PANIC ROOM • KENJI KON

XXV. We're Not Alone

Yaz quietly slid her hand over Eva's shoulder, then put her finger to her lips.

Chaos screeched, his footsteps slowly pounding against the linoleum floors. His head came into view as he walked past their table, completely unaware of the girls. Once he moved on, Yaz began moving towards the door. Sammy followed, and Eva tried to, but Brooklynn tugged on Eva's sleeve and whispered to her, "E750. I know that number! It was on Wu's computer..."

"Shh!"

She pulled Bubblegum forward, eyes stuck on the dinosaur on the other side of the room, and behind the overturned table Yaz and Sammy were hiding behind.

They stood again, shifting to the wall that once held the chunks of amber, but now had multiple missing cubbies and was covered in broken glass. Eva pulled along the pink-clad girl, watching where she stepped and cringing when Brooklynn stepped on broken glass.

"Sorry," she whispered, guilt ridden in her voice as they fell into a squat.

"Shh, you're fine," Eva whispered back. "Just be careful."

When they moved this time, none of the girls seemed to notice the untied lace on Brooklynn's shoe, so when she took a step forward and immediately fell, it was alarming to all of them. Yaz and Eva scooped an arm under either side of the young girl, while Sammy grabbed the envelope, yelling, "Go, go, go!"

Chaos rounded the corner they were at, snarling at them. The four girls ran for the hallway, only to come face to face with Limbo, who was on their immediate right.

"Left, left!" Eva yelled, shoving Brooklynn in front of her— who tripped over her shoelaces a second time, only regaining her posture with Yasmina's help.

Chaos collided with Limbo, and the two snapped jaws at each other as the girls escaped.

Somehow, Brooklynn had the baseball bat back in her hands, holding it defensively in a pre-swing when they came vis-à-vis with Grim, only a hundred feet outside the genetics lab. Of course, they should have expected for the third baryonyx, seeing as how there was never one without the other two, or two without the third.

"Grim!"

Grim screeched at them, only stopping when Chaos' roars echoed outwards from the genetics lab. The dinosaur tilted its head, looking into the distance. The girls took this as their chance to sneak away, only stopping once they found a big enough tree to hide behind that covered all four of them. By now, they were well over half a mile from the lab, and all Eva had to show for it were her burning calf muscles.

Yasmina laughed, a full blown, boisterous laugh that instantly made Eva smile. It was the kind of laugh, so energetic and cheerful, all you could really do was smile or join in. It was contagious enough, Sammy cackled in laughter as well, leaning against her best friend.

The trio only stopped, frowning down at Brooklynn, who was in a saddened mood, her knees pulled up to her chest and a pout resting on her lips.

"What's wrong?" Eva asked.

"It's just..." Brooklynn sighed. "I was so close to finding something. But I dropped the envelope."

Sammy kneeled in front of her. "You mean, this?" She produced the little manila envelope out of her back pocket.

"Sammy! You grabbed it?"

"Of course!"

Brooklynn excitedly opened the envelope, pulling out a few things. The first was a white square with the numbers 1309 written at the top, and a bunch of random letters that were clearly some type of code written beneath. The second was the same white square, but the number was 1310, and the written code was slightly different. The third item was a blank key card with a clip at the top.