Earthbound (Slow Updates, Sorry Guys)

Chatpter Three- The Above

Finding the exit was harder than expected. With Dawn a complete emotional mess Navi was struggling on every turn, forgetting which way we had already come and eventually taking us in circles.

“I’ve seen that blood stain four times,” Ty said stopping short to look at the big crimson spot looming on the wall over a body.

“That’s not possible!” Navi shouted looking down two hallways.

“We’re lost?” Dawn said sobbing. Her brown eyes were big and glazed over as she looked at me and I stretched out a hand for her. I heard voices earlier as we passed a bigger hallway with less damage. I thought about mentioning it to Ty, but he would tell Navi who didn’t need any more stress. I don’t know what I could possibly do to make Dawn feel better. A part of me feels lost, gone with Angel.

“We’re not lost,” I said putting my hand on Dawn’s shoulder when she didn’t take my hand on her own. The last thing she needed was to be paranoid about someone finding us, or worse like what would happen if someone did find us.

I shuddered as a slow icy chill crawled up my spine. I know she could feel my hand shake and it probably wasn’t helping her any.

How can you tell someone to not be so paranoid, when you yourself are afraid? I squeezed her shoulder tighter, for self-gratification in knowing that I might have covered my shaking hand or for my own sanity I couldn’t tell.

“If we can get to Lab 14 there’s a tunnel somewhere along that corridor,” I said.

A couple years ago when I was fully into training I had been working on a hunt with Ty when we passed a few surgeons in heavily equipped suits and gas masks. They were exiting through a door that had never been there before. I’d walked past that space hundreds of times and never saw any signs of there being a secret passage. Ty and I took one glance at each other and didn’t need any more prompting to send us following them through a hallway and into a bunker.

The bunker held three sleek black helicopters. Two were Sikorsky S76’s with twin engines and a speedometer that enabled the aircraft to reach speeds of 200 miles an hour. The other was a Eurocopter Squirrel, a more nimble craft which was pretty fast.

The ceiling which was encased in complete metal had a large circle with suction-sealed doors for the helicopters to exit through. I remember staring up at it in awe until Ty took my wrist and pulled me after the surgeons. They stopped at a large door where they pulled on air tanks. One pressed a button on the wall and a red light flashed through the bunker, a siren accompanying it. Ty and I backed into a corner behind extra tanks as the door opened and they stepped out of the bunker.

As the doors closed we came back out.

“Prepare for decontamination!” A voice blared out from a speaker, bouncing off of walls.

“Let’s go,” Ty said grabbing my hand and dragging me out of the bunker and back into the hallway. “That was close,” he said brushing back his hair.

Now we busted through some double doors into the South-East corridor.

“There,” Ty pointed to the spot where the surgeons had disappeared through so many years ago. Navi stopped short at the wall and looked at us stunned.

“Where is there supposed to be a tunnel?”

I walked up to the wall, pressing my palm to the cool tile I ran a finger over a fine line that ran from the ceiling to the floor. With a bit of effort I could feel the suction releasing.

Ty, coming up next to me, pressed his own fingers into the inch thick crack and began pulling. Finally, the break spread wider and the door’s suction released and the panel slid open.