The Town of Ruins

Chapter Seven

When I woke up from my forced coma, I was in a dark room. The walls were cement and the floor dirt. My head was killing me and the last thing I remembered was letting go of Simon's hand to get in the Hummer. What happened to him? Did they let him go, or did they bring him to a place like this too? Where was Lisa? Did Diane and Justin get back home safe?
No, I couldn't let myself think of all of these questions right now, knowing that I couldn't figure out the answers yet. I had to focus on the problems at hand. The ones that I knew I could fix. Okay. Think. Where am I? It has to be a basement or ground floor of some kind.. The ceiling was wooden. Possibly the basement of one of the apartment houses in the town? Or somewhere else entirely. I had no idea how long I had been out so I had no way to figure out where I was geographically. What are my surroundings? Along the wall to my right, there was a mirror. Probably a two-way so that whoever took me could watch me. To my left, there was a table with various ropes, buckles and tools. By looking at the mirror, I could see that there was a door behind me. In front of me, there was just a large screen. Like a flat screen television. I didn't even know anyone had old fashioned T.V.'s anymore. There was a swirling pattern showing on the screen. It was kind of hypnotizing. I made sure not to look at it, being unsure of my abductor's plans. I looked down, and realized that I was strapped down to a chair. There were leather straps around my ankles and wrists, and a belt like one around my waist. I could feel that my gun had been taken, and I didn't doubt that they had also found the tracker in my hair clip. However, I couldn't be sure until I looked at it. I could feel that my hair was still up but I was unable to feel the tracker in the first place. The chair wasn't screwed down to the floor, so I figured I could just slam it against the wall a few times to get out of my bindings. I looked at the table, and saw exactly what I might need. I did some calculations in my head, and decided It would take about two minutes to carry out my entire plan.
I was about to carry out the entire plan when I noticed a red light above the mirror. That must mean that there are people in the room, meaning that they could see me. I decided it would be best to wait until everyone was out of the room and the light was off before I tried anything. After a few minutes of waiting, the light finally went off. I stood up as best I could, and ran backwards towards the door. The door, being steel, did not break down. It did, however, make breaking the chair way easier. It only took two slams to demolish the entire thing. I looked at the lock on the door. It was a five digit code. I could try all of the possibilities but it would take way too long. I did the only other option. I ran to the table and got a wrench off of it. Before doing anything else, I checked my hair clip and laughed. The geniuses didn't even try to check it. I pressed the distress button to alert someone to my location and put my hair back up. Then I ran at the window.
For a two way window, it was very easy to break. I slammed the wrench against the window and stepped back. I made sure all of the glass pieces were out of the way before climbing through. The new room looked like a control room for a reality show. There was sound boards, camera screens, and editing stations all over. It was only as big as the room it had a view of, but the other room looked bigger just because it was so empty. I looked at the screens and saw a door that looked like the other side of the one to the other room. There was no one in the hallway, but there was another room with a door just like mine on the left of the door that looked like mine. I looked around the room and found a lab coat with a name tag on it. I looked at the name tag and saw that it was a girls. I put the coat on, and looked at the door, which was raised above the rest of the room with stairs leading to it. I walked up the stairs and opened the door slowly. There was no one in the hallway, which was good, but I also had no idea how to get to the hallway of my room to see if my dad, Lisa, or Simon was in the other room. I closed the door and looked around the room a little more. I spotted an electronic clipboard and picked it up. When I turned it on, it flashed the message, "Swipe card for access" across the screen. I looked at the name tag on my borrowed lab coat, and realized it looked like a credit card. I took it off of the pocket and swiped it like a credit card down the side of the clipboard. There was ten files on it, and I clicked on the first. It was the profile for the scientist whose coat I was wearing. Her name was Vieanna Blake and she had blonde hair almost the shade of mine. I looked at my hair and realized that my brown dye had worn off, so I looked like my old self again. I looked through the other files on the clipboard. Eight of them were files on people from my home: Nonno, Mom, Dad, Lisa, Diane, Justin, Simon, and I. The last was a list of pass codes. All of them were five digits. With the clipboard in hand, my new coat buttoned up, and my name tag clipped on the pocket, I climbed back through the hole where the window was. I went to the door and tried every series of numbers on the list. When I got to the fifth one, the lock clicked and opened. I walked into the hallway and looked around to find no one there. I went to my neighboring door and tried the codes on it. 33781 was the lucky winner. I opened the door and looked inside. Lisa was there, still unconscious from what they made us inhale. I went to her and shook her. After a few minutes of saying her name, shaking, and pinching her, she finally opened her eyes. While she woke up all the way, I worked on cutting her lose. When she was able to stand, I had an idea. "Lisa, I'm going to restrain your hands, okay? I have an idea. I look strangely like this scientist by first glance, so if I keep my head down, and walk with you restrained they might just think that I'm moving you." She nodded and I tied her hands. I led her out of the room, and we passed another door that looked just like the previous two. Since my code had been 33780, and Lisa's was 33781, I tried 33782, the next code on the list. The door unlocked and I went inside. In the chair, screaming and struggling, was Diana. I brought Lisa inside and shut the door. "Diana, is that you?" I asked. "Cassie?! Oh my goodness you're okay! And you have Lisa! Wait, why is she restrained? And why are you in a lab coat?" She yelled. I told her the plan and she nodded. "Get me out of here so that we can find your father. I heard a rumor that he was here when they were bringing me in."
"Diana, do you know where Justin is? Or Simon?" I asked her. She broke down in tears so quickly, I almost had to make her sit back down. "They found Justin and I in the woods. They tried to restrain us both, but Justin fought. They beat him to death right in front of me!" She cried. "Oh Diana, I am so so sorry." I said, with tears in my eyes. I allowed us a few more moments to dry our eyes, then got bands like I had put on Lisa's wrists and put them on Diana's. I chained them together so that no one would think twice, and we went out the door. We only walked a little way when we came to another door. I tried the code 33783 and it unlocked. The three of us went in and I shut the door. I walked in front of the girl in the chair and I could tell she was pretending to be asleep. "Hey, it's okay. We don't work here. I'm Cassie and this is Lisa and Diana. We're from a safe place, but we were captured while looking for my father. What's your name?" I asked her. She looked at me with a confused face. "I-I'm Bella. I was just walking to meet my boyfriend, Sammy, at his corner and there was someone else there. I asked him where Sammy was and he just took one look at me and picked me up. He carried me to a Hummer and threw me in." She explained. "Sammy? He's the reason they found us. We asked him where my father was and he put our names into his notepad, then made us follow him. We got into a Lisa and I got into a Hummer, but they wouldn't let my best friend, Simon, come with us. Sammy threw Simon to the ground and we sped away. The next thing we knew, we were here." I said, trying to hide my anger at the Marine she was going with. "Oh, Sammy was trying to help! He knows all about that underground city and everything! He's friends with that Joshua Fairbanks. Sammy is an inside man for him! They must have found out where his true loyalties were." Bella countered. I figured she was telling the truth, and let her go. I told her our plan and she agreed to have her hands tied and to be chained to the other women. I put Bella in front, seeing as how she looked about my age, and was just a few inches taller than me. Lisa was in the middle, and Diana was in the back, according to their heights. Once everyone was situated, Bella decided to make a deal.
"I'll help you find your father and your friend," She said, "If you help me find Sammy." "Alright." I agreed. "But, if you two slow us down or get us caught, I'll put you right back in your cells. You got that?" She nodded. On that happy note, we went into the hallway and started searching for my father, Simon, and Sammy.