Chapter 10. Is there a way out?
Megan and Mary were running along the tunnel, and once in a while they noticed the same arrows with the word “Exit” on them. It seemed to Megan, similarly to what she experienced before, that they were traveling in this tunnel for the entire day. Mary started slowing down first, and Megan followed her, though reluctantly, remembering how she was found by the Suspicious last time she fell asleep in the tunnel. All of a sudden the corridor ended. The bright arrow was there at the end: “Exit from the land of the Unknowns. Open before 9 p.m.”. There was no way beyond that point, so Megan concluded that it was past 9 p.m. already. She was happy, though, that they did confirm the exit existed and were now on a mission to find their friends and lead them out.
They started walking back because Megan refused to take rest near the exit. This place could be monitored by the Unknowns, and they would discover them right away. So she convinced Mary to tolerate it a little longer so that they could get some way back and find a nook in the tunnel to hide in. They had to walk a while before they found such a place. They slept in that nook for several hours when Megan felt Mary push her. Megan, of course, was not in any mood to move at all and was, in fact, quite surprised to see Mary up and ready to go. But she agreed with Mary that they should not be staying in one place for a long time.
Megan was getting more and more concerned about the boys. Of course she warned them not to fly, but she also knew that John could very well have tried and liked it and forgotten all her warnings. And then he would talk Bradley into doing the same thing! She was sure that Mary would be even more in a hurry to rescue her friends after learning from Megan that they would be trapped after the flying test. They’d been in this country for much longer, and they had plenty of opportunities to start flying if not to take the test already. Neither Megan nor Mary knew how long it took before the test was actually administered, but it seemed to Megan that after flying successfully for the first time, it would not take too long.
Megan had no idea where they began their journey. She asked Mary, but she didn’t either. They did not mark the place, because they were in a hurry, running away from the Suspicious. After walking for a while, Megan decided that they should go through the ceiling one level up, back to the rooms, and start looking for their friends by going through the walls from one room to the next. Megan also wanted to talk to other people and ask some questions, especially if she could find anyone who had already taken the test. Did they truly have more freedom moving around the place, or were they more or less stuck in the same rooms? Megan saw many people in these rooms when they were running away from the Suspicious, they just did not have time to stop and talk to them.
“How are we going to get up to the ceiling?” asked Mary.
“I’ll have to fly up and help you up as well,” Megan responded. “I haven’t actually tried doing this before, but I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be hard. As long as you start doing it, it becomes very easy.”
At first Megan tried flying up from the floor herself, and it indeed went pretty smoothly. Then she picked up Mary and tried flying up. That did not work so well, but eventually she managed to lift Mary high enough for her to come through the ceiling into the room above. Megan followed her. They found themselves in a room that looked exactly like theirs, with nothing but a bed, but the room was empty. They started traveling from one room to the next until they finally got into one where there was a person. It was a girl, again the same age as Megan and Mary. When Megan and Mary entered her room, she got scared at first, and, like Mary, thought that they were the Unknowns.
“So now you are coming in pairs to try to convince me of this nonsense,” she began.
“Hold on, we are not the Unknowns,” said Megan. “We’ve been captured by them and now are trying to run away. I’m Megan, and she’s Mary.”
The girl introduced herself as Rachel. Megan asked Rachel to tell them her story. Her story was again very similar to Megan’s and Mary’s. It became apparent from her story that children could enter this world only when there were three of them.
“So, did you see anybody in the other rooms?” asked Rachel.
“Not now, but we did see quite a few people when we were running away from the Suspicious on our way out,” Megan replied.
“So they must be out doing fun stuff, then,” Rachel concluded.
“What stuff?”
“Well, I don’t know… Whatever the Unknowns promise we would all do when we learn how to fly,” Rachel shrugged her shoulders.
“Oh, that…” Megan suddenly realized that the empty rooms were indeed inhabited by people who went along and learned to fly. It was them, who she really wanted to talk to now. But none of them were in their rooms. That was understandable since the rooms were very boring, and if anyone could help not being there during the day, one of course would get out.
“Do you want to learn how to fly?” Megan asked.
“They say it’s a great experience,” Rachel replied. “Those who have succeeded say that this is the coolest thing they’ve done in their life. So in that respect, yes, I would like to figure out how to do it.”
“And from which respect would you not?” Megan asked, sensing that Rachel knew something, much more than Megan did.
“I just don’t think it’s possible for ME. Yes, I am convinced THEY can do it, but I believe I’m different in some way.”
“Who – they?” Megan inquired, continuing her interrogation. Out of the corner of her eye, Megan noticed that Mary was getting impatient, but Megan was convinced that talking to Rachel was very important.
“My friends. They live right next to me, and they share with me what happens to them during the day and try to convince me to learn to fly and join them,” Rachel replied.
“And they’ve never visited you here, have they?” Megan asked, somewhat surprised.
“Well, of course not. How could they?” Rachel was surprised in turn.
“Just like we did. You know, you can learn other things in this world besides flying. Going through the walls, for example. Mary learned it without even being able to fly, and those who can fly should definitely be able to do that. I bet this is one of the next subjects that the Unknowns teach to those who have passed the flying test.”
“Apparently, my friends didn’t learn that,” Rachel replied. “And they didn’t mention anything about it. They just keep telling me how great it is to be able to fly because they can now fly up to their ceiling, open it and come out. So you are saying there is another way?”
“Yes, I think you can learn that, too. You just have to not think about it when you try,” Megan said and invited Rachel to join them.
Rachel agreed and tried to follow Megan and Mary when they passed onto the next room, but sure enough it did not work right away. She tried several times, still in vain, when suddenly Megan remembered how Mary was able to do it first time and shouted, “Rachel, run, they’re coming through the ceiling!”
Rachel panicked and came right through the wall. Megan and Mary joined her.
“Possibly, only those who haven’t taken the flying test can go through the walls, while those who have, lose this ability,” Megan suggested when all three of them were out of Rachel’s room. “Let’s keep going. Based on how many rooms we’ve seen, it looks like many people live here. I doubt all of them took the flying test. Hopefully we’ll find more people who would like to come back home. By the way, Rachel, would your friends like to go back?”
“No, they don’t. They are very happy here. At least this is what they say.”
“Have they mentioned whether they know anybody who passed the flying test and would still like to go home?” Megan asked.
“No, they didn’t talk much about anybody else,” Rachel replied.
Megan made a conclusion that everybody, or at least the majority of the people who passed the test, lost the capability to think clearly. They were hooked on flying to such an extent that they no longer wanted to
return home. That reinforced Megan’s conviction about the danger of flying. Rachel’s information made her even more concerned about the boys and encouraged her to move faster and faster through the walls. Room after room, all empty, the girls kept going for quite a while. They were horrified to find out that there were so many people here who seemed to be satisfied with the state of affairs. As a second thought, Megan briefly noted to herself that they’d gone through many walls but never got out of the building, just kept seeing more and more of the same rooms. Though it was an interesting phenomenon on its own, Megan put it aside because it was not important at the moment.
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