| "tune out the static sound of the city that never sleeps, here in the moment on the dark side of this screen."- five seconds of summer, 'disconnected' |
seven pm.
"how about i turn into one of the doctors, bang like hell so they let me out, and then you tell me the code to let everyone out?"
"luke, you've had dumb ideas before, way too many than i'd like to count, but that's got to be the worst." a sigh from the room next to him. "besides, they're not as stupid as we'd like to think. they'd know you were just mimicking."
"no they wouldn't. ash, back me up on this."
from the dark room on luke's other side came the answer. "sorry, it really wouldn't work."
luke exhaled, letting his head fall back onto the uncomfortable excuse of a pillow. "alright, fine."
the four rooms, each connected by an 8 inch-by 3 inch grate-like window, were silent.
"is cal awake?" luke asked after awhile, moving himself onto his knees and looking through the grate.
there was some shuffling, then ashton responded, "no, he's out cold." he drummed his fingers against the wall. "mikey, you're up, right?"
"i'm getting feedback from both of you dicks, so yes."
"we'll put our thoughts on vibrate next time, our apologies." luke said in return.
"kindly do."
ashton muffled a laugh. "so, um, guys, are we going to try the mind hacking thing tomorrow?"
michael groaned. "i'll pass, thanks."
"c'mon, we've only tried twice."
"yeah, and each time i can barely stand up for two straight days!"
luke smiled to himself. "michael, if we figure out how to get you to influence people's minds, we could actually break out."
"at my own expense. i swear, if i loose it, crazy michael if going to kill you first."
ashton quieted another giggle. "let's just go to bed, okay?"
luke smiled and rolled onto his stomach. "night, fellas."
there was a creak of springs to his right. "night." ashton pipped.
michael's bed groaned under the increase of weight. "just fall asleep fast."
~
eight pm.
the "borrowed" ladder was already waiting in one of two rented vans.
kris had broken out into a cold sweat. she was nervous and frightened and yet ready to dive into the situation headfirst. it was an odd mixture of emotions. she thought back to her mother, who had probably had an aneurysm by that point. she was doing illegal things with the most incredible of people.
note: buy that camera.
niall had had the idea of going in all black-clothing, ninja-style, but that was quickly struck down to simply wearing dark clothes.
not that she was exactly looking or caring, but kris couldn't help but note how louis looked in gray.
10 out of 10, would look again.
"everyone doing alright?" zayn asked, once again flipping through the folder.
"for god sake's," madison took the file from him. "you're giving us all headaches, calm down."
"i'm plenty calm."
"then stop flipping through all this crap. it's not a guide on how to survive every situation possible for us to come across."
he gave her a look, then rolled his eyes and smiled sarcastically. "fine. i'll be a productive member of this team."
"there we go." madison smiled back, then walked over and sat down next to kris.
kris's stomach was swimming with anxiety. her mind was taking what could go wrong, any sort of problem that they could encounter, and exaggerated it immensely. louis getting hurt. one of her friends dying in over-the-top ways.
"you doing okay?" madison asked, breaking through her thoughts.
kris glanced at her, then exhaled shakily. "yeah. just...stressed, i guess."
"can't blame you; we are sort of about to break into a government building."
"this is insane." kris mumbled, "i used to be afraid to open a window. and now i'm in the back of a van, about to do things only criminals and crazy people do."
"well i wouldn't classify all of us as sane." madison shrugged, "i'd go with you if i could, for moral support, but i'm stuck in the group that has to go around banging pots and pans."
after a moment, kris asked, "so, why does the government even have a building full of... people like us?"
madison smiled. "that is a fun little story. you see, our government is really obsessed with making everything perfect and tied up with a little pink bow. from what i know, our government found out about us near the end of the first world war. there was this guy who could heal others just by touching their wounds. they paid a lot of money to a lot of people to keep it under wraps.
"and, of course, people like us are dangerous. god, i can't tell you how many times we've had to help people out of an accidental outbreak. if enough people realized we existed, everyone would be going bat-shit crazy. we'd be under microscopes and we couldn't go anywhere without trying to be shot or mobbed." she thought for a moment. "two-thirds of that sort of already happens, but point in case. and a fair amount of people who know about us are on our side; that's how we get most of our information. but every other person with significant power is sending money to dozens and dozens of research facilities to find something to do with us. try and turn us normal if they don't have a use for us."
"that's barbaric." kris said.
"that's politics." madison replied, "it's why most of us live in an underground building. otherwise we'd be doomed to live as lab rats."
kris thought it over a minute. "were you ever in that position?"
"me? no, raised my entire childhood in my own home."
"how did your parents react when they found out?"
she smiled. "well, i had to explain how i'd managed to flood the bathrooms at school, and of course they were worried and freaked out for a long while. but they got used to it. then they met niall and courtney and it sort of numbed the topic down."
kris smiled as well. "i was, like, four when my mom found out." her smile quickly faded. "she never let me leave the house. i was home-schooled; the one time i tried public i ended up sending a kid flying out a window. and now i've gone and done the same thing to louis years later."
"okay, your mom obviously didn't have a clue what she was doing. but that's how most people react to something new and weird- "don't pay attention to it and maybe it'll go away"."
it was a rather grim way to put it, but they still both smiled softly. then, the back of the van opened.
"these heart to heart conversations are absolutely touching," zayn said, picking up one end of the ladder. "but we're about to head in, so let's get going."
madison stood up and helped with the other end. kris followed behind them. the building looked much more ominous up close, being illuminated only by the streetlights and half moon.
in case they needed a quick getaway, zayn would be waiting in one of the vans on the other side of the street. kris didn't have a moment to imagine how quickly this was all going to happen.
"hey." louis found her amid the scramble. "are you ready?"
"no, not at all. you?"
"fucking terrified."
"you've done this before, though."
"once, and i seriously doubt that it counts."
they crossed the street with everyone else, catching their breath from their rapid exchange of words. exhilarating. they made eye contact and held it for just a second too long.
"we're getting onto the roof now." liam whispered loudly, being one of the first to set things up.
kris sighed, looked up at louis, then moved forward and hugged him.
"good luck." she said, her head against heis shoulder. still smelled like lemons.
louis's mind had turned to static. "you too." he managed to force out.
kris let him go and jogged over to the building with her group. halfway, she glanced over her shoulder and smiled. louis smiled back. from his fingers to his toes, louis was absolutely buzzing, buzzing, buzzing.
kris was the last one onto the roof, just behind courtney. it was noticeably cooler up higher. liam took care of the locked door in a matter of seconds.
the four of them quickly hurried down the stairs onto the second floor. so far, there had only been cheep, metal stairs, cement walls, and an occasional light bulb dangling above their heads by a thread. liam went to open the door to the first floor only to have it snap off it's hinges. he winced at the noise, while the other three jumped.
"sorry." he whispered.
he set the door against the wall.
"fair warning," niall said, "i don't have enough arms to turn all three of you invisible in case of an emergency."
not an issue, kris thought.
the building had been empty up until then- the floors half-built and unreachable- so finding captive people shouldn't have been difficult. however, after twenty minutes of sneaking around like they were stuck in a scooby doo montage, nothing had turned up. every room led to nothing.
"now what?" courtney asked, kicking over an empty box. "all this building and there's nothing here."
"no, there has to be something." liam insisted, the gears in his head whirring.
"like what? all we've found was a bunch of packing peanuts, moldy carpet, and a manual on how to assemble a washing machine. we got screwed over."
suddenly, a light bulb flipped on in kris's head.
"wait, there's no attic right? nothing on the other floors?"
niall responded, "no, everything was inaccessible until now."
liam caught on fast. "but we haven't looked for a basement."
"well that was quick." courtney said, but she was smiling nonetheless. "so where do we even look? there's not much space for a hidden door."
"just try everywhere." niall answered, "there's four of, we can't all miss it if we're all looking." he paused. "in theory."
and the four split up, looking hard in every nook and cranny. but, of course, there wasn't much besides the prementioned packing peanuts. at least until kris walked by liam rolling the carpet up from the floor.
it took another five minutes before they found a part in the floor where a chunk of carpet wasn't attached to the rest of the material. bingo. kris hurried and got niall and courtney while liam uprooted the trapdoor. all that was visible were stairs that led down into darkness.
courtney got ahold of her brother. their job was to cause enough chaos so whatever guards were down there would come out.
and, of course, their first natural instinct was to launch a brick through the window.
almost instantly a set of footsteps began to patter up the stairs. kris felt herself begin to panic. now, now now NOW she thought, closing her eyes tightly. niall grabbed liam and courtney and the three of them vanished. kris couldn't tell if she was visible or not. she quietly took a few steps back.
a man with a gun at his side came out through the trapdoor. he didn't shoot her on the spot, so kris figured she was safe. the man looked around for a moment before another window shattered on the opposite end of the building. instantly, he began to walk over towards it. kris flashed briefly into visibility before hurrying down the hatch. she heard the footsteps of the others behind her.
at the bottom of the stairs was a long hallway of metal doors. the end of the hallway showed a branching path of other rooms. liam appeared next to her, as well as the other two.
"how'd you do that?' he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
"turn invisible?"
"yes, obviously."
"i don't know, i just can. it's like i don't know how i can make things move."
it looked like liam was about to say something, but then decided against it.
"that," niall said, less controlling of his vocal volume. "was way too fucking close."
courtney rolled her eyes. "c'mon, let's just start looking around before we have to make another run for it.
this chapter was supposed to be longer but i decided to split it up lmao sorry.
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