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Blaze PoV
"what are you doing here? And how did you get in?" Blaze hissed at him as they scurried down the hall. She didn't know whether she was angry that he had followed her or relieved to have him by her side. They had met up in a north-west stairwell heading to the ground floor. Their target area was in the east hallway where the cells were kept. The place was such that there was not access to the ground floor unless by special key cards. Luckily, the top office she had broken into had a key card on its desk. It was dark, but she knew there were plenty of people in the building. Evil never sleeps. More realistically, there would be a few scientists and a hellova lot of guards in case anything happened in the night.
"Now's not the time to ask questions, Blaze. We'd better do this and get out quick. The others don't know you left, do they?" His only glanced at her for a moment before heading down the hall. Blaze's face paled when he asked that. No, she hadn't. If he told them…well, she'd have to deal with that later. He was right—the mission at hand was more important than it was to stress over the fact there was someone helping her. She followed him down the hall, frowning for a moment at the fact that he knew where to go. That wasn't natural. She had studied the map long and hard and still she kept a piece of it in her pocket because she wasn't sure she'd remember the escape route. As she came in through a window, she couldn't expect to leave with the experiments that way. Unless all of them could fly, which would be too lucky to be true.
Together they ran in silence, aside from her light pattering of feet. It only sounded like one set of footsteps, though. Someday, if they pulled this off and got back safe, she'd have to have him teach her how to be as silent as a ninja. It was some miracle that they didn't alert any guards, and by that, it was good that they didn't run headfirst into any of them. Despite her massive white wings, Blaze was able to crunch up in the alcove of a doorway to hide herself almost as well as Cole could. She pulled him behind a corner or two on their way, and they successfully evaded guards until they got to the right hallway. They only encountered the guards at the end of the hallway when they entered, and Cole knocked them clean out before they could so much as open their mouths.
As they reached the cells, Blaze put up a finger to her lips and stared into the eyes of each kid who was still awake at the time. There were multiple children in each cell, and by this time, many had dozed off. Blaze silently urged them to wake each other as Cole worked on the locks. It wasn't an easy lockpicking job, by the looks of it, and he struggled on the first one. He tossed Blaze another kit (not much more than a toothpick, a few paperclips, and a bobbypin) at Blaze, and she helped on the other locks. She had never truly had to pick a lock before, but she had also been under the impression that the cells would open via key card. A few whispered in confusion, others in excitement, but their chatter started to get louder and louder until she shushed them. She was about to do it to the others in the cell that Cole was working on opening, but when he looked up from his work at the kids, they fell silent without so much as a vocal command from them. Well, she was lucky that none of them started to cry when he looked at them. Cole had that effect on younger kids. Some of the older ones, too.
"Done," Blaze beamed quietly as she opened her first cell. She looked down the hall, and saw that there were about six more. Lord, they'd have an army by the time they got out of there. It would be pretty hard to get them all out without being seen, but she couldn't imagine taking them cell by cell into the woods. It would have to be as one big group.
As Cole had opened his third, Blaze began to get the hang of it and clicked open her second. The children, varying in age from toddler to teenager, lined quietly against the opposite wall, awaiting instruction. One of the older kids stood watch for them in case guards came or if the two that Cole had knocked out started to stir. By the time they were done, they had quite a few young kids and were at the opposite end of the hallway. As they walked down the hall, Blaze found herself being thankful that there weren't bright fluorescent lights in the building at this hour. They had the lights on at most half-power, which would help them hide in the shadows and cart a large group of people out without being noticed. Blaze handed the kit back to Cole, who slipped the supplies into his pocket.
"Tread as lightly as you can. Don't talk until we hit the woods, and follow us closely," she instructed quietly. As she was turning toward the other end of the hallway, her heart jumped when sudden noise flooded into her ears.
BRAAAK BRAAAAAK BRAAAK BRAAAAK
Her heart was beating almost as loud to her as the sirens going off. The dimly lit halls were suddenly bright with red, pulsating flashes from the lights above. The group of kids around her clung to her waist like a swarm of rats crawling over themselves to reach a crumb of food. All the hands closing in on her made her heart race even more, and she tried to step awkwardly around to get free, but they left no hole for her to escape. As her chest started to seize up from the hands grabbing at her, she even found breathing to be a difficult task.
Their eyes were wide with fear and a few were crying. Blaze's head began to spin from the sound and the excitement. They needed to get out of there now, but they wouldn't be able to hear her over the noise of the alarm. She was usually quick on her feet, but being surrounded like this made her stumble over little feet and arms. She had no way of knowing how much time they had before security came. was that the response, security? At the first lab she had broken out of, there had been an external security breach and they ended up blowing the place to smithereens to hide the evidence of malpractice and experimentation. She had been one of the only experiments to get out with her life. which way should they go? Her head flicked back and forth from one hallway to the next, wondering which way would lead her out. She had looked at and memorized the maps but everything seemed to overlap and fold in on itself in her head. The sound of the siren faded into pure white noise that her mind dissociated with, and everything began to move in slow motion. She was taken back to the time she had first escaped, but the hallways were different in that compound. The sound was the same, though, and the feeling of panic creeping up through her chest came back as if it was her first escape. In the heat of the madness, she didn't realize that Cole was ripping the kids off of her until she stood free of them.
There was a figure with dark hair trying to get her attention and shaking her, but she was deep into the trance now.
She had been barefoot. The tile floors were hard, but forgiving compared to the 'room' they had kept her in. It felt invigorating to be on the other side of the metal bars but she knew it was just a matter of time before she'd be back behind bars unless she hurried. She had been in a grey nightgown that flowed behind her, threatening to catch her feet as they flew up from the floor. Her wings, while she had them since birth they told her, seemed larger than she was and felt bulky to the point that every step was a balancing act. Maybe it was just the anesthetic they had used on her to calm her down. Not every cell she passed was open like hers was. why hadn't Deanna released the others? A cat-girl who had once scratched her now clawed at the bars and a wolf-boy howled, his ears back. The girl had been tested for battle enhancements, while the boy had been tested for hunting enhancements. Their DNA had been mixed like hers when they were still developing, but each had developed differently. Deanna had tried to tell her that the science they were supposed to be doing there was for the greater good. At the same time, after all the tests, she wasn't sure that even Deanna believed that front anymore. She felt powerful hands pushing her along the hall and looked up to see one of the guards attempting to usher her out. She kicked the man in the foot, bit his hand and spun out of his range. Somehow she found a courtyard, ran and leapt into the air.
Blaze felt a strange shaking of her shoulders once more and suddenly reality came crashing down on her. Cole was there in front of her, yelling her name in her ear for her to snap out of it. Surprised and overwhelmed, she pushed him away a few steps and shook her head, trying to get a grip of reality. Right. The plan. She had an escape route now. As Cole took a step back toward her, a barred wall separated her from him and the children. She turned the other way, but another barred wall had dropped at the end of the hallway. Apparently the security system involved a full lockdown, at least of that wing of the building. It made sense, so that the experiments wouldn't be able to escape or make themselves known to the world.
She pulled at the bars, but they wouldn't budge. The wall was locked on the ceiling and floor as well as both walls. It would take either a light saber or a white-washer of volatile chemicals to burn through the bars. And she didn't have time or materials for either. Cole stood on the other side of the bars with the same calm eyes he always had. Did he anticipate this happening? Or had he really been on the side of the scientists the entire time? She stopped trying to pull at the bars and let her hands drop to her sides. They stared at each other for what seemed like many minutes, but in reality was probably a few microseconds. After a moment, and without a word, he turned his back on her and walked off, the kids hurriedly trying to keep up with his quick, light pace.
Blaze stood there, watching in stunned silence until they rounded the corner and she lost sight of him and the last child. His calm eyes scorched into her mind even after he had left. She knew he had been trained to not show fear or emotion in the face of adversity, but she didn't think he was faking the calm now. He had left her. Left her there to get caught by the scientists, or get shot down, or abandoned in a building about to self-destruct. She had no way of knowing what was coming her way. She frantically tried the doors in the hallway to the offices on the other end from the cages and cells. All of them were locked.
The key card wasn't working on any of the magnetic locks, most likely because the building was going into lockdown mode.
It was unlikely that there were windows in the offices due to the location within the building, but she had to try. She slammed her shoulder against the door until it started to hurt, then she got an idea. She ran back across the hall, then ran and glided back at the door at full speed. The door must have been a security/anti-theft door, because it barely budged against the weight of her hit. The hit caused her to fall backwards onto the ground, her shoulder now a deep purple from her numerous attempts. It was useless. She felt tears coming and she clenched her jaw to stop it. The mix of frustration and pain was making her head spin more. If this was it…what would happen? Everything would go back to the way it had been. Either that or she would die right here, right now. Somehow she wasn't surprised that all the progress she'd made in changing the world was too good to be true. Life wouldn't let her get ahead. It wouldn't give her a good few months without conditions. Perhaps Charlie and Ty would continue the fight, but the movement would dwindle and die out without her.
She heard footsteps coming down the hall and felt the beat of the steps vibrate off the floor below her. A group of security guards ran past the hallway but didn't stop. That was strange…shouldn't they be coming to arrest her or trap her and turn her back to the helpless experiment she was? Cole had taught her how to fight, but there was no way she could fight so many of them, especially when they were armed. But they didn't see her, and if they did, they didn't care. She frowned for a moment and ran over to the bars to see where they were going, but they were gone by the time she got there. That's when she heard it.
"All necessary personnel are out of the building. Authorities arriving in t-minus 15 minutes. Destruction occurring in t-minus 5 minutes," an automated voice called over loudspeaker. The sirens stopped, and all was silent. Well, close to silent. Her heart was beating so loudly she could barely think. She threw a scrap piece of metal from one of the cell locks against the wall as hard as she could, as if throwing a fit would help her in some way. It bounced off the wall with a clang and clattered to the floor. For a moment, she eyed the piece of metal, just lying there motionless now that it had settled. Maybe she should just lie down and accept her fate right then, just like the scrap metal. As she looked up to the ceiling, she imagined herself looking up at the stars from the window at the farm in Pennsylvania, or when she was on the high seas, crossing the Atlantic Ocean. She remembered what it was like to look up when she was kept in a cell at the institution, and how she would dream of a shimmery light or two above. And that's when she saw a glint from the metal ceiling.
There was a grate that she could break from the air conditioning. There was no way she could get her wings through the air-conditioning…the thought had crossed her mind but that plan would only work if she didn't have wings. It's not like she could press them in to make them completely nonexistent. Looking normal in public and physically changing herself were two very different things. She pressed her wings to her back to check, but they were still an issue. Heck, the air ducts weren't even large enough to fit most humans. But, she could use a sliver of metal from the vent to shimmy open the lock on one of the doors! The other slab of scrap metal was too thick to act like a wedge, but the sliver should be thin and flat enough. Blaze flapped up and grabbed ahold of a metal sliver, placing her feet on either side of the grate so she could get the most power in separating the sliver from the grate. Gravity was pulling her down but she kept her stomach tight so her legs would stay against the ceiling. The connection was tight, and the metal flaps cut into her hands, but she pressed on until the sliver broke free. When the metal broke, she fell down to the floor, too fast to catch herself with her wings. They crumpled painfully but she didn't have seconds to waste in pain, lying on the ground. Her fingers were purplish red from the rubbing of the metal and the lack of circulation she'd had when trying to pry the bit loose. They twinged a bit, but now wasn't the time to worry if she got a few callouses. Her fingers worked well enough to hold the blade, even though a few were starting to go numb.
She ran to the door and jabbed the metal sliver into the door slit, wriggling it up and down frantically. There was some resistance, but she kept at it. She hadn't had to break into places…no, she had refused to, even when she was starving before she found the Backstreets. Her breakouts had been happy coincidences before, and she never came up against a locked door back at the institution. Maybe that's due to the heavy security. It was Cole, technically, who had broken the kids out with his lockpicking and wiring skills. What had she been thinking, trying to come here alone? She wouldn't have been any help. Maybe she had been out of the fight or flight field for a bit too long. Cole had taught her self-defense and she had practiced, but he hadn't taught her how to take initiative—to hack, to break in, to beat down. Maybe that was for the best from a moral standpoint, but the information would have come in handy right about now. She put her shoulder into it but still there was no budge. In aggravation she kicked the door, slumping against the opposite side of the hallway. The thick metal of the door was a bit reflective, and she caught a glimpse of dirt-smudged, tear-stained cheeks. They looked like a warrior's cheeks after years on the battlefield.
"Three minutes to self-destruct," the automated system reported. It was time for this warrior to sleep, then. She remembered hearing a story about a warrior from one of the other kids at the backstreets. If only she could recall the entire thing… but all she could remember was that one warrior ended up on a battlefield against a hundred. Like the warrior, she was without further hope. It was with this lack of spirit that she accepted her fate.
"The warrior stands alone on the field and dies alone as he stands. The end," Talia's brother, Tony, finished with a stretch of his arms. He waited for the applause from Talia, her other brother Marius, and Blaze, but none came.
That's a stupid way to end a story," a younger-looking Blaze whined. Marius shook his head and sighed.
"Every story ends in death. Even those that live happily ever after eventually end with them dying. There's no immortality in the real world," he countered. He was younger than she was, but they had apparently seen their fair share of hurt before they reached the backstreets. It had taken its toll on Marius and Tony. Talia had never let on that it had gotten bad, though.
"well it would have been nice if you could lie then! The youngers won't take kindly to that story," Blaze pointed out. Marius stood up and scowled, not wanting to hear more of it. He was fine with the youngers, but was always skeptical about how long they could stay in their dreamland. He had been thinking about leaving the Backstreets for a while now. It was time to 'grow up and face the world' as he called it. This was her world, though.
"Doesn't matter. It's true, and they shouldn't grow up around lies," Marius left the room to pout.
Was she an adult now? Was she old enough to understand the message he had been trying to relay to her? Her campaign seemed like a fantasy now. Not that it was a lie necessarily…well, maybe it was, but nothing truly good could last. She seemed to have been living in a dream before. She was at peace with that dream. But what about the other part of the story?
"The warrior stands alone on the field. The warrior dies alone as he stands." The warrior wasn't a soldier, nor a commander. He was one of a kind. And Blaze wasn't…there were plenty of other people who had been experimented on like her. Still, then why did she feel like the warrior? Maybe because she was about to die alone. It wasn't the prospect of dying that scared her…when she was in the institution, after all the abuse, there were times when she wished for nothing but death so she could escape from the pain of being prodded and performing in harmful tests. After being alone most of her life, shouldn't she be used to that as well? After having been friends with Talia and other kids in the Backstreets, after having traveled with Cole, and having met Flynn and Ty and Charlie and Demitriev, she had a family, in a sense. And she wasn't alone anymore. Well, all except for now. Cole had left with the kids, and cut the losses from what would have happened if they all tried and failed to break through the bars. Flynn was sleeping, along with Ty and Charlie, back at the house. And Demitriev and Pj were far away in England. So she was alone after all. The warrior's tale had been a cautionary one, but there was also something noble in dying in a fight for something the warrior loved. What would Blaze die for? Her fight, she'd taken into unfamiliar territory, and the children had been her mission. They were out safe, and so her story was complete. In the absence of hope for the continuation of her own story, she made peace with what would happen within the next few minutes. With this sense of purpose fulfilled, Blaze closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
No matter how hard she tried, though, she couldn't keep her emotions at bay. She had served her purpose, but she had been abandoned. It wasn't as if she trusted many people in this world. Before Cole, she trusted no one…not even her friends at the backstreets. Not the way she trusted him. The look he had given her, between the bars-she couldn't describe it, but when he turned his back, he had taken a piece of her and crushed it into smithereens. He didn't even try to break through the bars. He hadn't given her a lockpick to help herself, he had just turned his back and run. She was the warrior, dying alone. Then why did she feel like there was already a huge gaping hole in her chest? Blaze took another deep breath, trying to calm herself down and fill the hole where her heart should be. This wasn't the time to be longing. She was going to die in an institution like the one in which she had spent most of her life.
((Thanks for reading! More to come.))