Five. Three. Dark.

Delta reached through the bars of his cell stretching as far as he could. Epsilon was snoring loudly in the next cell over and Delta was determined to wake him. With a final forceful shove, Delta nudged his fellow prisoner. Epsilon snorted and glared through the bars.

“There’s a pattern,” Delta squealed excitedly. “I think I’ve figured out how we can get out.” Epsilon rubbed his eyes and blinked, still groggy. After a long yawn and an even longer stretch, he looked back over and sniffed.

“I don’t know, kid. Sigma and I have been at this for a long time. Sig nearly lost an eye in the last attempt. Are you sure?” Delta was so excited that he was practically twitching as he nodded in response. The younger prisoner’s energy made Epsilon nervous. He’d seen others get hurt far worse than Sigma, but there was still a tiny shred of hope in his old heart. Delta had proven to be a very fast learner, and Epsilon believed that if anyone could recognize a pattern, it was the kid.

“Alright, then, D. Tell me what you’ve got.”

A few hours later the three were together in a dark holding room. Delta motioned to a flashing green light near the door.

“That’s it, you see?” Delta made a subtle nod towards the light. “It flashes in a sequence of five, then three, then goes dark for six seconds.” The trio watched and sure enough the pattern was confirmed.

“Are you serious, D? A blinking light? Some help that is,” Epsilon grumbled. Sigma remained silent, cocking his head ever so slightly. A long jagged scar ran over the left side of his face from his brow to his lip. The injury had changed the iris to a pale milky white, cutting a sharp contrast to his nearly black right eye. Sigma looked rather mad with his disheveled gray hair and mismatched eyes, but his stillness as he listened revealed his patience and deep calm.

“I hear it,” Sigma said softly. “The hum stops when the light goes out. The grid goes down. Six seconds. Not a lot to work with, but it’s six seconds we didn’t have before.” As Sigma spoke an all too familiar shriek erupted from the corridor outside the holding room. One of their fellow prisoners had done something against their handler’s liking. The cry subsided and was followed by muffled voices.

“That sounded like Eta,” Delta whispered. His two companions nodded. A tense silence hung in the air for a moment when Epsilon suddenly laughed.

“I’ve been here so long, I’m beginning to think I was born in a cage,” he declared. He eyed Delta and Sigma, shaking his head. “This is it, boys. We make this work or I hang my sorry hide from the ceiling. I’ve had it. You two have the know-how. Point me in a direction, tell me what to break, and maybe we can see some honest-to-goodness sunlight before the earth reclaims our bones.”

“There is a gap in the West wall,” Sigma said. “Nu…” his voice dropped for a moment and his gaze was unfocused and far away. He shook his head and continued. “Nu was small enough to squeeze through. They didn’t see her get out, and so far as I know they never found her, but they put the grid up after that. Delta, you’re a small lad. You get to the other side and see about getting the grid down for good.”

“And I work on making that gap bigger?” Epsilon queried. Sigma shook his head.

“We can’t be too obvious about it. If we’re there too long the handlers will know something’s up. I have a different task for you, Eps. You’re going to fight.”

The three companions never knew how long they’d be in the holding room. Sometimes it was ten minutes, sometimes an hour, but on this day as they anticipated their chance to break free, the wait seemed to drag on endlessly. When the door finally opened the bright light from the corridor made them shield their eyes. A monotone voice droned over a speaker.

“Maze cycle eight three six. Subjects Delta four zero, Sigma three seven, Epsilon five nine. Test sequence nine nine six three. Begin.” A loud buzzer went off. With quick glances at each other, the three prisoners darted off into the light.

Delta and Sigma split off to the west, moving quickly through the turning hallways. Delta had memorized most of the maze sequences and this was one he knew well. Sigma kept pace beside him, watching the flashing green lights at the top of the walls as they passed. In his head he repeated the sequence. Five. Three. Dark. Five. Three. Dark.

Epsilon moved north at first, then turned east, seemingly aimless. He wandered into several dead ends and retraced pathways, all the while watching the lights. It wouldn’t be long before his feigned disorientation would get the handler’s attention. As he circled back a third time to the same dead end the speaker crackled to life.

“Subject Epsilon five nine. Not compliant. Removal required.” A door opened in the previously terminated hallway. As the handler came through and reached for him, Epsilon hollered fiercely. He leapt and bit down as hard as he could. Epsilon’s teeth pierced through the handler’s protective sheath, causing the handler to pull back and drag Epsilon out the door with him.

On the other side of the maze, Delta and Sigma heard their companion’s enraged cry. They turned sharply and raced to the west wall. Delta could see the gap, down low near the floor. He looked back to Sigma and was startled by the incredible determination in his friend’s mismatched gaze.

“Listen to me, D. You get through that wall and go. Get out of this hell and find her. Find Nu. She’s special like you, sees things that others miss. It will take both of you to end this madness, understand?” Delta stammered and shook his head.

“I can’t do that, Sig! I can’t!” Delta looked to the gap, then back to Sigma, pleading. Another, sharper cry rang out and Delta gasped. Sigma remained calm.

“Epsilon knew the price, D. So do I. We’re not much on our own, you know, but in the greater scheme of things…” Sigma looked up at the light, then back to Delta. He was completely serene. “It’s not for nothing. It’s for you, for her, for all of us here. Find her. Find my daughter. And then come back and burn this place to the ground.”

Delta lost track of just how long he ran after squeezing through the gap. It had been a very tight fit and he had pulled through just as the grid hummed back online. The long, winding passageway was dark and damp and smelled of ancient earth. When he finally saw light streaming through a grate he began to weep. Delta dragged himself out of the tunnel and collapsed on the sweet grass. He saw shadows moving around him and heard excited voices.

“Look, a mouse! Wait, is it… is it crying?”

“Don’t be silly, Tom, mice don’t cry. It’s probably sick. Leave it be.”