The soldiers continued to come up the stairs. What in the hell am I doing in this situation? Matthew asked himself. He was now more scared than he could ever remember, his heart beating quickly and his breathing getting shorter.
He could see Curt ready with his sword. The soldiers then reached the top. But they walked straight ahead not even bothering to look down the corridor where they were. Matthew could smell alcohol on their breaths as they did so, which probably explained their poor observation.
There was a palpable intake of breath after they passed. Curt then led them quickly down the stairway again. When they got to the bottom Matthew could see there was another small passageway leading to what was obviously the dungeon. At the end of this there was another soldier by the dungeon door. But he was asleep sitting with his hands over his head on a table. There was a jug of something nearby.
Curt and Tobias approached him with caution. They were after the keys, which he had around his waist. Curt slowly went to undo his belt. But the soldier suddenly woke up and saw bleary eyed what Curt was trying to do. He moved to get up and was about to shout out when Tobias hit him over the head with the jug of alcohol. His head fell back on the table.
Curt acted quickly. He took the keys and opened the door of the dungeon. He and some of his men then entered it, taking some torches off the walls. Four stayed behind keeping watch.
Matthew followed an anxious Hannah into the dungeon; he felt completely useless and just tried to keep out of the way of everyone. There were eight doors in the dark stone walls, four on either side. As Curt opened each one, a couple of his men entered the cells and told their inmates that they were here to help them escape but that they had to be quiet.
Hannah looked in each one, whispering as loudly as she could ‘Grandfather. Where are you? We’re here to rescue you.’ She found him in the third cell on the right. One of Curt’s men helped her get him out of the cell as he was very stiff. This man then left to go to some other cells.
There were now lots of prisoners mulling around in the passageway of the cellblock, looking shocked and confused, restlessly waiting until all their fellow inmates were released. Curt’s men had to continually remind them to be quiet.
Matthew approached Hannah’s grandfather to try to help him. The grandfather saw him coming. ‘No thank you, young man. I don’t need you to SAVE me. You’ve already done quite enough,’ he said caustically and then started coughing. Matthew went red with hurt. Hannah then helped her grandfather move away.
‘Hannah, you had better learn from this not to involve yourself in things that don’t concern you in future,’ said the grandfather, looking over at Matthew, as they got to the door of the dungeon. Matthew followed close behind them. Hannah made some reassuring noises to her grandfather who was still murmuring negative things about Matthew.
Curt then went to the door of the dungeon by her and faced all the now released prisoners, about thirty in total. ‘Right men, I know you all anxious to leave as soon as possible. But you won’t get out of here unless you all follow the guidance of myself and my men. So when we leave this cell block you must all form an orderly queue of two on either side. The escape route is not far and there shouldn’t be any soldiers around. But if we make too much noise then there will be. Understand?’
The prisoners nodded. ‘Right. Let’s go,’ said Curt in his terse way.
He led the way past the unconscious jailer with a couple of his men behind him and then Hannah, her grandfather, and Matthew and the prisoners with the remainder of Curt’s men. Tobias was somewhere at the back helping them guide the prisoners.
They went up the stairs cautiously but with a little haste. Hannah’s grandfather was now walking on his own behind Hannah but in front of Matthew whom he continued to give dirty looks to. Curt with his sword in his hand was constantly looking around and behind him to make sure the prisoners were following in an orderly fashion.
They reached the second meeting of corridors. Only a short way to go now, thought Matthew, and we’ll be safe.
Then suddenly a couple of soldiers appeared in front of them from the right corridor. They gasped with surprise. It was the last thing they did. Curt stabbed one of them while one of his men shot the other in the neck with his crossbow. But there were others behind them in the distance who began to shout out and run towards them.
Matthew was still in shock at having seen the two soldiers killed and looked at their bodies still twitching as they lay on the floor in their own blood.
Curt shouted at a couple of his men, ‘Get the prisoners out. We’ll keep them busy! Quick! Go!’ Some of his men then joined him as he went with to meet the oncoming soldiers who seemed to now be at least fifteen in number. Matthew saw Tobias go to join Curt as well.
Hannah then tried to pull Matthew away in the direction of the room with the trap door. Curt’s men were hurrying them along, shouting ‘Move! Move!’ Matthew then partly recovered his senses and ran behind Hannah, who had now let him go and was dragging her grandfather. Matthew thought that his job was to protect Hannah, with his life if he had to, though he did not how he would achieve this if it became necessary: he had no experience of fighting whatsoever.
His heart beat was racing and he was very scared. He could hear the clash of swords and the sound of arrows being fired behind him. Some of the prisoners now overtook them. They had the hope of freedom in front of them and they would not be denied it.
But in their way of it now appeared some more soldiers rushing up in the darkness in front of them. Matthew crashed into Hannah and her grandfather who had now been forced to stop themselves behind the slowing down prisoners. They were now trying to pass them back towards where Curt and his men were.
But Curt and his men were now running towards them with some soldiers behind them. Matthew looked around him in both directions, feeling panicked. He then tried to put himself in front of Hannah and her grandfather who were now against the wall. If they were all to be killed then he wanted to at least do something right, for once in his life, he thought, out of breath.
Arrows were whizzing overhead from both directions. The prisoners were now squeezing against them from both sides, their faces full of panic, trying to get out of the way of the soldiers. But Matthew could hear the soldiers using their swords against the mostly unarmed prisoners who screamed with pain. He then saw them coming towards him. Hell, he thought, He, Hannah, and her grandfather would soon be killed!