by Nathan Roten
Ailey moved her fingers in a series of three different patterns. Kel looked at her hand and said each letter she was forming. “O-U-T.” Out? You see a way out?”
Ailey shook her head up and down with a big smile on her face.
“Where?” Kel asked.
Damien and Graham ran over to the girls. “You found a way out?”
Ailey walked over past the window and over behind the desk. She pointed to a crooked picture hanging on the wall. It was of a man with a large beard and top hat standing on top of a building with his hands clasping the lapels of his overcoat. He had a very proud, beaming expression on his face, like that of a brand new dad. As they looked at the picture, they noticed the photographer was not just capturing his moment of achievement, though. Behind him, you could see the lay of the land. There was a large path cut out in the forest leading to a few small buildings nooked in the woods. Far off to the right hand side of the picture, there was a wide clearing in the trees with a large pond. Graham looked at the man with the large grin. Taking hold of the photograph, he snatched it from the wall to get a better look. Taking the sleeve of his shirt and wiping the years of dirt and grime from the glass, Graham shouted.
“I know this guy! This is Mr. Alexander! This is the same guy who built Greenwood! There is a picture of him over top of our fireplace. We can’t be far from Portfield if he was the one who built this place. He practically built the entire town.”
Ailey grabbed the top of the picture frame and pushed it down on top of the desk. She moved her finger along the bottom of the picture. Beginning at the path in the trees near the building, she traced it past the the small buildings all the way near the top of the picture. It was hard to see because it was so far off in the distance, but if you looked hard enough, you could see a small construction site at the other end of the trail. There was not much of a building there. There was a small outline of a foundation, with a small structure to the front. The arches were unmistakable. It was a portico. This was Portfield Manor in it’s infancy. It wasn’t just a mansion. It was a part of an entire complex.
Graham looked over the picture one last time and noticed some letters at the bottom, under a layer of grime. Using the side of his thumb, he wiped away the dirt layered by the years of solitude to reveal a small caption under the picture.
“Catalyst Grove.”
Looking up at Ailey, Graham grabbed the sides of her face and planted a big kiss on the top of her head. “You are a genius! How did you notice that?”
“It is remarkable what you can understand when you don’t talk,” said Kel.
“What is that suppose to mean?” Graham snapped.
“It means that since Ailey cannot talk, her other senses have strengthened to compensate. She can usually see and notice things that we would just glance over.”
Graham looked at Ailey with even more compassion now. “Thank you Ailey.”
Ailey smiled at Graham.
“I was also implying that you talk to much. Just so you know,” said Kel.
Damien couldn’t help but laugh. He thought he gave Graham a hard time. He could dish it out, but this girl was relentless.
Graham could not get a good read on her. He wanted to think she was playing, but she had the world’s best poker face. He, however, would not play games. Her sarcasm only fueled his distrust.
Graham took the picture and abruptly slid it across the desk in front of Kel. “Ok, you don’t want me to talk? You get us out of here then.”
“Graham, I was just kidd…”
Before she could get it out, Graham stormed out of the room off into the hallway. Damien and Kel went after Graham, but Ailey caught Damien’s shirt before he could leave the room. Turning around, Damien looked down at Ailey.
“What is it?”
Ailey pointed up to another picture frame above light switch. Damien looked up to see a drawing of the building and all the rooms on the 3rd floor. There was a red dot inside of one of the rooms. In small red letters, it said, You are here.
“Guys! Get back in here,” said Damien.
Coming back into the room, Kel looked at Damien.
“What is it?”
“Ailey found something. A map of the building, I think.”
Damien looked at all the different rooms with a little red line connecting the hallways to the exits doors on all sides of the building. He kept looking around for any way of escape from the 3rd floor without being seen on the other 2 levels. Damien saw four exit doors, but could see from the drawing that they all led to stairwells. He looked back a the red dot and tried again. Moving down the hall he could see the rooms they had already been past, the break room area, what looked like more offices on the opposite side of the building, and six larger rooms on the third side. Going inward, there was a cluster of four rooms with a small hall leading to an elevator shaft. An elevator shaft! That was it! That was their way out.
“Graham! Graham, get back in here. We have a way out!”
Graham’s footsteps stomped down the hallway until he came back though the door.
“What? Where?”
“Here,” said Damien, pointing to the little square on the drawing.
Graham read the word on the paper.
“An elevator? We can’t ride an elevator down the the first floor. We might as well tie ourselves up and crawl in the trunk of their car.”
“Not ride it. Haven’t you seen a movie where the people use a service ladder inside of the shaft? If we could make our way down and crack open the door, we could find a way to sneak out.”
Graham thought about it for a minute. Looking over the rest of the drawing, he noticed the same thing Damien did. There was no outside escape route, just stairwells. He was right. This was their only way down.
“You are right. This is our best shot.”
Damien looked over back at Ailey with a smile and held up his hand. Ailey smiled back, jumped off the ground and smacked his hand with hers.
“Way to go muchacha. You just found our ticket out of here.”
Ailey looked back at Damien with a big grin. This was the first time she had been able to be a help instead of a hindrance, and the pride could be seen in her smile. Even if she could talk, she wouldn’t need to. Her expression was enough.
There wasn’t much time to say anything, however, as Graham and Kel were already half-way down the hall. Damien took Ailey by the hand and ran down the hall following the others to the elevator shaft. They ran around the next corner, passing the six big rooms he saw on the drawing. Each room had a large drawing of the sun emblem on the floor, though you could hardly see it anymore because time had worn it thin. That, plus the rooms were littered with debris, fallen ceiling tiles, and some even had burn marks on the wall from what looked like a fire. Bundles of wire hung from the ceiling as if the wires had exploded.
“What in the world happened in there?” Damien asked as they ran by.
They turned right, making their way to the small lobby area. They could see the small hallway that lead to the four offices to their left. Walking into the lobby area, they could see Graham digging his fingers into the gap between the two stainless steel elevator doors. Graham pulled, trying to wedge his fingers a little deeper with each tug, but the doors would not budge.
“We need something to pry this thing open,” said Graham, still struggling to open the doors.
“Hold on. I’ll be right back,” said Damien.
Running back towards the big rooms, Damien entered one of them and began sifting through the rubble for a piece of metal. Bending over, he started to dig like a dog with a bone to bury. He threw aside chunks of plaster, slivers of wood, broken tiles and files filled with paper. After moving a small mountain of trash, Damien saw a twisted piece of metal underneath. The heap of metal looked like it used to be a table, but it was so mangled, it looked like someone had wrung it out like a wet towel. Three legs protruded in different directions, with the fourth leg dangling to the side. Damien took hold and
twisted it back and forth until it broke free. Stumbling backwards, he caught his balance before he fell over. Rotating the mangled piece of metal back and forth, he looked at the two ends to see if they would fit in-between the doors. One end was twisted and bent, but the other end was good and flat.
“Perfecto!”
He started to run back out the door, but a piece of paper caught his eye. He knelt down to pick up the scattered papers fanned out from the manila folder, noticing big red stamped letters that spelled ‘FAILED ATTEMPT.’ Dropping the metal leg, Damien flipped through page after page. Each page looked the same, but with a different name at the top. The header read “Case Study.” The person’s name was listed below it, with paragraphs underneath, all with the same red stamp overtop of them. Linsey Rockwell, Alan Smith, Casey Hagan, Lacey Kelly, Jason Larkin. Name after name, they all had the same result. Damien shuffled the papers back into a neat pile and tucked them back into the manila folder, then stuck it under his arm. Picking up the metal leg in the other hand, Damien took off down the hall back to the elevator.
He was scared to death. His suspicions were just confirmed by these papers. They were lab rats in some sort of freak experiment. Getting closer to the elevator, Damien yelled to the others.
“Guys. You won’t believe what I just found. I told you they were freaks!”
Entering the lobby in front of the elevator, he saw Kel and Ailey up against the back wall with a look of shock on their faces. Kel held her arm in front of Ailey pinning her to the wall. Her other hand was covering her mouth.
“Are you guys ok? You look like you have seen a ghost or something.”
Turning to Graham, he froze as he saw Graham continuing to pry open the doors.
“COME ON! OPEN!” His frustration was palpable. Graham was mad at the door. He was mad at Kel. He was livid with Chase’s betrayal. Everything was wrong. The veins in his head began to budge as he held his breath under the strain of his attempts at pulling the doors open.
Not knowing that the others were staring at him, Graham pulled for a few more seconds until, with a heavy sigh, he let go of the doors. As he turned around, all of the furniture of the lobby that was hovering in the air came crashing down.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Out Into The Open
“Impossible.” That was all that Damien could say. He could not believe what his eyes were telling him. First Kel, now Graham. What was happening?
“What was that, Graham?”
Shock immediately replaced the rage inside. No one knew about the levitation. Now everyone knew, but what really hit his nerve was that he could have hurt someone. The power didn’t usually manifest itself while he was awake. He could only remember one other time that had happened. He was rapidly loosing control. He knew they could not split up, but as long as they were with him, they were in danger.
“Tell me that was the first time this has happened. Maybe those bands did something to you.” Pulling his sleeves up, Damien looked down, but there was nothing there. No marks. His wrists were completely bare.
“I…I wish I could…..but I would be lying.”
Damien just stared at his best friend. “How long?”
Graham felt ashamed that he had kept this from his best friend. His voice was low; almost sheepish.
“You know those nightmares I told you about? Well, this happens every time I wake up from one. It started years ago. The most recent one was the same night as the earthquake.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? I thought we were suppose to be best friends.”
“We are, Damien.” Graham started to get nervous. He had never upset Damien before. He was always so laid back and even tempered.
“This is the kind of thing best friends tell each other. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”
Kel eased up and let her arm fall from Ailey. She looked at Graham with a hint of compassion.
Damien threw the manila folder to the ground spilling the papers all over the floor. “Here, I found out that we are lab rats. You were the first person I was going to tell.”
Damien quickly turned away and slammed his metal pry bar between the doors. With a few twists and jerks, the doors popped open. Oily wafts of air came out of the shaft as he stuck his head inside in search of a ladder.
“Here, I told you,” said Damien, reaching around the left door and grabbing hold of the rung of the small service ladder.
Kel stooped down to look at the papers. Pushing them around the floor so that she could read them, she looked at all the red stamps. Her heart sank. Ailey knelt down beside her also trying to decipher the contents of the folder.
“These people were experiments, and they all ended in failure. What kind of failure? I wonder if they are even alive,” said Kel. “Whatever Aegis was doing to them didn’t work.” The dark red ink of the stamp made it almost impossible to read the words underneath, not to mention the numerous black bars concealing the words. The flickering lights overhead did not help.
“We don’t have time for this. We need to get out of here,” said Graham. He was already in the shaft, his head poking up from the floor of the doorway. “Come on.”
Kel took the piece of paper she was holding and folded it up, placing it in her right coat pocket. She took hold of Ailey’s hand, stood to her feet, then led her to the ladder. Ailey stepped over to the ladder and began her decent. Kel grabbed the ladder and followed.
Faint light emanating from the flood lights gave them just enough light to see a few feet in front of them. Hand over hand, they all climbed down the small ladder, squeezing past the elevator box hanging at the 2nd floor entrance, until they reached the bottom. Stepping off to the side, they saw a sliver of light coming from the doors. They were already cracked open a good three inches. Damien walked up to it, sliding his pry bar silently into the seam. They all held their breath as he eased the doors open another couple of inches at a time until the crack was wide enough to stick his head out.
Waving his hand, Damien signaled to the others that the coast was clear. Pulling his head back through, he slid the bar back in-between the doors and pried them open as far as he could. He put the bar down and slid it out into the lower lobby, then putting both hands against the doors, he pushed them open wide enough so that they could fit though.
“Come on. We need to find another drawing so we can see how to get out of this place,” Damien whispered.
They all followed Damien as he placed his hands on the edge of the floor, pulling himself up from the shaft. They were in the main lobby now. There were big glass doors leading outside, but a thick metal chain was laced through the handles with a padlock. They were exposed and needed to move quick. There was no telling how close Cavaness and the other guys were. Damien looked to the left and saw a few doors, so he decided to go look for another floor plan mounted on the wall.
Graham decided to go the other way and let Damien have some room. He felt terrible. It wasn’t that he wanted to hide his problems. Actually, it was a relief to speak to someone else about it, but at what cost? Now, there was no way he could keep Damien at arm’s length to protect him. At least for the moment, Damien was upset enough to keep his distance. Once they were out of this crazy warehouse place, he would make it up to him. He didn’t know how yet, but he would figure out a way.
Meanwhile, Kel and Ailey were searching the bathrooms on the opposite side of the lobby for another floor plan. For the first time, Graham just stood there. He was tired of taking the lead, being the one to figure out what to do. For once, he would let them search for a way out. Yes, this was good. Now Graham could sit back and watch Kel. He still didn’t trust her. He did not like the way she made excuses to cover up her ability to do what she did with that chair. Then again, he was hiding his secret as well, but at least he did not lie about it. He just didn’t want anyone to know about it. There is a difference between not telling and covering up. A huge difference. No, there was more to Kel that Graham could put his finger on.
Graham huffed a sigh, looking out the lobby doors. The morning rays of sunshine began to flow though the glass doors of the lobby dispelling the darkness. The light bent and reflected off the frost laid down by the coolness of night. It glistened like a blanket of diamonds giving Graham a very odd sense of hope. It was somehow telling him that at the end of each dark night, there was a new morning ready and willing to provide an opportunity for something different. Hopefully this new morning would provide a way out of this place.
He would have kept staring out the door, continuing to let the prospect of hope build his spirits if it weren’t for a blur of movement flying by out of the corner of his eye. Before his mind could process what it was, he heard Damien scream.
“AHHHH! GET OFF ME! LET ME GO!”
Kel and Ailey bolted out of the bathroom following Graham down the hall towards Damien. They both came to a stop behind Graham. Chase walked out of the small office backwards holding Damien by the throat with his left forearm. His right arm was extended with his fingers spread out and slightly bent, just like they were earlier with his hand and forearm engulfed in light. This time the glow looked more like a yellow flame, and he had it extended towards them. Behind his hand, they could see his wrist glow with the same golden flair that they had when they put their wristbands on.
“Easy there, trigger,” said Chase, addressing Graham.
“Let him go Chase,” Graham replied in a impressively calm voice.
“Leave me. Take the girls and get out of here!” said Damien before being choked off by Chase’s arm.
“Aww. Now that is going to make me misty eyed. Seriously, that is just the sweetest thing.” Chase snarked. Damien struggled against Chase’s arm, but with every movement, his grip would tighten, choking off his air supply.
Kel stepped out from behind Graham, still keeping Ailey at arms length so that she was protected behind them.
“Graham said to let him GO!”
“Well, I can see who has been deemed the leader. Congratulations, Graham. Why don’t you come over here and show me what you’ve got.” Moving his hand directly in front Graham, the glow of the fiery light became more intense. “Let’s see, how does that saying go? ‘Strike the Shepherd and sheep with scatter?’”