"Brittany?" I whispered into the darkness, praying that she hadn't suddenly disappeared from the room along with the light. That was an irrational thought, and I knew it, but I never thought I'd be in the freaking storage room after escaping death today, so I wasn't counting on anything rational at this point.
"I'm here." Her voice was so calm that it immediately put me at ease, but I stayed rooted to my spot. "What do we do now?" After I say that, I hear shuffling and then I felt a palm on my chest, just between my… 'Whoa!' I gasped and swatted at Brittany's hand as I moved backwards to the wall.
"Sorry! Sorry, that was not—I meant to go for your arm." She was whispering frantically, and I could hear the embarrassment in her voice. If this was a normal situation there would have been no end to my amusement, but this wasn't a normal situation and I wasn't feeling anywhere near amused. I took a breath and repeated my question, "What do we do now?" There was a slight pause, and I hoped to God she wasn't just making this up as we go along.
"We're gonna leave this room. I'll go first and then I'm going to come back for you."
"Why don't we just leave together?" I crossed my arms over my chest and was trying to sound offended, as if she just told me I couldn't handle myself, but if I could hear the fear in my own voice I was sure she could, too. My eyes had adjusted enough at that point so I could see her outline, and I saw her shake her head as she spoke, "I need you to stay in here." I was about to protest again, and she seemed to have known, because she spoke again; this time her voice was firm and laced with annoyance, "Santana, stay in here and don't make a sound." I don't take orders very well, usually ending up in a fight because of it, but the way Brittany talked so firmly was very intimidating (and a little sexy to be honest), especially in the dark, so I remained silent as she began moving around the room. She seemed to be searching the contents of the room for about a minute, before I finally said, "What are you doing? If you're looking for the door it's right here." I pointed at the spot to my right, but then realized she probably couldn't see me, and added, "Next to me." Brittany remained silent and kept what she was doing for several more seconds before I felt her next to me again.
"All right." Her voice was so quiet I wondered if she was whispering to herself. I tried to see what she was holding in her hand, but it was too dark and she was quickly moving towards the door, brushing past me as she did so. "Go to the corner. Don't make a sound." I did as she instructed, not wanting to put her on the brink of anger again. I sat down against a shelf full of a variety of turkeys, and watched as Brittany slowly opened the door, and soundlessly moved out, closing the door behind her. I sat in the dark, staring at where the door was, conscious of how loud my breathing seemed, and tried very hard not to move.
"Hey!" It was an unfamiliar voice coming from outside, it sounded like a man's, and it was filled with a mixture of surprise and anger. I heard a lot of footsteps, running in unison it seemed, and then I heard shuffling before I heard a thud. It was like that for what seemed like forever to me: there would be some shuffling, then a thud, then shuffling, and a thud. It went on until finally all noise coming from outside stopped. 'Oh my god.' A million scenarios flashed through my mind, each one more gruesome than the previous and all ending with Brittany somewhere outside the door lying lifeless. 'Please don't come in here, please don't come in here.' I was panicking now to say the least. On instinct, I shot up from the floor and grabbed the nearest thing to me, which happened to be a stalk of broccoli, and prepared to charge at the door should it open. I heard the door handle turn, and as soon as I saw light come in I ran towards it with my vegetable raised, too scared to even scream.
"Agh!" The man who had opened the door raised his arms up in self defense and backed away as I pummeled him with the broccoli. He was tall, with broad shoulders, so he could have easily subdued me but I imagine he was too surprised to do anything about it right then. As soon as he had backed up enough, I dropped the broccoli and ran as fast as I could towards the front of the shop (or at least what was left of the shop). I ran through the shop and headed for the door. Something was nagging at the back of my mind about all this, but I kept running and bolted out the door. Without really thinking, I turned and ran towards the end of Tosh Street, past all the other bakeries and shops. Something was really off, but I couldn't stop to think. I finally stopped when I got to the abandoned warehouse, which was fenced off with a sign reading "NO TRESPASSING" barely hanging on to it. I hesitated for a moment, but then charged through a cut in the fence and made for the warehouse doors when it suddenly disappeared. "Ahh!" I screamed before stopping in my tracks as I stared blankly at a white wall. 'The fuck is this?' I was so confused I barely heard a voice coming through what sounded like speakers.
"Santana Lopez: Human Test Subject, Number 0933. Assigned to PoHK Agent: Brittany S. Pierce: Cyborg, Number 1832. Mission Objective: FAILED."
As I listened to the robotic voice echoing all over, I looked around me and found that I wasn't on Tosh Street anymore; instead I was standing in a huge room with white walls and glass windows going around the top of each wall. I saw people in white lab coats looking down at me and then I was suddenly aware of wires all over me. There were wires running all over my arms and connecting to spots all over my neck. I wasn't wearing anything and I felt something a little heavy on the back of my neck, right at the top of my spine. 'Human test subject?' My mind raced backwards in time and stopped the moment I had seen Brittany running towards the shop, and I began to analyze all that I had gone through after that. 'She had not seemed concerned despite what had happened then, and where did she go after she left the room?' I pictured myself running out of the shop and it was then I realized what had nagged in the back of mind as I was running: the front of the shop had been normal. There was no rubble or any signs of an explosion; not only that, but the street was empty when I ran towards the warehouse. 'What happened to the cars sirens were coming from?' "Sirens weren't real." The thought and the words I said were simultaneous. It was all a test, some sort of experiment by the white coats looking down on me. I slowly looked up at the white coats.
"Santana," I turned and saw one of the white coats, a man with curly hair pointing at me, "Sleep." He said it like he was giving a command to Siri. I tilted my head in confusion, right before I collapsed onto the floor and blacked out.