The lift doors opened and everyone stepped out. Phil looked around as everyone did. The place they had just entered didn't seem like an entrance at all. In fact, it seemed as if they were still deep within the building.
"What's wrong, Phil?" Bradley asked, looking at the frown on Phil's face
Phil's frown deepened as he looked at the doors, "Something isn't right."
Glenn looked at Phil, "What do you mean?"
"Shouldn't there be only one door if it is an entrance or an exit?" Phil said, "Nemeth isn't that free or dumb to create 3 doors for an entrance."
Bryan nodded, "Phil's right. And don't you guys think it's too quiet here?"
"They're right." Kofi said, "This isn't the right floor."
"I saw the look in Nemeth's eyes." Big Show said, "If he had wanted to let us go, it wouldn't be this easy."
"Knowing Nemeth, he would place his goons around the place to ensure we leave for sure." Ryan said
While the guys started coming up with explanations for why they ended up where they were, Celeste spotted a setting that mimiced a control room through the door arch on her right. She moved a step closer to get a better look before patting Kofi's arm.
"Kofi, cover me." Celeste said
"Why?" Kofi said
"Just in case." Celeste said
Kofi nodded and followed after her. Celeste crouched low as she walked through the door arch into the room, expecting to be ambushed by Nemeth's guards. But when she entered and scanned her surroundings. Nothing was amiss except for the fact that it looked really neat and clean.
She stood up straight just as Kofi lowered his weapon.
"Huh." Kofi said, looking at the consoles.
Celeste pulled the chair away from the consoles and sat down.
She laced her fingers and cracked them as she prepared to work her tech magic.
"Let's see if this baby's gonna make mama happy."
Kofi kept quiet as he watched Celeste work her magic on the consoles. He looked at his watch, contemplating if he should hurry her since they were in dire need of knowing where they were. Just as he was about to say something, the screens in front of them and overhead came to life.
"And we've got life." Celeste said
She looked at Kofi, "Do you still seriously doubt my skills after so long?"
Kofi smiled and said, "Never again."
She pushed back from the console on her chair and called out, "Hey guys, I know where we are."
The others stopped talking as they walked through the door arch to where Celeste and Kofi was. In front of them, they saw several different monitors showing different parts of the buildings that seemed empty.
Celeste hit a couple of buttons on the keyboard as she said, "We're in control room C of the building. This room controls the security of the building except for the upper floors."
"Are you able to locate Jasmine?" Phil said
"No. The cameras this room controls are pretty limited. We can only view the corridors." Celeste said, "If Nemeth has her in one of the rooms, we will be unable to see them on the screens."
"What about the guards?" Big Show asked
"There doesn't seem to be anyone within these areas." Kofi replied
"How is that possible? This guy's got guards everywhere." Bryan said
"Did you get this location wrong?" Glenn asked
Celeste looked at him, "Are you kidding? I've studied the building. It's practically embedded into my mind. I am positive we're in control room C."
She typed on the computer another few more times until she frowned and continued typing.
"What's wrong?" Bradley asked
"Something strange's going on." Celeste said
"How strange?" Big Show asked
"The security's been disabled at crucial points giving us no options." Celeste said
"Plain English, Celeste." Ryan said
She rolled her eyes at Ryan before saying, "All the doors are unlocked and we are fucked."
Realizing Bradley was there, she hurriedly added, "Sorry kid."
He shook his head, "It's okay. I'm used to it by now."
Glenn lightly squeezed Bradley's shoulder before saying, "So, why is the loose security a bad thing? This means we've got a free pass to look for Jasmine."
"That's the only good thing." Celeste said, "Th-"
Phil cut her off, "The bad thing means all the doors are unlocked. And that includes the bastard's experiments."
Just then, the door to their right opened and almost immediately, everyone readied their weapons and pointed in that direction, ready to shoot.
"WHOA! WAIT! WAIT!"
"AJ?" Bryan said, looking at the girl in front of them with her hands up.
"Don't shoot!" AJ said, "I'm not armed!"
"Why shouldn't we?" Big Show said
"Yeah, you sold us out and gave Jasmine to that fucker." Bryan said
"Thinking about it, I'm more than happy to shoot you if I can't kill Nemeth." Phil said
"Why should we waste our breath?" Celeste said, "Let's just kill her now so that we'll have one less problem to deal with."
Celeste cocked the gun and as soon as AJ heard the 'click', she knew she had to plead her case quickly.
"Wait! Please, hear me out." AJ said, "I know you all hate me and have no reason to trust me but I am really at my wits' end."
"How do we know this isn't a trick?" Kofi said
"Nicholas had his goons drug me then throw me into a room." AJ said, "I only managed to come out when I realized that they didn't lock the door."
"She's lying." Glenn said
"No! I swear! I'm not lying!" AJ exclaimed
"Why should we believe you?" Ryan said
"Because I know Nicholas. We're all still in this building because we are not going to get out alive." AJ said
"Let's just kill her now." Big Show said
AJ put her hands in front of her, "No! I trusted the wrong person. I shouldn't have been so stupid. Just don't kill me, please."
"Maybe we should just cuff her and lock her here while we try to find Jasmine." Big Show said
"I can help!" AJ said, "Let me help!"
"Why should we?" Kofi said, "You gave her up remember?"
"I know and it was stupid." AJ said, "If I could take what I did back, I would."
Unable to contain his longing to kill her, Phil looked away, concentrating on the monitors over head.
AJ looked at Bradley, "Bradley… I'm so sorry... I didn't mean for this to happen. I thought he was just going to scare you all.."
He looked at AJ with utter resentment, "No. You gave us up and then let him take my sister away. I am not helping you."
He turned away from the group and walked to the door by the lift. Bradley tried keeping himself from crying at the loss of his sister by looking through the glass at the empty corridor. He just about regained composure when he saw a shadow cast against the wall at the far end of the corridor before the turn.
Bradley moved closer to the glass and tip-toed to get a better view. The shadow on the wall grew bigger and he knew that it meant something was coming towards his direction. A figure turned the corner and stood in front of the wall, in full view for Bradley to see. He blinked to make sure his eyes wasn't playing tricks on him. But, when he opened them, one figure turned into two.
He hurriedly ran over to Phil, tugging his arm anxiously.
Phil looked away from the monitors and at Bradley, "What is it?"
Bradley wanted to explain but seeing the look of panic on his face, Phil just let Bradley pull him towards the door.
"Look." Bradley said
Phil looked at Bradley first before moving closer to the glass panel. The two figures were still there but they were not moving. Instead, they were just standing there, as if they were watching Phil and the others.
Phil hurriedly walked back into the room and said, "We have to move now. We've got company."
"Guards?" Bryan asked
"No." Phil said, "Nemeth's experiments."
Everyone moved to the archway and stood there, looking through the glass. Even though they were not too near the glass, they were still able to make out the 2 rotting bodies against the white walls of the corridor.
Kofi glanced at the monitors and hit Ryan's shoulder. He turned and the two of them backed away from the door arch.
Celeste turned to the monitors as Bryan and the others did.
The once empty corridors were not slowly populated with Nemeth's experiments.
Phil hurriedly took the chair that was in front of the console and wheeled it over to the door, jamming it's handle.
"This should buy us some time to find a way out." Phil said
"I know a way out." AJ said
He looked at her, "We don't have anytime to play your stupid games."
"You think I'd be stupid to stand here and die with all of you if I was still working with Nemeth?!" AJ said, "He screwed me!"
Everyone looked at each other before Phil said, "Alright, we don't have a choice. Since she says she knows, we'll just have to follow her. If she tries anything funny, we can just put a bullet through her head."
AJ walked over to a corner and pressed a side of a wall. The panel that looked like an ordinary wall lifted and moved to the left.
"A secret door?" Bryan said, "Really?"
"Only his brother knew about this. It was how he hid from Nicholas." AJ said
"Wait, won't he be able to see this?" Kofi said
"I hacked into the system and disabled his camera system. It will come back on after an hour." Celeste said
AJ looked at the group, "So, who's first?"
"Why don't you go first?" Big Show asked
"I need to lock and secure the door." AJ replied
"I can do that." Celeste said
"Fine. Just lock the panel and hit the numbers '87691' on the panel after. You have to hear it click shut to ensure it's locked." AJ said
Celeste nodded and Big Show pushed AJ in, going in after her with a gun behind her. Everyone followed suit with Celeste being the last. Just as she locked the panel shut, she heard the door crash open and the chair slide across the room.
Everyone stopped in their tracks and kept silent as they watched Celeste steadily punch in the numbers. She stepped away from the door as soon as she heard heavy footsteps walking towards where they were.
"Come on, come on." Celeste muttered
'Click'.
Celeste smiled thankfully and turned to the rest, "It's locked. Let's go."