I felt the van dip as it drove down a hill and yellow light started to shine through the windows. I realized we had descended a ramp into an underground parking lot.
The tires moved slowly over the pavement as we turned some corners and stopped. I heard the driver’s window roll down.
“Oh, you guys,” an annoyed voice droned. “Alright, do you have anything that we need to check?”
“No,” the driver said with a thick accent.
“What is in the back?”
“Uh…we-weapons?” the driver said, trying to find the words.
“Dirk, it’s the guns for the Sweeps team,” another voice said. “Don’t ask them hard shit. These dumb fuckers have no idea what you’re saying.”
“Alright, go on,” Dirk sighed. The car began rolling forward.
The light changed from yellow to white as we entered a very bright chamber. We felt the car give a jolt before it began to descend.
I was worried my heart was beating loud enough to give us away.
The elevator slowed and I held my breath, as did Clark. We felt the second jolt as the elevator stopped and then Josh and the driver got out of the car. Listening closely, I heard a loud clanking and then the buzz of a door opening.
“Hey!” a loud voice called happily, startling me. “It’s the chinks!”
“Do you have the guns? Excellent. Just put them over there. We need the van,” another voice said.
A few moments later, the back door of the van opened and the top crate next to me was removed. I ducked, frightened that it was someone else, but Josh’s voice came to me.
“One second…”
I heard another conversation start at the front of the car as the driver spoke to the other two men.
“Phil,” he said with a thick accent, sounding nervous. “Van broken.”
“What? Where?”
My heart was in my throat as the side door of the van opened and there were sounds of panels being lifted in the floor.
“Oh, it’s not broken,” the man named Phil said. “But shit, there’s oil everywhere…damn it, I knew we had to find a better place to keep that shit. Hey, Dave, get your ass over here and help me clean this shit out!”
Josh tapped the top of the crate in front of me and I quickly, but quietly, clambered out of the van, grabbing a crate as Clark followed suit. Josh also took one of the crates and the three of us walked around the other side of the van as the driver kept the two other men occupied.
Josh quickly led us into the main area for the car elevators and I tried not to look around. I saw three garage-looking doors on each side of the hall, the space between the two walls large enough to drive a car between. The area was brightly lit and the sounds echoed in the cavernous hallways.
Josh set his box next to a set of metal shelves on the far wall holding tools and parts for the maintenance of the vans. I set my crate down as Josh darted to the side of the shelf and reached his hand behind it, clicking the latch and pushing the shelf to the side for us to sneak into the passageway. I slid in first and quickly shed the jumpsuit, handing it to Josh as Clark untangled his feet from his.
“20:24,” he whispered to us, taking Clark’s jumpsuit and sliding the shelf back into place.
Then we had two hours to wait.
Clark and I sat in the cold hallway between the records room and the car elevators, barely breathing, anxiously watching the minutes tick by on Clark’s phone, hoping that everything would go according to plan. The timing needed to be perfect. More than anything, I prayed Dana would be gone for the entire thing, supposedly at his meeting with one of the leaders of Brazil.
Clark and I did not speak. I ran through the codes in my head, remembering the thirteen cells I had to break humans out of. Clark had twelve cells, but he also agreed he would break Julie and Miranda out while keeping the money launderer and armed robber inside the cell. I had finally won the argument, stating that if we didn’t get them out Dean would do something drastic and risk the rebellion.
We looked at the clock on Clark’s phone every three minutes, watching the time crawl by.
8:00…8:04…8:07…8:13…
When it was 8:15, Clark opened up the application on his phone to gain remote access to the security. I had no idea what he was doing, but watched in fascination as he navigated his way around and got ready to deactivate the mainframe.
At 8:22, we crept forward and I gently pushed the latch, pulling the shelf to the side and listening for the guards. Clark peeked around me, listening as well.
“I fucking hate being left behind on a Sweeps night…” a voice droned around the corner. Seeing no one in the expanse of the hallway in front of us, Clark ducked around me and stepped into the hall, glancing at his phone. I followed, cautiously sliding the shelf back into place. We remained where we were, knowing we were out of sight of the cameras.
8:23…
“Quit your bitching,” a female voice snapped. “At least you get to go to the North-East Region next week. I get stuck here to do Sweeps locally.”
I peered at my watch, watching the second hand tick closer to the eight, and then on to the nine.
“I haven’t even been on a Sweep yet,” a man called, further away from the other voices, standing at a different post.
“You haven’t completed your training, yet, you dumbass,” an older male voice called from an even further position.
Clark’s thumb hovered over the button, both of us watching the second hand on my watch approach the eleven…
Three seconds before 8:24, Clark pressed the button on the touch screen.
Just as the second hand hit the twelve, the lights clicked off and the constant buzzing of machines that ran the heaters and air circulation units ceased, making a wheezing sound before silencing.
“What the fuck?” one of the voices hissed.
Dim emergency lights that gave off an orange glow came on. My brain was frozen, no longer thinking only of the next sequence of events.
“Shit, is this another fucking drill?”
“Alright, group at post one!” the oldest guard called, his footsteps echoing as Clark and I stepped forward, pressing ourselves to the wall as we reached the intersection of the halls.
“This is bullshit,” one of the men groaned.
“Oh, whatever, it’s good for you, trainee,” the woman teased.
“Weapon check,” the older man ordered.
They clicked their weapons, checking them out of routine, when a message sounded over the one of their speakers.
“All units, be sure you gather and check your weapons.”
“Unit Four, cleared,” the man in the car elevators said.
“Unit Six, cleared.”
Two other units called in over the speaker as I waited, my breath held.
“Unit One command,” a man said. “Can you confirm our orders?”
“Not at this time.”
“Holy fuck!” a voice echoed through the static of the communicator.
“Who was that?!”
“Come in. What’s wrong?!”
“Talk to me! What do you see?!”
“Fuck! Three Tens are out! I fucking repeat, three Tens are loose!”
“Fuck, it’s not a drill!”
The four in the car elevators area turned and ran toward the door to the holding cells, yelling at one another as they burst through the door.
“All units to Ward Ten! We have a fourteen-four! Eight Group! Get your fucking asses to Ward Ten!”
The door remained open as Clark peeked around the corner, pocketing his phone before turning to me and nodding.
As thrilled as we both were that the plan was working so far, we were not smiling, anxious and worried. I prayed that the timing would work.
We slipped around the corner and stood at the door into the holding cells. The cavernous room was far larger than I expected. The cells had large glass doors that acted as the fourth wall to their prisoners. The people who could see us from their
cells stared in shock as we darted forward when the security guards were halfway down the halls, shouting orders to one another, echoing as they screamed.
“Fucking Goliath!”
“Seventeen men down!”
“Contain the fucking ward!”
“He’s already out!!”
Clark and I hid next to the cells on the main hallway on opposite sides, waiting for the guards to clear the entire area.
The people in the cell in front of me started banging on the glass. I tried to ignore them, particularly since I was leaving that group behind. I had to remind myself that a lot of them were legitimately dangerous criminals.
The soundproof glass kept their voices from reaching me, but I felt their desperate pleas all the same.
“Lily!” Clark hissed. I saw that the final group of guards reach the far end of the holding cells. Circling, I darted between the cells, the faces of the frightened and confused prisoners becoming a blur as I reached the next long hallway, turning, counting to the third hallway on my left and darting down it, glancing at the top of the doors to find the cell number I wanted.
BD-2.
I looked briefly inside and nodded to the obviously-much-calmer prisoners as I typed in the override number.
“2977641,” I murmured as I punched in the code. As I was typing, I heard the holding cell area go very quiet. The security guards were out.
Half of the glass slid sideways and the cell opened.
“Come on!” I hissed, leading them to the main hallway. I heard them follow and I glanced up and down the main corridor, seeing Clark lead his first group out of their cell. I ran down the main hall, eight prisoners following me.
On the third hallway on my left, I turned and motioned for them to keep running. Mark had made everyone aware of the plan, so everyone knew where to go, but I still felt like I needed to direct them.
I went to my next cell: AG-3.
Releasing the next four people, I pointed where they needed to go, quietly ushering them out of the cell before following them, continuing to ignore the other prisoners pounding on the glass, pleading to be set free. I went to the next cell, AG-4, and opened their door, adrenaline pushing me faster.
After hissing at them to hurry, I turned the other direction and ran up the hallway to another long hallway, not wanting to be in the way of the humans running toward the Dome. I did not allow my thoughts to wander to how Mark and Griffin were doing breaking experiments out, or how the Eight Group was faring against Goliath and the other escaped Ward Tens. I focused entirely on finding my next cells and freeing the humans.
I ran faster than I ever had in my life. My breath was short and I was hot from adrenaline, but I was focused—almost frightfully focused—watching the numbers and hall fly by, able to ignore the horrified and pleading faces in the cells I passed.
AL-6…AN-4…
I saw out of the corner of my eye the other humans quietly running down the middle hallway as Clark let out the prisoners from his assigned cells.
I darted across the hallway, avoiding another group of people Clark had freed.
BO-5…
Back across the hall, down one hallway…
AP-7…
I led the group out, running down the main hall and sliding into another hallway, letting them continue on.
AS-8…
Leading them as well, I focused on numbers and hallways. No one had a face yet. I was running, racing against the clock, playing the incredibly dangerous and exhilarating game against time. The orange glow of the emergency lights only excited me further, the dark making me feel like I was moving that much faster, and making me feel that much more powerful.
Down another hall.
BU-1…
Into the main hall, down one corner and across…
AV-8…
Straight across the main hall, to the very end, stopping in front of the last cell on the left…
BW-8…
I led them, pointing to the open door as I circled into the next hall and opened cell BW-4. Leading the prisoners down the same corridor, I hissed at them to run, not sure how long we had left before the backup security system would kick on. I did not waste time looking at my watch to see how many minutes had passed, worried about getting to my last cell.
I turned down the next hallway, stopping at cell BX-2 and leading them to the main passageway, running fast, passing Clark who was freeing another cell.
I ran straight through the open door and into the hall to the room connecting the Dome and the experiment wards. I wanted to stop and listen for possible signs of trouble, but I saw a member of the Eight Group standing in the room beyond the open door, so I knew everything was going according to plan, since the door was still open.
I only had to run a short distance before I caught sight of the far cells of Ward Nine, their glass doors facing the hallway. I stopped in front of the first one, quickly motioning for the humans to keep running around me.
I glanced at the teenager standing at the door of his cell before looking up above his door, my heart pounding as I checked the cell number.
Barely remembering in time that I had to use a different code, I quickly punched in the correct number and the door slid open.
I did not wait for the experiment to move, running toward the room that connected all the wards just as another experiment darted out of the door the member of the Eight Group was standing next to.
I almost halted completely when I entered the smaller orange-lit room.
There were bodies everywhere, littering the ground with blood and broken bones. They startled me, and apparently startled the people running into the room behind me from the gasps I heard.
The experiment ran in front of me, straight across the room, ignoring the bodies and running to the open door to the Dome.
I forced myself to ignore the bodies as I ran to the door marked “Ward 10 – East” and found the number pad, typing in the next code. The door slid neatly to the side.
Remembering how the ward was laid out in the blue prints, I turned left at the first corner and ran to the dead end, ignoring the confused and inquisitive looks of the observing experiments. I turned right, breathing hard and shaking with excitement. I watched the cells on my left, reading the numbers and stopping at the second cell I reached, seeing Tori waiting for me.
I typed in her number, barely glancing at the cell next to hers and noticing it was empty.
As I hit the last number of the code, my hair stood on end and I shivered, feeling as though I was being watched.
The door slid open and Tori darted out as I stepped back, throwing a quick look around, noting that all the cells further down the hall were empty, except for the figure I saw in the very last cell in the corner.
I was frozen, staring at the familiar face, my eyes wide as his bright hazel eyes stared back at me, his face pale and his hair matted. His chest had scabs from where the spikes had cut into his flesh the last time he was chained and his skin was marred with dark bruises.
Eyna stared at me, his eyes powerful, dangerous, and predatory—a caged animal ready to pounce at the nearest opportunity.
I could not tear my eyes away, captivated by the feeling of his eyes staring me down, telling me how powerful he had become. It was clear that he was more powerful than Dana, and while that should have terrified me, it gave me hope that, one day soon, Dana’s favorite experiment would kill him.
“Lily!” a female voice snapped as hands grabbed my shoulders. I whirled around, shocked out of my trance. “We have to go!”
I threw one last glance at Eyna, who was still watching me, but Tori’s strong hands guided me at a run out of the ward, leaving the Machine of Neutralization prototype staring after us.
Tori kept hold of my arm as we ran out of Ward Ten and into the carnage of the room leading to the Dome. She pulled me insistently, even though I wanted to stop and wait for Mark, who was running with one more experiment out of the hallway from Ward Nine. The Eigh
t Group experiment that had been standing guard at the distorted door was gone.
Tori pulled me toward the Dome and I ran with her, stepping into the cold air of the dark Dome, trying to catch my breath. I could not see much, but I could feel how large the space was and I was particularly surprised to feel grass under my feet and smell the scent of pine.
Tori continued to pull me, ignoring my fascination and confusion, to where a member of the Eight Group stood, holding a rope next to another experiment who was extremely tall and broad with a hard face barely visible in the dim emergency lights.
“Griffin,” Tori breathed in relief.
“Go, quick,” he urged. She finally released my arm and grabbed the rope, lowering herself into the stream and climbing the rope to the wall, disappearing underwater. Another experiment leapt across the stream and took another rope held by another experiment, who followed him.
“Everyone?” Griffin asked, turning to Mark. Mark nodded, breathing hard as he quickly took off his jacket to switch his clothes to the bloodied ones.
“Thank you, Mark,” I whispered.
He nodded to me once and then mouthed the word: “Go.”
I grabbed the rope as Griffin helped me lower myself into the water. It was frigid and I lost my breath for a few moments before I forced my muscles to work and pull myself against the current. Griffin got into the water behind me, startling me, but I pushed forward until I reached the wall, where I took a deep breath and ducked underwater, pulling myself along the rope quickly. The rope moved as well, pulling me under the wall and up to resurface with a gasp, coughing as hands hooked under my arms and hauled me out of the water, Griffin’s hands pushing me. I choked and wiped the water from my eyes, shivering uncontrollably as Griffin pulled himself out of the water and onto the walkway in the dimly illuminated pipe.
“Okay, you two,” Griffin nodded, turning to the two men manning the ropes, who I guessed were Hiroki and Minsoo. I watched the one across the stream use the rope to climb to the top of the sloped wall and pull the knot of the rope, releasing it from the bolt before jumping across the stream.
Griffin took the rope from him and handed it to me as I rolled it up, forcing my frozen fingers to function.
Inside Page 82