As we near the entrance, I notice hideous stone gargoyles, watching us from their perches on the roof of the building. The monsters give me the creeps and I try to ignore them as we move closer. My eyes drop to the recruiters manning the entrance, which only makes my nerves worse. They stand there with blank stares as they watch the square in front of them, but to me they’re more terrifying than the gruesome stone creatures above.
April and I enter Headquarters first, with Soren waiting to enter a few minutes after us. The inside of the building is a whole lot more modern than the outside. Black marble tiles cover the floor and several cool, steel elevator doors line the wall opposite the entrance. There’s a desk in the corner, which a tall woman in a recruiter’s uniform stands behind. A row of turnstiles that stretches from one end of the room to the other bars our way to the lifts.
April moves up to one and scans her ID badge against the sensor. I walk to the one next to her to do the same. Hers beeps happily, allowing her entrance. I move against the bar to walk forward too, but the bar doesn’t budge.
I scan the ID again, but three successive, angry beeps sound in response. I can feel adrenaline starting to pulse through my system as I push the ID badge against the scanner again.
Beep, beep, beep. I’m denied entry again.
I look up to April, to see what I should do, but she’s walking towards the lift, completely oblivious to what’s going on. A part of me worries this is a part of her plan, but mostly I worry about what I’ll do next.
‘Are you having problems?’ the woman behind the desk calls to me.
I look at her and nod. She waves me over to the desk and I take slow steps towards her. Each one feels heavy and my heart beats faster the closer and closer I get. What will she do with me if I’m found out?
Would I go back to the hospital? They can’t know who I really am.
She holds her hand out for my ID badge, which I pass to her. She takes the badge and presses it against the scanner on her desk. Each second she holds it there, I get closer to making a run for it.
How quickly could she pursue me? Would Sebastian see me trying to escape and help?
Before I make a move the woman passes the badge back to me.
‘That’s fine Abby, you can head on through,’ she says, pointing to the gate next to her. ‘Sorry for the delay, that turnstile has been playing up for weeks. Don’t know when they’re planning to send someone to fix it.’
‘Thanks,’ I reply, moving through the gate, my sweaty hand grasping the badge as tightly as it can. April has just entered one of the lifts and I race to catch up with her.
‘Hold the lift,’ I call out to her, making it through the doors just in time before they close.
‘What was the hold up?’ April asks.
‘Badge wouldn’t scan, apparently the turnstile I went to is broken.’
She nods and taps her badge against the scanner in the lift, before pressing the button for level -10, lighting it up. I feel my stomach drop as we plummet quickly down below the ground.
‘Where is Soren?’ I ask.
‘He’s going to access security.’
‘He’s not coming with us?’ Surely we need his help.
‘No, we’ll be fine without him. Sub-level 10 isn’t high security.’
I look at the numbers lighting up as we pass each floor. ‘Why isn’t Henry Moore in the hospital?’ I mumble, as we go past level -6.
‘From what I can gather, they’re making sure he doesn’t give anyone the cure, rather than having him do the research. Maybe he refused,’ April replies.
The lift doors open and we’re met with a room filled with pitch-black darkness. We step out of the lift and a light flickers on to reveal a long corridor, lined by glass walls. As we move away from the lift, I get a better look at them and can see each thick pane of glass holds a cell behind it. There is no visible door to get in or out.
The first few cells are empty, but then we come across ones with occupants inside. Most prisoners are cowering in the corner of their rooms, not daring to look up at the people who have entered and returned the light to their darkened world.
‘What did these people do to deserve being imprisoned like this?’ I ask April.
She shrugs. ‘They obviously pissed someone off.’
‘Can’t we help them?’
April sighs sadly and shakes her head. ‘One day we will, but for now Henry is the only one we can help.’
I watch the poor prisoners as we move past each cell, with total sympathy. The sight of them disturbs me to my core. No one deserves to be locked up this way and living in the dark. It’s even worse than the hospital and I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone.
April stops by one of the cells and motions me closer. ‘It’s empty,’ she says, and then swears. ‘He was supposed to be in here!’ she practically growls.
‘What do we do?’
‘We wait until Soren can access security and we’ll see if he can find him from there.’
She starts to move back towards the lift. I go to follow her, but stop as my eyes land on a long dark mop of hair behind one of the glass walls. My heart stops beating for a brief second before I launch myself against the glass.
‘April! Lara’s in there!’
Inside the glass cell I can see Lara, huddled in a ball in the corner, her hair knotted and draping down over her face. I place my hand against the glass, hoping she’ll look up to see we’re here, but she sinks further back into the corner.
‘Is she okay?’ I ask April.
‘We’re about to find out. Take your inhibitor off!’ April replies.
I nod and frantically take it off, anxious to get Lara out of this hell. I barely notice the rush I feel as my talents are released, my focus is completely upon Lara and my horror at what they’ve done to her. With one finger I trace a large circle in the glass, making a window, just like I did yesterday. The glass disappears and April steps through, into the cell.
‘Lara?’ she says. Lara doesn’t respond, so she crouches down beside her. ‘It’s Beth and Elle, from school.’ The sound of our names makes her go still. Ever so slowly she peers up at April.
‘Beth?’ she asks, her eyes welling with tears. She glances at me and quickly lowers her eyes, pulling back further, which makes my heart drop. She must blame me for this. Of course she does. I’m the reason she went to the Reintegration Centre and she wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for me.
‘Elle’s wearing a blonde wig,’ April explains.
I’d completely forgotten. No wonder she shied away. I pull the wig from my head. ‘Hey Lara,’ I say. ‘You should be able to feel it’s me, right?’
She shakes her head and lifts her arm to reveal a device on her wrist just like my inhibitor band. ‘I couldn’t even if I tried, not with this,’ she says. Her voice is frail and croaks as she talks.
‘It’s okay, we can worry about the band later,’ April says, gently easing her arm under Lara to try and help her stand. ‘C’mon, we’re getting you out of here.’
Tears start rolling down Lara’s cheeks as April helps her stand. ‘Is this happening?’ she says, as they stagger towards me.
April nods. ‘Yes, now don’t worry about talking, we don’t want to tire you out.’
The two of them move out of the cell and I lift my hand off the glass, closing the window, once they have passed through.
‘You can put your band back on now,’ April says.
I quickly jam it back on my wrist and go to the other side of Lara to help April support her as we walk.
We are nearly to the lift when Lara stops walking. ‘We can’t leave,’ she says, her eyes going wide with fear.
‘What’s wrong?’ April asks.
‘They have my father. We can’t leave without him.’
‘We don’t have a choice,’ April says. ‘We can’t rescue him too.’
‘No!’ she yells, taking a step back, her eyes going wild and her body shaking. ‘We have to get him.’
/> I look at April pleadingly. ‘Surely we can get him too?’ I ask, before turning to Lara. ‘Who’s your father? Where is he?’
‘His name is Henry,’ she sobs. ‘They have him in a lab somewhere.’
We both freeze as her words descend on us. ‘Are you talking about Henry Moore?’ I ask.
She nods. ‘Yes, that’s him. I have my mum’s name, Taylor’
‘Henry is your father?’ April asks, barely registering as Lara continues to nod. April doesn’t miss a beat and her cuff is already up at her lips, while I still stare at Lara, dumbfounded.
‘Soren are you there?’ April asks.
Lara crumbles to the ground and starts shaking. I rush over and start rubbing her back, in an effort to comfort her. What have the monsters here done to her? The spunky girl I met at school is nowhere to be seen.
‘Yeah,’ Soren responds, his voice dark and surly.
‘How’s the surveillance going?’
‘Fine. The cameras on sub-level 10 are all looping old footage.’
‘Great. Henry Moore isn’t here, I need you to try and find him. He should be in a lab somewhere,’ she says.
‘Okay, checking now.’ The comm goes quiet for several moments before we get a response. ‘Oh yeah, he’s here all right. They’ve got him up on sub-level 1.’
‘Shit,’ April swears.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘He’s up on a high-level security floor.’ She stops talking as she thinks it through. ‘Soren, I need you down here.’
April disengages her comm. ‘Elle, you take Lara to level 2 above ground. When you get there you will follow the corridor to the end of the hallway and go into the room at the end on the right. Comm Sebastian from there and he’ll come and get you both out.’
‘Don’t you need help?’ I ask.
‘I’ll have Soren and we’ll be fine.’ She presses her badge against the sensor on the lift and the doors open. ‘If anything happens, we’re rendezvousing back at the apartment where we changed earlier. Do you remember how to get there?’
‘Yeah, I think so.’ I slowly help ease Lara off the ground and guide her to the lift. ‘C’mon Lara, we’re going to get you out of here. April’s going to get your dad and we will meet up with them outside.’
She nods shyly and sticks close to me as we enter the lift.
‘I’ll see you soon,’ April says, as the doors close.
The lift ascends swiftly and Lara doesn’t say a word the entire ride. Her arms are crossed over her body and she keeps her hair hanging over her face. I don’t know what they’ve done to make her this way. What I do know is they’ll pay for it.
The doors open on a bright corridor, which has a deep navy carpet on the floor and a long window at the far end.
We exit the lift and move hastily down the corridor. I glance over my shoulder as the lift door closes behind us. I feel too exposed up here and there are so many doors. We could be caught in an instant. We’re nearly to the end, when I hear the sound of a doorknob turning.
‘Quickly,’ I whisper to Lara, but I know it’s too late when I hear the sound of the door shutting behind us.
‘Elle? Lara?’ We both freeze on the spot and slowly turn to see Hunter who stands there in the centre of the corridor, his face filled with shock.
‘What are you doing here?’
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
‘What am I doing here? What are you doing here?’ I ask. Hunter looks just as I remember him, but he seems smarter. His rugged blonde hair has been combed and his shirt has been pressed. Something flickers in my mind, a brief memory that fights to rise to the surface, but it quickly disappears and I shake my head as though to clear it.
Lara shies back behind me and I squeeze her hand reassuringly.
‘There’s no time for that,’ Hunter replies. ‘You can’t be here. We need to get you both out of here. I know a way, but we have to be quick.’
I glance at the window behind us, and the door we’re meant to go through to comm Sebastian from. I don’t want to put him in any danger though, and if Hunter knows a way out that has to be a better option.
‘Okay,’ I respond, but Lara shakes her head. ‘C’mon Lara, it’s Hunter. Do you remember him?’ She shakes her head again.
‘He’s going to help us get out of here. We can trust him.’
She looks hesitant, but doesn’t shake her head again.
‘Let’s go’ I say, facing Hunter.
He gives me a brief nod. ‘This way,’ he says, walking down the hallway and opening one of the doors. Inside is a stairwell, but instead of going down the stairs he leads us up.
‘Are you sure this is the way?’ I ask.
‘Definite,’ he replies.
We walk up two flights of stairs before Hunter pauses by the door to level 4. He slowly opens the door a crack before peering out into the hallway beyond. Once he’s certain it’s clear, he moves out into the hallway, waving for us to follow. I glance over my shoulder as we leave the stairwell. We haven’t seen any recruiters yet, which has to be a good sign.
‘So, why are you here?’ I whisper to Hunter. ‘What happened to you the night we went to the north?’
He shakes his head and raises one finger to his lips as we creep down the hallway, being careful not to make a sound.
When we get to a set of double doors, he twists the knob slowly and carefully pushes the door open. He peeks his head through the door, then waves for us to follow. I let Lara go in first and then once I’m through I close it silently behind us.
‘Look who I found,’ Hunter says, raising his voice.
I freeze and slowly turn around to face the room. Before me is a huge office, with walls covered in bookshelves and a large wooden desk in the centre. Behind the desk, sits a man who barely glances up at us before waving us away with the flick of a hand.
‘I have no use for the girl now. Her father is already doing what we want. Return her to her cell.’
‘No,’ Hunter says. ‘The other one. It’s Elle Winters.’
The man’s keen eyes slowly rise from the tablet on his desk to my face. His eyes widen with recognition and his upper lip curls into a menacing grin of satisfaction as he fully focuses on me. I gasp. I’ve seen his navy suit and slicked back blonde hair before. I’d know the evil look in his eyes anywhere. It’s the man who watched my MRI scan in the hospital from behind the glass, the man who haunted my nightmares.
My eyes dart away from his and land on the tarnished nameplate on his desk. Joseph Blake, I read, causing my heart to race.
‘C’mon, Lara.’ I grab her and pull her back towards the door. I throw it open and go to run, but a recruiter stands there and before I can even try to get past him I am thrown back into the room, falling heavily to the floor.
‘It’s better not to try and run,’ Hunter says.
‘Why would you turn us in?’ I yell at him.
‘Because we need you,’ he replies.
‘We? Since when are you a part of all this?’
‘It’s always been we,’ he says, walking towards me. He crouches down low beside me. ‘My father and I needed Lara to convince Henry to help us. And you? Well, you’re the added bonus we didn’t realise we were looking for.’
‘Father?’ I ask.
‘You were the perfect way to get Lara to the Reintegration Centre where she’d be overpowered. After she managed to slip the recruiters at the Loft, I knew I’d need to try something different.’
‘But you helped me … I trusted you…’
Something flickers across his eyes as I say this, and the Hunter who had been my friend, who had helped me so many times, seems to shine out of them. His eyes grow dark again though. ‘You were just a play thing to me.’
‘I don’t believe that.’
‘Enough!’ Joseph bellows. ‘Hunter? Have one of the recruiters take Lara back to her cell and take Elle to sub-level one. Try not to be as rough with her as you were with Lara. That girl’s nearly lost her mind and we need
Elle healthy.’
Hunter nods to the recruiter by the door, who grabs Lara by the arm and pulls her from the room. Lara’s voice breaks as she screams and I can still hear her petrified sobs as she is dragged down the corridor.
My heart hardens and I feel a cold detachment pulsing through me as I listen to her cries. Images force their way to the surface of my mind and time seems to slow as Hunter turns to face me.
It has felt like a segment of my mind has been barricaded for so long, but the bricks that form the wall crumble as Hunter looks into my eyes. I gasp as my consciousness is pulled from the present and into a dreamlike state. It’s almost as if the room around me dissolves and, instead of the white walls of Joseph’s office, I am surrounded by memories that were locked away from me these past months.
I’m inside a white cell and I can see another version of myself cowering in the corner of the room. I recognise the place immediately. It’s the room I dreamt of in the hospital with the man cloaked in shadow. The place still gives me nightmares, but this time as I watch the dream play out I feel like an outsider, looking in.
When the door opens to reveal the man in shadow, I take an unconscious step backward from where I watch. My heart races because there is a difference with him. This time when I look through the doorway there is no shadow to cover his face. I can clearly see the man who enters the room to torment me. It’s not Joseph, but Hunter.
He slowly closes in on my shaking form in the corner of the room. ‘You have to understand Elle, we need your cooperation and if you aren’t going to help us we’ll have to find another way,’ he croons, as he approaches me.
‘Help you? You abandoned me in North Hope and sent recruiters to find me. You’ve spent weeks tormenting me in here. I won’t help you.’
Hunter frowns and for a moment a look of concern crosses his eyes, but he quickly pushes it away. ‘I’m giving you one last chance Elle. Do what you’ve been asked.’
‘What if I don’t?’ I ask, my voice deep and my words spat through my teeth.
‘You will forget these last weeks and when you wake up, we’ll try again. There will be no more fighting and we’ll make it so you’re more than happy to help.’
The ARC 03: Fractured Page 18