"I said, what is going on?"

"I honestly don't know?"

"That's bull, and you know it."

"I... I was told something might happen tonight. I thought I would have time to warn you. That's why I brought you out here, but..."

"Who are you working for," he challenged, grabbing her arm tighter.

"I'm not working for anyone, I have no idea what is going on, and," her voice broke, "I've never been so confused in all my life."

More shots rang out and screams could be heard.

Holding the gun in one hand, Scott went into his inner pocket and pulled out his phone-like device with the other. He checked it was switched it on, but there was nothing.

"It's dead, the signal must be jammed. Who on earth has the skills to do that?" he wondered out loud.

"Hannah," a voice shouted out down the corridor, "Hannah, where in the hell are you?"

"Tucker," she cried, "I'm down here!"

They heard footsteps thundering towards them and Scott readied his aim, pushing Hannah behind him. Tucker came running around the corner and Hannah pushed Scott to one side and ran into his arms.

"Hannah, thank god I found you!" he said squeezing her tightly.

"What's happening in there? Scott asked, impatiently.

"Briggs was shot but he's okay. I saw you leave the room together, so I told Briggs and he got his men to distract them long enough for me to escape and come find you. They're looking for Hannah and he wants you to get her out of here right now. We don't have long."

Hannah pulled out of Tucker's grasp, her face white with shock. "They are after me, but why, what have I done?"

Scott said nothing, but nodded to Tucker.

"This way," he said and set off running down the windowless corridor in the opposite direction to the hall. Hannah discarded yet another pair of expensive shoes and followed him, alongside Tucker. In silence, they passed through several panelled doors, now running on plush carpets, which helpfully absorbed the noise of their escape.

"Scott, where are we going?" she asked, as they went through double doors into a Spartan concrete stairwell, the air rigidly cold. The sound of her last words echoes around them.

As they set off down the stairs, the lights went out and Hannah shrieked, then rushed to cover her mouth.

"Damn!" shouted Scott.

"I can't see anything." Tucker said.

"Wait a second..., we might get lucky!"

Scott was right. A low humming noise started up, sounding as if it was coming from the floor below. Just then a single, weak bulb came on above, throwing an eerie blue light over them.

"They cut the power, but not the backup. There's one of these lights in every emergency exit and stairwell. It won't last long; I reckon they'll try to cut them before the generator runs out of fuel. Let's go!"

With Scott leading, they bolted down the first flight of stairs. Hannah held onto to the metal handrail for support. Suddenly they heard a door bang open further up.

"They're down here, " a man shouted, from several floors up, followed by the sound of thunderous footfall.

"Come on let's move," Scott urged.

The three of them flung themselves down the stairs, taking two, three steps at a time. Someone above fired a shot, the bullet ricocheting off the metal hand rail and puncturing the wall. Scott turned sharply to see a large, piece of concrete fly out and hit Hannah in the face, barely a centimetre above her eye. As her hand rushed up to her face, her legs stumbled on the bottom step. He lunged for her and she reached out to steady herself by grabbing a handful of his shirt. In the blue light, he could see her blood trickling down the side of her face.

"I'm ok," she told him, "please get us out of here."

They ran down the next two flights of stairs, keeping close to wall to avoid the sporadic shots that rebounded around them.

At the bottom of the stairs was an old wooden door. Scott pushed it open and rushed into the basement, also lit in the same blue light. Scott looked around for something to secure the door and saw a large packing crate.

"Tucker quick!"

The crate wasn't particularly heavy but was big enough to hold the door back for a short while to buy them some time. Scott and Tucker pushed it over to the door. Just as the crate made contact, someone tried to push the door inwards at them. An arm holding a hand gun punched through the gap and let off a shot. Luckily the person had aimed high and the bullet flew up into the ceiling, which caused a tile to fall, exploding into pieces as it hit the hard floor. Tucker grabbed for the hand and crashed it against the door frame. The owner of the arm let out a cry and reflexively dropped the gun, withdrawing his hand. Tucker slammed the door shut and grabbed the gun.

"Give that to me, Tucker" Scott instructed.

"No way!" he replied. "We've got a small army chasing us right now and I am not giving this up."

"Okay, you win, keep it, but put the bloody safety on, and for god's sake don't point it at us."

"This w..." Scott started, but someone on the other side took a shot, the bullet charging through the door. Shards of wood went flying around them. Scott took the remains of the bullet in the top of his right thigh and he landed on the floor in a heap.

"Damn," he groaned. A pool of red spread out around him.

"Tucker, he's losing a lot of blood, help me put a tourniquet on him. Quick, give me your belt" Hannah dropped to the floor and clasped her hands around Scott's thigh and began to squeeze tightly.

"Tucker, you must take Hannah away now," Scott said, through gritted teeth. "Follow the corridor that way. Go through two doors then take the first on the right. This will take you to an old supplies store room. Pull back the far shelving unit and behind it you will find a concealed door. It's an old escape route, put in around the time of the Great Revolt. Follow the corridor as far it goes and it will take you to ..."

Scott passed out.

Another shot came exploding through the door, followed by the sound of someone trying to batter the door down.

"Hannah, we have to go," Tucker implored.

Hannah looked down at Scott, his face becoming greyer by the second.

"I am not leaving him. I said, give me your belt," her tone furious.

"Hannah, he is one of the enemies. This is a win for us Hannah, Zeke would approve. This is what we've been waiting for," he replied.

Hannah's head snapped up away from Scott to face Tucker.

"You know don't you! All this time and you knew and you never said anything," she shouted.

"There hasn't been the right moment to tell you, but yes I know. We have to leave him Hannah. We have no choice."

"The hell I do! Now give me your bloody belt. We will talk about everything else later."

Reluctantly, Tucker pulled the belt out of his trousers and passed it too Hannah. The noise from the other side of the door got louder and the wood panelling started to split apart. She quickly wrapped it around the top of Scott's thigh, pulled it tight and then looked around them, desperately searching for something to aid their escape. Her eyes fixed on an old laundry trolley.

"Tucker," she said and pointed to the trolley.

Tucker, gave in and ran over to the trolley, quickly pushing it back to them. Hannah took Scott's feet, Tucker took his shoulders and they carefully lifted him up and over the edge. Hannah began to wheel the trolley, while Tucker followed behind, gun in hand. Finally, they reached the store cupboard. The room was dark, so Hannah left the door open, allowing the blue light to enter in. In the distance they heard shouting. The barricaded door was gone. The chase had begun again.

"Which set of shelves was it?" Hannah asked.

"The far one, this one, I think!" He pointed to an eight-foot high unit with four shelves, each stacked high with old paint cans and assorted boxes, the wall behind hidden.

"That's going to be too heavy to move. Let's try and clear some of the stuff off".

Hannah reached for a large tin of paint, it didn't budge. Confused she reached for the large cardboard box next to it. It too didn't move.

"Everything's stuck down" she said.

She dropped down to her knees to look at the feet of the unit and saw it was on wheels.

"Tucker, help me move this."

They grabbed the side and rotated it into the centre of the store room, revealing a door behind. Hannah pulled on the handle and the door opened in towards their new escape route. Suddenly blue lights lit up yet another corridor behind her, one that sloped downward.

Tucker pushed the trolley containing Scott inside through the door. Hannah meanwhile closed the door into the corridor, pulled the shelving unit back in place behind her and as she closed the door, people entered the store room. Tucker and Hannah held their breath.

"Not in here," someone shouted.

"Where the hell did they go?" said another.

"Retrace our steps, they must be hiding. Someone's losing a lot of blood. It had better not be the girl; he'll go mad if we've hurt a hair on that perfect little head."

The voices moved away and Hannah and Tucker collectively exhaled with relief.

"That was close!" Tucker said, relief temporarily relaxing his features, a smile creeping up on his face.

A brief moan came from inside the trolley.

"Thank god, he's still alive." Hannah leapt over to the trolley and placed her fingers on Scott's wrist to check his pulse. He was alive, but getting weaker by the minute.

They walked for over fifteen minutes. Sometimes up, sometimes down, their route bending round corners left and right. No doors or windows were visible, just once continuous corridor that now resembled more of a tunnel. Every few metres, set into the white painted wall, were positioned ventilation grills giving off the faint hum of motors circulating air.

"So how long have you known?" she asked.

"Since the day of the press conference," he replied.

"But Zeke was with me that day at the fun..." She couldn't say the word. "That long! Why did he tell you?"

"He said that when he saw us together he knew that we would make a great team. I haven't been told much, just that you are going to lead a rebellion."

Hannah laughed out loud.

"What's so funny," he asked.

"Everything and... nothing," her laughing subsided as she realised that there was nothing funny at all about their predicament... "Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds? Me, leading a rebellion, I can't even go to a fancy dinner in our honour and get that right. Since I was told about all of this, I have done absolutely nothing. Well except for playing house with a family that threw me away, like I was a broken toy, seventeen years ago. The only people trying to start a rebellion are the ones, who if I'm not very much mistaken were trying to kill our perfect asses a few minutes ago. How's that for irony?"

"But Hannah, Zeke believes in you, he said you were the one. God knows what that means, but it must mean something right?"

"Well, if we survive this and I find out, I promise I'll tell you. Now let's see where on earth this tunnel ends and get Scott some help."

In silence they rounded the two further bends, the floor sloping upwards more sharply. In front of them appeared another door.

"I'll get it" Tucker said, removing the gun, which had been resting in his waist band. He clicked off the safety and opened the door and they wheeled Scott into another store cupboard. This time it wasn't barricaded by fake storage. Hannah was surprised to find a bolt on this side and happily slid it across, grateful for yet another barrier between her and whoever was chasing them.

Tucker approached another door, the only other exit from the room. "Ready?" he asked.

Hannah nodded and the door opened outwards. The next moment, bright lights flickered on, like a wave surging ahead, lighting up a cavernous storage facility. It stretched into the distance and at least four stories high. Huge shelving units towered above them, full of boxes containing files, each box labelled with a series of numbers and with a date stamp.

"What is this place?" Tucker asked.

Hannah shrugged her shoulders and walked over and grabbed a box. She opened the lid to find at least fifty individual files. She pulled out one file and quickly leafed through it, then dropping it like a stone.

"What is it Hannah, what's wrong?"

"This is an SPR report, these are all SPR reports. We are in the archive of the Ministry of Ratings. We learnt about this in school. Everyone who has ever been rated has a file in here," she exclaimed.

"Oh my god, Hannah, this is like seriously top-secret stuff. We shouldn't be here. Come on let's get out and get help for Scott".

"Okay, let's go," she said.

Tucker started wheeling the trolley away, but Hannah remained still. He noticed her absence beside him and turned back. "Hannah, come on, now."

"Wait Tucker, just one minute. What if the answers we need are somewhere in this room!"

"What are you going on about?"

Hannah didn't reply and she ran over to a computer, sat on a small desk to her left. One of the subjects she enjoyed most at her new school was Computer Science. Until two weeks ago she had never operated a computer, but now she found it easy to navigate her way around them. She moved the mouse and the darkened screen lit up. The Ministry, so sure of their security, didn't even use a password to operate it. Within two clicks she was into a database of names. She typed in Michael Briggs and eleven files appeared on screen. She checked through eight of them before she found the one she was looking for. She noted down the reference number and then ran off in search of his file. A couple of minutes later she found what she was looking for and returned to Tucker with a wad of paper, minus the file binder.

"You can't take that!"

"Oh yes I can. I need to know all about this man, if I am to bring him down. What is the old saying Tucker? Keep for friends close, but your enemies even closer. It might amount to nothing, a stupid hunch on my part, but what if..." her words stopped.

"Okay Hannah, but on your head, be it. Can we please go now and raise the alarm".

"Just a minute," Hannah replied and carefully folded up the pieces of paper and tucked them inside one of the cups of her bra. "Ready".

They rushed back over to the trolley and began to wheel it out of the room, shouting for assistance. Two armed police guards ran over to them.

"Hands up, don't move."

"Help us, please."

Hannah and Tucker quickly explained the situation to the guards and word was sent to Zeke. They ushered Hannah and Tucker into a small room. In a few minutes, two paramedics rushed in to attend to Scott and they placed him on a stretcher and wheeled him away.