Chapter Thirty-One
"A monster, a monster, I've turned into a monster,"- Imagine Dragons
The plan was playing out smoothly. The alarm had caused a big enough distraction. The guards were on a mission, the patients were dispersed around school grounds and the gym was empty. The faculty and the nurses were preoccupied with the difficult task of trying to round everyone up and get things back in order. Lucian would go unnoticed in the middle of all this chaos. It was the perfect timing. He had left the basement a while ago and had observed the events unfold after the alarm had disrupted everything. His son had done well. He'd followed his instructions properly and now things were on their way to being accomplished.
Lucian had watched from the sidelines as the patients had rushed out in a frenzy from the gym, how the nurses had gone after them, he'd even seen Tristan find the girl. He had hoped Tristan would've stayed up in the control room longer to cause a distraction for the guards once they arrived but the girl had gotten in the way.
It didn't matter now. He was so close to the original goal now. Once everyone was out of the gym and it was clear of people, he slipped in unnoticed. His eyes zeroed in on the grey boxes that contained exactly what he was after. He jogged over to one of the stations where the nurses had been injecting the patients and bent down to retrieve a box. He lifted the cover with anticipation and sighed in happiness once he revealed its contents.
There they were. Dozens of clear vials containing the medication. All untouched and full to the brim.
Now all he needed to do was get the boxes into the vehicle and everything would be set. He quickly took out his cellphone and dialed the number of his assistant. A moment of sadness filled him as he remember Breen. 'This should have been him I was calling', he thought to himself. After Breen's death, Lucian had had to replace his partner in crime. He'd found a young man who was in need of some money and was willing to do anything the doctor instructed. This same man was the person who'd driven him to the school and was currently sitting in the car a few blocks away as he awaited further instructions.
'I will avenge your death, Breen', Lucian thought to himself.
"Yes sir?" the man picked up on the second ring.
"Bring the car closer. I've got the boxes and I need help loading them. Hurry up," he said into the phone.
"I'll be right there, sir." They hung up the phone and Lucian proceeded to stack and lift up the boxes two at a time. Each individual vial weighed next to nothing but twenty four vials together proved to be heavy.
There was a back door in the gym that led to the back patio that was close to the teacher's parking lot. Lucian had taken care of the guard at the door and so now the entrance was free of disturbance for his assistant to enter through. He would park close to the back door of the gym, they would load up the vehicle and everything would be set. That was the plan.
He knew no one would be coming back to the gym for a while. It would give him enough time to do what he had to.
Tristan never would've thought of going back to the gym to search for his father. He had no reason to think he would be there. Instead, they headed to the cafeteria. They searched around but only found the employees. Then they went to the administrative building where the school offices were. Nothing there either. Finally, Sienna suggested the library and even though Tristan thought that made no sense he went along with it. The doctor was nowhere to be found. Tristan didn't have a cellphone to contact him.
As they were coming out of the library they bumped into Ana. She looked both relieved and scared.
"Sienna!" she exclaimed and hugged her friend.
"Ana, you're ok. Thank God," Sienna remarked.
"I told you to meet us back at the basement, Ana," Tristan reprimanded her remembering how she hadn't done that.
"I know but I couldn't find it so I went back to the gym to see if you were there and then I got lost," she explained.
"Well it's alright. We're together now and everything's going to be ok. We just need to find a way to get out of this place, Ana. It's not safe here. This is not just a school, it's an experimenting facility for a research institution. They've been testing medication on us since day one," Sienna said in a rush.
"What? That's crazy. How do you even know that?" Ana questioned.
"We just do ok. Believing us is your only chance at saving yourself," Tristan told her roughly.
"But that can't be true because I've never received any medication or shots since I've been here," she said.
"It's in the food, Ana and in the drinks. Haven't you noticed how the students here at not very normal? They all have some kind of mental problem and that's why we're brought here. They're trying to cure us with medication but it's dangerous because they don't know the effects of this medication. We're the experimental guinea pigs. They're using us to find out if it works. Too much of it could be lethal. They don't care about us and once they're done with us they're going to destroy the school to erase all evidence of this ever existing because if the government finds out they could get in serious trouble," it was a lot to take in but Tristan had no time to sugar coat it. That was the cold, horrible reality they faced.
"Oh my god. How are we going to get out of here then?" Ana said as the information sunk in.
"Tristan and I have been working on a plan for a while now. We're escaping today. You can come with us if you want. You can go back to your family. Things can go back to normal."
"But how do you guys know all of this?" she asked.
"Tristan broke into the head master's office and hacked her computer. He read all the files and showed them to me. Everything is true," Sienna confirmed her doubts.
"But wait you said they're planning to destroy the school. That means everyone in here will die. We need to tell the others. Parry-"
"Tried to kill me. He's crazy and so is everyone here. We can't stop the destruction at this point. The guards are already at the control room. The only thing we can do now is save ourselves," Tristan told Ana "Now are you in or not? We don't have time left to waste."
"I'm in, what's the plan?"
The boxes were almost loaded on to the car. They had moved fast once Lucian's assistant had arrived. He was ecstatic. He finally had the medication he had worked so hard to create. He was done being a fool. No longer would the Institute take advantage of him and his master piece. He knew this wasn't all of the Institute's stash but without the instructions and the recipe on how to create it, they were hopeless. No one but Lucian knew the exact ingredients, the right amounts and the procedure that it took to accomplish this potion. They wouldn't be able to duplicate it and even if they used another team of masterminds to figure it out, Lucian would have patented it by then.
On top of getting back the medication he had also won his son in the process. That was an added bonus Dr. Lucian hadn't calculated into the equation originally. When he'd discovered his son was attending the same school the Institute owned he'd worked Tristan into his plan. The girl was another unexpected addition. He prayed she didn't interfere with his plans or else he would have to eliminate her from the equation.
"All done, sir," his assistant jolted him back to reality as he placed the last box inside the vehicle.
"Marvelous. Now let's find my son and get out of here," Lucian said before he locked the car.
They headed straight for the basement where Lucian had instructed Tristan to wait after he finished his part of the plan. Dr. Lucian and his assistant were stealthy and cautious as they made their way through the halls of the school. They managed to go unnoticed by most of the students and staff. Even if anyone spotted them he doubted they would question them. The only important people they had to worry about were the guards, the nurses and Hale. Lucian had gone missing and if she saw him here she wouldn't hesitate to stop and question him. And she wouldn't stop until she got all the information out of them. She was a very persistent woman.
Lucian wouldn't cave, it was his assistant he worried about and that was the reason why he'd chosen to withhold as much information as he could. He only told him the basics of the operation. The assistant didn't know about the future plans or why they were on this mission. He was being paid more for asking zero questions.
When they arrived at the basement, Lucian was shocked to find it empty. He'd been here though. That he was sure about. What he couldn't figure out was why he and the girl hadn't stayed down here like Lucian had instructed them. Had they been caught? Had Lucian miscalculated the time? Was it too late for them?
"What now, sir?" the assistant asked.
"We need to find them," Lucian said.
He prayed to the highest power that they hadn't been caught because if they had they would be questioned. Tristan knew too much about the plan. If he gave things away there was no doubt that Hale would come looking for him and she would find him. She didn't like being played a fool.
"Let's go back to the basement and start from the beginning," Sienna suggested to the group as they made their way through the halls trying to go unnoticed. A few students were still scurrying around like lost mice. Sienna felt horrible. Not knowing the truth was one thing, but knowing the truth and feeling helpless about the outcome was terrible.
"This doesn't make sense. Something isn't adding up," Tristan mused more to himself. He had a bad feeling in his gut. He wasn't sure who he could trust anymore.
"What do you mean?" Sienna asked him.
"I just have a feeling that something isn't right," Tristan admitted.
"Besides the fact that this school is full of crazies and they're about to destroy it?" Ana chimed in sarcastically.
"Alright fine. Let's go back to the basement and start from there," Tristan agreed and they headed down.
They heard voices before they reached the basement. Tristan knew right away people were there. Had the guards found their secret meeting spot? Had they been caught?
"Stay back here," he whispered to the girls and went forward. If it was the guards, he wanted to give the girls enough time to escape before they were caught. He could distract them while they ran. He marched forward with a brave face and sighed in relief when he spotted his father and another man he didn't know.
"Dad," he said in relief. Sienna must have heard because they soon followed in after him.
"Son. I'm glad you're okay. What happened? Why didn't you wait down here for me?" he questioned.
"We came back but you weren't here and I thought maybe something had gone wrong."
"Oh this must be your lovely Sienna. I don't believe we've had the pleasure to meet, my dear. I'm Dr. Lucian, Tristan's father," he introduced himself very gallantly.
Sienna shook his hand shyly and froze. Those eyes. She had seen him before. He was the man who'd slipped the note under Tristan's room. He was the mysterious man who'd come in to the classroom to give a speech. If she remembered correctly the teacher had said he was a very important figure in the school. Was he part of the Institute?
"It's nice to meet you sir," she said politely.
"And who is this gal?" the dr. asked as he looked Ana over.
"This is Ana, Sienna's friend. She knows everything. She's going to escape with us and then she'll go back to her family." Tristan explained. Dr. Lucian sighed. Another one? Was his son planning to bring along the whole school? This wasn't part of the plan. "So what's the next step in the plan now, father? What follows?"
"Everything is done, son. Now, we go home," he said in a pleasant tone. The Dr. had everything he wanted. The medication was in the car and he'd found his son.
"What about the students? How are we going to stop the Institute from destroying this place?" Sienna interrupted.
"I'm sorry but there is nothing we can do for them now. We've done our part. All we can do now is leave before we get destroyed along with this place," Dr. Lucian said shocking his son, Sienna and Ana into silence.
A/N: It's not a dream, you've just read chapter 31. Sorry for the wait. Remember to vote and comment your thoughts. It seems as though Dr. Lucian had a different plan all along. Can he be trusted?
Until the next chapter!