The Simulation - Book 1

Chapter 3

"Campbell's holding the machine up," Viktor said. "Do you think you can crawl out now?"

"I think so," Laurel said shakily, looking at the small hole that Viktor had made in the rubble. "I'll have to come out feet first though."

"Worth a shot," Viktor said and Laurel started straining to make her way out. It wasn't as hard as she had thought; it was lucky that she was so thin and small. Halfway, her hips almost got stuck, but with a massive and painful tug from Viktor that probably left her with scraped and bloody hips, she managed to get free.

Then she saw Viktor's body.

"Viktor, what the-" She exclaimed.

The siblings were crouched in an area of the basement that had been protected from the falling ceiling thanks to the taller bookshelves that had blocked most of the debris. Viktor, however, was covered in ugly cuts and scrapes all over his arms and his singlet was in shreds. He even had a new singed haircut and a nasty burn on his cheek.

Viktor grimaced. "I kind of set off that bomb to destroy the evidence and get you guys away from Dick. I jumped behind a table, but I guess it didn't shield me from the worst of the shock."

Laurel's mind was reeling with shock. She could understand why he'd done it; the evidence would have sent them all into the lockup and they had all been Dick's captives. But his injuries...

"Viktor, Campbell's dead," she said. "I think Dickinson is too."

Viktor looked at her. "But we're not going to be locked away. That's what's important."

Laurel's stomach roiled at her brother's callous attitude, but despite her anger at him, now was not the time to argue.

"Let me help," Laurel said, reaching out to touch his cheek.

"Leave some of them," Viktor warned in a low voice. "They'll be suspicious if I'm unscathed from the explosion."

It wasn't something Laurel did often, but there was always a satisfying feeling when she helped someone in this way. Only Viktor, their younger brother, Niko, and Chase knew about it. After all, Viktor and Chase had been the ones with her at the time that she had inherited her ability and they were also the only ones with similar gifts.

Like always, a warmth started to tingle in Laurel's palm and then a soft glow enveloped the burn on Viktor's cheek. Then the tingling spread out to the wound and the burn started to heal.

Laurel hadn't always been able to heal things. It had been something that she, along with the three guys, had inherited from the game. Whilst in the game, they had actually been caught in the VR virus release, but thanks to the powers of their avatars, they had remained safe. When they had gone back to the real world, they had all brought something back with them. In Laurel's case, one of her new talents was the ability to heal small wounds, even though it brought on a bout of exhaustion.

After she had fixed his cheek, he pushed her away. "We have to find the others."

"Gavin!" He shouted. "Are you here? Grant? Jennings? Eve?"

There was no response except from above and a scraping sound started echoing around the room as one of the heavy stones or metal was shifted above.

"Hang on, Viktor!" Sergeant McCarthy shouted down. "We're getting you out of there!"

"Gavin!" Laurel shouted, but this time, she caught movement on the other side of the room.

It was Jennings, a little worse than for the wear, but nonetheless alive. He had lost his rifle, but he still had his sidearm. One of his arms was hanging limply at his side. He crawled out from behind a twisted heap of metal.