Am I ready?
Jonathan punches a code into the door. It slides open.
Revealing another hallway. A similar steel door waits at the end.
Is this some kind of trick?
Jonathan motions for us to step into the hall. We all obey. The previous door glides shut behind us.
Did I just give up my last chance at escaping?
Jonathan explains, “The reason for this little hallway is that if someone did leave the Complex before the Disease died, the air wouldn’t infect everyone in the Complex. This hallway has an advanced air monitoring and circulating system that searches specifically for the Disease particle. If it were to find a Disease particle in this hallway, it would go on lock down. You wouldn’t be able to leave or enter this hallway until it went through severe disinfectant procedures. Anyone in this hallway during those procedures would die.”
A chill runs down my back.
Jonathan moves forward, “I won’t be able to come with you after this door. Derek has currently been able to shut down my location tracker. But, if I were to leave the Complex, even if my tracker was entirely shut down, an alarm of Ellen’s would still go off. There’s a lot of information you still don’t know. We were planning on telling you more, but Ellen has found too many details. We couldn’t risk you spending another whole day here.”
Jonathan pauses to make sure we’re listening, than continues, “The second I open this door, you need to go. Follow the river away from the Complex. Don’t stop. Don’t turn back. You won’t be able to get back into the Complex once you leave. Time is different out there. It will only be dark for about an hour once you get outside, and then it will start to get lighter. All the answers to your questions will be inside your bags. Good luck.”
Jonathan punches another code into the door. It slides open. He’s pushing us out before I can survey my surroundings. I stumble out and turn just in time to see the door close. Jonathan has an odd look on his face. I can’t place it, but my focus is ripped away.
Air swirls around us. I force myself to remember what the hologram taught me. Wind. It pulls at my hair, crawls over my clothes.
My eyes fly everywhere. It’s dark, like the lights have been turned off. I glance up, where the ceiling should be.
Thousands and thousands of paces above us is the glassy, black sky. Tiny pinpricks of light are scattered across. Stars.
My gaze darts all around me. I can’t see ten paces in front of me. Thick, pole-like objects are planted firmly into the ground. I remember learning about them, but I can’t remember the name.
The thing that scares me the most is how much movement there is. Thin, thread-like plants sprouting from the ground sway back and forth in the wind. Leaves attached to the pole-like objects flutter back and forth.
I tense as something, inhumane, calls out into the darkness. A dark, small shape cuts across the stars. Moving by itself.
Animals.
I rack my brain, trying to bring back what the holograms said about animals. Particularly the ones that make such a noise.
Most of them are harmless, I think. As long as we leave them alone, they’ll do the same with us. In fact, they’ll most likely be scared of us.
But what if they aren’t?
Canton’s shaking voice breaks us out of our awed silence, “Nathan said to follow the river and to keep moving.”
YOU ARE READING
987 (Complex Series, #3)
Science Fiction-third book in the Complex series- Dana has been captured by Officials. She doesn't know who to trust and who to avoid. Anything she says or does could quickly cause her death. How long can she protect the secret of her and her friends' past? How lo...
