It was hard explaining to Tony everything that he'd missed when he eventually woke up. He seemed just as uneasy as the rest of us when we told him that the Hunters had taken Andy. After what seemed like forever, night fell. None of us wanted to sleep, but we were all too exhausted and emotionally wrung out to stay awake. We all had our own 'beds', except for Scarlett and Mackenzie who opted to share, since we were a bed short.
I could hear the others snoring quietly, all around me, but something was nagging at me and I couldn't sleep. I was on the top bunk, above the girls. I glanced over the edge, and saw that Mackenzie was still awake as well. She noticed me.
"Can't sleep?" she whispered. I shook my head. "Me either. I'm worried about Andrea." she said. I knew she was worried, because she never called Andy Andrea. Nobody ever seemed to, apart from Wyatt and occasionally Aiden, who did it just to annoy her.
"Me too." I said quietly. "But we'll find a way to save her."
"I don't know, Eli." Mackenzie whispered, staring up at my mattress, her expression sad. "This seems like something that we can't just wiggle out of."
"We'll save Andy." I said, gritting my teeth. "And then we'll get out of here and find Wyatt." Mackenzie nodded slowly, and I doubted she believed me.
"Goodnight." she muttered, turning away from me.
"'Night." I replied, pulling myself properly back on my bunk. I spent a lot of time staring up at the ceiling. It must have been another few hours after that that I eventually fell asleep.
When I woke up, I knew what we could do to get out. It was undoubtedly dangerous, but I'd been awake half the night with the idea at the corner of my mind, just out of reach. Like when you can't remember the name of the song you're thinking of. But after the sleep, I knew what it was. I jumped down off the bed, neglecting the rickety, rusty ladder.
"I've got it!" I shouted at the others. Aiden and Tony were talking quietly in the corner. Mackenzie was staring sadly out of the window, and Scarlett was still in bed. She grumbled something at me.
"What have you got, Eli?" Aiden asked me warily. I beckoned them all closer towards me. I was suddenly surprised at how there were no cameras in the room... I guess they figured we wouldn't be going anywhere. Our room was dozens of feet up, and we were trapped in a metal box that stopped our powers. Oh, and we had no weapons.
"I know how we can get out of here." I told them all in a dramatic whisper.
"We can't get out." Scarlett said softly, as though I hadn't realised that yet. "The walls are power-proofed, we're at least thirty metres off the ground, and we're weaponless-"
"No, not completely weaponless." I said, grinning. I lifted my top and pulled the knife that Wyatt had given me out of the waistband of my trousers, where I'd been keeping it. I couldn't believe I'd forgotten about it. Scarlett glared at me. I swallowed hard. Scarlett had never glared at me before, and I realised it was quite unnerving.
"And what good will that do?" she asked. I cleared my throat nervously, then I quickly told them my plan.
"It's too dangerous." Mackenzie said immediately.
"You don't know that it'll work." Aiden put in.
"We need to try something." I said angrily. "We have just under three months left, and we need to get out of here, find Wyatt, find somewhere else to stay. And then I have whatever time's left to recreate the Cure." They all stared at me seriously.
"Don't do it, Eli." Scarlett said eventually, staring at the floor. "You shouldn't risk your life for me."
I felt my cheeks go red with anger. "It's not just for you!" I shouted angrily. "None of us want to go, Scarlett. I want to get this Cure so that I can go home and be normal with my family! I am not spending the rest of my life in this cell. You got that? I don't honestly care if you four think it's too dangerous or risky! I just thought I'd run it past you first, in case you had any better ideas. Have you?" I looked at each of them in turn, and they all just shook their heads.
"Well, then," I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. "One of you keep guard at the door. I shouldn't take too long. Mackenzie, make a body shape out of the blankets so that if they come in when I'm gone, it looks like I'm still in bed." I turned and walked away from the rest of them. I stood in front of the window, looking down at the ground, and I figured Scarlett was wrong.
We were at least forty metres up.
I started sawing away at the bars on the window with the knife. It was slow-going. The knife wasn't made for metal. It took me ages to get the first bar out. I caught it, and hid it under one of the bunk beds. I started working on the second bar. I theorized that I would only need to take out two, but now, stood right in front of the window, I figured I might need three. I glanced at the others. Even if any of them had been able to do what I planned on doing, I doubted any of them (except maybe Mackenzie) would fit out of the window.
The next bar fell outwards. I couldn't risk it clanging on the ground, and just managed to catch it. I started working on the third. I felt sweat starting to drip down my back, and patches forming around my armpits. My arms ached incredibly, and I was really thirsty. I was stood right in the spring sun, and it was certainly doing it's job of warming me up.
After what seemed like forever, the third bar came out. I went to put it with the others, but I decided to tuck it into my jeans, figuring that it might actually help me at some point. "I'm done." I called to the others. Mackenzie had finished the blanket-me, and it actually looked pretty accurately like my body shape. If a Hunter came in, all they'd have to do is have either Tony or Scarlett stand in front of the window, and they wouldn't notice anything amiss.
"Are you sure about this, kid?" Tony asked me. Even he looked slightly worried.
"I'm sure." I stared down at the ground, around forty metres bellow me. "Give me a boost." I told him. He nodded, and laced his hands about halfway between my foot and the window. I opened the window, climbed up, and sat on the windowsill. "If I die," I said, smiling. "It's been great knowing you all."
Before any of them could protest, I jumped out of the window.
I felt gravity pulling me down, and I began tumbling towards the ground in freefall. I spread my arms and legs, hoping I wasn't moving too fast. Half of the plan relied on that I wouldn't have time to gain enough momentum to be killed when I got to the ground.
I felt a fuzzy feeling spreading throughout my body, like pins and needles, and tried to stop gravity's work. Nothing. "Come on." I muttered. "I'm out of the room." The other half of the plan relied on that my powers would return immediately. I felt panic swelling inside me. I wasn't going to make it.
Suddenly, the fall slowed. I knew that gravity was gone, but momentum meant that I kept going. I stared at the brick wall to my left, and reached out and grabbed the building. I skidded down, my hand running along the wall for a moment, then my hand caught hold of a nook. I felt a small jolt as my free fall was stopped.
I increased the gravity just enough to take me smoothly to the ground. I stopped an inch or so from the ground, just to be sure. I stared at the grass, and an ant crawling through it for a moment, before a single drop of sweat dripped off my nose and drowned it. I allowed gravity to fully return, and fell the last foot to the ground.
I looked up. I could just see four small heads poking out of a high window. I counted it was fifteen windows up, and made a note of the window for later. I looked to the left, and realised that there was a guard patrol coming. I hid in the thin shrubbery that lined the side of the building. It worked. The Hunter passed obliviously past my hiding place.
When he was gone, I got up, and headed to the back entrance to the building that was just a few feet away from me. I started moving more carefully, and pulled the metal pole out. I would rather not hit anyone with it, but I'd rather hit them with a metal pole than stab them, or get caught. I walked into the open building, and moved immediately towards the staircase. I realised there was a lift.
The lift was riskier, but the longer I spent away from the cell, the more chance there was of a Hunter realising I wasn't in there. I pressed the lift button cautiously, and waited at the side of the lift for it to arrive. If there happened to be a Hunter in there, and I was stood right in front of the door, I would be caught, undoubtedly. The lift doors pinged open, and I glanced inside. Empty.
I walked in, and tapped the button for the fifteenth floor impatiently. I started moving upwards. And then I realised the lift was slowing to a stop for the tenth floor. It had obviously been called for. I stared around frantically. I had nowhere to hide. The lift was filled with mirrors. The Hunter would see me even if I hid out of the way of the doors.
When the lift did eventually stop, I was on top of it, having used the rail to boost myself up through the maintenance hatch in the roof. Now I was sat on the lift, travelling faster than I would have liked, with the steel walls racing past on either side. We passed the fourteenth floor (It had the number marked on the wall), and I realised I wasn't getting out on the fifteenth floor if I stayed there. I opened the service hatch as quietly as I could, and looked down at the guy in the lift. He wore a suit: he probably was in management.
When we reached the fifteenth floor, he frowned, and muttered "What?", just before I fell on top of him and hit him with the pole. I stood up, looking down at him. He was unconscious. The doors opened, and I glanced out in the corridor. It was empty. There was only one door, and that had 'Storage cupboard' written on it. I grabbed the guy by his shoulders, and dragged him over to the cupboard, then pulled both of us inside. The only camera pointed down the corridor, just beyond the Storage cupboard. I wouldn't get past it without a disguise.
I swapped our clothes over. Luckily, the guy was pretty small, so the suit he had been wearing was only a little too big for me. I grabbed his ID badge as well. I looked nothing like him, but it was better than having nothing. I grabbed a pair of glasses out of his bag and flattened down my hair nervously. I stepped cautiously out of the cupboard. I had ditched the pole, but I had my knife up my sleeve, and the guy's gun in the waistband of my trousers at the back.
I walked along the corridor, and came to an opening in the end. There was a security guard at the desk, and a large, familiar metal door at the far end. I walked up to the security guard and briefly flashed him the badge, so that he couldn't get a proper look at it. "Boston wants to see the kids." I said in a gruff voice.
"All of them?" the security guard asked, surprised.
"All of them." I replied in the same tone. "I was told four of 'em would be in here, and there was two others, but I wasn't told where they was."
"Well..." the security guard said nervously. "I don't know if I can without clearance from the boss-"
I rolled my eyes. "You security guards. Always the same. Listen, I got word from Boston, right? You wanna' contradict the boss? You want us both to lose our jobs, eh?" The security guard's eyes widened, and he shook his head. "Where's the last two kids?" I asked, accepting the keys right out of his hand.
"Down in 'Questioning'. You new here?"
"You'll be new to being a McDonald's worker, if you don't shut up." I walked towards the door, and inserted the key into the lock. "I can't believe they called it 'Questioning'. What a stupid name." I added conversationally.
"Well, you know the Government won't let them harm those kids." the security guard said, following me nervously. I turned the key and opened the door. "The most they can do is hope to crack them through questioning, and, uh, methods that won't harm the kids, if you get me."
I nodded, smiling, stifling a shudder. "The kids'll crack eventually." I told him. I looked into the room. The bed made a rough me-shape still. Scarlett was stood in front of the window, hiding the broken bars. The others were all just sat around, looking at each other worriedly. I pulled the gun out of the waistband of my trousers and aimed at them. "I got this. I'll put in a good word to the boss for you, eh?" I said to the security guard, who nodded excitedly and returned to his desk.
"Come on, you four." I said, maintaining the same gruff voice. If he thought anything was amiss, the security guard could still call it in with the walkie-talkie. "In a straight line. If any of you try anything, my colleague out there will just shoot you. Got it?" I realised that Mackenzie was the only one who realised that it was me. The others thought I was just another hunter. I went and stood behind Scarlett, who was at the back since they were in height order.
I felt bad, but I had to keep up the appearance that I worked here. I pressed the gun into her back, and she flinched. "Any of you try anything, I'll shoot the girl. Got it?" The others nodded. I led them down the corridor, away from the guy at the guard post. Past the camera, and the storage cupboard and into the lift.
I pressed the button that had a big 'Q' on it, and waited until we started moving. "It's me." I said, smiling. The others turned around, all except Mackenzie, and gawped disbelievingly at me.
"It worked." Scarlett said eventually. She turned and hugged me tightly. I glanced at the lift buttons. We were ticking quickly down to Q.
"Yeah." I gasped. "I can't... breathe."
"Oh! Sorry." Scarlett released me.
"We need to keep up the whole 'you're my prisoners' thing. Until we've got Andy back, that is." I said. They all nodded, grinning for a moment, then put on their serious-faces. After a moment, they all started looking grim and hopeless again, very effectively, I thought.
The lift doors pinged open.