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The Autumn Assignment
Chapter 29: Project #60
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Echo dreamed in swear words. To her mind, the worst thing about being back in the headquarters was the lack of coffee or alcohol, and the fact that they'd locked her up in what was little more than a cupboard was secondary. They might have at least given her something to read! She slept restlessly, woke up knowing that she was bored and cranky even in her sleep. She washed her face in the tiny sink, then sat on the floor, leaned against the bed and drank the tasteless tea they'd left. It was plain that there was more going on than just a change of leadership for the sanctuary, and she was beginning to doubt whether she'd ever leave this place.
Not that there was much to go back to, she had to admit. But at least there was genuine caffeine outside these walls. Escape was definitely preferable to a life without beverages.
She look around at the cell and cursed her wandering mind. Now the thought of escape was there, the walls seemed so much closer. Perhaps, she thought, if I glare at the door for long enough, it will eventually become so uncomfortable that it will open of its own accord.
This scientific experiment with carried out with more than adequate amounts of glare. With no sense of time, only the rapid cooling of her drink convinced her that this door was either very thick skinned, or it just didn't have a sense of shame.
"Figures," she muttered.
She was about to try stage two of the experiment ("The repeated application of swear words might turn this pond-water tea into coffee") when the door swung open quietly. She blinked at it, then stood up expecting to see a guard waiting to escort her somewhere. Instead, it was a man who she'd met before, and one who was carrying a young child. The girl was fast asleep, her thumb in her mouth, snuggling happily against the man's chest.
"Holy shit." Echo said loudly. Now the door was open she could also hear the alarms- sirens ringing in the distance, near the outside of the compound. There were also strange keening noises, like laughter, which blended the sirens into an eerie wail. The man didn't smile a greeting, but pushed his way into the room and shut the door behind him. The sirens instantly vanished, but the memory of the strange wails remained. Echo was glad the baby was asleep- the sound would give even an adult nightmares.
"You're Miss Jenson, right? You t-teach history." He didn't put the child down, but sat down on the bed to balance her better. His tone was abrupt, nervous, but still soft and courteous.
"Hello, Doctor Kitwake." She replied, sarcastically formal. "You work in a hospital and don't come to nearly enough PTA meetings. Are we done pointing out the obvious?"
"Yes. I mean, no." He said. "I need you to take Leanne and get out of here. There...There's an underground parking lot- I'll give you my keys, the road will take you far away from here before you reach the surface."
Echo gaped at him. "I have no problem with the getting out part. But I thought you'd be going too. She's your daughter."
Kitwake frowned and shifted Leanne to his other shoulder. "I ran in to Katy in the medical wing. I... I work there for a week every month in return for being allowed outside the complex. I didn't realise that my family had been brought in again. I h-hacked into the surveillance files, and they've all been listed on the dangerous lists. P...people on those lists don't live very long." He looked up, his eyes bleak. "You're on there too. Mister Lawrence c-convinced the head Sorrock that you're a threat."
"What are you going to do?" Echo's arms seemed to reach out of their own free will to take the baby. She held her awkwardly, and she stirred in her sleep. Kitwake ruffled Leanne's hair gently and stood up.
"Daniel will be looking for his s-sister." There was more determination in his voice now. "I'm going back to her room to meet him. And I'm going to disconnect all the drainers on my way down." He cracked his knuckles and grinned suddenly. "I have a black mark against my na-name. I might as well earn it!"
"Won't the guards stop you?" Echo's arm was already going numb. She shifted slightly. Kitwake shook his head and handed her a keychain.
"The parking space is on the keychain. Drive quickly and don't stop. There might be s-spidren in the tunnel." He nodded his head in a strange salute once, and ducked out of the room.
"What? Spidren?!" Echo yelled after him, "What do you mean there might be spidren?!" He didn't turn around. The hallway was still full of that strange keening noise, and now she was listening she could hear the distant rattle of gunfire. Strange shadows flitted across the tiny windows faster than a human could run.
Echo shivered, only half believing, and started to run.
Kitwake ran in the opposite direction, along the stainless steel corridor. He ignored the cameras, knowing they were watching him and not caring. Every time he passed a lab he tapped a code into the computerised lock, opening the doors with a pneumatic hiss and powering the room down with a sleepy electronic whine. In each room, people sat up, pulling wires from their hands and looking dazed.
"The building is under attack." The doctor said loudly to each room. "There are no guards left inside. Run while you have the chance!"
Men and women looked at each other, dumb realisation beginning to dawn on their faces. Some whooped and hollered, some stared in mute amazement. Then there was a tidal wave of movement- people running, people yelling, people smashing at machines with abandon. The hallways were soon thick with mobs of people.
Daniel pushed his way rapidly through the crowd, going deeper into the complex rather than heading for the exit. The surging crowds were difficult to get through, but the seething mass of human life hid his journey from the cameras. After a few minutes, though, he realised that it wasn't just human life that teemed along with the corridors.
The immortals had broken through.
Amongst the men and women were lurking shadows of spidren, glittering swooping stormwings, and strange creatures that Daniel couldn't even begin to name. The jubilant people began to panic- the immortals lurked near the exits the crowd had surged towards. The people at the front could not stop, pushed forward by the ones behind, and had no choice but to try to slip past the creatures and out of the doorway. The creatures grinned, their teeth gleaming in the fluorescent light, and attacked at random as they scanned the crowd.
Daniel heard the grating hiss of one of them as it lurched down the corridor, unsteady on its feet. "Whooo knows where the blood is... gets to live." He span around briefly and saw the monster decapitate a sobbing man with one sweep of its wing. The people trapped nearby began to plead with it as it took another step forward. "Whoooooo knows where the bloooood isss..."
Daniel retched and began forcing his way backwards again, but now he was joined by hundreds of other screaming people, all fighting to escape into the maze of passageways. His head start helped him; he broke through the densest part of the crowd and turned into the dead end where the infant dorms were. No-one followed him- even when they were trapped, the people weren't too panicked to run straight into a dead end. He opened the dorm door and slammed it shut, leaning against it and almost sobbing in terror.
"Leanne is safe." A quiet voice said, cutting through the paralysing fear. "I g-gave her to your teacher, and she's taking a safer exit."
Daniel span around. "Dad?"
"Unfortunately s-so." The man smiled and gripped his son's shoulder. "We don't have much time to t-talk. You have to find your friend. I came here to t-tell you something that will help you."
"Help me?" Daniel leaned back against the wall, aware that his heart was still pounding. The screams outside were getting louder, closer. His father smiled sadly.
"Just by telling you about Project 60. You were in it, and s-so was your friend and about t-ten other babies. You two were the only ones who l-lived, and she the only g-gifted. They thought you were a failed experiment. But you're n-not. I f-fixed the results so you could c-come home." He leaned closer. "Project Sixty was created to s-see if the sight could be changed. It's about the eyes. Do you understand?"
Daniel shook his head mutely. His breath had stopped hitching in his throat, but his tired mind was rejecting this new information.
"You have to t-trust your eyes. You can see things other people c-can't. But you have to... to trust it for it to work."
"You experimented on me?" Daniel whispered, choosing the easiest insane point to argue about. His father started to shake his head, and then nodded.
"I don't have time to ex...plain. You have to go to the control cen-centre."
"What are you going to do?" Daniel asked automatically. Kitwake gestured at the rows of cots in the dorm.
"They need to be protected. If you are s-successful then maybe not for long." He stood up straighter, and the sparkle of the gift glittered dangerously in his hands. "Now, go!"
Daniel studied his father's expression for a moment, and then nodded. Without saying a word of farewell he opened the door and slipped out into the screams.
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