I shut my eyes as tightly as I could, somehow convincing myself that this would keep Al out of my head. I tried to lean away from him as he took my face in his hands. I flinched slightly at the stab of pain, as he used his shirt sleeve to wipe away some of the blood from my chin.
‘Trust me,’ Al’s voice penetrated my thoughts, trying to deceive me again.
I knew better, now. Al had bested the best liar I knew: me. I was not going to let him do it again.
“Locate the Lakin fellow first,” William said, taking a swig of whiskey as he smirked.
“Lakin Adams,” Al began. My eyes opened wide to examine his face. Adams was not Lakin’s last name. “He lives in... Houston, Texas.”
I wanted to smile, but I refrained. I was wrong. Al was not a traitor. He was helping me protect the others. I hoped against hope that my thankfulness did not show on my face.
I caught a glimpse of William nodding to one of the security guards, who then left the room. Fear shook me. It wouldn’t take long for them to realize that Al was lying.
“Lyla Adams,” Al started, another lie. “Boston, Massachusetts; Nadia Turner, Lincoln, Nebraska; Joseph Turner, Atlanta, Georgia; Bryant Dawson, Phoenix, Arizona.”
At each name, another guard left the room, until there were only four remaining. I cocked my head, as Al looked at me apologetically. I couldn’t understand why he seemed regretful, but I was so confused as to why he gave some of us the same surnames. Al leaned back on the table, acting as though he was emotionally drained as he retreated his hands to his pants pockets.
“I appreciate your service, Mr. Waldreck,” William said, slurping noisily at the remainder of his whiskey.
‘Prepare yourself,’ Al’s voice whispered in my mind.
“Unfortunately, someone with telepathic abilities can’t be trusted in this sort of operation,” William continued dismally, reaching inside his blazer.
Al kept his back to William, maintaining steady eye contact with me for a moment. Before I could understand what was happening, BANG! The gunshot rang throughout the room like a freight train. I screamed, throwing myself to the floor out of reflex, and bumping my broken nose on the way down. I shut my watery eyes, shaking my head in denial at the thought of losing the man who I was so grateful to.
Ears deafened by the ringing, I hesitantly forced one eye open, expecting to find Al’s lifeless face staring back at me from the floor. My mouth fell agape at the scene.
Al had spun to face William, flinging his hands out of his pockets to release fistfuls of some sort of coarse powder into the air. I quickly recognized it as the sand from my last lab-run. Beams of yellowy light emitted from his hands, intertwining with the tiny grains of sand, causing them to expand and morph together. Before I knew it, a labyrinth of rigid glass surrounded us, separating us from the forces of evil in the room.
William, who had been awestruck, finally understood what was happening, and began pelting the glass with bullets. The guards behind us followed his lead. I flinched with each loud bang, covering my head as I flattened myself against the floor. I expected the glass to shatter immediately, but the bullets caused nothing more than minuscule chips on contact.
“We have to go,” Al said hurriedly, helping me to my feet.
I stared at all the men who had run out of bullets, and resorted to pounding on the glass with the butts of their guns. I tried not to stumble, allowing Al to lead the way out of the room into the brightly lit staircase.
The next floor up was the computer lab. Most of the lights were dimmed, as it was still very late at night. Al held his finger to his lips, gesturing that I needed to be quiet. I nodded in understanding, and hunched over as I followed him through cubicles. I was unsure where we were going, but I didn’t question it.
He pulled me under a small desk just in time to remove ourselves from the path of the guards who had left the room earlier to check on Al’s information about the others. When the coast was clear, we forged ahead to the one lit cubicle of the floor.
Fidgeting nervously in his seat, was a very anxious Dr. Helmsworth.
“Hurry. It won’t be long,” Al whispered, holding my hands out for Dr. Helmsworth to examine.
I felt a bead of drool run down my chin, as my mouth fell open once again. If it had been physically possible, I’m sure my jaw would have plummeted all the way to the floor.
Dr. Helmsworth nodded, lifting a set of small keys from around his neck. He quickly typed something into his computer, completely deactivating my Electro-Cuffs before inserting the keys into the two small holes on the bottom of the shackles, and turning them at the same time.
I felt as though the burdeniest of burdens had been lifted from me, as the Electro-Cuffs fell to the floor with a thud. I gripped my wrists, examining the reddish, wrinkled skin that had developed underneath them. A single tear of happiness rolled down my cheek, as I beamed at the wonderful man fidgeting nervously in his seat.
“You have to go. Now,” Dr. Helmsworth said, hastily shooing us from the tiny, open office.
“You’re not coming with us?” I asked, as Al tried to pull me back toward the stairway.
“I would just slow you down. There’s no time. Go,” Dr. Helmsworth replied.
“They’ll kill you when they find out you helped us,” I stated sadly, Al still tugging at my arm.
“Then don’t let me die in vain, Angie,” Dr. Helmsworth smiled, eyes watering as he gazed at me lovingly.
I nodded, finally allowing Al to lead me back to the stairway. I had never been to the higher levels of The Facility, and I had no clue what to expect. We moved carefully, Al keeping an eye on the stairway beneath us as we ascended.
The staircase ended at a sturdy, white door. Al reached for the handle, sighing to find that it was locked. He knelt down to the keyhole, beams of light emanating from his fingertips as he blew a few grains of leftover sand into the opening. I was uncertain of what he did, but there was a loud click within moments, and the door creaked open.
We were in a dark room, surrounded by silence, without even the guiding light of an exit sign. I tugged on Al’s shirt sleeve, like a child afraid of the night.
‘We are not alone,’ Al’s voice said doubtlessly. ‘Listen.’
We stood completely still, and sure enough... I could hear the muffled breathing of at least three other people in the room with us.
‘What do we do?’ I questioned inside my head.
‘Get down,’ he replied.
I dropped to the floor at the sound of a lighter clicking. The room was lit up with fire, spreading from Al’s palm like a flame-thrower. There were a few gun shots, but before the hidden guards managed to do any damage, they were running around the room like beheaded chickens, completely ablaze and screaming in agonizing pain.
Al grabbed my hand, lifting me back to my feet. We used the light of the burning guards to navigate our way to a plain, wooden door at the other side of the room. Al didn’t bother to check whether or not it was locked, rather he just kicked the door open with brute force.
We entered into a small stairwell, which led straight up to a door above our heads. Hopeful beams of light fell onto our faces from cracks around the door, the sounds of screaming guards growing silent behind us.
I held my breath, as Al pushed into the door with his shoulder. I closed my eyes to imagine seeing the real sky for the first time, and to feel the warmth of the true Sun beaming down on my face. I wondered what the air smelled like. I wondered what it would feel like to stand in the middle of a prairie, with the real breeze whisking through my hair. I wondered... what that awful smell was!
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The Bond