A/N: This one has also been edited. Ocean, as she was previously known, has had a name change. What is it, you ask? Well read the dang story and find out!
Disclaimer: S.A.P.S. in previous chapter.
Claimer: Read previous chapter.
Chapter 9
Max POV
We kept running. I could hear pounding feet of old heavyset men in big clunky shoes in the hall behind us, but they weren't getting any closer. If anything, they were getting farther and farther behind. I looked at the girl, running beside me, panting already. She looked at me, and I saw that her eyes had changed color again. They were the lightest shade of blue imaginable, so light they were almost white. It was kinda creepy if you ask me.
I risked a glance around, and saw we were already on the other side of the building. I was shocked. "I could have sworn it was larger than this."
"It's mainly underground," No Name told me between pants. "Are there more like you here?"
"I'm not sure, but they wouldn't have split us up among locations. I think they're here somewhere." Something deep down inside me seriously hoped they were gone, escaped, somehow, but the rest of me, the sensible side, said that they were here, so get used to it, baby.
"Turn here," No Name said. She had stopped beside a dimly lit hallway, with doors dotting the sides like flies on a wall. I slowed to walk, realizing I had fallen behind. I followed through, and heard the door clank shut behind us, sending the ominous feeling of dread build up inside me.
"Don't worry. No one ever comes down here," No Name stated as we trudged down the hall. I felt all turned around, but No Name looked like she knew exactly where we were going.
Around that time I realized that No Name was a really boring name to have. "Uh, what do you want me to call you?" I asked, slightly awkwardly.
No N-I mean, She, which I figured would be safe to call her for a moment, was silent for a minute. "I don't really have a name, but my boyfriend calls me Kai."
Kai. Interesting. "Mind if I ask why he called you that?" I looked around again, and saw we had reached the end of the hall, and her hand rested on the doorknob. Kai turned to face me, and I could see the mischief in her eyes.
"Ask him yourself."
The door opened all on its own, and I realized that it had a keypad on the back of the knob. Kai must've typed in some password or something. The room was bright, with windows filling two whole walls, and was furnished with modern-style chairs and couches, and even a table or two. I took all this in quickly while mapping exit routes. a routine habit whenever I was somewhere new.
It took a few moments to recognize that someone else was in the room. A boy, who looked to be about my age, with long blond hair and a pleasing but uninteresting face, speckled with some cystic acne. I looked at Kai, to see her beam at the typical teenager (at least in appearance), and introduce me.
"Max, this is Jake. Jake, meet Max. She wants to know why you call me Kai"
"A couple of years ago, there was a Hawaiian whitecoat, who said she had eyes like the sea, gorgeous and always changing. Then he told us the Hawaiian word for ocean is Kai, and the name stuck. He got fired within a couple of weeks."
I nodded in understanding, still standing in the doorway. I didn't really want to move, afraid if I entered their world, I would never get out.
"What is this place?" I asked, stalling.
"It's the central room in the experiments' wing. All the experiments' cages can be unlocked and accessed from this room."
I looked around, but saw no doors. "How?"
"There are hidden doors. In case the government comes, you know," Kai told me.
"So why haven't you escaped before? And is my flock here? And can you help us escape now? And- argh, can I see my family, please?"
"Follow me." Jake grabbed a heavy, scholarly tome from the bookshelf, and it swung inwards, just like in an old movie in a haunted castle.
Inside, the hidden passageway was surprisingly brightly lit. Lining it were doors, a few with little pieces of paper attached to them, labeled with experiment codes. I looked at them more closely, and saw that they were the codes of my flock. I stopped at Fang's door, and knocked. Don't ask me why I did, it just felt like the right thing to do. I wasn't going to barge in there like normal.
"Jake?" called Fang's voice. "Have you found the key yet?"
"Better," he called through the door. "Kai got out."
During this time, I realized, Kai had been concentrating, her eyes now a stormy gray. There was a light click, and the door was unlocked. An inch at a time, the door opened, until I could see Fang's face.
"Max?" he breathed.
"Hey." He threw open the door and pulled me inside, shutting the door with his feet and wrapping his arms tight around me, drawing me close. I could feel his muscles underneath me as I wrapped my arms around his waist, breathing in the smell of Fang.
"Where were you?" Fang asked into my hair. Which, basically, with him being a man of few words, roughly translated into: Where the hell were you and you have no idea how much I missed you and we all thought you were dead and do you have any idea what we just had to go through?
"I don't really know. I could find it again, but I can't stay for long. I have to go find the others. And why aren't you all in one big room in cages like normal? You have individual cells!"
Fang shuddered slightly at the mention of cages, but answered my question anyway. "I don't know, and I don't want to. I just want you to stay here."
I blushed, and I felt something flutter in my belly. The kind of jitters that you get before jumping off a cliff to freefall, praying your parachute will open. I don't have to worry about that, but still. "Fang, I have to go. If I'm found…"
"I know, but still." He kissed the top of my head, and afterward slowly let go. Some part of me was screaming at me to run, probably the more rational side. I ignored it. I smiled up at Fang, still feeling the blush creeping across my cheeks, and let go, turning to leave. My hand hesitated on the handle, the other part of me shrieking at me to run back to him and throw myself into his arms. I'm not sure if I liked this side of me or not.
I risked a glance back at Fang, who simply smiled, then left without another word.
Kai and Jake were still in the hall, right where I had left them.
"Do you need to go to the others?" Jake asked. I could see he had one arm around Kai's waist, and the new scary part of me said, I wish Fang would do that to me. I could practically feel my body take sides, one against the other. Side one said the previous statement about it. Side two said, But Fang's your brother! Right? How could you think those thoughts?
I shook my head, knowing if I did, I would never leave this hallway, and I didn't have a plan to escape yet.
I had started walking back with Jake, when I heard the shot, then the scream. I spun around, assuming battle stance, only to find a solo whitecoat holding a smoking gun. I glanced over at Jake, who had already jumped over Kai to stand in front of her, closer to the gun.
"Touch the trigger one more time and it will be you who dies, not us." I didn't know he could be so menacing.
"Really?" The whitecoat sneered. I saw his finger start to pull back on the trigger again, and lunged, knocking aside the deadly weapon. I landed on top of him, pulling his arm back and up, until I heard the sickening pop of his shoulder dislocating. He was soon unconscious. I got up slowly, to make sure he wasn't faking it. He didn't move. I looked back at Jake and Kai.
Jake was bending over Kai, carefully trying to lift her up, to carry her back to their room. Her face was white, and I saw that the bullet had gone through her side, clearly having hit something major, judging by the amount of the deep redness staining her shirt and pants and Jake Her once bright eyes were dim, just a normal boring shade of blue, and her dark hair spread in a fan-like shape around her head. I had to look away; the sight made my insides churn like a blender, and not in the nice way like when I looked into Fang's eyes.
Struggling for breath, Kai opened her mouth, and shuddered out, "If you find the Lost City, Max, you will be free. Find it for me, Max, to save your family, and what remains of mine. Good-bye, Max. Jake, I love you." With those final confusing words, she was gone.
Jake stood up numbly, and walked down the hall, away from the room he had once shared with a living breathing girl named Kai. I don't know where he went, or what ever happened to him, but he was soon gone from my sight for forever. I looked once more at Kai, her limp form lying on the ground, far away from the body of her unconscious killer. I took a few steps back towards the wall, and walked into Fang's room, not even bothering to knock this time.
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