#6

Levi crouched down near the fence and gazed wistfully at Lindsey through the chain wire. He knew this wasn't going to work but sheer hope made him follow through. He grabbed the fence and pushed it hard but it wouldn't budge. There was no way he was going to escape the same way as Lindsey.

He shook his head at her and stood up, sneaking over to Calliope and picking her up in his arms. He hurried back to the gap in the fence and set her down on her feet, shaking her gently until she finally came to her senses.

"What's going on?" she asked blearily, looking up at Levi.

"You're getting out of here." he said firmly. "Roll through under the fence, come on."

He grasped the chain wire fence in his right hand and gritted his teeth, shoving it as back as hard as he could. When he could push no further, he grabbed the basketball in his left hand and wedged it under the fence to keep the gap propped up.

"Lay down on your stomach and crawl out, OK?" he instructed to a nervous-looking Calliope. "You'll be fine."

She heeded his request and slowly flattened herself against the floor, crawling out on her forearms. Thanks to her diminutive size and the basketball propping the fence up, she reached the other side unscathed.

"Good work," he said, grinning at them both. The grin immediately faltered when he realised that the hardest part was yet to come; these were two girls, both pre-teens, who had to escape a heavily fortified raider camp on their own. "But now what? How are you two going to get out of here without attracting their attention?"

Despite her young age, Lindsey seemed relatively experienced compared to Calliope. By the looks of it, there was a large age gap between the two, but it also seemed as if Lindsey had not been afforded the benefit of an ever-present and protective older sister like Calliope had. Now, it was the latter who was at the disadvantage.