Michael Vey: Prisoner of Cell 25

Chapter 47: The Escape

We cautiously crept up to the GP level: me and Zeus in front, followed by Ostin, Ian, and Taylor, with McKenna and Abigail bringing up the rear. The cameras inside the stairwell were panning back and forth like animals, heads up, watching for danger.

"Zeus, take those things out," I whispered.

"On it."

One by one Zeus blasted the cameras. Their blinking red lights went dark and they drooped, as if hanging their heads in defeat. Then the stairwell itself went dark.

"I think they're trying to make this difficult," Zeus said.

"No problem," McKenna said. She began to glow again.

"McKenna," I said, "stay close to the wall. You make an easy target."

She pressed back against the wall.

"Ian, where are they?" I whispered.

"Three guards on GP, two guards on level one and six on two— three guarding the doors and three with Hatch and the children. They've abandoned the third floor. There are seven guards on four and three scientists. It looks like they're preparing for a battle on the fourth floor."

"They must have guessed that's where we're going," I said.

As we came up to the first level, I whispered to Ian, "How close to the door are they?"

"One's touching it, the other's standing by the elevator."

I put my hand on the door and pulsed. We could hear the guard's gun hit the floor.

"Seventeen," Ostin said.

Suddenly Ian shouted, "Move, move!"

We scattered. Bullets started ripping through the door.

When the gunfire paused, Zeus asked Ian, "Where is he?"

Ian pointed. Zeus shoved his finger through one of the holes and fired back with a bolt of electricity.

"Got him," Ian said. "You are good."

"Thanks," Zeus said.

"Sixteen," Ostin said. "We're forty percent there."

We approached the door to the second floor cautiously. Hatch was on level two and there were the electric children and six guards. Fortunately, with the stairwell cameras dead, they were blind to our movement.

On our way up to the third floor we had to step over the bodies of two of the guards from our first battle. They were still unconscious. McKenna and Abigail put on the guards' bulletproof vests, even though they hung to the girl's knees. Then Ostin and I handcuffed the guards and stripped them of their weapons. Ostin added one of their knives to his utility belt, which looked like a small sword on him. I took one of the rifles and jammed it between the door and the railing to keep the door from being opened behind us.

With each step, Ian looked from side to side as he kept track of everything going on in the building. My biggest fear was that Hatch would attack with Nichelle and the electric children, but with the exception of Tara, they kept their distance.

"He can't risk them," Zeus said to me. "The kids are too valuable. The guards are dispensable."

We stopped on the stairwell between levels three and four. There was another guard's body on the stairs. We stripped the guard of his weapons. We now had more than we could carry, so we dropped them down the stairwell. Ostin put on the guard's bulletproof vest.

Ian groaned. "We've got a problem."

"What?" I said.

"On level four they're setting up inside the door with a flamethrower."