I signal the two guards next to me to apprehend him. They each take an arm, but he shrugs them off, and follows me into the dark of the shadows. We walk into a maintenance tunnel and behind a stairwell. I lift the weapon on my side. He only lifts his chin as I press the trigger. The click of the hammer hitting the cylinder echoes throughout the stairwell.
Oh, Mother. I think I killed someone. Not accidentally, either.
Gavin starts swearing at something, but I don’t look up. My chest is squeezing like it did in the stairwell and my heart won’t slow down. I can’t seem to catch my breath. I bend over and shove my head close to my knees like Asher had done in the sub, but I still can’t breathe.
“Are you okay?” Asher places his hand on my back and crouches down to look me in the face.
“Fine. Fine. Just need to sit and catch my breath,” I wheeze out, but that proves too much for me and even as I suck in more air, my head spins. Then I feel like I’m falling right before the darkness comes.
When I wake, it’s as if I’m hearing things from underwater. Their voices echo, bouncing around each other until they finally come together as they’re supposed to.
“Did she hit her head?” That’s Gavin.
“No. I caught her right as she fell forward.” And there is Asher.
Slowly I open my eyes to see them both staring down at me. I try pushing myself up, but only manage to feel like a turtle on its back. Gavin and Asher help me up, then ask me what happened. I hesitate. Gavin doesn’t want to be down here at all. If he knows I’ve hallucinated twice in less than an hour, and that I think I’m one of the monsters he was talking about, he’s going to insist we go back, or worse, go back without me, leaving me.
But I’m sure these hallucinations, these flashes of memory, are proof I’m doing the right thing. So I lie. I tell them I couldn’t breathe and that it must be left over from almost drowning. And instead of insisting we go back, they decide I need a short break. I try to insist that by passing out I already had a short break, but they won’t listen.
“Besides,” Gavin says, “we’ve kinda reached the end of the road.” His voice is relieved and his eyes are bright. For the first time since we got here, his entire body seems relaxed, not rigid and tense. “In order to get where you need to be, we have to use the Tube. That’s the track.” He gestures to the sloping floor with the strange metal plates on it. Then he looks at me. “The last time we were here, we shut and locked the door to prevent Mother from sending anyone else over. But it didn’t work. And now it seems they’ve sealed them back up.” His lip twitches and I can tell he’s trying not to smile.
I push myself to my feet. We’ve come this far, and I can feel we’re getting closer. I walk up to the door and press on the red button on the side, but it doesn’t budge. Make a noise. Anything. Frowning, I stride back up the sloped floor and cross over to the booth. I didn’t make it all this way to give up so easily.
Inside it is a bunch of levers and knobs, but I don’t know which does what. Gavin, on the other hand, does this indecisive little back and forth motion with his body before sighing, then taking my hand and pressing it against the cool glass plate. I jump when a light flashes underneath my palm, but he won’t let me take my hand from it. He keeps it pressed against the glass. As soon as I realize it doesn’t hurt me, I turn to watch Gavin, who is in turn watching the door, obviously expecting something to happen.
“Access denied,” a computer voice says, startling all of us.
Gavin swears again under his breath and I can’t hide my own disappointment. This can’t be the end. “There has to be some other way to get to where we need to go.”
Gavin shakes his head. “If there is, I don’t know what it is. We came through here before and at the time, you said it was the only way. Considering how dangerous it was, I have to believe you were right.” Again, I can’t help but notice that he doesn’t seem all that disappointed by the turn of events.
Asher kicks the console hard enough for an alarm to start screaming on it. I slam my hands to my ears, while Gavin punches Asher in the arm. He yells something at him, gesturing wildly, but I can’t hear him over the shrill alarm.
Then, the entire thing turns off and a computer voice speaks. “Due to unauthorized tampering, this console will shut down until re-activated by an authorized service technician. Any further damage to the machine will result in harsh punishment. Vandalism will not be tolerated at the Elysium Resort and persons accused of such an act will be fined and sent to the Detainment Center until you are relinquished to Surface authorities. Have a nice day!”
We glance at each other, but before any of us can react to that, there’s a mechanical humming sound. Gavin and I dash out of the booth to find where it’s coming from, only to see that a wall is being lowered from the ceiling, blocking the way back to the stairs.
“They’re locking us in!” Gavin exclaims. “Come on! We’ve got to go.”
He yanks me down the hallway and to the corner and Asher is right behind us. I wonder if we’ll make it. Considering how heavy that wall must be, it’s moving fairly rapidly. When we get to it, we have to slither underneath. With no time to hesitate, I slide under followed by Gavin, and then Asher. Not even ten seconds later the wall slides into place and there’s a loud clang of what I’m sure is a lock clicking.
Across the way, another wall slams, effectively locking us, and at least a half a dozen bodies of goo, between them in a square approximately ten meters by ten meters, with no way out, and nowhere to hide.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CAUTION: THIS SECTOR UNDER QUARANTINE DUE TO BIOHAZARDOUS MATERIAL. TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED.
—PAINTED ON SIGN NEXT TO THE TUBE
Evie
Gavin and Asher each take a turn shoving at the wall while I look for some kind of button or lever that’ll release it, but none of us are successful.
“Way to go, Asher,” Gavin says between clenched teeth. He’s adopted that tense, ramrod-straight posture again. “Now either we’ve alerted Mother that we’re here, or she’ll find out when she sends someone to check out what’s going on.”
“Me?” Asher says with a pinched laugh. “I’m not the one who shoved everyone in here! You’re the one who decided it would be the smart thing to run under a wall.”
“I didn’t know there’d be another wall right behind it doing the same thing.” He throws his hands in the air, prowling along the wall. “I was hoping to get back to the stairs or elevator!” He glances over to me and I try to give him an encouraging smile, but I can’t hold it. I wrap my arms around myself instead.
“Maybe she’ll just ignore it altogether,” Asher says. “It’s obvious this sector isn’t used anymore. She could think it’s a false alarm.”
“Like that’s better?” Gavin’s voice sounds like he’s fighting back a scream. “Then we get to starve to death or suffocate. I’m not sure which is worse.” Gavin kicks the wall, even though that’s exactly what Asher did to get us in trouble. “I told you this was a bad idea. I told you guys not to come here, but no. Does anyone listen? Of course not!”
I’m relieved when Gavin stops shouting and starts pacing. I thought for sure I would have to break them up again.
Asher looks to the floor. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize—”
Gavin spins around to glare at Asher. “That’s exactly the problem, Asher. You didn’t think. You never think. You just do, and ask questions later.”