Did I Escape

This story is about a boy who is determined to make a change. Along the way of his mission he changes many lives, but he might lose his own doing so. My Name is Taupe Branden and I think Im dead.

Did I Escape

Taupe Branden

I am sitting on a table and a doctor poke me with a needle on the arm. It doesn’t hurt I guess I’m used to it. It’s about the 30th time I’ve been in this room; it’s one of the testing rooms. You see once a month Azazel rounds up all of the people that live in tis building and gets them tested. I’ve been here for 2 and half years so this is normal.
Azazel is the leader of a group of people which are called the project. They take people from all ages that are smart and bring them all to this building. There is one place in this world which is corrupt, it’s called Lithberg. Azazel is trying to help the people there.
The doctor is dressed in a blue suit. He has gentle brown eyes and tanned brown skin. He walks over to me and takes off the tags he put on me earlier then puts one last needle in the back of my head, this one hurts a bit but not much. Once he is done I get up and leave the room, I don’t mind the testing room but it’s a trill when you leave and are done for another month.
I get up and walk out of the room, the hallway is cold, the walls are white and the ground is hard with black stone. I walk down the hallway into my room, which is a light brown color; there are three bunk beds with my friends plopped on them, waiting for their turn. I jump on my bed too tired to wash up and change into the fresh clothes that the guard brought me.
“They said for you to go to the lunch room for your breakfast since you left before you had some” I turn around to see who’s talking and it’s my friend Harrison Ladbroc, but we all call him harry.
“Okay” I say, too tired to say anything else, I fall asleep. I wake up to someone shaking me.
“Hey Taupe wake up its Harry.” “You slept in.”
“What!” I say confused.
“Its 9:30am, you’ve been sleeping for about 24 hours.”
“What! Really how?”
“I don’t know you must have been very tired. Anyway Azazel wants you to go down to the testing room again.”
Why?”
“I don’t know that’s all he said, but first he wants you to go have breakfast.” I hop off my bed; well it’s more like falling out since I still can’t see much.
After I eat I go to the testing room. By the time I get in, the light finally isn’t burning my eyes, and to my surprise Azazel is here in person I’ve only seen him about three times. “Hello Taupe” this is the first time I’ve ever seen him with a white coat and goggles he’s a tall man with dirty blond hair, blue eyes, and a scruffy face I’ve never asked what his age is and no one talks about it but he looks about 30. “You’re probably wondering why you’re here… you’re here because all of that testing that we’ve been doing will finally pay off, and we need you to finish the serum.”
“What will I be doing exactly?”
“You just sit in that chair and do as we say” the chair is made of metal and has wires coming out of it hooked to a big energy box; there are two nurses on each side of the chair. I sit down and I am flooded with wires as the nurses attach them to me.
“Were all going to go behind that black screen. We can see you so just sit tight.” Where I gonna go? With all these wires on me I can hardly breathe. They leave the room and it’s just me.
“Taupe Branden can you hear me” the voice comes from little holes in the ceiling.
“Yes” I say, now the room goes black.
Then I see two figures coming to me, their human… no their not their like humans but not quite, their ghostly things, a man and a woman. “Hello” the man says to me the woman says nothing. They both have black straight hair and they wear blue T-shirt and pants. No shoes no socks, bare feet. They keep walking closer, I’m not scared, but a little freaked out is more like it.
“Hello Taupe” the woman says to me, now that their even more ghostly than I thought. I try to read the woman’s expression… its blank so is the mans. How can something be so alive but so dead, are they real or just a hologram.
Before I can stop myself I’m reaching over and I touch the woman who looks at me , but I don’t pull back my hand sits on her arm. She looks confused like that wasn’t supposed to happen. I now know they are real which is a scary thought . How did they get in I would have heard the door, I looked at the walls before the light went off they were smooth no trap doors. Or did I just miss something.
Now the woman pulls away and reaches behind her and there’s a knife in her hand. Ok I’m dead I’m so dead why did I touch her it’s almost the same as going up to a robber and saying shoot me. But I do know why I touched her she reminded me of my mom, long black hair beautiful brown eyes and nice pale skin, but she’s gone now she died one year before I came here, three and a half years ago.
But this woman isn’t my mom, she almost has the knife at my neck moving closer and closer towards it, it touches my neck slowly moving inward. It hurts! Ahhhhhh! I touch right under neath the knife… blood lots of it!
“Ahhhh!” I can’t breath I’m helpless looking at the woman’s blank face. Stay strong I keep telling myself “ahhhh!” my mother died for me like this, stay strong, but I can feel myself weakening. Then out of nowhere the man who has been silent, watching me die punches the woman and she falls at my feet I just see it before things start to go fuzzy, I manage to say thank you then everything goes black.

Harrison Ladbroc

I stare at my best friend lying on the bed
“Is he going to make it?” I say hopeful.
“Yes he probably will” I relax a little.
“It’s extraordinary how this happened…” I cut Azazel off.
“It’s extraordinary? my best friend almost died and you say its extraordinary!” on one talks to Azazel Easton like that since he’s the leader of the project, I’ll probably get in trouble later but I’m too angry to care.
A guard comes at me arms extended to grab me
“Don’t worry about him he’s upset” than he looks at me “I’m sorry Harrison, it’s just this is a particular case I’ve never in my life seen this.” I stare at him confused.
“What’s so amazing?”
“We were testing him to see how he would react to certain things, and what we found was not expected, look for yourself “I look at the screen not knowing what I’m support to see. “What am I looking at?”
“This is a normal human reaction but this was Taupe’s” Azazel says pointing at the screen so I’m not lost. “In all our research we thought if we take things we thought everyone would react scared to, we could find a way to …while you could say to help the world face their fears. Do you understand?”
“Ya, so you’re telling me Taupe wasn’t scared?”
“Yes! And because of this it changes everything. All are research mean almost nothing.”
“What do you mean almost nothing what still means something?”
“Well we know how to trigger what we want in the brain. But Taupe’s brain can do something I don’t think any other brain can so far. It can make so called dreams real, for example he got hurt and almost died, the cut is there, but the people were not there, no one was there.”
“Was it magic?”
“No it wasn’t magic.”
“Was he sleeping?”
“Yes we put him to sleep for the tests, it was quite interesting.”
“When will he wake up?” I asked one of the Doctors.
“Oh it depends probable in 7 -8 hours.”
“Thanks, this is kind of interesting, how his mind do that make dreams can come real, Wait! If he was sleeping, and this was his dream, why did you not wake him up?”
“We were not sure what was happening in is mind…no well… ah…Well we thought we did, but with him we are going to have to find a different way. But until then we are going to have to work with what we have.”
“Ok... I guess.”
“You should get some sleep.”
“Ok” I say and walk out scratching my head. When I get to my room, my friends are on top of me with questions, but I go straight to bed.

Taupe Branden

I wake up in a white room with no windows and hard black stone lay almost every room in this building, but I have never been or seen this one before… Am I in heaven? The last thing I remember is being helpless in a metal chair, while a woman pushes a knife through my throat, I must be dead! How could I ever have survived that! Was it a dream, or was it REAL? If I’m alive or dead I had better see someone real soon!
I lay there for about two hours; finally, I muster up enough strength and attempt to call out for help. ….. OUCH! I forgot I got stabbed in the throat! That hurt! I tried to get up, ahh, can’t move! I must be dead. But if I am alive, what did they do to me? I continued to lay there unable to speak or move, when finally in the distance I hear a noise, someone is in the room, it’s a woman, she seems to be cleaning, I can’t speak, and it hurts even if I try to swallow. I am paralyzed, the only thing I know I can do is see and breath, I can see my chest going up and down, even though I don’t feel like it is. I could take a deep breath, maybe she would notice me. I muster up my strength; now I can now see her face.
Don’t move! Pretend your sleeping! Dead! Gone! She is the same woman that stabbed me in my dream or vision, or whatever it was. The woman who may have killed me, that guy who tried to save my life when she was stabbing her, may have punched her so hard she is dead also, maybe we are both dead. I have to figure things out, but not now, not with her in the room, she might kill me in this life. Just pretend you’re dead I tell myself over and over again. The door opens again, AH please don’t let it be him again! Black hair…Tall…It is him, How did he die? Am I dead?... Pretend you’re dead. I lay there and as I am trying to figure things out sleep comes, and gratefully I let it take me away.

Harrison Ladbroc

I wake up in my bed; the room is still dark; it’s probably like 6a.m, two more hours of sleep. But I can’t go back to my dream. I was in the woods when they came two people like things, both had knifes in their hands running towards me , I tried to run away but I was frozen in place ,not with fear, I was literally frozen , not cold but like a statue . The woman reached me first and stabbed my finger, Ahh! I tried to scream but I couldn’t. I was like a human in a doll but I still felt the pain. She stabbed me again deeper this time Ahhhh! Then I woke up, but the pain was still there. I look at my hand, blood? How? Am I like Taupe? If I am like him is it good? Do I want to be like him? My ring finger. Left hand. Gone.

Taupe Branden

I wake up but I don’t open my eyes.
Still alive, she didn’t try killing me. I have too many questions and not enough answers. Should I open my eyes? No …Yes…Oh I don’t know. I need Azazel. Slowly open my eyes making sure nothing and know ones there.
It’s safe, now I look around, its different room, no white walls or black stone floor. The walls are a light blue and the ground is grey cement, still no windows.im still in a bed, a different bed. But I’m not the only thing in the room there are tons of machines around me. Can I move “ouch!” It hurts probably because I haven’t moved in, I don’t know how long. But I have to try “Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!” I’m up. Now let’s try walking, right foot left foot right foot fall “come on taupe” I tell myself a couple of times.
I’m clumsy for about 5 minutes. I reach the door expecting it to be locked. I turn the knob and the door swings open into a hallway, the same hallway I’ve walked for 2and a half years. Just as I step out of the room the door shuts. I swing around and the door disappeared. I run my hand along the wall and it’s perfectly smooth. Now where am I? I walk down the hallway when finally I see a room I know ROOM 261 it’s the testing room I was in, let’s see, Azazel’s office number is 685.Now I’m running down the hall which is strangely empty…. ROOM 343 half way there…. ROOM 690 to far…. Room 680, 681….684, 686.wheres 685?
Between room 684 and 686 there’s a fairly big space then I spot something on the wall I hadn’t before and eye/hand scanner, will it work for me? Let’s see. As soon as I’m in front of it, it scans my eyes then I put my hand on the scanner and the wall opens. I step inside “s**t! Where’s the light in here?” my hand searches the wall when I hit it. The room is illuminated with a bright yellow light, the room is small enough so I can see it all “great Azazel isn’t here, were is everyone?”

Harrison Ladbroc

A couple of other people and me are sitting in metal chairs and are waiting for our results from the test. “I’m still not sure what these tests are for” someone says from the back of the room.
“It’s to see which ones of you guys are immune to the mind seeker, or in other worlds, to see how many of you are like taupe.”
“I am.”
“What’s that you said Harrison?”
“I’m like Taupe, I found out yesterday night, when my finger got chopped off.” “Oh? Well then let’s get you out of that chair, and you and I will talk about what you saw.” I shudder at the thought of her the woman who cut off my finger.
I follow him out of the room into the room right across from us. There are two wooden chairs a table between them with a computer.
“So Harrison what did you see?”
“I saw two figures coming towards me in the woods a man and a woman when they reached me I saw they both had knifes in their hands I tried to run but I was stuck. Frozen the woman stabbed me in the hand, then she drew out her knife and stabbed me in the finger, then I woke up.”
“Were you scared when they were running towards you?”
“No, only started freaking out when I saw the knifes.”
Then out of no were Taupe barges in, eyes bewildered, scared. “Taupe!” I say happy to see him up after like two days. He says nothing, he turns around and slam the door shut behind him and quickly moves toward us. “What’s wrong with you taupe? You look like you haven’t slept in years.” Azazel gets up and offers Taupe his seat.
“Please taupe will you sit down and tell us what’s wrong?” he says gesturing his seat.
“Ya….it’s just where do I start?” Taupe asks “Anywhere Taupe, anywhere you want”

Taupe Branden

I start to tell them my story, I tell them about how I woke up and the woman from my dream came in my room with the man. And about how for the past 2 and a half hours I’ve been trying to find everyone.
“Is that it?” Harry asks me.
“No it’s not.” I say remembering what happened. “Can you tell us what else happened?”
“About half an hour ago I was going around the building opening every door to see if anyone was inside, then when I got to one of the doors, that woman from my dream was there with that guy except this time she wore a black robe that went down to her ankles. When they saw me, they tried to catch me but I saw the look that went across her face when she saw me and knew she wanted me dead. I ran outside down the hallway, heading for this room knowing I would probably be safe. But just when I was about 10 feet away from safety she through here cut knife and it pierced me in the back, but it hit in a way that it just skinned my back.”
“May I see? “Azazel asks
“Sure” Azazel lifts up my shirt. “Hey please be careful!”
“Sorry.”
“How deep is it?”
“Oh not too deep, about a centimeter, and about 10cm long. Here sit down and ill patch you up” I notice I haven’t sat down yet so I do. For a long moment I just sit there while Azazel works on my back.
“I’m the same as you.”
“What do you mean Harry?”
“That thing you can do, making your dreams comes real, and I can too.”
“You can? Well at least I’m not the only one.” I say trying to sound cheerful though I can tell he knows I’m not. “What did you see?”
“I saw….the same as you except I was in the woods stuck in cement and I cut my finger off.”
“Did the man try to save you?”
“What man?”
“Was there a man with the woman?”
“Oh ya. And no he didn’t try to save me; he just stood there like he was frozen to.”
“Done.” Azazel says to me.
“I’m not leaving this room if those ghosts are outside like taupe said.” Azazel walks over to a computer I didn’t even see the whole building.
“Nothings there…” I cut him off.
“That’s almost even worse. Where are they now?”
“They’re not there and all we have to do is go to the room right across from this one.”
“Okay but we have to be super quick.”
“Why super quick? The room isn’t that far away” Harry says
“Because they sneaked up on me one time and they’re not doing it again.”
“They like ambushed you?”
“Yes and no, I just walked out of a room and was closing the door…”
“So were they in the room?”
“No they were behind the door.”
“And you didn’t see them?”
“No.”
“Do they have invisibility caps or something? Because I remember when you first came here, we were all in the skill training room, and nothing got past you.”
“Who’s we?”
“Alexa, Davin, Carson, G.C, Reaba, you and me.” Yes. Now I remember. And what I feel is loss and sadness for Reaba. I’ve tried to forget her but I can’t it’s too hard. Besides from harry she was I best friend and the way she died is the worst part, it makes me sick just thinking about it. We were skill testing when men with black suits barged in through the walls, saying for everyone to come with them, none of us wanted any trouble so we were all just about to go, when Azazel’s voice came from the back of the room telling us to hold our ground. Then one of the men shot a guard beside Azazel. Then it was on. Bullets flying everywhere people getting shot all around me. My friends and I crashed to the ground when the first shot fired and started army crawling to the exit.
By the time we got there the shooting has stopped, and for all the bullets that were flying around not many people got hit. “We have to go to room 903.” We all knew what that room was, it’s a large room that fits up to 500 people in case of danger. Before I get too far, I automatically find myself counting my friends. “1, 2, 3, 4, 5-wheres Reaba?” People are pushing me around but I can’t go, not until I find her.
I reach the body’s praying she’s not one of them. Maybe she just got ahead of me. As I am about to walk out I see her, lying on the ground motionless, I rush toward her. She took two shots, one in the head and one in the leg, blood gushed from her wounds, her long black hair at her side. I fall on my knees weeping, tears rolling down my cheeks, tears of hatred for the person that killed her, madness for myself for letting her fall back while the rest of us ran to safety, sadness for her leaving so soon, and most of all longing to spend a couple more minutes with her, to hear her voice and see her smile. Then a guard grabs my arms and drags me to where I’m supposed to be.
“Look man I miss her to.” Harry says in a low voice. “But back to the original subject of how to get out of here.” Azazel says.
“Let’s just make a run for it.” I say tired of being in this room.
“Ok.” They both agree.
“But Taupe is going first I’ll go in the middle Azazel goes last.”
We check the camera to make sure its clears, which doesn’t help if they do have invisibility clothes. “Ok ready?” they nod, but its’s me who needs more time getting ready. I open the door, run across the hallway open the door to the other room shut it behind me and I’m in. that was easy. I look around and there are people all over the place, not dead but sleeping at least 400 people. “Slam!” I jump and spin around quickly, it’s Harry.
“You made it!”
“Was hoping I would, but Azazel might not be so lucky.”
“What happened?” I ask
“I just slammed the door on their faces.”
“Whose ‘their’ and what about Azazel?” I ask.
“He was just about to leave when those creatures appeared; he closed the door I guess that was wise.”
“Taupe?”
“Ya?”
“Are we going to let those things torture us forever?”
“No were leaving.”
“Who?”
“Alexa, Devin, Carson, G.C, you, me and everyone in this room that wants to go.”
“Were do we go?”
“Somewhere that’s not here.” I go to a map that’s hanging on a wall.
“What are you guys doing?” it’s G.C in her normal jeans and sweat-shirt.
“Were all leaving.”
“Why?”
“Because, Here? We have nothing here.”
“What you guys all doing up” I can barely make out the face in the darkness of the room, but from the voice, it has to be Carson.
“Sup Carson, haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Ya well. What are all of you doing up?”
“Were all leaving.”
“Without me? Thanks what am I a fridge?”
“No. No Carson we’d pick a fridge over you.” G.C says with a smile. We all laugh it’s been awhile since we all had a good one of those, it feels good.
“Where are we all going?” Carson asks.
“Actually Taupe was just about to tell us.” G.C says looking at me.
“And I was just going to figure that out.” I examine the map “here” I say pointing at a spot on the map.
“Zezalish? We’re going there? You do know that’s right beside Lithberg right?”
“Outside of Malca?” it’s Alexa.
“How long have you been listening?”
“I just woke up and are you guy leaving Malca?”
“Ya everyone in this room is going.” Carson says.
“What!” Alexa is one of those kinds of people that doesn’t like change and gets nervous when it happens. She has waist line golden-haired which is usually in a ponytail, or in a bun for sleeping, dark blue eyes, skinny, and wears black tights with an extra-large t-shirt and DC shoes.
“We leave in two days tell everyone, but make sure the guards don’t find out. Azazel might still be in that room, and even if he isn’t. He wasn’t the only one in charge. I don’t think the people that run this place will want everyone leaving after how much work it took to get us here.”
“Todays the day.” I say to myself, everyone’s packed up and were leaving tonight; See since we’ve been here for such a long time and never tried escaping, the guards slacked off and really only look out for spy’s or people that don’t belong here. We all must in our rooms by 10:00, so our plan is to leave around 9:00, usually at that time on normal days everyone’s rooming around and lazy, so it won’t be a problem leaving the building. When we get out that’s when it gets hard. The whole outside of the building has major security that goes on for at least a mile.
“Hey Taupe. You up?” I don’t remember that voice, I can’t seem to remember anyone’s voice now that I’m so popular, everyone talks to me and I can’t even remember most of their names.
“Hey…….Lindy right?” I say.
“You got it.” It’s kind of embarrassing, I’ve asked Lindy her name like 30 times in the period of 28 hours, I’m surprised she keeps telling me like it’s the first time I’ve ever asked.
“We leave in 12 hours.” I say trying to act tired; I don’t really feel like talking to anyone right now. I need to think, all of the lives of the people that re leaving tonight are in my hands.
“Ok” she says and with that she turns and leaves the room. I stand up and go straight to the showers, I stink, and I smell like sweaty bacon. When I’m done I go to the lunch room. I see my friends waiting in line and go to meet them. “What’s for breakfast?” I ask G.C
“Well let’s see.” She says looking at a big menu, dangling 2 feet above our heads. “Baloney” she says looking back at me.
“Baloney? We’ve been having baloney for like 3 weeks every morning.” Say’s Harry, sticking out his tongue in disgusting.
“Well you better enjoy it everyone, I have a feeling that were not going to have a good meal like this in a long time after tonight.” I say quite enough so none of the guards can hear me.
“Next!” Yells the lunch lady.
After we get our food we go and sit at a table farthest from all the guards. Just after we all set our trays down, two boys come running toward us. Once they reach our table I finally have a chance to examine them. I’ve seen them around ones named Daniel and the others Phil, (nickname: The Ginger Brothers0 Daniel and Phil are identical twins though they do have some differences. For example Daniel is a head taller and 2 minutes older than Phil, plus their personalities are different.
They both have short curly ginger red hair, and light blue eyes like of a tropical ocean I saw once in a painting. The Ginger Brothers are down to earth people and never wear shoes inside or out, in the winter they are forced to wear socks and boots when they do go outside. They wear blue shirts with white cabin boy pants.
“So? Heard were leaving tonight. That true?” asked Phil.
“Ya tonight at 9:00” I say.
“Heard there are 600 people going” says Daniel.
“Holy s**t really?!” exclaims G.C a bit too loudly.
“Quite down.” Whispers Alexa.
After breakfast I go down to room 710 to see if all maps, small weapons, and extra food are in order. I meet two guards in the hallway, but they take no notice of me. I make it to room 710 and knock on the door, a man with a deep voice asks for ‘the code’.
I respond with 2615 and a man with night black hair, green, and looks like he was a soldier, for his muscular body and a big scar across his cheek.
“Taupe!” Exclaims and older women named Perestien. “We’ve been waiting for you. Come see what we’ve got.” There are 6 tables full of stuff. Maps, compass, knifes two tranquilizing guns, and food lots of food, soup cans, bread, water, etc. “Look! We even managed to get into the medical centre and take some first aid kits, toothbrushes, toothpaste. Oh and we got a couple dozen blankets.”
“Wow this is a lot of stuff. How did you guys manage to get it all past the guards?” I say amazed at all the things.
“Well we thought about it. And then comic suggested we use the vents. And it worked like a charm.”
“And guess what I found on the military deck?” Says Comic while searching for something "this baby right here" he says answering his own question. He points a long silver thing at me and now I see its a gun, a real one. "I was searching through boxes in the arsenal and came across four of these, each with 30 or so bullets."
Then we go on talking about the supplies until we hear a knock at the door, with a woman voice saying."Open up! Surprise inspection!"
Every mouth in the house shut tight with a scarce look in their eyes."S**t! What now?" I state in a rather panicky tone.
"Quick!" Yells Comic up the vent. "Open 'em up!"
Just then three roof vents pop open, and 1 person jumps down from each, grabs something and tosses it into the black holes in the roof, then where someone else catches it. This may take some time to tell, but the job was done in a matter of seconds.
"Coming!" Shouts Perestien "Im so sorry to keep you waiting."
"Thats fine, but do be quicker in the future.Ok doll?"responds the head guard, Bently. "The chief Dr.Jumes, was checking the medical room to make account of who is using the supplies. And she discovered that a whole 9 shelves have been emptied. So went to see who used it, and no one knew. She called in the guard and asked for us to do a room check."
"Oh my! I had no idea." Announced Perestien.
"Say aren't you a nurse?" Bently asks Perestien, already knowing the answer.
"Yes I a-"
"You didn't see anything did you?"
"No bu-"
"Well say if you do." And she closes the door.
"Oh man that was a close one." I say finally able to breath properly.
"Hopefully Brian heard that was taking longer have planed, and has started taking things down to the supply ship."
"We have a ship?" It probably sounds kidish of me to ask, and Comic must think so to 'cause Comic laughs like I'm the most obtuse person alive, which I may have sounded like.
"Kid" he says still slightly laughing. "It was a good idea to leave this prison, but you gotta keep the ideas flowing. Not build a brick wall and stick them behind it."
I dont know what to say, so I stand there smiling bashfully.

Author's Note

When you are reading, help me out on grammar and give advice on how I can make my story better. I am not done writing and will add on over time. Thank you