Dylan's POV (again)

After dinner, I staggered up too ,any flights of stairs to my room and collapsed on my bed.

My alarm clock went off at 3:50 am and I groaned and rolled onto my back. Damn escape plans! I thought, hauling myself up. I got dressed silently before padding downstairs to Sam's room.

I knocked on the door and Sam opened it. He looked up and down the corridor to make sure there was no one else around, then let me in.

I sat on a random chair in the middle of the room and waited for Amy and Dan to arrive. When they did, Sam pulled out a massive sheet of writing. I sighed to myself and thought about how geeky this was going to be.

I described to them once again the whereabouts of the building that Erin, Jam and Fire were being held in, and got a flood of suggestions on how to get them out. I was also given a list of things I might need for our escape. How kind. And incredibly nerdy. Apparently, we would be trying to make a break for it tonight, at midnight. Do you ever get sick of plots that are based at midnight? I mean, come on, lame much? Everyone does it! Tip for all victims of future robbery/captors, most things happen at midnight, so be extra aware. On second thoughts, maybe try not to be aware.

The reason we were going so soon was because everyone felt that we couldn't go on much longer without getting caught, and, we had a plan and the right equipment to pull it off, so why not do it now, since no one would suspect us of running away in the middle of winter. I was tempted to tell them exactly why no one expected any of us to run away in the middle of winter, but suspected that it would probably not help.

According to the plan, we would meet outside the building at 12, then head out to the building Erin & co. were being held prisoner in. I would freze time, and get them out as quickly as possible, then we would cut through the fence surrounding the campus, and head across the open fields, trying to get as far away from this place as possible untill dawn broke. Ok, so, as plans go, it wasn't much; the best way to escape would have been some random friend turning up with a team trained to help people bust out of places, then suddenly having a couple of really fast cars magically appearing and whisking us far from this hellhole. But no, apparently, there wasn't even a bus route within 20 miles!

Anyway, the only thing I've got to do before midnight tonight is find out exactly which rooms Erin and her friends are being kept in. For a meeting, it was probably… I don't know… how about, the most boring, geekiest meeting ever? I mean, Sinel's meeting at least had food. I didn't say this, though, since I didn't want to offend my new friends.

By the time it was 7 o'clock, and the meeting was finished, my head felt numb from the overload of information, and I was about to collapse in a heap on the floor because I was so tired. I went straight back to my room and decided to stuff any other plans I had for today, and just sleep. Of course, I realised just before I fell unconscious, that I hadn't had a letter under the door from Lizzie, which meant that Tie-Cho was back, and I would have a lesson later on today. Great, as if my schedule wasn't hectic enough.

When I woke up again, I felt a little less tired, and more up to my list of chores. I went through my backpack and snuck down to the store to nick some of the stuff from the list of equipment that I'd been gone. At least, even if they were nerdy, they were thorough, since I hadn't even thought of bringing a torch and batteries. I was just about to head out to Tie-Cho's lesson, when I remembered the small box I'd found yesterday. I slipped it out of my pocket and opened it, examining the watch. I took it out of the box to get a proper look. The strap was leather and navy blue, and the watch facce itself was square. I wonder how you switch it on, I thought, staring at the blank screen. I glanced at the clock by the bed. I was going to be late if I didn't hurry. I slipped the watch back into the box and put the box in my backpack. I could examine it later if I needed to.

I got up and I set out to Tie Cho's lesson before I was any later.

When I got there, Tie-Cho told me he had decided that I should kow more about the history of Zytons, so he had decided to torture me with- sorry- tell me, the history of Zytons.

"Now, do you know how the first Zyton got his powers?" Tie-Cho asked me.

I stared at him, "Nope, not a clue,"

"Neither does Tie-Cho... Let's move on," Tie-Cho told me.

Great, I thought, I'm having an imensly boring history lesson and my teacher is a clueless, possibly not-right-in-the-head, weirdo. I sat back and started counting down the minutes 'til the end of the lesson.

It took a whole 2 hours before Tie-Cho was satisfied that I knew enough about our history, but I don't think I'd actually listened to a single bit of it. That's me, the one who has serious atention problems. I got up and stretched as Tie-Cho headed out of the room without a backwards glance.

Ok, I thought, as I headed out of the room, 2 tasks down, 1 to go.

I headed out to the secret building where Erin and her friends were- hopefully- still being held, and stood for a while outside it, watching everyone. After a few minutes, someone came out of the revolving doors, and I saw my chance. I froze time, but the door was already closed. I growled to myself. These powers would be a lot more helpful if they didn't take so long to use. I walked over to the door and tried to heave it open. It shifted slightly, and I spent the next few minutes pulling it, inch by inch, open. Eventually, the gap was big enough for me to slip through, and I headed into the room. It was quite big, and packed with lots of people. At the far end of the room was a semi-circular desk, and behind that, was a corridor, with doors along it, and stairs at the end. I shoved my way through the crowd of frozen people, and past the desk.

They won't have locked them in a room on this floor; I thought immediately, that would have made it too easy to escape from. I headed up the stairs and onto the next floor.

For the next hour, I attempted to unlock any of the doors along the corridor, and the only one I'd been able to unlock was; the storage cupboard. I tried the next floor, but they were all locked too, and my lock picking skills were all but non-existent. I sighed, it looked like I would be improvising tonight, but then again, I improvised lots, and it only ever ended up backfiring a few times... ok, maybe more than a few times... I headed out of the building and unfroze time, before setting off back to my room.

I decided to treat myself to a last meal of sorts, back in my room, so I ordered several dishes that sounded nice and ate with gusto, fully appreciating the delicious food after not having any for a whole day. After the meal, I got into bed and tried to catch whatever sleep I could for tonight's plan.