POV: Marcus Blackwood

Thirty years.

Thirty years, two months, and seventeen days since I'd last seen the sky. Now I was leading fifty-three prisoners through collapsing corridors toward freedom I wasn't sure any of us would survive to see.

"Keep moving!" I shouted over the alarm. "Stay together!"

Riley clung to my arm, her eyes wide with terror. My daughter. Sixteen years old and she'd never known anything but cells and experiments and pain. She was trembling so hard I could feel it through my entire body.

"Dad, it's too loud," she whimpered. "Too many people. Too much space."

"I know, baby. I know. But we have to keep going."...