Still running

Chapter Seventeen: CCTV

Word count: 2100

"Where's Chris?" Addy asked us, he looked concerned. He looked behind us as though he expected Chris to come walking in out of nowhere.
"He's... working," I chose my words carefully in case someone was listening nearby. I couldn't let anyone know of our suspicions.
"Working? Is that what he calls napping?" Addy's face softened and he laughed slightly.
I breathed out in relief. If Addy didn't think something was wrong then no one else would either.
"You know it." I put a smile on my face although that was the last thing I wanted to be doing. Pretending to be happy put a heavy strain on me that I hadn't felt since mum died and I had to pretend everything would be okay for Matt's sake. Luckily, Addy believed my smile a lot more than Matt ever did. "We should probably get back to the dorm. Where he is," I added the end bit quickly and felt like it was a bit too rushed.
"Okay..." Addy sounded wary and he lifted his eyebrow up in questioning but luckily he said no more.
I was the first one to leave but they both followed me soon after. No one asked about the job, no one seemed to care. It was pointless to continue when one of our friends was injured and besides if we all went then no one would question Chris's disappearance. We'd be in it together and that's a lot safer if you think about it.

Ash slumped onto the couch when we entered the dorm, hugging the pillow to her chest, whilst I paced back and forth around the room. I felt jittery, my muscles poised in case something were to happen. I trusted that Chris could look after himself but who knows what Tyler or his men would do if they... if they found him. I swallowed but a lump stopped it from going down my throat. My mouth felt suddenly dry and goosebumps lined my skin. I had the nagging feeling I had put Chris in danger.
"What's happening with Chris?" Addy spoke low, his voice serious and flat. It surprised me how quickly he had changed from the carefree Addy who had been outside.
"He's helping us figure some things out," I spoke slowly. I couldn't even begin to explain all the crazy things that happened in just a short amount of time.
"What kind of things? Is this because of another one of your paranoid thoughts, Ray?" Addy crossed his arms over his chest and leant against the wall behind him. An eyebrow was raised in that classic way of his. I was used to his 'Ray you're crazy' face.
"Not this time. There's a room that looks like a butchers space but with more blood somehow," Ash defended me and clung to the pillow a little tighter, her knuckles mimicked the colour of the white cover.
"So, you're worrying could be... legit this time?" He questioned suddenly and turned the same colour as Ash's knuckles.
I was surprised the entire room didn't descend into nothing more than whiteness. A bleak colour that had so many meanings packed into it.  I remembered back when I was in school and the English Lit teacher taught us about the use of colour. Red for danger and love, blue for sadness. What was white? Purity, innocence, a new start. But red is just blood in this world whilst blue is just blue and white is just white. White is plain. It's nothingness.  I shuddered. Coming here was a bad idea.
"Just like sending Chris into Tyler's evil lair was a bad idea."
I tried to ignore the voice but it didn't work. If something were to happen to Chris it would be my fault. I would never forgive myself and neither would Addy.
"That's why we're getting Chris to check it out," I rushed out.
"When did you start thinking things through? Usually, you would've interrogated Tyler by now," Addy pushed himself off the wall and stood up straight.
"Something tells me that's not the best way to deal with things," I replied and looked down at the ground. I furrowed my eyebrows and glared at the usually too clean carpet covered in muddy footprints. 
"I think Ash is a good influence on you," the voice chuckled in my head.
"And yet you think sending Chris out there is a better way to deal with things?" Addy asked me and pulled me out of my thoughts. 
"Better than bringing attention to us, yes, Adrian," I snapped but I wasn't sure how much of it I meant. 
He was right but I like to think being inconspicuous was how we should deal with Tyler because, quite frankly, we didn't have many other options to choose from. Although I didn't like the feeling of not doing anything myself. I hated putting someone else in danger and wished I knew more about tech so I could stand in Chris's place. 
"He should be back now," Ash commented and cut our argument short. 
I looked over to her but didn't speak a word. We never said a time to meet back so I just had to hope he would come back soon. It seemed like Chris had been gone for hours but it'd only been half an hour. 
"He'll be okay," I finally stated.
"How are you so sure?" Addy narrowed his eyes at me.
"Because I know Chris," I got out. Chris was clever, smarter than anyone I had ever known before.
"You better hope he's alright!" Addy's voice was darker than I had ever heard it before and it made the hairs on the back of my neck rise up.
In all the years I had known Addy he had never acted in such a way. He came close to it when I shot the bandit who had Chris but without Chris being here his full attention was on me and worry as well as anger was spilling out of him. It was obvious he was protective over Chris, there was something going on deep inside him. Something that he wouldn't tell me, his best friend. If you could still call us that... Addy had been getting annoyed at me these past few months and every time we talked there was always an argument bubbling on the sidelines. I didn't blame him, I'd been a terrible friend.
"I thought you'd be happy about this! I thought you'd be happy that I was being quiet about all of this!" I barked.
"Do you like stirring shit up, bro? Because you can't seem to keep that mouth shut."  I felt like snapping at myself but it seemed the voice was doing that for me.
"Not when you're putting someone else's life in danger," Addy muttered. 
"Chris is the only one who can do this," I sighed, feeling defeated.
"No, Ray, you should've done it. You're the only one who hates it here, no one else is questioning Tyler's kindness. That's all he's ever been, kind!" Addy's voice rose and he clenched his fists tightly.
"Don't tell me you haven't noticed how strange things are around here? What happened with Sean out there was a bit strange and what about the room we told you about?" I said back, much quieter than Addy even though I felt like yelling. The only way I was going to get through to him was if I was level headed and calm, I realised.
"Yeah, Addy, I've got to agree with Ray on this one." Ash pushed her face into the pillow as if to hide from the world but her words did seem to calm Addy down enough for him to unclench his fists.
"Addy, I know that you're worried for Chris but I wouldn't have asked him if I thought he couldn't handle himself," I explained. "You know I care about him too."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Sorry." He breathed out in a huff and fell back into the world. He slid down the wall and hugged his knees.

An hour rolled by before the door finally opened to reveal Chris. He looked worn out and his hair was fluffed up. He seemed like he had aged more than a couple years in just a couple hours. His eyes were bloodshot from rubbing them, he was rubbing them as he walked in.
"Chris!" Addy jumped up from where he had been sat for the past hour and pulled Chris into a tight hug. "I was..." he began in a whisper before he moved away and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "We were all worried about you."
"You need to see this," was all Chris said.

His lips were set into a thin line as we snuck out of the dorm and followed him to a computer room. He checked no one was in there before he opened the door slowly. Inside there was one wall full of monitor screens, black and white footage was what I could see through the fuzz on the screens. Chris pressed what seemed to be random keys on the keyboard below the monitors and enlarged some footage from earlier that day.
"Is that Sean?" I questioned as I narrowed my eyes at the screen to see a boy holding his arm and being led into a room by someone slightly taller than the boy and beefy in build. Greg.
"Keep watching," Chris said firmly.
"See, they just took him to the infirmary. Nothing strange about that," Addy scoffed as he looked on at the screen.
"Keep watching," Chris repeated more forcefully.
He forwarded the footage and I watched the clock count up ten minutes. We stared at the empty hallway outside the room until the door eventually opened again. On the fuzzy screen, I made out a body on a stretcher, unmoving. There was no sheet over him so I was certain it was Sean.
"Wait, where are they taking him now?" I narrowed my eyes at the screen as they took the stretcher through endless corridors.
Chris hurriedly clicked on the keypad so he could bring up the right footage each time. Until, eventually, he stopped tapping as they entered the science corridor and disappeared.
"Come on, Chris. What are you waiting for?" I asked him urgently.
"This is where we lose him. There are no more cameras anywhere that show where they took him." He looked at the keyboard and frowned.
"Wait, do you see that." I tapped Ash to get her to look at what I was looking at.
"What?" She frowned.
"Chris, can you pull up all the camera footage? At once?" I asked him. It was the only way to fit all the pieces together.
"Do you even know me?" Chris chuckled and tapped on the keys some more. In no time at all, all the CCTV footage was placed like a montage on the screen.
"In order," I said as I looked at the screen.
"Oh, right." He quickly tapped again and I looked at the screen.
"There's something missing..." I whispered.
"The exit!" Ash pointed out.
"Yeah! And the corridor with the blood room in!" I suddenly realised and dread hit me hard. I turned to Ash and saw she was thinking the same thing as me.
"Do you... do you think they took him in there?" Ash swallowed harshly.
"I don't know, but I don't want to stick around here any longer," I replied.
"Agreed." Ash nodded quickly and that was our cue to leave. We looked both ways down the corridor as Chris set the screen back the way we had found it.

"What do we do now?" Once in the dorm room, Ash was the first one to speak.
"We should get the hell outta here, bro." 
"We should help Sean and the others and then all of us need to get the heck out of this place!" I ignored the voice and stuck to my instincts. I couldn't let Sean die, I had to do something to help him.
"Oh yeah, let's just walk casually into the bloody room and then leave. Like that's going to work," Addy mocked and I was about to snap when Ash spoke up.
"He's right," Ash's voice was calm and full of certainty but her body language showed unease. The same kind of uneasiness I was feeling in me too. "Tyler caught us before what makes you think he won't catch us again?"
"We've got an eye in the sky," I spoke and tried to cover up my dread with a grin as I patted Chris on the shoulder.