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Max’s cries turned into wails, but then I heard a vicious shriek It made me feel elated and sick to the stohts went off us and we heard the fight

She attacked the dad first and had hi on hi There was a thwack and then the kid was crying, "No, please, don’t"

And then Josie roared at him, "GO ON, THEN!" Her voice sounded like a o "GO!!!"

As much as I hated the kid, I didn’t want him to die And more than that, I didn’t want Josie to be the one to kill hi then Josie’s voice, ragged and desperate

And then the sound of her standing up in the mud

"Josie! Josie, it’s not your fault!" Niko shouted "You can stay, Jojo You can stay with us!"

"I can’t," said Josie, dark and tortured above us

"Josie!" Niko cried "I love you, don’t go!"

And then nothing

She was gone

After a few minutes, the boy caht shined down again on us

"You give ht now!"

He started pelting us with rocks and clu is, we did have an extra We had three extra

Niko wasn’t speaking or

"Hold on!" I shouted "Hold on a minute!"

"I won’t hold on! You throw one up now so et out of here or I’ll bury you alive!"

That just didn’t seem like a credible threat, actually He couldn’t have been et the dirt? But I didn’t blaically His father was dead

"We will throw one up if you let us out!" I shouted

"What?"

I tried to think like Niko

"We will throw up an air mask if you put down a rope for us"

"Fine," he spat "Throw up two, then"

"Okay," I bargained "But first the rope"

"No way First, the masks"

"How about I throw one mask, you put down the rope, then I’ll throw the second?"

The boy hesitated "Okay," he agreed reluctantly

"He won’t thron a rope," Sahalia scoffed

"Theto die down here," she said

Niko just stood there

I took Niko’s old ood Arive us the rope," I yelled

The boy, Eddie, leaned over the edge, shining his own flashlight onto his face so we could see him

"I hope you all rot in hell!" the kid said, his face covered with tears and snot "Your friend killed un out from his backpack

"Niko?" I asked

He looked atscary

He aiun in the air

"HELP!" he shouted And fired BANG

"Stop!" I yelled He was scaringeveryone

"HELP!" BANG

The kids were screa

"HELP!" BANG BANG BANG

"Niko, don’t!" I screamed

But he didn’t listen He fired our last shot and then he pitched the gun out of the pit and up onto the sli all this, Sahalia had just lain down in the dank

"Get up," Niko told her

"It’s no use We’re going to die"

"No, we’re not Get up," he said through gritted teeth "I’et a ladder"

"I can’t," shewhere one person steps into the other person’s hands But she was still 4–5 feet short of the edge