the rubble. Dust and debris filled my lungs and I coughed and spat to clear them. The air was so choked with dust I could no longer see. Someone took my hand and pulled me. I recognized Sadie’s delicate fingers in mine as now she took the lead. We pressed onward.

Behind us there came another mighty crashing sound as though the walls were falling in around us. Sadie stumbled, nearly taking me to the ground with her. Saul tried to help her, but she shook him off. “Help your father.” She pushed the two men ahead of us.

At the end of the tunnel, I could make out faint light from the street above the grate. Krys, I thought. For a second, I imagined that his arrest had not happened and in spite of everything he would be waiting for me. Of course, that was impossible. I turned back toward Sadie. “We made it,” I said. I expected her to look happy, but she did not. Instead, her eyes widened with horror as she looked over my shoulder. “Ella!” Her mouth formed my name as a loud rumbling all around us drowned out her voice. The sound was different this time, not a bomb detonating—it came from within the walls themselves. The explosions had loosened the tunnel walls, which began to come down around us, as if in slow motion, the rounded concrete cracking and starting to cave inward.

In front of us, Saul hesitated for a moment. “Go!” Sadie cried, urging him onward. Saul sprinted forward with his father, nearly carrying him. He took a long last look back at Sadie. The ceiling crumbled then and I pulled Sadie toward me, covering both of our heads so we would not be crushed. Concrete and debris and ash rained down upon us, cutting into our skin.

When I looked up, the entire pathway in front of us was blocked by rocks. The tunnel, which had once served as a bridge to connect Sadie’s world with mine, had collapsed. Saul and his father and the entire world on the other side of the grate had all but disappeared, leaving Sadie and me trapped in the sewer, alone.

25

Ella

I wiped the debris from my eyes, trying to get my bearings. “Sadie?” I called. She was lying on the ground a few feet away from me where she had fallen, not moving. Hurriedly, I crawled over to her. “Are you all right?” She sat up, wincing. “Are you hurt?”