Gasping: The Last Remnant of Humanity

Chapter 16

The door rattled.  Someone was coming- someone that would get them all thrown into the holding cells. 

Thinking quickly, Kieran threw one of his team into a chair.  He skidded into the seat, off balance.  Shock and fear twisted his features.  The other two stepped back reflexively, their expressions echoing that of their comrade.  Just as the door unlatched, Kieran managed to grab Aiden by his lapel and roughly push him to a wall. “I want a name,” Kieran growled into Aiden’s features.

Rearing away from Kieran’s dark scowl, Aiden spat in his face.  He got a hit in the stomach for his troubles.  It doubled the stocky man.

Kieran wiped the spittle off his face with the back of his hand.  Head dropped, he turned- just a little- to see the man standing in the door from over his shoulder. “What do you want?” He demanded with a guttural growl.

“Just . . . just checking on you, Counsellor.”

“Everything okay?” Kieran demanded blackly. “Or do I need throw these misfits back and come help?”

“Oh, no, Counsellor,” the other man fumbled. “We’ll have everything under control shortly.  Please . . . please don’t stop what you’re doing.”

Turning back to stare at Aiden’s figure, crouched against the wall, he showed the man in the door nothing but the broad span of his back. “Then go.  I have work to do.”

Behind him, the man’s head bobbed. “Yes, sir.  Sorry to interrupt, sir.”

With a soft click, the door closed.

For a moment the four men in the room stared at Kieran. 

“It worked,” Aiden muttered, blatantly staring into Kieran’s features as if trying to decipher his secrets.

“When in doubt, act ticked,” Kieran grumbled, pacing back to the window.  The craft, nearly lost in the distant shadows, was retreating.  “We’re on our own.”

“No, not alone,” Travis’ voice buzzed in his ear. “You’ve got to get to the basement.  Yeah, the basement.  You need to take the passage, I think.  Not the roads.  Roads are dangerous.  Too many eyes.  The basement.  You need the basement.”

The doubt thick in his voice, Kieran asked, “And you’re going to get me there?”

“Don’t see anybody else with the plans, do ya?” Travis countered.

Closing his eyes with a long blink, Kieran held the breath until all his emotion built in his chest.  With a slow gush of air, he let it go.  Now was not the time to be frustrated with Travis’ prattle.  Obviously, he was his team’s best chance for escape.

And the man did know maps.

“Go to room at the end of the hallway,” Travis instructed, oblivious to Kieran’s internal debates.

The corridors were thick with people and, on this level, there were just as many donned in the prisoner’s jumpers as the Custodial uniform.  Yells punctuated the air.  People pushed; their eyes wide in their efforts to find escape.

“This level is on lock-down,” Travis informed them. “No elevator.  No stairs.  No way out.”

Growling, Kieran hugged the wall and lead his team through the mayhem- wondering where in the world Travis planned to lead them if there was no way out. A prisoner got too close, shoving him roughly.  Kieran knocked him back with a sharp elbow to his cheek before pulling out his passkey.  The door clicked open.

“Right, now find the door,” Travis said.

Behind Kieran, the door clicked locked.  His eyes roamed over the unexceptional room: a long table, chairs, blinds cover windows on two of the walls- but . . .

“There’s no door, Travis,” Kieran said.

“There’s a door,” Travis insisted.  “There is a door.  It’s there, Kieran.”

But Kieran frowned.  Behind him there was the door in which they’d walked.  In front of him, two adjoining walls sported wide windows.  That left only one, white paneled wall.  There was no door.  “I’m afraid not.  We’ll check the room across the hall.”

“No,” Travis began to insist just as Aiden tried to turn the door handle.  He pulled against it- only it didn’t budge.  Locked- and there was no passkey device on this side of the door.

“Travis, we’re trapped,” Kieran ground out. “The door’s locked.”

“You’re not trapped,” Travis insisted yet again. “You just have to find the door.  Find it, Kieran.  There’s a door.”

But all Kieran saw was empty walls.