The Innates (Book #1)

Chapter 34

After one surprising and vicious punch to the door, Alice laughs in hysteria. I gotta say, I'm impressed. Even after my arrival, Alice changed at least a little bit.
"Gotcha!" She said, looking at the remains of what was once a door. The remaining water flows out the doorway, soaking the halls with frigid water. I tried running down the hallway without making the squeaky sounds of my shoes.
"We're free!" Sarra screamed, running faster than Zach who was taking larger steps.
"Good thing I grabbed two of the clones' guns before I ran out." He said. "Jess, here." He holds it out and I grabbed it immediately. As we were about to make a hard left, Sarra dug her heels on the floor and stopped abruptly. I almost made a squeaking noise with my shoe, but no. But I couldn't stop gravity from pulling me, so I bumped into Ace's rib, causing his chin to dig into Alice's shoulder.
"Ow!" Alice whispered in a raspy voice.
"Why are we stopped?" Dominick asked.
"We got clone guards--look." Sarra said. I tried to peek through a lot of people infront of me, but all I saw are a bunch of shoulders and necks obscuring my eyes.
"I can't see." I said.
"You might not want to." Zach said. "There's nine clones after another batch."
"Seriously? We can take those guys." Martin said, who was also trying to peek through the people infront of us. "They have guns." Said Alice.
"Okay, we're toast." He said. "What do we do?"
"Oh... I don't know, use our powers? Which is why we're in this building in the first place!" I was so close to shouting, Ace smacked the side of my head with his hand. I sat and leaned my head against his thigh.
"Good idea... but, the elevator's just right there infront of us." Zach said.
"We need a distraction." Alice said.
"I smell metal, rusty metal." I said.
"Might be the gun."
"Oh my gosh, Jess, you're talking about my grenade." Sarra said.
"Didn't I give you a gun?"
"I can grab any kind of weapon I want, don't judge me." She said.
"Alright, use it as a distraction by throwing it at them. You know, I'd do it myself but, you're kind of in my way." One thing I noticed, even after the loss of my contacts, I could still see clearly. Varieties of colors stayed vivid and clear. That tank gave me too much power, it cured my vision.
"Don't push it." Sarra said impatiently. I hear the pin's click as it was getting pulled by Sarra. The grenade's handle flies out as she throws it out to the clueless clones. Luckily, the handle's tip darts directly to the elevator button. Finally, it's open. For there was a medium explosion that evacuated almost half of what Sarra can see. We all coughed as we made our way inside the elevator. And by "we", I meant some of them.
Meaty fingers grapple my waist as he wrapped his arm around it and attempted to take me away from my friends. The smoke cleared, but their facial expressions were mixed. Upset, afraid, and furious, they were too late. Zach punched the glass and so did Sarra and Alice. My classmates clamor against each other as they agonizingly cried my name out. I tried sprinting forward, but Mr. André held me back.
"Sarra! Zach!" Ace yelled. Oh great, they captured Ace too. The elevator ascends, it's truly too late. "No!" Ace subsequently broke free from the two clones who held his arms back, he banged his hands on the glass and called for their rescue. This is so pitiful, I thought Ace could stay positive in serious situations like this one. A clone takes out an anonymous object and plunges it on Ace's waist, he stiffened and yelled in pain. It's a taser!
"No!" I cried. Mr. André tightens his grab on my waist to reduce my shrieking. I coughed out and wheezed. "Ace..." I whispered. I could no longer see their feet in the elevator shaft. Ace falls hard on the floor, shivering. The clones drag him across the floor and directly to the classroom right next to the training room.
"You got what you wanted, so where are you taking us?" I said breathlessly.
"You need to be punished." He pushes me inside a dark room with two wooden chairs facing each other with a large light on the center of the ceiling.
"Is this an interrogation?" I asked.
"I told you it's a punishment." He swings me around roughly until I land between the two armrests of the rocky chair on my right. Ace settles down on the other one, twitching. I looked around the seemingly empty room, but it wasn't really empty. The classroom chairs and tables were destroyed and piled up on the four corners. I counted the clones and approximately and got five, none were injured. Mr. André handcuffs both of my wrists tightly, same thing for Ace. As he starts walking around the chairs in a circle, he spoke, "You, little delinquent, have to be punished."
"Then why'd you take Ace?"
"He's part of your punishment, actually."
"Right, because he's a loved one."
"And you don't want to get him hurt, I'm fine with that, really, as long as you just obey me."
"Doubts." I said with a lousy monotone.
"If that's what you want." Mr. André said. "I'm gonna make this easy for you... you get to pick your own punishment."
"Am I getting punished?" Ace asked.
"If Jess tries to escape, yeah." Mr. André answered.
"I'd rather die." I say.
"So eager." He shook his head and paused.
"There are two options!" The clone behind me spoke next. "First one, you two will experience one of your fears. Second..."
"Wait a sec, what do you mean by "experience"?"
"Face it-- second..."
"Forget the second one." I said. "At least I'll try to conquer one of my fears before I die, or I could just die doing it."
"I'd rather hear the second one!" Ace blurted out.
"Oh, it's too late for that, Ace. Jess has made his decision already."
"Jess!" He shouted.
I sighed. "I would like to hear the second one." I said.
"You gotta be kidding." I smirked. "Ugh! Fine, then... after all your attempts on escaping, Ace gets a timed out."
"Like, at the corner?" Said Ace.
"No, Ace, at life."
"Fear! Fear! Fear!" Ace and I shouted, like our hiccups escaped from our mouths without us knowing.
"How perceptive, I like it."
"Let's just get to it." I said.
"So? What scares you the most?"
"I'll go first!" Ace excitedly said. Seriously, he lacks control and attention. The consequences are inconclusively unlikely and he's all loose like a thread, what's he thinking?
"No, Jess goes first. And plus, you disgust me."
"I'm afraid of not being myself." He blurted out anyway.
"You're making this very hard for us." "And I thought the man who made me powerful was smarter than that."
"Don't come across me, Mckidd, I know all of your little fears." I scoffed.
"Yeah, right."
"Claustrophobia, Basiphobia, Neophobia, Thanatophobia, Cleithrophobia and Trypanophobia-- should I go on?"
"Trypanophobia. I choose Trypanophobia."
"See, that's what I like about you; full of surprises. So let's do something a little more... unique-- how about... getting a piercing? Both of you."
"No!" Ace shouted. "Absolutely not!"
"I agree!" I said loudly.
"Well, too bad! Either get your body pierced or Ace dies!"
"I can't do this!" Ace cried.
"Dying is worse than this, Ace. Do you wanna die because of your cowardice?!" I angrily yelled.
"But getting a piercing changes who I am! I don't want something that's not a part of me dangling around my skin!"
"You think I would let you die because fear is bothering you?"
"I think we should begin." Mr. André said.
"No, I... can't... do... this." Ace said.
"Yes, you can... I have faith in you." I said.
Mr. André pulls a crooked table with only three legs from the dirty piles of broken chairs. I could smell the dreadful scent of the metal equipment.
"And one more thing...since you're captured and all, you're gonna have to stay with us."
"What?!" Ace exclaimed.
"Stupid kids. That's been the plan all along. You two should probably pay more attention in class." Mr. André said, holding up a fish hook and my lower lip. I breathe heavily through my nostrils.
"No anesthesia?" I said, muffled.
"Nope." As he released the word, he quickly inserts the tiny metal's tip into my skin under my lip. I emit a sharp cry and grabbed the edge of the armrest. I eventually stopped my wailing after seeing Ace biting his lower lip nervously as he looked at me in pity. I can feel the entire fish hook slide inside my mouth through the hole of my skin. I cannot cry or shout, Ace is watching. I need to be a role model at times like this, especially when we're both gonna experience something really, really painful. This is like taking a shot, except this one is just all about pain. Or is it?
"Almost there..." Mr. André mumbled. My skin slowly expands as the fish hook's end reached my gums. I think my lower lip is swell. It stings. "There's the entrance!" He said excitedly, playfully smacking the left side of my face. I groaned furiously. He takes out a thin, incomplete ring the size of my thumb's nail.
"I hate you." I whispered harshly. It's true, he's the weight that's been standing on my shoulders. All the bruises, all the stab wounds, all the blisters, all the bunions, all the dried blood, it's all because of him. He pushed us too much, he's wrong.
"Get used to it for the next seven years." He said. His two fingers wrapped tightly on the ring that's getting inserted through my swelling skin. As he finished wiping the blood off, I grab the fabric of his ripped jeans and slide down as I launched my right knee up to his swimsuit area. He drops on the floor hugging his pained area, moaning. I stood up quick and unphased my left hand from the cuffs. How stupid is Mr. André? First, he underestimates us, and then he forgets to attach a neutralizer on me.
"Hey!" The other Mr. André panicked.
I swing the chair which was still attached to my other hand to the three clones who were coming to attack me. The chair was heavy, honestly. But there was no time for complaining, for there was one clone left trying to multiply into two. However, he was too late, the chair's weight was heavier than his head, which crushed it. I finally unphase and freed Ace from the torture chair.
"Thanks, Mckidd." Ace gladly shakes my prosthetic hand.
"Let's get out of here." I said. Although, I couldn't move my lips too well because of the sting.

"This elevator's taking too long!" Ace said, staring at the blinking elevator button that has a number one on it.
"Good point," I said, still in pain. "Come on, come on, come on!" I pressed the button again and again, and suddenly, a spark hisses above us and the elevator rocks roughly and stopped.
"Great job, you broke it." He said.
"It's okay, we're in the middle of two floors. We can scooch our way in to the first floor."
"Dude... no. There is no way you can make me do that."
"You don't wanna stay here, do you?"
"No."
"There's your answer-- now let's go get movin'."
"I see that we're between floors, if we open those doors and try to get out, there's gonna be a chance where our bones will get crushed if the elevator moves."
"And there's also gonna be a chance where can get out of here."
"If we open the doors, there'll be nothing but bricks, they're right infront of us right now "
"We can climb up. It's like--" I pushed the side of my face on the glass to see how much we need to climb. "about... seven feet."
"Okay, I'll give it a shot."
"Good."
My fingers felt sore after prying the elevator doors open, but it's only seven feet, how bad can it be?
"Here, use these." I strapped my gun around my shoulder and took two knives from Ace's hand. Since I knew their purpose, I use the blades as suction cups and wall-climbed all the way up to the glass above, which only took two stabs.
"Jess! You okay up there?!" Ace said.
"Yeah, I'm good!" The echoes of our voices didn't have any much space to occupy the shaft. It's a bad thing because I'm sandwiched by the elevator glass and the bricked shaft. I only have a few seconds before I freak out because I could hardly feel my chest expanding as I breathe. Small breaths, Jess, small breaths.

After a short struggle on breaking the glass open, I eventually helped Ace on the narrow climb. I slide our guns to the floor and grabbed Ace's hand.
"Pull me up, bro. The elevator started moving and I really needed to get out." He kicks the edge of the end of the shaft as he pulled my hands. A strange roaring sound captured our attention, it possibly came from below. For there was a wild gust of wind that rushes from below, pushing the elevator up like a rocket. I pulled Ace right before he had the chance to be obliterated.
"Thank you." He gasped for air and hugged my waist. "For saving me, twice." I hug him back.
"No prob, it's what I do." I turned and went for our guns, but they were nowhere to be found.
"Where are our guns?"
"I don't know... I swear, they were just right here."
"Looking for these?" A man's voice trails off from the terrace above us.
There they are, their mouths covered by Mr. André's meaty fingers. Jackson's hands were tied behind, Alice is handcuffed, Sarra's hair is covered with fire extinguisher substance, Zach is sweating pools, and Robert is trapped in a headlock. So I figured, all that we've been through this whole time, was just a glimpse of what we're about to experience.

I just have no idea why and how...