The next morning, when she entered the kitchen, the chefs were complaining about how one of their meat pounders was missing. Dez would've put the item back in its proper place last night, but the camera would've caught her. Moreover, if a similar accident happened today, with the metal rack falling, they would begin to get suspicious. At the same time, though, she was glad she had held onto it. This was due to the fact that they might need it for the third level.
Neither Chance nor she had ever been up there. They would be entering the area blind, but it was their last destination on their journey to discovering the secrets of the building. Granted, they wouldn't be completely reckless, but it would be hard to make a good plan, since they didn't know the layout of the highest level of the building. Still, they would try to come up with something, but there would be much room for error to invade.
Sighing inwardly, she finished the simple breakfast of toast, eggs and green grapes. Having completed her meal, she made her way back to her room and decided to find a good hiding place for the meat pounder in her jacket. If the chefs ever did suspect her, they wouldn't be able to find the tool. She wouldn't let a simple item foil her plans to reach the third level.
Reaching her room, she shut the door and glanced around the area. She wouldn't be able to hide it in the sink drain like the key, so she would have to think of a new location. Avoiding the typical hiding places of the dresser, under the bed or in one of the desk drawers, Dez tapped her right foot in concentration. The ticking of the cuckoo clock matched the rhythm of her foot. Letting the clock aid in her concentration, she began to pace around her room for a few minutes.
Her grey eyes landing on the desk, she went over to it and examined the structure. Between the topmost left and right drawers, there was a section of wood, which went down about three and half inches from the top of the desk. Pulling her chair out from its place, she crawled under the desk and looked upwards. Inwardly grinning, she found the wood above her to have small clips, similar to frame clips, holding a piece of wood to the desk.
Carefully unlatching the clips, she pulled the piece of wood down. Setting it on her midsection, she placed the meat pounder on top and lifted the wood back into the air. Holding it up with her right hand, she secured the latches with her left hand. Seeing that latches held the wood and pounder in place, she sighed in relief before mentally celebrating for her hiding place. After getting out from under the desk, she sat down in the desk chair and began to sketch the day away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few minutes after ten in the evening, Dez heard her door open. It shut a few seconds afterwards, revealing none other than her good friend. By now, Dez had already taken a shower and was in her pajama set, which was in the hue of blue. Currently, she had pulled up the blinds on her window and was staring at the tinted glass. She couldn't see what lay beyond it, but she was imagining the snow covered land outside. It wasn't hard to picture the unique snow crystals descending from the dark grey clouds above, while the ground was being covered in the soft white substance. Placing her right palm against the glass, she could feel that it was indeed cold outside.
"Well, have you thought of anything, Dez?" Chance questioned, taking a seat on the side of the bed closest to the window.
"Not really, I just know that we're entering territory that could very well end our journey."
"That's true, but we're so close to getting all of the answers. Thus, we won't fail; I won't let us."
"I know you won't, but I still can't help but worry."
"That's natural. Since before the third level, we planned everything out based on information we had attained about the various locations. It will be quite the change this time."
"No doubt it will be. Tell me, though, Chance, are we leaving this building after we explore the third level. If so, we should head up there with packs of some of our things. Moreover, since we've seen a picture of the outside of this place, I think we should wear something warm the night we go up there. Likewise, we need to pack something warm for Vance if we can get him out of the building."
"I think we should leave afterwards. There isn't anything left for us here unless we want to be experimented on more."
"We both know the answer to that statement," Dez responded, now turning around to face her friend.
"Too true, so I suppose we should pack some things then. I'll just need to wear several of my shirts to keep the cold out. Hopefully, there isn't a storm occurring when we decide to leave. This leads us to another problem, though, Dez. Are we just going to walk through the snow? I know we might have to, but if we can find another way of transportation, it will be better."
"I don't know. We'll just have to see what happens. If we can get to Vance, perhaps his car and keys are still here. If he can guide us to where both are, we can take his car. Granted, he'll somehow have to help us drive despite his blindness."
"That might not end well, but it will be better than walking through the cold in the night. Well, regardless, it will all depend on whether we can get to Vance or not. Thus, let's focus on the third level for now."
"Right, so how do we reach it?" Dez asked, pushing some strands of her hair behind her left ear.
"The only way I know of to get to the third level is by utilizing the stairs on the far left end of the building. We'll have to go past the bathrooms to reach them. There should also be some boards sealing the stairs off from individuals, but we should be able to crawl under them. Once past the boards, we enter an area where there may very well be security cameras watching every angle. Still, it would be odd for the third floor to have such cameras, since it is sealed off. Moreover, since your mother doesn't want anyone trespassing up there, it wouldn't make sense to allow the security guards to see it through the cameras. Granted, there still might be some in case an individual tried to break in through the third level. Likewise, your mother may only have access to those cameras. If she does, then the chances of running into cameras will increase."
"Another problem is if we head up there only to find all of the doors locked. I still have the meat pounder, but I don't think we want to make too much noise up there."
"We'll just have to see what the situation is. We could always perform a test run this evening," Chance suggested, pushing some strands of his light brown hair aside.
"That could work, but if we get caught due to something unexpected and we don't have our packs with us, we would be in a compromising position. We would have to run and grab things, which would slow us down. This could ruin the whole plan if we don't run fast enough."
"I see your point. We'll just stick with heading up there tomorrow, then. It's already a huge risk to travel up there, so we might as well be prepared with supplies to make a run for it."
"So we're agreed then on what we should do?" Dez questioned one last time just to make sure.
"Yes, tomorrow we will make the final step," responded Chance, as he locked his gaze with hers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When the clock struck nine in the evening, Dez waited ten minutes before she started to pack. Granted, the only thing that was close to a backpack in her room was her art supplies bag. Thus, she removed it from the bottommost left drawer of her blue desk. Keeping the drawer open, she unzipped the purple zipper on the black bag before dumping the contents into the drawer. Boxes of crayons, colored charcoal, regular charcoal, watercolors, and much more fell into the empty space, as they left their original home. Dez did wonder if she should take some with her but decided against it.
Closing the drawer, she went over to the topmost left drawer and pulled out her favorite daisy pencil as well as some other pencils. Moreover, she opened the topmost right drawer and retrieved her sketchpad. Placing these two items in the inside pocket of the bag; she zipped up the pocket and proceeded to pack her other things.
Such things consisted of some of her clothes and some toiletries, which she put in a plastic bag she had taken from the kitchen earlier. In fact, she had grabbed several food items as well. Her excuse of needing some snacks throughout the day worked for the chefs. Thus, she took a couple items like a few plastic water bottles, beef jerky, dried fruits and crackers from the kitchen pantry. While she was back there, she took a couple of plastic bags in case she needed them. It turns out that she was right in making that decision. Of course, the chefs were suspicious of the quantity of items she took, but she simply explained that a growing girl needed variety in her diet. They didn't pose any resistance to this answer, but she knew that such an excuse would probably only work a couple times. Luckily, she only needed to utilize it once.
Once she finished, she glanced around the room to see if there was anything else she needed. Her grey eyes fell on her blue bear, and she instantly snatched it from the bed before fitting into the bag. After doing so, she glanced over at her bookshelf. There would be room for one more item in her bag. Picking up Journey to Xandarin, she placed it in her bag before zipping it up. With everything inside, she lifted the bag to test its weight. It was somewhat heavy, but she could still run if she had to. Thus, she set the bag on the bed and proceeded to change into proper attire for the evening.
Wearing a light blue long-sleeve shirt, a black skirt, which fell right above the knees, black tights and black sneakers, she reached into her bottom dresser drawer. Pulling out her thickest jacket, she slipped her arms through the long black sleeves, while the body of the jacket went down to her knees. Going over to her desk, she pulled the chair out and crawled underneath the wooden object. Undoing the latches on the piece of detachable wood underneath the desk, she pulled it down and took out the meat pounder. After placing the tool in her inner jacket pocket, she put the wood piece back into its previous place. Once the latches were holding it back to the desk, she moved out from under the desk and pushed the chair back in.
Now with the meat pounder on her person, she went over to her pillow cases and removed the screwdriver from the left one. Placing it in her other inner jacket pocket, she went over to her bag and sat beside it. All she had to do now was wait for Chance to come. Hopefully, something wouldn't come up tonight and hold him back. If that were to happen, then she would have to unpack and return everything to its original place. It would be annoying, but she could wait another night if she had to.
Twiddling her thumbs, she stared at the clock on her wall. The purple bird just popped out of the blue clock, indicating that it was a new hour. With the hour hand on the ten and the minute hand on the twelve, she hoped to see Chance soon. Kicking her legs back and forth, she just sat and watched the minutes go by. When she saw the minute hand hit the six on the clock, she began to grow slightly worried. About to get up and pace, she heard her doorknob beginning to move. Just in case it wasn't him, she grabbed her bag and shoved it under her bed. It would be suspicious, since she had her good coat on, but she would just state that she was cold. Such an excuse might work, and she hoped that it would do the trick.
The moment the door opened and swiftly shut, she breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing that Chance had made it. Ever since her mother and the flies had entered her room, when she stole the key to the sitting room, she had become paranoid of someone else other than Chance opening her door. She became confused at seeing him holding a small bag of toiletries and some clothes in his arms. It didn't take her long to realize that he probably didn't have a bag of some sort.
Quickly, she hopped off the bed and went over to help with the items. Taking some clothes from his arms, she went over and set them on her bed. He proceeded to set the rest of his objects on the bed. Thankfully, Dez had another art bag in her bottommost right drawer. Going over to it, she opened the said drawer and pulled out the bag, which had significantly less in it than the other one. Inside, spare pens and erasers resided. Dumping them out and closing the drawer, she handed the black bag over to Chance. After thanking her, he began to put his possessions into the bag. Zipping up the blue zipper, Chance indicated that he had finished.
"Are you ready for this, Dez?" Chance inquired, slinging the bag over his right shoulder.
"Yes, it's time we learn the last pieces to this puzzle," Dez answered, taking her bag out from under the bed and placing it over her left shoulder.
"After we do so, how should we destroy the building?"
"We'll come up with something. We'll just have to use what's available."
Merely nodding in response, the duo set out of her room. Dez cast a quick glance over her right shoulder. This would be the last time she saw her room, her gilded cage. She inwardly smiled at the thought. Tonight, she would set her friends and herself free. Chance closed the door behind them before they began to make their way towards the staircase.
White doors passed them by, each holding a secret behind its wooden surface. None of them mattered, though, now. Still, if hadn't been for Vance leaving the sitting room door open, Chance and her wouldn't be here now. His one mistake had been her escape from a content life in a cage.
Old-fashioned factory pendant lights illuminated the beige tile, and their light reflected off the surface. They highlighted the security cameras, which turned left before going right. On others it would be the opposite pattern. Blinds covered tinted windows, shielding the insiders from the outside world. Not even the light bulbs in the light fixtures could break past that barrier. Rather, they only strengthened the barricade through their strong illumination.
Everything in the hall was closed off; everything showcased its restraints. If she gazed too long at it, now, she would feel it beginning to crush her. The constant similarity could wrap itself around her and forever close her inside. It was an awful feeling. Thus, she focused on Chance's movements and followed his lead. She wondered, though, if he was beginning to notice the constrictive halls.
Going through the dining hall doors, they avoided the cameras and waded through the metal sea. In some cases they had to hide under the silver waves. Coming back up to the surface, they made their way across the room and exited through the metal doors. Another room was now behind them, meaning one less room Dez would have to see. Never again would she have to enter the dining hall where the flies sat to eat.
Soon, they passed by the bathroom, which led to the sublevel. After the third level, she would need to go down there if she could. She would feel awful if she had to leave a friend of hers down in that horrific place. It pained her when Chance had to spend the day in that nightmarish pit. Clenching her left hand around the strap of her bag and tightening her hold on Chance's left hand, she told herself that she would get both males out of the building if she could.
With the bathroom behind them, their footsteps carried them towards the stairway. She could see them in the distance. One set leading downwards and the other to their destination. Granted, they would be going down after they accomplished their tasks. It was strange, though, that the stairs going down were of tile, while the ones heading up were of wood. Perhaps, her mother was making the third level appear to be unstable, since the stairs looked to be quite old.
Sparing no more time examining things, Dez followed Chance up the stairs, though, both were careful. The steps did make the occasional creaking sound, but they still held themselves up. Thus, none of the wooden steps had the opportunity to break under their weight. With this in mind, the pair ducked under the wooden boards at the top of the stairs and headed into the unknown territory. There were still a few more stairs to travel up, but before continuing they peered around for any form of camera. Finding none, they pressed onward and soon were at the top of the last step.
Looking to both sides, they found the hall only going in the right direction. With their option of traveling left nonexistent, they went down the carpeted hall. It was rather odd to see the grey carpet running the length of the hall instead of the usual beige tile. Furthermore, there were no lights in the hallway. There was only a series of boarded up windows, which had tiny shafts of light breaking through them. As for the color of the walls, they were grey like the carpet. Lastly, there were no cameras in sight nor could they see any doors at the moment.
Treading lightly down the passageway, the duo kept their eyes focused on anything unusual about the place. Granted, everything on this level was odd. It was completely different from the floor they had just come from and presumably level one as well. Moreover, there were points in time when Dez wanted to see if she could rip the boards from the windows to get a view of the outside. Chance, however, mentioned that they would get to see the outside soon enough. Still, Dez attempted to peek through the cracks, but they were too small for her to get any view of the outside.
Eventually, Chance had to pull her away from her curiosity; however, he was introducing it to something new at the same time. Towards the end of the hall and located on the right wall, double white doors with golden handles sat closed. There didn't look to be any lock on them. One would just merely have to push the door, and it would open. Keeping this in mind, Chance carefully went up to the doors before resting his hands on the door handles. He took a moment to calm his now rapidly beating heart. When he had succeeded in doing so, he glanced back at Dez, and she motioned for him to continue.
Obliging her, he pushed on the door handles, and the doors slowly creaked open. What greeted them was a massive room, which would have been magnificent were the multitude of windows not boarded up. Still, shafts of the night sky's light broke through the tiny cracks and illuminated the space somewhat. Regarding the furniture in the space, three polished wooden desks were in the center of the room. None of these were accompanied by chairs, and they were arranged in a u-shape. Various lab tools rested on top of the desks, while a single lamp stood on the middle desk. Its cord trailed across the grey carpet until it reached the electrical socket on the left wall. All in all, the room looked rather barren, since the three desks barely took up any room in the vast space.
Each giving the other a quick glance, they made their way over to the desks. There were piles of papers littering the right-hand desk, while what Dez presumed was a microscope rested on the center desk. A Bunsen burner, connected to a gas valve, matches and Petri dishes were next to the microscope, and some of the dishes were filled with an odd looking transparent blob. Dez could only tell that the blob was there because of its grey edges. It reminded her of the pictures on Ms. Waters's office walls. On each of the dishes a label read: Contages griseus. Dez didn't exactly know what the name meant, but she assumed that it was the name of the discovery or rather the bacteria.
According to Vance, these bacteria were currently living inside of her. Actually seeing what they looked like was somewhat disturbing, since she could now picture this colony of organisms traveling through her body. She inwardly cringed at the image. Furthermore, the fact that it killed others wasn't aiding her in the slightest. Chance seemed to be sharing a similar opinion. Thus, they both turned away from the dishes and examined the left-hand desk. The only thing on top of it was a large list with x-marks going through most of the words.
Dragging her right index finger over the words, she saw how the first section listed physical characteristics that Chance and her had. Things like grey eyes, blue eyes, black hair, etc. were all crossed out. In fact the grey eyes were marked several times over. Moving onto the next column, the physical traits continued halfway down before mental characteristics appeared. So far only depression and phobias were scribed onto the piece of thick paper. Some of the phobias were marked up, but others remained untouched. Noticing what some of the phobias were, Dez was grateful Ms. Waters and her mother hadn't began tests for those yet.
"Well, it's a good thing we decided to find this information out now," Chance half-muttered to himself, as he looked over the various words on the chart.
"I have to agree. Well, we now know about the bacteria, and why it's being researched. We've even now seen it for ourselves. There's still the question of why Vance, you and me survived. Furthermore, why we're all in different conditions, and the mystery of why Mr. Colour disappeared. Did you check any of those papers, yet?"
"No, but we should start doing so," Chance replied, heading over to the right-hand desk.
Nodding in agreement, Dez followed him over to the papers and began searching through them with him. So far they were just various lab reports on different characteristics, which were listed on the chart. The disturbing part of the reports was how many people had died during the experiments. Dez had only gone through maybe seven reports, and already there were at least thirty victims. It made her wonder how her mother could get away with so many deaths. Trying to not get too absorbed in the death counts, she flipped through more files. After several more reports, she finally found something unique. Currently, the report in her hand had no characteristics on it. It just mentioned that the victim died, and it was dated back twelve years ago. Going through the report more thoroughly, she finally discovered the victim's name: Gilbert Colour. Curiosity and surprise raced through her mind, as she called Chance to look over the piece of paper. Not too long after looking over the document, Chance felt similar feelings. This information was most unexpected to them.