The Wanderers

Chapter 14- The Control Room

I tapped my foot nervously on the ground. I rested my head on the wall behind me and heaved a sighed. It had been a while now, waiting in this dull room. Finally, after what felt like forever, the door slammed open and Francisco came out.

After being led out of the helicopter, we had been taken, in our groups of seven, to different rooms. It had been about twenty minutes. Though in reality it wasn't much, it felt like centuries.

"Let me brief you about your job." Francisco's usual jolly expression had turned grim. "One by one you will be taken to the lab which is on the opposite side of the door. After you are done working you will be handed your money and be asked to leave. This is confidential information. You are not to discuss this with anyone. And let me warn you, if you do, the consequences will not be good."

He studied our faces with narrow eyes as if challenging us to break the rules. Then he stopped on my face. He stared into it, his expression slowly changing to horror. Had he recognised me? I wasn't wearing my wig or any makeup. I held my breath waiting for him to make the connection. Travis glared back at Francisco and slipped his hand into mine. Francisco quickly snapped out of the trance and continued on.

"Ma'am would you kindly come with me?" Francisco said gesturing to Timmy. No. Not Timmy. Anyone but Timmy.

"NO! I mean no... I rather go." Josh said, looking embarrassed.

"No, me." I said, gazing sternly at Josh.

"Oh ha ha. Not a chance." Travis cried.

"Step aside weaklings and let Katy... Samantha save the day!" Katy said.

"Like I'm gonna let that happen." Isac said, standing up.

"Ummmm.... I have an idea... I'll just take the kind sir here." A very confused looking Francisco said, gesturing to Galileo.

Galileo hurriedly got out of his chair, grinning excitedly. Francisco pulled out a key from his pocket and inserted it into the lock. The door clicked open and the two of them made their way into the lab. From the crack of the door, before it was shut hastily, all I could see was darkness. Then the door was slammed shut. We couldn't hear anything in this room.

I squeezed Travis's hand so tight, my knuckles became white. I shut my eyes hoping Galileo would be alright.

Ten minutes passed by. Nobody spoke. We waited in eerie silence. Suddenly I heard a noise. A faint noise, growing louder and louder. Footsteps. There were two doors in this room . One that led to the lab and one that led to the hall outside. The one that led to the hall was yanked open and another lady in a white lab coat came in, looking frantic. She was panting and was constantly running her hand through her hair.

"Francisco... called- said there was trouble. Where is he?"

"In the lab." Katy answered innocently. The lady ran across the room and yanked the door handle.

"You'll need a key to get in." Katy replied sweetly.

The lady slapped her palm against her forehead. "Ugh! I was supposed to use the backdoor!"

"Wouldn't that need a key as well?" Katy asked.

"No we just have passwords." And with that the lady was off.

With a mischievous twinkle in her eye Katy whispered, "I'll be right back."

. . .

The hall door was yanked open and I shrieked as I saw Katy come inside.

It had been only five minutes since she had left but those five minutes were moments filled with tension, worry and nervousness like I had never felt before.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?" I yelled. "YOU CAN'T JUST RUN OFF LIKE THAT!"

"Yeah yeah... I'm sorry. Now listen. I followed that scientist lady to the back door of the lab. By the time I reached there she'd already typed in a password so I couldn't see that but from the crack of the door I could make out a person, I think Galileo in a chair. He looked dazed. Then the door was slammed shut but... I did realize that there was huge heating vent somewhere in the room. I could see into it and you know what..." Katy's gaze was averted to the wall behind me. Then with a grin she added "The panel looked a lot like that one."

. . .

The heating vent was hot and sticky and I was sweating like crazy. We had to crawl through the entire thing and man, I felt like I was dead.

Katy's mischievous emerald eyes locked onto mine and she rose a finger to her lips indicating that we should shut up. We were close. I took a deep breath and continued on. I could feel Josh's hot breath on the back of my neck. Timmy and Isac looked exhausted. Travis was crawling in front of me and was constantly turning around to check on me and the other three.

Very abruptly we reached the end. There were little slits in the panel that allowed us look into the lab. I peered into it. I could make out Galileo, seated on a chair with some weird contraption attached to his head. We were near the back of the room so I couldn't see his expression. I studied the room. The walls and floor were clean and white. In the center of the room Galileo was seated in his chair. A little control system was set against the side of the wall. Francisco and the lady were working frantically over there. A burly body guard was positioned near the back door.

Suddenly Francisco yelped and the contraption nearly exploded. It sparked but Galileo didn't react. He just sat there, like a lifeless puppet.

"Mary, call Jason now!" Francisco yelled at the lady scientist.

So that was her name... Mary and... what had he said?... Jason. Why did these names sound so familiar? I quickly put away the thought and returned to the scene happening in front of me. I wanted to scream and tell Galileo to get back to his senses ,to run away but I had to stay quiet. What had they done to him?

That's when everything went wrong. It happened so fast I took time to grasp what was happening. Not being able to handle it anymore, Katy yelled out to Galileo. The body guard, the only one to hear it over all this commotion, looked straight towards the heating vent only to spot to large emerald eyes staring back at him. Swiftly, he pulled out his gun and aimed, but not fast enough, Katy had already gotten us moving. We heard a gunshot behind us and I turned to see the bullet meet the metal of the panel with a clang, forming a dent.

"CRAWL!" Katy called out.

I moved as fast as I could. It would only be a while before the alarms went off. We didn't know where we were going. We were just hoping for a miracle. Finally we reached another room with a gigantic control system. It was strangely abandoned. A control room. Katy, using her crazy skills, actually managed to unscrew the panel with a hairpin and lip gloss bottle. Nope. Don't ask how.

One by one we jumped down from the heating vent and onto the cold tiled floor of the control room. I glanced at the different screens. For a moment I thought they were showing the same scene but then I realized that they were all different except that the same thing was happening. Hobos were seated in chairs and sooner or later the strange machine connected to their head would malfunction. What was happening?

As if voicing my thoughts, Timothy whispered worriedly, "What's happening?"

My heart clenched as I glanced down at the younger girls scared face. Isac put a hand on her shoulder. I grabbed a pair of headphones and used the mouse to double click on one of the scenes. It zoomed in.

I saw Mary in another lab talking to a red head that looked like he was in his 30's, "Jason, come on. We have a problem in lab 219 as well! Galileo's in trouble!"

"One second! Let me take care of this!" The man yelled. He was working frantically at the controls.

I heard another muffled noise behind me. Then I realized Josh was saying something. I yanked of the head phones and set them down on a table.

"I know this man." Josh whispered, his eyes tearing up.

"You know the hobo in the chair?" I asked.

"No...no. That man, there, the scientist." Then choking back a sob he whispered, "That's my uncle."