In Charlie's Arms

44 • In the Light

"There," Seraphina said, removing the electronic collar from around Fox's neck. "How does that feel?"

The tension in the room dissolved almost immediately. Everyone had been watching cautiously for the last few minutes as Sera worked on freeing Fox, waiting for something to go wrong.

Fortunately, it went smoothly.

Fox reached up to feel her bare neck, a small smile forming on her lips before she parted them, ready to finally say words that didn't have to be contained in a whisper for the first time in two years.

"It . . . It feels great," she replied, her voice raspy. She looked around the small control room to her siblings, beaming. "I can finally yell at you guys now."

That earned a few laughs, but Bea was quick to interrupt and get the group back on task.

"Alright, now that that's off—we need to figure out exactly how we are going to pull this off." She looked over to where Charlie sat at the control panel, his eyes narrowed as he studied the buttons and switches. "Any luck on turning the camera on?"

Charlie shook his head, turning to look over at Sera. "Can you come take a look? You're better with technology than the rest of us."

Sera nodded, setting down the tools she had found in the procedure room and stood up to head towards Charlie, where he had already gotten out of the swivel chair and motioned for her to take his spot.

As soon as she was seated, Sera took over his task. They had been trying to find out which button would turn on the cameras upstairs, wanting eyes on Arthur and his guest.

The urge to start flipping random switches and pressing buttons was tempting, but she kept from doing so. She had no clue what the control panel was capable of. One wrong button could set off an alarm and ruin everything.

"I think Fox is our best option," Bea announced, though careful to keep her voice low. "If we can get her to sneak up on him and use her ability, she can convince him to hand over his gun and the shocker and we can tie him up. Then, we find a phone and call the police."

A thought popped into Sera's head. "Wait," she said, swiveling around in her chair. "We need to hide any evidence of the procedures. If anyone finds out about your, um, abilities, then you'll just be carted off to a hospital or some lab and will have to undergo a bunch of tests and—and you'll just end up as lab rats again."

Bea narrowed her eyes at Sera for a long time before nodding and turning to the group. "She's probably right. We aren't exactly considered normal by the outside world." She sighed, looking towards the door that lead out to the hallway. "Where do we even begin?"

"Files," Sera told her. "There are a bunch of files detailing everything about y'all in the first door on the right. Any evidence that reveals your abilities needs to be destroyed. The police will search this place up and down when they get here."

"What about the procedure room?" Mike asked, leaning up against the wall with his dark arms crossed over his chest. "How do we hide an entire room?"

"I can take the equipment out," Charlie revealed. "We can hide everything deep in the woods for the time being."

Bea nodded, seeming to like the idea. "Alright. That'll work." She looked to the other half of the group. "Start getting everything together. Make a pile in one of the training rooms."

The group followed her command and left the room, all but Sera, Charlie, Fox, and November.

Sera went back to looking for the right button, but got sidetracked when she saw that Dr. Zavala had woken up from the knockout punch Charlie had given him.