Across The Multi-verse

by I Ogunbase

  Lifting the small backpack she carried around to the windowsill, she looked out of the room and towards the lake for a moment before pushing the backpack out of the window.

  She hoped it would at least float for a while as she got her bearings. The stones she had placed in the bag weren't heavy, but she wasn't certain on how long the backpack would remain bobbing around in the lake. She exited the room in haste and made her way down the corridor. She walked with an effort, though she mentally pushed herself to run. But she didn't.

  I just need to get to the fire escape. If I can get there, I can maybe survive the day...

  She opened the door to the stairs and began running down it, carefully. She knew it would be a tragedy if she fell. Not while they were actively searching for her. Once she got to the ground floor, she tried to open the fire escape door but it only creaked, giving way a little but not enough.

  She could see the light of her freedom on the other side as well as what was blocking the door. She looked around, her panic rising until her eyes settled on a metal bar lying just underneath the staircase. She reached under it and pulled it out. It weighed heavy in her hands.

  No matter, she thought to herself, as she faced the fire exit.

  The fire exit opened out, but it was barred up with a set of metal furnishings that had been piled up. She believed it to be a deliberate action taken by her captors.

  Maybe this place was never safe to begin with.

  She tested the metal bar to see if it could fit through the slit of the door and her mood brightened when it did. She faced a dilemma, however. The inhabitants of the building were unaware of the events going on and she wanted to largely keep it that way. She was being hunted and her oppressors were delicately going from room to room asking about her.

  She found the fulcrum of the furniture outside and placed the metal bat just next to it, in a way that could force it to topple. She knew that once it did, the sound it made would be loud enough to give her position away and that terrified her.

  She considered her options carefully. She checked underneath the stairs again to see if there was any other thing she could use for her safety and eventual escape but found nothing. She had to go deeper underneath, crawling through the holes in some of the discarded equipment and wooden boards discarded there.

  There is nothing.

  Then an idea came to her. One that was risky but with a potentially high payoff. She returned to the front of the fire exit and tried crawling her way underneath the stairs one more time, to see how fast she could pull it off and how she would have to do it. The first time made her curse quietly.

  The openings in the gaps of equipment underneath the stairs made it hard to climb through with speed. Everything croaked in a way that would give her position away. She had to gently move a few things about before she could safely and quickly get in and out. Once under the stairs, she saw that she could obscure herself with a black tarp she found. The idea to cover herself hadn't been pleasant but she wasn't in a place to choose.

  Once she was satisfied with her hiding place, she climbed back out from underneath the stairs and took hold of the metal bar once more. Saying a quick prayer to no god in particular, she pushed against the object at the other end. Nothing happened. She gritted her teeth and tried again, putting her whole weight behind it.

  She felt the metal bar move like the object was giving way to her and she rejoiced. She waited for the first object to fall to the ground before she started crawling back to her hiding space underneath the stairs. As she was covering herself with the tarp, there was a louder clang of objects falling and the fire escape door flew open.

  She drew the tarp closer until it was covering all but her eyes. Then there was silence. She gulped heavily as the silence seemed to drag for a long while before she began to hear the sound of running.

  They're on the stairs.

  Her attackers ran down, darting out the fire escape door with a speed that terrified her. She wouldn't have been able to run fast enough to evade any of them, had she decided to go out through the door. Five bodies passed her, and she watched as all of them ran out, shouting at each other. She hoped it would be enough to fool them. Her bag was still in the water, floating aimlessly. She prayed that they bought it. She hoped they took it as she drowned while trying to escape from their judgement.

  She wasn't sure but she didn't want to jinx it until it felt true. As she began to twist herself in a way as to get comfortable, she saw a pair of legs walk back into the building, pausing at the fire escape door. She held her breath. That was something she was proud about. She could hold her breath for minutes if the occasion demanded it and this was one such occasion. She swallowed and waited with the pair of feet. And after what felt like an eternity, the feet moved back out of the building.

  She slowly let out her breath, making sure to not make any sound in the process. She was about to sigh out of temporary relief before she heard the sentence that made her blood run cold.

  "I've found her. She's underneath the stairs. I can see her."

  She screamed as her eyes locked on to another pair of eyes staring intently at her.

  ---

  He watched her get dragged out by his men and grumbled out of annoyance. The fact that she had tried to escape from him irked him so much, he had half the mind to kill her on the spot and feed her to his pets. But he wasn't going to do that. She was far too important. Far too knowledgeable. He nodded for his men to take her back to where she had escaped from. She was not going to see the outside world, that much he had sworn to himself.

  Flicking his nose, he commanded one of his men to secure the fire escape once more. It had been a good plan though he questioned the relevancy the day it was suggested. And now that he had reaped the rewards, he had to pay off the bet he had taken on it.

  He grimaced and walked back inside, making his way up the stairs in a slowly and deliberately. The building reeked of dirt and the stench of unwashed humans and he didn't understand why he was stuck there.

  You know why. Damn bastards, he chastised himself.

  He was going all the way to the uppermost floor to report back on the events that had occurred. He wasn't pleased with having to report back to him, but he had no choice. Even now, he could feel His mind searching for him and he hastened his steps a bit. He didn't want to be disciplined. The last time that had happened, he hadn't been able to eat for a month. It damn near killed him in the process. He snarled and began to jog up the stairs.

  "You're wasting my time," a foreign thought dominated his thoughts and he winced.

  "I'm sorry, sir. On my way."

  He could still hear her shouting and fighting one of his men on his way up. It made him chuckle. She really did have some spark in her. He wished his master would let him have her though. She was a liability and he strongly believed she had outlived her usefulness to them. It was about time she died. And it would be for a good cause too. That made him grin.

  He got to the top floor and walked through a set of double doors into a reception-like area. He watched as she got dragged to the left of him, down a long corridor, after which she was thrown into a room. he turned right and sped down the corridor until he reached the end. The corridor curved left to another set of large glass doors that opened automatically when he drew near. The room was large and circular, though designed similar to that of an operating theatre.

  His gaze fixed on a shirtless man, standing in the middle of the room, wearing a pair of black tight trousers. The man stood on his tiptoes with his eyes closed, holding a knife in his hand. There was a human tied and gagged, laying on a table in front of the man. Even from here, he could hear the human whine, sobbing quietly for mercy. He simply shook his head and stood to the side of the door.

  "You made it in time for the operation," His master said to him mentally.

  "Yes sir," he replied.

  "Good," His master said, "Let us begin."

    I Ogunbase, Across The Multi-verse