“I promise you, we are going to get out of here.”

A whole crowd of children surrounds me. They’ve been here for their whole lives . . . . The Ranks have been holding them here, lying to them about what is outside these walls. Saying the world is nothing. Nothing but a lethal wasteland. The truth is that there is a utopia waiting for them to come home. The truth is that the Ranks want to train them to destroy the cities that have been build up from nothing but ashes.

“Why?” a child pulls at my cloths and looks up at me; eyes wide and confused.

“I’ll explain later, but for now we need to get out of here.”

“We like it here. Why do we have to leave?” Another child wastes more crucial time.

“Your being held captive here. By bad people. Now, please come with me, quickly.”

I run down the halls of the Ranks base being followed by the group of children; all sprinting, but still at my jogging pace.

We stop at one of the only windows in the entire structure.

The only problem is that it’s 20 floors above the ground.

“Okay, listen closely everyone,” I speak over the sound of the kids’ heavy breathing, “When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.”

I grab the rope out of my bag and tie it to the fire-lit lamp; connected to the wall. Then, I toss the other end of the rope out of the window.

“Okay!” I turn around and give the kids a smile, “Whose first?”

An awkward silence lingers in the air.

“Okay . . .”

“I’ll go,” a small girl steps forward with her hand raised.

“Great,” I motion for the window, “go ahead!”

“Uh . . .” She takes a moment to think of how she’ll approach the task in front of her.

“Wait,” I climb out the window and hold onto the rope, “why don’t I go down first so I can catch you once you let go.”

She nods and I slip down to the rocky shore below, not caring about the burn I’ll have on my palms. Grey has to be ready to pick us up by now. We have to hurry before the guards realize their all missing.

I land on the ground hard; enough to send a shock up my legs and back. I can’t let that stop me.

I look back up to the window to see a handful of children sticking there head out of the building to look down at me.

“Come on,” I whisper (not that they could hear) and motion for them to start climbing down.

The little girl who volunteered first slides down and hangs at the bottom of the rope as I instructed.

“Good, now drop down!”

The five foot fall into my arms doesn’t faze her so she lets go. I have a feeling it won’t be so easy for some of the others.

Kid after kid slide down the rope, some giggling, some crying.

As I catch another boy in my arms and place him down on the rock next to me I survey the amount of people I’ve helped down.

“Do you know if there are any more kids up there?” I ask the question praying I get the answer I’m hoping for.

“There’s only one boy left. He won’t go down,” the older child of the group responds and I mutter.

“Of course . . . .”

I start to pull myself up the rope, flexing the muscles I’ve trained just for this moment. I’m almost to the small window once more when I hear a loud creak from inside the Rank’s base.

“Oh, no.”

The end of the rope, and the lamp I attached it to come falling back down and I start to plummet back to the rocks below.

My hands claw and grab at the side of the building but there is nothing to latch onto the slippery walls with.

Only one stone sticks out from the rest, and I manage to grab it, only for a second, before falling ten more feet back down towards the mortified children.

I slam into the ground on my side and hear the chilling noice of my own bones cracking under my weight.

Screams escape from the kids’ mouths and I franticly try too get them to stop.

“SHHH!” I get up and hold my mangled arm to my side.

Just as the kids start to shut up, Grey sails around the corner of the gagged cliff side that supports the Ranks’ main structure. His giant boat can only sail so far into the cove.

“Hold onto each other,” I command the frightened group and they take each other’s hands with no hesitance. They’ve been cooped up together for so long, I guess they have grown trust between each other.

“Now grab my leg,” I jump into the frigid water and my breath hitches.

I have to keep going. I’ve come so far.

One child jumps into the water and the rest follow. We snake through to cold while I paddle as hard as I can with my good arm.

When we reach the edge of Grey’s ship, he throws the wooden ladder over the side of the dock.

The Rank’s horns start blaring into the night; a sign that our time has officially ran out.

I shove all the kids up the ladder and climb up last.

The second my body hits the ship’s deck, I am overwhelmed with a sense of accomplishment and resplendence. The white sails above me catch the wind and pull us far away from the children’s old prison.

But we missed one. The one boy who was left behind is now all alone.

The sense of accomplishment drips off of me as the freezing water does the same.

“Dammit.”

I’ll go back. I’ll find him.

The goal I’ve now created implants itself into my brain.

“Your arm,” Grey pushes through the group of children, “it looks bad.”

“I’m fine.”

I sit up and look at his sharp features. Then I look past him at the future of our world; the children that we just saved.

“We just saved humanity. Why wouldn’t I be?”