I watched, partially in shock, as Hoodie guided Carson, who was very much awake now, over to an empty chair just a few feet away from me. He was forced down into the seat, and within seconds, was tied up just like I was. When Hoodie was satisfied with his work, he stood back up, pulled out the piece of material that had been forced into Carson’s mouth, and joined Dr. Jackson over near the door.
I locked eyes with Carson just long enough to see that he was more pissed off than I’d ever seen him. How was he even here? I’d given him enough sleeping pills to knock him out for at least a day or so. But here he was. Wide awake. And strapped to a chair in front of me.
“Ah, a guest! Splendid!” Dr. Jackson exclaimed. “So nice of you to join us. I was just telling Bliss how much her cooperation in this matter means to me.”
We both ignored the doctor and despite my better judgment, I took a few seconds to study Carson. He’d been roughed-up a bit; probably hadn’t bothered to take his time getting the lay of the land like I had, which had obviously resulted in more than a few run-ins with Dr. Jackson’s minions. Now Carson had a puffy-looking left eye and a trickle of blood coming from his mouth. Fresh cuts covered his hands and arms, and a rip in the thigh of his pants was glowing bright red. I had to wonder how many injuries he had that I couldn’t see.
I shook my head and forced myself to focus on getting us out of there, instead of what might happen once we left. Turning my attention back to Dr. Jackson, I snorted. “Cooperate? With you? Over my dead body.”
Dr. Jackson shoved his hands into his white labcoat. “I really hope it doesn’t come to that,” he said, sadly. “Because if you can’t find a way to work with us on this, well, things could go dreadfully wrong for your friends.”
With a nod to Hoodie, Dr. Jackson walked toward the door. “We’ll give you some time to think over my offer.”
Carson and I remained silent as the doctor and his apprentice disappeared through the glass and made their way down the long hallway. Once they were finally out of sight, I turned back to Carson angrily.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I hissed at him.
“I could ask you the same thing,” he growled.
He had me there.
I couldn’t exactly blame him for being pissed at me for pulling a drug and ditch, but this wasn’t the time to get into it. Besides, I was too annoyed by the fact that he’d messed up my plans, to really let the guilt hit me full force. But he was looking at me like his being captured was all my fault and I couldn’t stand the silence anymore.
“You do realize that you just made my job that much harder, right?” I asked him, unable to stop myself. “Now, not only am I going to have to get Benji, Joanie and Glenn out of here, but I’m gonna have to save your ass, too. Way to go, Super Agent, have any other plans you want to…”
“Shut up!” Carson roared. The outburst was so sudden and unexpected, that I flinched as if I’d been slapped. Hearing him yell at me was just as jarring, and for a moment I sat there, frozen in my seat. I tried to think of something to say, but my better judgment told me to listen to him and keep my mouth shut.
“Would you please just lose the attitude long enough to recognize that we’re in this situation because of you,” he said angrily.
I instantly disliked this gutsier version of him. In fact, he was sort of being nasty. And bossy. And a jerk.
And it was kind of hot.
God help you Carson, if I ever got out of these restraints…
“I’ve let you have your run of this investigation because your mom requested I just observe, unless you got yourself into serious trouble. And then there’s this thing with us—which I don’t fully understand—but no more! This officially became serious when that crazy-haired scientist tried to blow us up. You need to stop thinking only of yourself for a change, Bliss, and start thinking of the people you’re going to get killed because you’re too busy not dealing with your issues.”
I looked around to see if anyone else had heard what he’d just said to me, but we were alone, and the walls were soundproof. It was probably better that way anyway, because I was feeling pretty foolish about his sudden flare-up. The last time I’d been scolded like a child was when…well, when I was a child.
Time for me to show him I’d grown up.
“Selfish? Who do you think I’m doing all of this for? Risking my life to come and save some kids who were written off months ago? For free and during my summer vacation I might add,” I said sharply, although I felt the steam going out of my sails as I argued with him. Even I knew that what I was saying sounded ridiculous, but how dare he accuse me of being selfish.
“Yes, that’s all very admirable, but what about the fact that you’ve dragged your friend into this when he’s totally unprepared for this type of danger? Or how about encouraging him to get wasted because that’s the only way you know how to deal with things. Not everyone is so dead-set on being alone, you know. Do you really think that was the best thing for him?”
“Well, he wasn’t exactly complaining about it,” I mumbled.
“That’s because he was too busy fighting for his life after being blown up!” Carson said, still angry. “And how about the fact that you refuse to let anyone help you. We’re both here because of you and you won’t even let us do anything. You need us, Bliss. That’s the only way you’re going to get your friends home safely. Dr. Jackson was right about that. You’re not enough to bring him down on your own.”
I was so used to being on my own, running my own cases, flying solo, that the concept of utilizing Carson and Benji hadn’t even occurred to me. Truth be told, I’d learned a long time ago that other people just slowed you down.
But now I had this guy in front of me insisting that this wasn’t true.
“And if I trust you, if I let you help,” I said, nearly choking on the words, “we’re just magically going to be able to get Joanie and Glenn out of this unharmed? And Benji, too, because he’s locked up across the way, you know? How do I know you’re not just going to get in the way?”
“You don’t,” he answered with a sigh. He was through fighting now, too. “And chances are, at some point we will get in the way. But at the right moment, when it counts, it will be the three of us who make this happen.”
I snorted. “Is this your version of a superhero pep talk?” I joked.
“No, but now that you mention it, most superheroes have sidekicks, people they count on to help them win their fights. Batman had Robin, Buffy had her Scooby gang, Veronica had Wallace and her dad. None of them could’ve saved the universe time and time again without their friends. Let us help you.”
I remained silent as he finished. I wasn’t sure whether I was annoyed with him for what he was saying or for the fact that he might be right. Until I decided which it was, I chose to stall and turned to check on Benji instead.
Still asleep.
By now he’d flipped over onto his back and I could see his mouth hanging open. I bet he was drooling a bit down the side of his mouth and making a wet spot on his pillow, dreaming about rainbows and unicorns, with absolutely no idea that any of this was going on around him. The guilt I’d felt when he’d been hurt by the explosion came back full-force and hit me again.
How could I have let this happen?
Carson was right. It was highly possible that I would get everyone killed tonight. I turned back to him, not yet ready to admit it. But I could tell by the way he was looking at me that he already knew.
“So, how are we going to get out of here?” I asked finally, with a sigh.
Looking through the clear walls, I could see that we were alone down here. If we were going to do anything, now was the time to do it. I looked over at Carson questioningly. In terms of asking for help, this was the best I could do and he could tell. Luckily he didn’t make a big deal out of the gesture, and just pushed forward. There was only so much ego-crushing I could handle in a day.
“We need to get out of these ropes,” he said, looking around the room for something.
“No kidding…” I said, before I could stop myself. He gave me a look, but moved on.
“Do you have anything sharp on you? A ring, keys, something that could rub at the rope?”
“Sure, let me just take out my knife ring—” I started to say sarcastically but stopped mid-sentence. If I’d had my hands free I would have smacked my forehead. “Actually, I do have something that may work.”
I clicked my heels together and the knife shot out of the heel of my boot. Carson’s eyes grew wide in disbelief and then he grinned triumphantly. “You’re incredible,” he said obviously impressed. “Now scoot on over here and cut me free.” He motioned to me with his head.
I raised my eyebrows. “How about I free myself first and then I’ll come let you out,” I offered.
“And how exactly are you going to do that, Bliss? You may be flexible, but even you can’t pull off a move like that,” he said.
I started to try and prove him wrong, but he had me. There was no way I was going to get myself out of these ropes. Still, I didn’t like the idea of being the last to go free.
“Listen, Bliss, you have to trust me,” he said pleading with me. “Otherwise we’re stuck here and none of us will get out. You’ve got to let go a little.”
He was right. God I hated that he was right. I looked back over at Benji and in that moment, I made a decision.
“Meet me halfway,” I said, starting to hop over toward him. He began to do the same and we spent a few minutes making an insane amount of noise in the process. Luckily nobody else could hear, because we needed to free ourselves before anyone caught wind of our escape plan.
When we were finally close enough, I lifted my foot slowly to the back of Agent Carson’s chair. Touching the blade to the rope, I tried to hold my leg as even as possible before I started to saw through the material carefully.
“Do me a favor and don’t knick any major arteries,” he said to me, laughing nervously.
I smiled despite myself. In a way his life was just as much in my hands as my fate was in his. It felt like more of an even playing field, and one that I could stomach. “I guess you shouldn’t piss me off then,” I answered, jokingly.
The knife itself was sharp so it shouldn’t have taken much to saw through the ropes, but trying to cut them from below proved to be more difficult than I expected. A few minutes into it and my leg was shaking so badly I was afraid we would have a bloody mess on our hands. But eventually, the ropes gave way and Carson leaned forward to untie his legs.
“Hurry up,” I warned, feeling like he was taking an eternity to get to me.
“I’m trying,” he responded between clenched teeth as he pulled the last of the ropes away and threw them across the room and behind the bed. Without hesitating, he rushed over to me and started on mine.
Hurry, hurry, hurry!
As he tugged away at my wrists, I caught a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. And then my heart sank. Hoodie had just turned the corner and was making his way down the white hallway toward us.
“Stop!” I hissed. “Go back! He’s coming. You have to go back.”
“What?” he asked, poking his head around me to see what I was talking about.
“Go sit back down!” I practically shouted. “He can’t know you’re out.”
“What about you?” he asked me. “I have to get you out, too.”
We locked eyes and in that instant, something clicked. “You will. I trust you, Carson. But for now, you need to go sit back down.”
He nodded and then hustled back to his chair, throwing his arms behind his back so Hoodie wouldn’t see that anything was amiss. And then the kid was coming through the door, looking from me to Carson suspiciously.
He studied us both closely without saying anything. A few silent seconds went by before he moved further into the room, letting the door shut behind him. I turned to face my enemy, trying to remind myself that, in a way, he was a victim, too. He had no idea that what he was doing was actually hurting people or that the good doctor was using him for his own selfish plans.
Hoodie returned my stare and then walked over to Carson. And without any notice, he threw his fist out and punched the agent right in the nose. I gasped as blood poured down his face, as if someone had turned on a faucet. Carson didn’t make a sound as his head rocked back with the force of the blow.
“Stop!” I shouted desperately.
Hoodie looked over at me, his expression calm and even. Then he turned back to Carson. Even though I knew what was coming, it felt like he’d actually hit me when he hauled off and hit Carson again, this time in the side of the head and then following up with a blow to his gut. The agent doubled over in pain, but to his credit, he sat there and took the blows so Hoodie wouldn’t find out that he was actually free.
“Leave him alone!” I screamed.
Hoodie turned to face me again, his expression flat. He didn’t have to speak for me to know he was asking me whether I was ready to give up. Letting Dr. Jackson win was the last thing I wanted to do, but I had to find a way to get all of us out of here alive and relatively unharmed.
“Listen, just stop and I’ll do whatever you want,” I said, helplessly.
“Bliss, don’t,” Carson said.
“Stay out of this,” I growled. “Tell Jackson I’ll cooperate. He can use me as his lab rat if he wants to. Just stop hurting my friends.”
Hoodie gestured to a guard that had appeared outside of our room, and with one look, the muscle-bound minion turned to leave. Once he was gone, the wheels in my head began to turn. I knew I probably only had a few minutes before the doctor came back, and it was going to take every second of that time to try and convince Hoodie that he was working for the wrong team.
“Chris, I know what happened to you,” I said. The sound of his name being said out loud must have startled him because he froze in his tracks. “You have to believe me when I tell you that Dr. Jackson isn’t who you think he is. He took you away from your home, from your family and forced you to live your life in hiding. You may think he did this to help you, but he didn’t. He’s the bad guy.”
Even though he wasn’t responding, I could tell he’d heard me. He looked confused and maybe even shaken, but his eyes were still trained on me coldly.
I pressed forward, not knowing yet if any of this was helping.
“Look, I know he says he’s taking these kids because he’s trying to find a cure for what we have. But it’s not true. He’s doing this because he wants to create the perfect army. An army of people who feel no pain, and will do whatever he wants them to, because he thinks that will make him powerful. Don’t you see? He’s using you. And now he wants to use us, too.”
Hoodie was standing so still now, that I wondered for a moment if he was in shock. I waited for him to say something, but the words never came. I glanced over at Carson, but he looked just as confused as me.
I was about to ask him if he was okay when the door opened up and Dr. Jackson walked back into the room, this time flanked by two additional guards who were now dragging Benji into the room with them. Panic coursed through me as I imagined the beefy men hurting my friend. I looked him over as they tossed him onto the nearby bed, searching for new bruises and injuries. But I couldn’t tell what was new and what was from the blast. I could feel the fury in me rising and silently promised that they’d all pay for what they’d done to him.
“I knew you’d see things my way eventually,” Dr. Jackson said smugly. Then, he glanced over at Benji who was still unconscious where the guards had left him. “Don’t worry, he’s just sleeping. Seems like he had some healing to do after that unfortunate accident at the hotel.”
“Let them go,” I warned, looking at him. “Let them go and I’ll stay here and help you.”
He shook his head. “That wasn’t the deal, Bliss. And besides, you know I can’t let them go now. They know too much.”
“Uh-uh. That doesn’t work for me. Either you let them leave and keep me here, or all three of us are leaving and you’re going to the hospital,” I said, forcefully.
“Oh, Bliss. Don’t you know by now that I run this show? You’ll do whatever I ask, because you don’t want to see what happens if you don’t,” he answered, sighing dramatically. “Christopher, it looks like she needs more convincing.”
But Hoodie didn’t move.
I wasn’t the only one who noticed this, and Dr. Jackson took a step towards Hoodie and touched him lightly on the arm. Jackson looked at the boy like he was intrigued, unsure whether Chris was defying him or just hadn’t heard him. I wasn’t quite sure myself.
“Christopher?”
The whole room waited to see how he’d respond, and I was suddenly hopeful that Chris had actually believed me and recognized that Dr. Jackson was screwing him over, too. If he didn’t, the three of us were in serious trouble. And I was afraid that not all of us would get out of there safely.
Finally, Hoodie looked up at Dr. Jackson, then over at me and then at everyone else in the room like he was waking up from a dream. His gaze settled back on the doctor. Then, he took a step away from him.
“You took me from my family?” he asked. It was the first time I’d heard him speak and the sound of his voice surprised me. There so was much pain infused into every syllable. “You told me that they asked you to take me. That they couldn’t deal with my health problems anymore. But you took me? Like all those other kids?”
I was surprised to see worry appear on Dr. Jackson’s face.
This is new.
He took a step toward Chris, holding his arms open wide. “Who told you that, Christopher?” Dr. Jackson asked, and then shot daggers in my direction. “Of course it’s not true. I took you in, gave you everything you ever wanted. I treated you like my own son, when no one else wanted you…”
“That’s not true!” I yelled out, finally finding my voice. “Chris, we went to your house, we talked to your parents. Dr. Jackson told them that you died. And they’re still grieving for you. They never wanted you to go. They love you!”
Dr. Jackson moved so fast, that I didn’t see the slap coming. “You shut your mouth, you filthy girl. I cared for Christopher like no one else could. Nothing you say can change that.”
My head vibrated from the blow, but it was just a temporary setback. I saw Carson begin to get up out of his chair in reaction to what Dr. Jackson had done, but I gave my head a little shake and he sat back down.
Then I continued.
“Really? Because I think he’d be interested in hearing how you made him your little test subject. How he’s a kidnapper now because of you. You convinced him to hurt other people for you and tricked him into believing that it’s all in the name of a cure. A cure that you’re not even looking for.”
“Is that true?” Chris asked, his face twisting in agony. It was as if his whole world was crumbling down around him and he I wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle much more.
None of us could.
“You have to trust me, Christopher—”
“Is it true?!” the boy yelled, startling all of us with the outburst.
Dr. Jackson analyzed the situation in front of him and made a choice. Standing up a little straighter, he tilted his chin up and looked straight into Chris’s eyes as he answered. “The chance of there ever being a cure for CIPA is minimal. I’ve been focusing on trying to empower those like you, instead of fixing them. Look at what I’ve done for you. You’re the best fighter I’ve got.”
As soon as it was out, Dr. Jackson knew it was the wrong thing to say. The room crackled with tension and I began to flex my hands in an attempt to loosen the ropes around my wrists. I had to get out of this chair. Things were about to blow up around me and I needed to be able to fight.
“You’re right,” Chris said, quieter now. “I am the best fighter you’ve got.”
And with that, he lunged at the doctor, fists flying so fast that I could barely keep track of where they were connecting. As if they’d choreographed a simultaneous attack, Carson rushed the guards who were already on the move, tackling them both to the ground with him.
It was chaos and I was still stuck in this stupid chair.
I surveyed the room quickly. As one of the guards stumbled backwards and into my path, I kicked up my legs to give myself a big push off his back, propelling him forward and me onto my back. I hit the ground hard, the chair splintering and breaking with a crack beneath me. Warmth moved up my arm and then it went numb. Without looking at it, I knew it was broken, or at the very least, seriously messed up. But the reality of the situation was that I’d be in even worse shape if I didn’t get free soon. Forget one broken bone. Think multiple wounds. Ones I couldn’t walk away with.
I watched as more guards rushed down the hallway, heading straight for our cell. Our odds of getting out of there were decreasing with every second that passed. Sitting up, I shook the remaining pieces of the broken chair away from me. Careful not to put much weight on my hurt arm, I leaned back on my shoulders and stuck my lower body up in the air like I was doing a fancy yoga move. With my butt off the floor, I swiped my bound wrists up and around my legs until my arms were in front of my body again. I stood up just as two new guards sprinted at me, knives already drawn.
As the first one took a swing, I sidestepped him, catching his wrist in both my hands and swinging myself around until I landed on him piggy-back style. With my legs in a death-grip around his waist, I held his captured arm underneath me until he yelled out in pain. As he loosened his grip on the knife, I managed to wrestle it away. Turning the weapon around, I grabbed hold of the blade and then smacked him over the head with the heavy hilt. We both went tumbling to the ground as he collapsed beneath me unconscious.
I rolled across the floor, narrowly missing another blade, this one aimed straight at my throat. Hands still bound, I kicked my legs up in the air, and wrapped them around his neck and tugged as hard as I could. As if in slow-motion, I watched him fly over my head and crash into a wall behind me.
Two down…a dozen to go.
A whole new group of armed men were running through the door now and I wasn’t sure they’d all fit inside the small room. Carson had handled his side of things so far, but I didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to keep it up. And I had what appeared to be a broken wrist and no real use of my arms.
In other words, it was looking like we were screwed.
As I searched around for something to save us all, a light flashed in my eyes, briefly blinding me. Something was reflecting light, the kind of glare you got when the sun hit a watch. I tried to find the source, and finally looked down at my chest.
Dad’s necklace.
I reached up, my hands still connected at the wrist, one now swollen and already turning every ugly color of the rainbow. My fingertips touched the cool metal and I couldn’t help but see the irony in the fact that I was counting on a religious trinket to get me out of my current situation. Faith in a higher power or not, I had to believe it was going to work.
“Carson, Chris! Eyes closed, now!” I yelled as loudly as I could. Without waiting for confirmation that they’d heard me, I closed my own eyes and pulled on the bottom of the cross.
Even with my lids closed and I could still see the burst of light that was let loose in the room. It was like a strobe-light, only ten times as bright. Right away, I heard shouts from the others and was grateful I wasn’t them.
“What the—”
“I’m blind!”
“I can’t see…”
“What’s happening?”
As I opened my eyes back up, I realized that the last question had come from Chris, who either hadn’t trusted me enough to heed my warning or had been too focused on the fight to hear me. The poor kid joined the rest of the guards on the ground, grasping for his surroundings and grabbing at his eyes. I hoped no permanent damage had been done. To him at least.
Carson, however, had heard me, and was now taking the opportunity to subdue the men who’d just joined the fight a minute before. I jumped into action myself, laying onto my back and clicking my heels together, triggering the knife’s release. Lifting my foot up to my hands, I rubbed at the ropes until I cut my way through.
Freedom!
I scrambled up from the floor and turned back to where Chris had been crawling around on the ground, but he was no longer there.
“Impressive trinket,” Dr. Jackson said. My head spun to show the older man standing in the corner, Chris struggling to get out of the choke hold he had on him. “One of your father’s, I wager?”
“Well, you know Dad. He’s the best there is.”
“That may have been true years ago, but you might want to check your data again,” Dr. Jackson spat back, tightening his hold on Christopher’s neck. The boy’s face was turning red and his eyes were beginning to bug out.
“Let him go,” I warned.
“It’s intriguing that you would still be compelled to defend him. He was, after all, the one who nearly got your friend killed,” Dr. Jackson answered, not loosening his grip.
“He did that because you built his life around lies. And that’s not his fault. It’s yours.”
“Maybe so, but it doesn’t change the fact that he always had a choice. And he chose to plant that bomb at your hotel. I didn’t even have to convince him to do it,” he sneered.
Even if this was true, I still couldn’t blame Chris completely for what happened. “I’m warning you, Doctor. Let. Him. Go.”
Dr. Jackson stared at me and then down at the boy who was fading quickly. To my relief, he finally let him fall to the ground. Chris clutched at his throat, fighting to get air into his lungs. The triumph was short-lived though, as I watched the doctor pull a large needle out of his coat pocket, and with a twisted grin on his face, plunge the tip right into Chris’ neck.
“No!” I screamed, watching as the boy’s eyes rolled back into his head and he slumped to the floor. I cringed as his body hit the ground. Dr. Jackson had treated him like it was trash day and he was cleaning house. True, I wasn’t exactly Hoodie’s biggest fan, but I didn’t want this for him. He was a victim here as much as any of the rest of us.
“What did you do?” I screamed, but didn’t wait for an answer before I ran at Dr. Jackson, anger fueling my attack. I was swinging before I’d even reached him, putting all the strength and power I had into each punch. The first one connected with the his eye, and I knew from the sound of my knuckle breaking that it had done some damage.
I threw my remaining fist his way, but my body exploded into convulsions before I was even halfway to my target. It was like someone was shaking me from the inside out and I had no idea how to make it stop. Several seconds passed before I realized that I’d been tazed.
Again.
My brain felt as if it had been scrambled and I collapsed to the ground, landing beside Chris who still hadn’t moved. I couldn’t feel anything anymore, but I could still see what was going on.
Am I dead? Is this what it’s like to have an out-of-body experience? Have I finally gone too far?
As these thoughts ran like an emergency alert banner through my head I realized just how freaked out I was by the idea of it all being over. I wasn’t finished yet.
Looking over at Hoodie I prayed that he was only passed out and not dead, too. If he was, then there was definitely no hope for the others, which meant I’d signed all of our death certificates. It was a thought I couldn’t stand.
I watched as the guards began to get their sights back after the strobe light incident, and then consequently turned on Carson. Within seconds, he was subdued as well.
It was over. If I’d been able to cry, I would’ve. I’d been beat by an old dude, which was embarrassing enough. But people would forever remember me as a failure.
If they remembered me at all, that is.
“You’ve proven to be more difficult than I thought.”
Dr. Jackson shook his head like he was truly disappointed. Obviously he didn’t realize that it was his fault I was down for the count. I imagined giving him the finger. It wasn’t much, but it made me feel better.
“It’s not a total loss, though,” he continued, as I lay there in a heap on the sterile ground. “The tests that I’ll be doing on you will help to make me the most powerful man in the U.S. You should be proud to be a part of history in the making.”
At this same moment, I began to feel a faint tingling start in my fingertips and toes. It was almost as harsh as the possibility that I’d been dead, and at first I thought it was just phantom limb syndrome. That I was concentrating so hard on what was going on that I’d convinced myself I was back in my body.
But as the seconds grew into minutes, and the feeling spread up my limbs in a slow crawl, I began to hope again. Hope that I had another chance. My excitement grew as the tingling filled my limbs and it became clear that I was actually alive. My nervous system had just been shot to hell, and it was taking a while to get full use of my body again.
With a renewed spirit, I started to devise a plan.
“I’ve grown tired of these unwanted distractions,” Dr. Jackson said, motioning to his guards who were busy holding Carson down. “Get rid of him. He’s of no use to us.”
No! I wanted to scream it out, but I still couldn’t get my mouth to move.
Carson and I may not have seen eye to eye on—well, anything—and he might have pissed me off on more than one occasion, but that didn’t mean I wanted him dead. The truth was, I’d sort of grown used to our bickering. There was something comforting about the back-and-forth. I might not be ready to admit it to him, but a part of me enjoyed having him around.
And not just because he was a good kisser—and he was—but he challenged me in a way that actually made me a better person. I hadn’t realized it before, but I actually wanted to see what would happen next between us. Not that I was looking for the wedding dress or a promise ring or anything, but maybe a date? Or at least the option of seeing if there was anything there?
No. He couldn’t die.
A weird, feral animal-like noise filled the room. It took me a few seconds to realize it was coming from me. The sound must have surprised Dr. Jackson, too, because he looked down at me with shock in his eyes.
As he did this, there was a commotion across the room and we all turned to see what it was. When my sight focused again, I saw the guards backing away toward the door. And then I realized what had them running scared.
Benji was no longer sleeping. In fact, he was standing there, fully awake and holding a gun in each hand. Both were pointed in the direction of the guards and he looked angrier than I’d ever seen him.
“Let him go,” Benji commanded as Dr. Jackson’s minions held on to Carson. They did as they were told and joined their friends near the exit.
“Don’t listen to him, you imbeciles!” Dr. Jackson yelled, still beside me. “He’s not going to shoot you. Secure them now!”
The men looked at each other and then hesitantly began to move toward Benji. But before they’d even taken a single step, a shot rang out, and the wall of glass behind them shattered with a deafening crash. I blinked in surprise, which in my state was a step up.
“Get out of here,” Benji said, his hand shaking but his resolve steady. He didn’t have to say it twice. The guards released Carson and climbed over the fallen glass, scurrying off down the hallway.
Once they were gone, Benji handed the gun off to Carson and ran over to me. Crouching down, he brushed the hair off of my face and brought his face down to mine. I thought he might kiss me again, but at the last moment he turned his cheek and stayed still for a few seconds.
“She’s breathing,” he said. “We need to call an ambulance.”
Carson was already on his phone. “It’s on the way. So are her parents,” he said, slamming the phone shut. He sprinted over to us and surveyed my situation. He made eye contact with me, but didn’t smile. “Can you stay with her until help comes? I’m going after Jackson.”
One glance around the room showed what the agent had already noticed. Dr. Jackson had managed to escape during the tumult. Who knows how far he’d already gotten, and with him, the location of Glenn and Joanie.
“Of course,” Benji said, turning back to me. “I won’t let anything happen to her.”
“Good,” Carson said, looking torn about leaving me. But then there was a noise to our left that pulled his attention away and he stood up. “Stay here. I’ll come back for you.”
We both watched as he disappeared through the glass and down the hall.