The Crescent Stone

by E G McNally

  “Have you ever seen anything like that before? It’s as if that child was under his total control.” Will pointed out.

  “I’ve seen that kind of behavior before. Its brainwashing! That child is brainwashed and he’s in charge.” There was a break in her thoughts momentarily. “Do you think that child is what is blocking your thoughts? Maybe he’s some sort of shield for him?” Shyla asked hesitantly, afraid of the response.

  “That would explain why he’s shadowing Major Bradshaw, keeping him off my radar.” Will mumbled.

  “Is that what he’s doing with them? Brainwashing them into submission, after he’s done with whatever horrible experiments he has planned for them?” Shyla gulped to hold back the tears that would accompany the anger she was containing.

  “Well, that kid was clearly guarding his mind, and if he has more of them like that, down there, with abilities like that kid, then it would explain why I’m not picking up any thoughts of kids or odd experiments at all.” Will responded. “It’s almost morning, we should probably head back for the night. I can keep a decent enough watch on the area with my mind, we need to decide what we are going to do, especially without Kam.” He leapt down from his perch in the evergreen, and sped off towards the Kokrine hills where they would camp for the day.

  Shyla focused especially hard on her invisibility because she’d be moving quickly and pulled away from the wall where she was closely hugging. They both ran silently through the snow twisting around trees and lunging over rocks and holes, careful not to draw attention, and staying out of the sky, sure that Major Bradshaw ran sky patrols, scouting for intruders.

  There was a cave deep in the woods that stretched back a good fifty meters where they had met up originally. Once they finally me up again at the cave, Shyla collected some partially dried out wood around the entrance, and Will started a fire at the very rear of the cave so that no light would drift off into the morning sky, keeping them very hidden from any possible sky patrols. As they felt the delicate warmth of the fire fold around their entrancing figures, exhaustion swept over them both like a thick wool blanket.

  “So do you think the kids are down there?” Shyla asked.

  “No doubt, especially with Major Bradshaw showing up, he must be getting ready for something big. Anyhow, get some sleep we can talk some more after we’ve got some rest.”

  Morning broke, and both Shyla and Will dozed off into a deep sleep hardly woken by a single noise, until once again dusk began to fall, and the embers of the fire cooled completely, turning a dark ashy coal color, and leaving them both chilled, before they woke.

  Willem woke first, disturbed by something he’d seen in a thought, and quickly woke Shyla thereafter.

  “What, what is it?” Shyla questioned, startled by the hasty awakening.

  “That boy,” he said.

  “What boy?” She asked still confused.

  “That one that knew Taylor, he’s left, and I think to go after her and worse yet, he’s been shrouded. I can’t tell what he’s doing. But pretty much the last thought I could read was him bringing her here, but I’m not sure how he plans to do that. We have little time to get those kids before everything goes wrong.” Will frantically chocked out, catching his breath from the startled thought that woke him.

  “Why are you like that?” Shyla pointed at Will.

  “Like what,” he replied.

  “That,” she pointed with one long golden and red furred finger again.

  Will collected his thoughts and cleared his head glancing down at the ground where his bare feet were standing and then it hit him.

  “Brrr, I’m f-freezing,” he stuttered the words through clattering teeth. He was fully human. At some point during the day of sleep he must have shifted out of his gargoyle form and into his human form, strangely enough he still could read thoughts. He, like all the others could only use their special abilities when in gargoyle form, but it was one of the thoughts he’d read while monitoring the facility that awoke him from his cold sleep.

  “Why’d you shift? You could catch your death in this cold. What were you thinking?” She began scorning him.

  “I didn’t do it on purpose, Jeez, lay off.” He quickly responded in his defense. Clasping his arms tightly together holding in all the warmth that he could, he began to focus and return to his gargoyle form. The change only took a few moments, from the crowned ridges on his forehead to the silvery dragon like tail that jutted out behind him, he finished shifting back into his more comfortable and less weather affected body, just to notice a strange pulsing coming from the money pouch attached to his belt.

  “That’s strange,” he mumbled, glancing into the pouch, only to see the small fragment of rock slowly release a faint glow of light in short dim waves. “Last time this happened Taylor was nearby or at least the other stone fragment was close, that’s probably not good.” He mumbled.

  “Alright, well now that I’m ready, can you still shroud others with your invisibility?” Will asked.

  “Course I can silly, what use would I be otherwise?” She jeered.

  “Good, we’ll enter using your invisibility. We’ll wait until one of those scientists enters the eastern door on the far building, where you’ve been monitoring. That seems to be where most of the commotion is. Once we’re in, we’ll try to find the holding cells. If we can locate the kids then I’ll slip away, cut the power, and cause a diversion, so that you can quietly release the holding cells and sneak the kids out of the base. Whatever happens to me, don’t panic, get any of the children you find out of the facility and return here to the caves. Your main focus will be to make sure that no one breaks your invisibility. With any luck no one will even notice the children missing until you guys are safely gone with my diversion and your extremely exceptional cloaking ability.” He finished tracing the plan out.

  “Okay, so rendezvous here. We’ll wait a day, but if you don’t show I’m coming back in for you.” Shyla responded.

  “NO,” he cut her off. “Those kids are the most important thing, keep them cloaked and if I’m not here in a day start traveling back toward the Chateau. No matter what, don’t wait up for me any longer than that. If they get you or the children then it will all have been for nothing, understand?” Will clasped Shyla’s hand, staring her down. “Stay hidden,” he ushered one last time.

  “Yes, Will.” She looked away, “I will.” She looked back up at his eyes, “promise me you’ll be careful though.”

  He shrugged away and muttered a simple, “yeah.”

  “Promise, damn it,” she shouted at him.

  “Fine, fine, I promise,” he planted the words firmly. “Now let’s get going.” And with that, Shyla pulled Will into her shroud of invisibility, and they sped off together flying through the air, carefree of being caught in flight. Flight would be the fastest way to get there and the most direct path to the eastern entrance of the northern building.

  As they neared the facility they noticed the usual guard standing at the southern entrance of the building and two patrol guards walking the grounds. The patrol guards were closer to the western front of the south gate and might be back towards the northern building within a half hour. It usually took them about two hours to walk the entire grounds before they started their rounds again. They should probably have waited for the two guards to finish the patrol before gaining entrance to the building, but to their luck a scientist was just on his way into the eastern entrance.

  Most of the scientists appeared to take the side entrance to the building rather then the main entrance at the front, where the security guards were posted, but being that there was no guard at the side entrance, that was their first choice for breaching the facility.

  “Okay, lets get right on his heal, and don’t say anything to me I’ll, read your mind. I don’t want us to be heard, got that?” Will directed his thoughts to Shyla waiting for her thought response, until they both dropped down silently into the snow and followed delicately behind the man tryin
g ever so quietly not to make any crunching noises in the snow that might give them away. Fortunately for the both of them it was very dark outside and there were few street lamps scantly spattered along the road, and there was just enough roar from the wind, whipping around, that the snow was tossed about, lightly covering any appearing tracks.

  “When he types in the code there is a momentary pause in the door before it closes. We’ll slip in together and then wait against the wall, stay close to me.” He spoke into Shyla’s mind once again waiting for her little thought response to follow.

  “Roger that,” she responded comically.

  The scientist typed in a six digit code on the keypad inserted on the wall alongside the large steel door and waited for a confirmation buzz. With the buzz, the door slid open, and the scientist promptly walked inside, behind him silently and invisibly, followed Shyla and Will. Once inside, the door inevitably slid shut and the buzz sound became a few clicks acknowledging the door was locked shut.

  They stood against the wall near the door and watched as the scientist walked up to a man at a desk, handed him a badge, and then walked off behind a door to the left of the desk. There were two doors aside from the obvious lobby door far ahead in the front part of the building. The two doors stood behind the guard desk, one to the left and one to the right. The guard stood up, looked around the room briefly and then began shifting his look from one side of his desk, pausing to focus at what must have been camera monitors, until he got to the end of the desk and then sat back into his seat.

  “Follow me behind the guard, I’ll bet there is something useful on those monitors he’s looking at.” Will instructed, as he tiptoed his way forward and around the desk, until they were both carefully standing behind the guard sitting at the desk staring at a basketball game on one of the monitors.

  “He’s distracted, that’s good.” Will commented in Shyla’s mind.

  They both looked from screen to screen browsing for any sign of the children. With any luck they would find a clue as to what direction they needed to head.

  “Here, over here . . . check this one out.” Shyla pointed to the left top two monitors. There was an empty hall with four doors two on one side and two on the other. There were security locks on each door and nameplates on the doors reading: Specimen F 203-207, Specimen F 208-210, Specimen M 134-137, and Specimen M 138-141. The monitor screen itself was labeled Barracks level 1 and the other monitor mimicked the first, only the numbers were different and the screen was labeled Barracks level 2. It was silent in the halls, on all the monitor screens, of course it was nightfall so hopefully nothing would change, at least until morning, which gave them plenty of time to rescue the children.

  “Hey look one of the scientists is coming off shift, down that door to the right.” He pointed to the monitor. A tall man in a long white lab coat scuttled up to the door on the monitor screen which read ‘Security Monitoring Hall Exit Door Right’ and began punching in a code.

  “Now’s our chance to sneak in before the door reseals,” Will whispered to Shyla’s mind. Fortunately for Will, anyone inside of Shyla’s invisibility cloak could see one another. No one else can see inside the hidden field of invisibility but they can see each other, allowing for them to easily stay close enough so that she could hold the field strongly together, hiding them in perfect sight.

  Quickly they tiptoed over to the door just as the scientist exited, stepping inside before the door slid tightly shut.

  “Hey there,” the security guard shouted.

  Both their hearts skipped a beat as they froze, just inside the door.

  “Don’t forget your cell phone, you left it here before going in. You know work policy, next time don’t bring it to work or I’ll have to confiscate it.” The security officer handed a small rectangular phone back to the scientist.

  “Sorry, didn’t realize it was in my pocket, won’t happen again.” The scientist responded, and then both Shyla and Will let out a long silent sigh as they realized the security guard wasn’t talking to them, and then continued on down the hallway.

  “Look elevators at the end of the hall, that’s our best bet. Better hope the guard isn’t paying attention to the screens.” Will said.

  They moved like serpents, silently crossing the hall without making a single noise, until they reached the elevator and pressed the down arrow button.

  “Everything is underground,” Shyla whispered. The idea made her nervous. If they got caught it would be much harder to escape from underground then it would be, from out in the open.

  The elevator dinged open and they slipped into the small boxed in room. The doors shut and Will looked up and down the small symbol panel.

  *1 Main Lobby

  -2 Lunch Hall & Cots

  -L1 Barracks

  -L2 Barracks

  -1L Green Labs

  -2L Blue Labs

  -GND Basement

  “This is where we part,” Will pushed the –L2 button and then the GND button. “I’ll drop you off at the lower Barracks level. Don’t do anything until I’ve sent you a message. In case the guard notices the elevator, I don’t want him to become alert until I make myself clear. I’m going to the bottom floor to see if there are some power generators there. Once I’ve cut the power and drawn all the attention to myself, you make your move, and start releasing those children. Take the stairs up and get them the hell out of here.” Will spoke directly and sternly to Shyla, “Don’t wait for me no matter what.”

  The words echoed through her head, “no matter what.” Something felt wrong to her but she had no time to think. The elevator stopped moving and the doors slid open and dinged as she stepped out.

  “The invisibility will only hold until the elevator drops down another floor than I can’t hold it over you anymore. Good luck,” She loudly whispered.

  “Same to you,” Will responded, and with that, the doors slid closed leaving Shyla alone in the lower Barracks level. She raced over to the doors and peered inside, surprised to see several children silently asleep on small cots lined beside each other in each of the rooms. The F on the doors stood for the females and the M for the males because each room labeled was full of them according to the mark on the door. She waited by the door and focused entirely on keeping herself invisible meanwhile she felt the small tug as her hold on Will failed, as he dropped down to the floors below them.

  “What the. . .” the security guard tapped on the elevator monitor screen, then reached over to the phone, picked it up, and dialed the security headquarters office at the front post.

  “What’s up?” The man at the security headquarters office answered the phone.

  “Just got a malfunction with the laboratory elevator again, it’s opened at the barracks level; no one is on it though. Pain in the ass I know, but you know protocol.” The security guard spoke diligently into the phone.

  “Okay we’ll log it, probably just the wiring but keep an eye on it anyway. The boss arrived yesterday and said that with the girl here, we need to keep an extra sharp eye on things. Turns out she does not have her powers under control, and who knows what kind of mess that might mean. Thanks,” the main office guard hung up the phone.

  “Hmm,” the guard set down the phone, and looked back to the game he’d been watching, catching the final score before glancing back into the elevator monitor.

  “Shit,” he reached over to the far side of the counter, spilling a mug of coffee, and flicked up a large red switch that was turned down, immediately sounding a loud steady stream of bursting blares, announcing an intruder all over the base, after noticing a large gargoyle like figure standing in the elevator where nothing stood moments before.

  He picked up the phone to call the main guard post but before he had a chance to dial out, a voice came through from the other side.

  “What the hell is going on over there?” A guard from the main post yelled through the phone.

  “The elevator, it’s not empty anymore, one of those escapes from
the 80’s is on it, and getting off in the basement.”

  “Roger that, don’t let anyone out of the building.” The man hung up the phone.

  The security guard ran over to the main door typing in a long security code that appeared to put the building on lock down, from here on, only specific codes would allow anyone inside the building or out. He pulled his pistol from his side and took his place, standing by the main door ready and waiting for further back up.

  The alarm blared through the base, awakening anyone and anything remotely close to sleeping, along with the pulsing alarm came an announcement that repeated several times before it went silent. “Viper Task Force, report to the Northern Laboratory, there is a P-S-I Subject intrusion . . . Viper Task Force report to the Northern Laboratory,” The announcement went silent after the third repetition, and the base intruder alarm fell silent another five minutes after that.

  Will heard the alarm fall silent and continued down the darkened hallway after he exited the elevator. He made his way around several large steam pipes and past two rooms full of air conditioning units and high pressure air systems. At last, he’d found a large room with two small generators running one on each side of the room and decided that destroying these would be the most efficient way to cut the power.

  He glanced around the room, hoping to locate something to destroy the two generators with and without any luck he prowled around the generators themselves. He eventually found a speed trip, releasing both of them, on either side of the room, stopping the two generators and then he cut a hole in the oil lines and set fire to the room. If he couldn’t destroy the generators he could at least make it near impossible to restart them any times soon. Once the fire was set, he raced out of the room, hurrying toward the staircase located near the elevator, but before he could make it that far, two very large gargoyles launched out of the elevator, and another large reddish brown one, smashed his clawed fist right into his chest, from the stairwell.