Nequam

Chapter 1

The last thing Penny wanted to do was use the escape plan others in the past used, or at least attempted to use, but she had no other choice. She had three options: use the escape route that so many others had tried to use and failed, try to pass the tests that everyone knew would be impossible, or be sent on the Endless March and die a very painful death. She decided to take the former.

Penny Amorie was fifteen years old. She had mahogany brown hair and jade eyes. She was short but had long legs and a slim build. She was born in the year 2095, when the war everyone dreaded officially began. That war changed her whole future.

Penny turned over in her small bed and squinted through the dark. The small room she slept in was cramped with so many bunk beds that Penny could reach out and be halfway on the bunk next to her.

"Psst!" Penny hissed to the bed above her.

"Huh?" a voice moaned in reply. Penny turned her head back and forth to ensure that everyone was asleep before grabbing the side of the top bunk and pulling herself up so she could peak above the bottom.

"What?" the boy laying in the bunk whispered. The boy's blonde hair was disheveled and his eyelids were closed over his denim blue eyes.

"I think I found a way out," Penny replied excitedly.

"Really?" the boy asked, his eyes fluttering open.

"Charlie! Quiet!" Penny whispered. Charlie sat up.

"Come down. And don't make a sound!" Penny warned. The two of them krept down onto the floor and started to maneuver their way around the bunk beds to the wall without waking anyone up.

Penny started to crawl when she made it to the stone wall and groped in the darkness for the opening. After a few seconds, her index finger slipped into a small hole in the floor. She curled her finger and managed to lift the wide floor board to reveal an opening that would allow a fairly skinny person to wriggle through.

"What is that?" Charlie asked behind her in astonishment.

"I found it when exploring yesterday. It leads to a small tunnel that almost reaches outside. It's not covered up, so my guess is that a bunch of kids kept digging in it over the years but had to leave it behind for reasons I could guess," Penny explained.

"That's great! So all we need to do is secretly keep digging until we reach outside!" Charlie whispered. Penny nodded.

"We should probably start tomorrow," Penny suggested. Charlie agreed. Penny pushed him, and he started to head back to the bunk bed with her behind him.