Chapter 9: The Escape

Part 1 of executing the escape!

            “What is that?!” Chernoff bellowed above the din of the alarm. The man with the bloody knuckles answered, a look of shock plastered on his face.

            “The room�"“

            “NO,” Chernoff screeched with rage. His face contorted with anger as he shoved the suited man aside, flung the door open, and rushed out.

            A surprising calm fell across the room, save for the earsplitting cry of the alarm. Mr. Chernoff’s exit had left the room vaguely empty.

            The suited man stared at Kye for a moment. He was seemingly locked in an internal struggle, deciding whether to follow his master or stay and guard Kye. The internal struggle had just begun to show signs of external manifestation when the man turned and flew from the room as well.

            Now, the room felt silent, the noise from the alarm distant. Kye heard the thumping of his heart rattle inside his head. His adrenaline level was high. He had forgotten all about the fact that he had no food or water in him. Now, thoughts of escape occupied his mind. He thought frantically for what to do, but no ideas revealed themselves.

            He jumped at a voice from behind him.

            “I’m sorry, I�"“

            Kye had forgotten than Brevyn was there. Then a thought crossed his mind: Brevyn could wipe his memory at any moment.

            Kye wasted no time: he ripped the sticky, white pads from his skin and leapt out of the chair and made a rush for the door.

            “Kye! STOP!” Brevyn cried out. But it was too late; Kye was already out of the door and sprinting furiously through the corridor.

            He could not remember which direction his room was in; he had not paid attention to where the men had taken him. Yet, he did not stop running.

            His chest heaved as he swerved around corners and past rows and rows of empty doors. His insides squirmed with every peel of the alarm, or at the sound of possible footsteps from another direction. He couldn’t think clearly as images dashed in front of his eyes and were gone as quickly as they had come. Connor. Shadow. The pages. Connor. The Lookout. Shadow. Connor.

            He skidded to a halt outside an open door and quietly pushed it open. It was his room. He dove inside and slammed the door behind himself. Realizing that he had just cut off his only means of escape he dove for the handle and turned it furiously. It opened. He was shocked. Why had it not locked behind him?

            He positioned the door so that it was open only a smidge, then he dropped to his hands and knees to peer under the bed. Shadow was not here. He felt a sharp stab of pain. If anything happened to Shadow…

            From the hall outside came the sound of a walkie-talkie, and a male voice could be heard through static on the other end. The static ended, but no one responded. There was no sound except the sound of steady and determined, yet soft and quiet, footsteps.

            Kye involuntarily held his breath and stared at the door. He reached behind him and pulled a hardcover book from the shelf and held it at the ready. The footsteps approached his door and stopped, and Kye dared not move another muscle.

            There was a pause. The figure behind the door was as motionless as Kye, with the book raised in his hand, ready to defend himself.

            Without warning, the door swung open, and Kye flung the book with all his might into the open doorway. The girl that had emerged dodged her head quickly to the side as the book slammed against the door with a loud thwack. She looked at Kye, shocked and incredulous.

            “What the heck is wrong with you, dude?”

            Kye, unable to process this intrusion and the girl’s response to having a book hurled at her nose, merely sputtered incoherently. The girl did not wait.

            “Grab your things. We have very little time.” She entered the room and threw a small backpack into his arms.

            “For what?” Kye asked quietly.

            “For escape. Now GET UP.” She pulled him to his feet and began rummaging through his desk, chucking random objects in his direction. He too began rummaging. Altogether they could only find a few snacks and some pencils, which they took. Kye stumbled upon some cat toys at the back of a drawer and filled with panic.

            “I can’t leave without my cat,” he said, his voice shaky with fear of this whole predicament.

            “Oh, right,” the girl said calmly. She removed a large, black backpack from off her back and put it on the desk. She unzipped the largest zipper and placed a cat into Kye’s arms.

            “YOU HAD MY CAT…..IN YOUR BAG??” Kye asked disbelievingly.

            “Yes!” the girl said as if there were no problem. “He was fine! He got in there by himself. Now, would you stop yelling? In case you’ve forgotten, we’re trying not to be caught!”

She resumed her search through the drawers. Kye merely stared at her, a mixture of anger and utter confusion bubbling inside him. She thrust a small, wooden box in front of his face.

“What’s this?” she demanded.

“I don’t�"“

“It’s locked,” she interrupted, trying at the lid. Then she thrust it into his bag. “We’ll take it anyways.”

She handed Kye his bag, zipped her own, and replaced it on her back.

“Okay, let’s go.”

She started out of the door, walking so fast down the hall that Kye half-walked, half-jogged to keep up, Shadow bouncing in his arms.

“Where are we going?” he asked urgently.

“Out,” the girl replied simply.

“Out where?”

“Out of here!”

“Why aren’t you telling me anything?!” Kye could feel his anger rising. “I don’t even know who�"“

She spun quickly on him.

“Hello,” she said quickly and sternly, “I’m Cat. I’m your best friend, whom you don’t remember, and I’m here to rescue you. And you’re incessant need for jabbering is getting in the way!”

Kye stood shocked for a moment at her sudden outburst.

“You’re not my best friend,” he said at length. “Connor is.”

Cat’s face twisted in pain for a brief second. Then her expression changed and she made a noise of disbelief.

“You only think that,” she scoffed. “I was your best friend before he ever�"you know what this isn’t important. What’s important is getting you out of here.”

She spun on her heels again, but then quickly spun back.

“But just so we’re clear: I didn’t spend the night in that room�"”she pointed to an open door to her right, “�"for you to give me crap about your ‘best friend’ and ruin the plan.”

Kye wasn’t listening. His attention was on the door she had pointed to; the door he had seen closed multiple times when it ought to have been open.

“You were in there?” he whispered, eyes still fixed inside the room.

“Yes. All last night, to be exact,” Cat shot at him.

“But…wasn’t that someone’s room?” He looked at her. “How did you�"”

“It was someone’s room.” She motioned towards the door again.

And Kye saw it. A pair of feet, twisted grotesquely, barely visible beneath the bed. He felt sick.

“But you didn’t�"” Kye’s throat constricted.

Cat looked at him intensely. “Any means necessary,” she said quietly.

Kye was on the verge on vomiting, though he had nothing in his stomach to expel.

“Now, let’s go,” Cat said curtly.

When she spun around again, she nearly collided with a man that had just flung himself around the corner. Kye braced himself to run the other way. Cat let out a scream, but seemed to relax almost immediately. She cursed at him.

“You nearly gave me a heart attack, Brev!” she chastised the man. It was Brevyn, and he seemed happy to see them.

“I’m sorry. I came as fast as I could,” he panted.

“What is it?” Cat pressed.

“What is going on?” Kye demanded. They ignored him.

“Where are you headed right now?” Brevyn asked Cat.

“To Provision Line 4, that’s how I got in--”

“Forget that,” Brevyn shook his head furiously. “They’re blocking off every line as we speak. That was the first to go. Take my PRT card--,” he handed her a small, plastic card, “�"and head directly there.”

“That’s halfway across the facility,” Cat argued. “We’ll never�"”

“JUST GO!” Brevyn hissed. “Be quick about it. Oh, and take this.”

Brevyn handed her a white book with black lettering.

“You’ll need it,” Brevyn assured Cat before she could question him.

“I love you,” he said. Then he took off down the hall he had appeared from. Cat turned around and began walking back in the direction they had come from, and Kye followed.

“He’s my brother,” Cat said, as if reading his thoughts. Kye was too shocked to stop her again as they continued walking.

The corridors were eerily empty and quiet; the screeching alarm had stopped as they ran along. Suddenly, a thought occurred to Kye.

“Wait,” Kye stopped running. “Connor. I can’t leave Connor here.”

Cat stopped immediately, angry. “Didn’t you read the freaking book?! I’m only taking you.” She grabbed his arm and tried to drag him, but he wrenched it from her grasp.

“No,” he said firmly. “Either Connor comes with us, or I die here.”

Kye had said it so calmly and resolutely that Cat merely started at him, puzzled and angry.

“But I--” Cat began. Kye raised an eyebrow at her. “I don’t know where he is!”

“Then FIND HIM,” Kye commanded.

“Argh!” Cat angrily pulled a walkie-talkie from the belt around her waist; it held other things too, including a gun. “Eddie. EDDIE!” she barked.

“What is it?” came the crackled reply on the other end.

“I need you to find any rooms where people are out of place. We need to find a boy named Connor.”

There was silence for a few moments. Then the static voice returned. “It appears as though everyone is in their rooms besides you two in the hallway. Bunch of people gathered around the Provision Lines, probably the workers cutting them off. There’s another room empty. I’m not picking up a heat signature.”

“Eddie, would you hurry??” Cat pressed. “Find a room that is not supposed to house kids that has someone in it right now.”

“Sorry, sorry! Okay…uh…there’s a large room one floor up from you that has someone in it. But they’re not moving.”

“That’s our best bet?” Cat asked, exasperated.

“I would say so, yes.”

She clipped the radio back on to her belt and looked at Kye.

“This had better be him. And if we get caught because of this, I’ll kill you before they get a chance to.”

They started off towards the stairwell, and sprinted up one flight. They ran down the halls looking side to side for an open door, as Eddie’s voice periodically directed them.

“Whoa, whoa, stop!” Eddie said after a minute. “You just passed it. It’s closed but it should be unlocked.”

Cat backed up and tried a door. The handle gave way and the door swung open. In the craziness, Cat had forgotten to be ready with her gun in case it wasn’t Connor. She now fumbled on her belt for it.

But it didn’t matter. Kye peered in and saw Connor tied to a chair in the center of the room. Connor looked up.

“Kye?” he said in disbelief.

“Connor! Oh my�"” Kye noticed Connor’s busted lip, and a particularly thick slice through his arm that was bleeding down onto the floor.

“Yeah,” Connor said feebly. “They were having a bit of fun, but had to cut it short when that alarm went off. They immediately ran out.”

“Connor, I’m so sorry.”

“Who’s this?” Connor asked as Cat untied his hands; he winced slightly at the pain.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kye waved him off. Then, realizing he was doing exactly what he had yelled at Cat for doing not long before: “She’s from the outside and she’s here to break us out of the facility.”

“Oh.” Connor really didn’t have any idea how to respond to this information. “Okay.”

“Can we go now?” Cat said angrily when she finished untying Connor.

“What about his arm??” Kye asked.

“It can wait,” Connor said. Kye looked at him incredulously, but Connor shook his head. “Let’s just go.”

A voice came from Cat’s hip: “One dot headed you way. You could have company.”

Cat, Kye, and Connor looked at each other before running for the door. They heard a voice yelling down the hall, and pressed themselves against the wall next to the door.

“I was told to go down there if the alarm�"”

An unintelligible voice cut him off. He was talking into his own walkie-talkie.

“IT WASN’T MY FAULT THAT HE WAS LEFT ALONE!” the man screamed.

Cat pulled her gun from her belt and held it at the ready. Kye felt sick.

“No! You can’t just�"” he whispered fiercely.

“Any means necessary!” Cat bit back.

The man was seconds from walking through the doorway. “Well, maybe next time I’ll just�"”

There was a flash of light and a deafening bang as the man crumbled to the floor with a cry. Cat had fired, but missed his head, hitting his shoulder instead. Blood spattered across the floor.

Cat moved briskly forward and raised the gun again, pointing at the man’s head.

“YOU WILL NOT!” Kye screamed as he dropped Shadow. He quickly grasped her arm and moved it to point elsewhere, then wrenched the gun from her hands.

Cat cursed. “WHY DO YOU CARE?” she bellowed at him. “HE WORKS FOR HIM!”

“It doesn’t matter! You’ve already killed an innocent person! I’m not letting you kill two.”

“INNOCENT!” Cat scoffed. “He was torturing Connor! You call that innocent?!”

Kye was taken aback. He hadn’t thought of this. Here was Connor’s torturer, moaning and bleeding on the ground before him. Kye thought of all the scars on Connor’s chest, of the cut in his arm now, of what they would’ve done to him had things gone differently just now. He stared at the man, and for a moment, he considered shooting the man himself. Then, the feeling passed.

“He got what he deserved,” Kye mumbled. He turned the gun towards the bare, tile wall and emptied multiple shots into it. Cat screamed furiously and rushed him, slamming him onto the ground, but it was too late. The damage was done. Kye pulled the trigger again and it clicked quietly. It was empty. Cat ripped the gun from his grasp.

“No, no, NO!” Cat murmured, desperately mashing the trigger to the gun, which only clicked over and over. Connor and Kye watched her warily. She threw the gun across the room and turned to Kye. “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT??”

“We don’t need it,” Kye responded. “No one else is�"”

Without warning, the man on the ground clicked the button on his walkie-talkie and gasped: “They escaped up here! He--”

Cat had grabbed the radio from his hand. Then she stood and kicked him in the face.

She spun around on Kye and threw her arms out. “YOU SEE WHAT YOU’VE DONE?” she blurted.

Kye picked up Shadow and the three ran from the room and into the stairwell. Voices wafted up from below, halting their descent. They could hear multiple sets of feet clomping up the stairs. Cat pulled out the walkie-talkie.

“Where do we go??” she wailed, horrified.

“There’s no other way but the PRT! There no other stairwell. No doors. Not even windows,” Eddie responded.

The three fugitives looked at each other, fear evident on all their faces, each one desperate for the others to shout out an idea. The voices below drew nearer. Escape seemed impossible.

“Windows!” Connor repeated. The other two stared at him, hopeless and confused but willing to try anything. “He said no windows. He’s wrong!”

            Connor started running up the stairs, the other two followed unquestioningly. When Connor flung himself out of the stairwell and down a hall, Kye recognized where they were. Soon, they arrived in front of two very large doors, which Connor pushed on.

            The Lookout opened for them, and they stepped inside and pushed the doors shut.

            “Windows!” Connor exclaimed proudly.

            “There’s nothing in here,” Kye pointed out. “We have nothing to break them with.”

            “WELL, WE WOULD’VE HAD A GUN TO SHOOT THEM OUT WITH!” Cat fumed.

            Kye looked away. He felt ashamed of what he had done. It felt like the right thing, but he had doomed them. They were all going to die now.

            “They’re going to find us eventually,” Connor said. He paced, clutching his arm, trying to think of a way around this.

            “Even if we had something,” Cat growled, “we’re stories above the ground! That drop could kill us!”

            “It’s either fall and have a chance, or die in here,” Connor retorted.

            “Well, there’s no choice now!” Cat shot a look at Kye.

            “I have a plan,” Connor said quickly. At that moment, voices could be heard in the hall outside. Kye and Cat rushed forward to push on the doors, but Connor stopped them. “Let them come in. Come back against the windows.”

            “Have you lost your�"” Cat began.

            “Just do it!” Connor barked.

            Cat and Kye obeyed.

            As the voices reached just outside the door, the three of them fell silent. Their hearts beat faster as they stared at the door, waiting for what was to come. Kye clutched Shadow closer to his chest. Connor stepped closer to Kye and stood up tall.

            The doors to the Lookout slowly crept open. Mr. Chernoff walked through with three men, his cold, derisive voice slicing through the air.

            “Well, well, well. Both of you in one spot. And a friend, too,” Chernoff hissed. “It’ll take an awful lot to fix this mess you’ve caused today.” He studied them all. “I’ll need the girl; she can tell me how she managed to get in. As for you two,” he looked at Kye and Connor, “I told you that you were dispensable.”

            “Yes,” Connor said unexpectedly, making Kye jump. “Kill us.”

            Mr. Chernoff looked taken aback. Then he smiled condescendingly. “Why so willing now, yet never before?”

            “Just shoot me.” Connor stepped forward and spread out his arms.

            Mr. Chernoff stared at him for a moment, brow furrowed. “Very well.”

            He motioned to the man on his left, who raised his gun and fired at Connor’s chest.

            Kye closed his eyes and screamed as the room erupted into light and the bullet whizzed through the air; then there was a sharp crash and a thud.

            Kye opened his eyes to see Connor’s body lying on the ground. But there was no blood. Connor had thrown himself to the side and the bullet had flown into the glass behind him, puncturing it. Small fractures were now growing in the glass.

            Connor wasted no time. He leapt up and made a full on sprint for the window. He threw his arms around Kye, sending them both barreling through the window, which shattered easily.

            Kye heard the clanging of the glass, the firing of more missed bullets, and Chernoff’s screams. Then, he closed his eyes and braced himself for the fall.