Part 5
Plans and Great Escapes
"I need a plan." Darien said, "I need a pen." He felt all of his pockets. No pen. He continued to pace around the small room. Tons of ideas ran through his head, and then they were all dismissed, too wild. Why couldn't he think? On yea, he was in the beginning stage of QSM.
Darien had been feeling the headaches for some time now. He didn't dare tell Amy. He didn't want to scare her. He also dared not look up. His eyes were already streaked with red. Pretty soon he wouldn't be able to hide the symptoms. Amy kept looking out the door window, which helped him hide his eyes. A pain shot through his head, taking him by surprise.
"Ah!" he said as he rubbed the back of his neck by habit. He was in a kneeling position. His eyes went wide and he looked up.
"You're in trouble." He said. He needed to cling to what sanity he had until the very last moment. He didn't want to look at the monitor on his wrist. He knew what was going to happen. What was happening.
"Darien?" she asked in a shaky voice. He was really freaking her out now. He didn't say anything. He had to divert all his strength to keep himself from going totally out of control. Even if he did say something, what would it be? Get away, run? Like she would be able to go anywhere in this small, intense white room.
But surely the guards would realize that he was different?
"Hobbes, I hope you get here quick. And I mean, right now." He whispered to himself.
Hobbes van', two separate agency vans, and Eric's Bike were now parked out of view behind the warehouse. When Eric was discovered, Nancy and David got really angry at him, telling him it was dangerous. Hobbes thought it odd that a kid would risk his life to save his friend. Maybe it was more of an adult thing.
"Eric, go home, this is not a job for you." Nancy had said. Dave agreed with her. One by one they had gone down the hole that led to the underground base. Each carrying a weapon of their choice. He had caught the look of fear on Nancy's face when it was her turn to go down what seemed like a never-ending slide. Now he was alone.
He had not gone home, he was curious, and that was enough to keep him from going home. But he was also nervous, beyond anything. He paced near the hole, even 15 minutes after they had gone. He stopped dead. Someone was moving around outside, he heard footsteps. He heard voices. One of the voices was obviously coming from a walkie-talkie, the other one was talking into it.
"It seems we have visitors..." the guy said. Oh no! The guy had spotted to cars! He quickly hid behind one of the boxes, because the footsteps were coming closer to the door. Eric tried to slow down his breathing, because if he was heard, he might as well be dead. It was then he realized that he could clearly see his footprints in the dust, it would lead the guard right to him!
Creeeeeeeek...
The door opened slowly. The guard walked in, past the now cleared table. He walked past Eric's box, and he was right on top of the footprints.
"Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down..." Eric thought. He got even more worried because he couldn't see the guard. He heard the guard turn this was an that. And then he started moving again. Eric sighed, it sounded like he was walking away.
"What have we here?" said the guard. Eric looked up at the guard, whose face had an evil smirk on it. Without even thinking, Eric leapt up and punched him in the face. The guard was stunned, and fell back a little. He swung his arms at Eric, mostly blindly, but one caught him in his stomach. It knocked the wind out of him, and he gasped for air. Before the guard could reach for his gun, Eric shoved him backward into the hole leading underground.
"AHHHHHH!" The guard screamed. It echoed down the tunnel. Eric hesitated for al little bit, then shook his head and jumped down. This guard had to be unconscious when he got there, or else he would alert the organization.
The rush was amazing. "Now this, is a roller coaster," He thought , "Without the roller coaster." He added. He stifled the urge to yell out "WOOHOO!" and the ride was shortly ended when he hit the floor at the bottom. The guard was there, too, and knocked Eric unconscious before he could do anything.
The guard grabbed his walkie-talkie and clicked the button.
"Intruders in the base! Intruders in the base!" he yelled. Instantly an alarm sounded.
Hobbes and his group had recognized the security cameras as soon as they got there. They knew it wouldn't be long until someone caught them. Now that they heard the alarm, they were running through the small hallway with nowhere to hide. Sooner or later someone would find them. They came to a fork in the corridor. One sign read "Main" and the other said "Lower Levels" without being spoken to, the group split up into almost equal sections and they each took a passage. None of them knew what to look for. Except for maybe Hobbes and Claire, who were looking for a Quicksilver Mad Darien. He had probably used his invisibility to get past the cameras undetected, and it was a long trip.
People rushed past the door to Amy's and Darien's room. Darien had his head in his hands and was sitting in a corner. He had slipped into full QSM not long ago and was now contemplating what he would do. Amy was on the opposite side of the room.
"She got me into this mess." He thought, "I'm stuck here because of her." Hatred radiated from him. Amy knew what was happening and was uneasy, she tried to silently back further into the wall. He looked at her with crimson-red eyes. She was scared. Good. He wanted her to be scared of him. He smiled evilly. She could hold her fear no longer. She got up and pounded on the door.
"Help!" she yelled, "Help!" But help wouldn't come for a long time. They were all busy trying to find the intruders. He launched at her. Her abilities allowed her get away and he slammed against the door.
"I'm not scared of you." She said with confidence she didn't have. It was the absolute wrong thing to say. True, she could hold him back with her powers, but it wasn't enough to stop him. He immeadiatly turned around pushed against her hands, hoping to shove her out of the way. But she was shoving back, and for awhile she was a match for Darien's QSM strength. She let a breath out that she didn't know she was holding and he shoved her against the wall. She slid to the ground, tears running down her face.
"You scared yet?" he said and smiled again. He took a step toward her and she crunched up.
Suddenly, the door was kicked open and two men were standing there. One was Devon, the other was the man Darien saw him with earlier. Darien turned around to face them, and the man shot him with a tranquilizer dart. He fell to the ground. She watched the man drag Darien out of the room and close the door. She cried. Mr. Devon watched her through the window, and quietly continued down the hall
"I'm never going to get out of here. No ones coming for me. Darien and I are as good as dead!" she whispered. She did not know if it was night or day, she hadn't been able to keep time in this place, but she cried herself to sleep anyway.
The people that had gone into the lower levels were not lucky. As they traveled downward, it got darker and darker until it was pitch black. They couldn't see a thing. When someone tried to go back the way they came, there was just a wall in their way! It was impossible! How could you take a step, and get a wall put up behind you. Without even hearing it? They were beginning to get scared.
"What if we never get out?" one Agency guy said.
"We will, don't worry." Said David. Although he was very scared too.
"David, what if they've killed Darien and Amy already?" Nancy asked, sounding nervous.
"They haven't, I'm sure of it." He tried to reassure her. At the moment he was sure they were all going to die down here. It must of been a trap for when the old hallways were used. He had tried several times to contact the others, but at least they could receive messages from them. He wished he could send one back saying "Help, we're stuck down here!" but it was better that they couldn't. They would've gotten stuck down there too. And there would be no one to save Amy and Darien...
Amy was running through a hallway , and people were chasing after her. She didn't know how she had gotten out, but it didn't matter, she was free. As soon as she had lost the organization guards, she stopped to rest. She needed to get out of here and warn her mom. Maybe then she could come and help Darien. "Ameeeee..." a voice said, drawing her name out she looked behind her and saw Darien. How had he gotten out?, "Amy!" she jerked awake and gasped. Scared by the face inches away from her own. A woman with blonde hair was looking at her worriedly.
"I'm a friend of Darien's." she said with an accent, "Where is he? What happened?" Amy hesitated and took a deep breath to calm herself.
"He went mad....tried to hurt me...they took him away." She said quietly. The woman looked even more worried.
"Where's my mom?" Amy asked. The woman looked at the man behind her and then back at her.
" My name is Claire. This is Bobby," she pointed to the man behind her, he waved, she tried to smile back, "We split into different hallways, your mom is in the lower levels."
"Do you know where Darien might be?" Bobby said. Amy concentrated. Where could they be keeping him? On her way from the testing lab to the room she was in now she had seen labs, empty rooms. What looked like where they were living when not working, and a padded room. They could be keeping him there, she thought.
"I think so." She told Bobby. Claire helped her up and they walked out of the room, Agency back-up following them. She checked each of the rooms as she passed them, and she knew she was coming close. When she made her next turn, things were much more familiar. She knew where she was going. She looked in the forth door from the corner. There was Darien, just standing there in a straight-jacket. Suddenly, there was gunfire. Claire pulled Amy to the floor as Bobby and the Agency guys fired at the attackers.
"Get to Darien!" Hobbes yelled over the shots. Claire opened the door from the floor slowly. She and Amy went in and closed the door. Claire slid along the wall until Darien turned to look at who came in. He saw Amy and was about to go after her when the keeper injected counteragent into his neck. He fell unconscious as he usually did when injected with counteragent while QSM. Claire eased him to the ground and waited until he woke up. When he did he stared into blank space for a moment trying to remember what happened.
"I'm sorry." He said and looked at her. Amy looked away but said, "It's okay, it wasn't you." Darien got up and the keeper started undoing the straps to the straight-jacket.
"It's not okay." Was all he said and he went to the door. Hobbes and the remaining Agency guys were sitting on the floor, every once in awhile checking if the organization guards were coming back and reloading their guns.
"We have Darien and Amy, meet us by the entrance tunnel." Claire said into a walkie-talkie, "Come on then, we have to get out of here." They opened the door and Hobbes almost went up to Darien and hugged him.
"Nice to have you back, partner." He said.
The two groups met at the slide they had come in through. They had met more guards along the way, but they were easily dealt with.
"This place's security sucks." He commented. They waited for the other group to come back, but it took quite some time. When they got back, Nancy and Amy hugged eachother. Claire went to help Eric, who was still on the floor.
"Mom, I missed you." She said. If she had any tears left in her, she would've cried, but she was all dried out.
"Don't ever get kidnapped again, you hear me?" Nancy said with a little bit of a joke. Amy tried to smile.
"We got lost on the way back." David said, "It's pitch black down there and it's like a maze. We followed some sort of light out, otherwise I don't think we would've gotten out."
"Oooooo, ghosts." Eric said. He felt the bump on his head and frowned. The Keeper had just revived him. Amy went over and hugged him too. He smiled.
"That was some hit that guard gave you." The keeper said, "We have quite another problem, though." They all looked at her.
"How are we going to get out?" Nobody had an answer to that. There was no way that they could get back up the way they came. Darien turned around and saw a glimpse of a face.
"Wait!" he yelled and took off down the hallway. He had just spotted Devon. The others had no choice but to follow. At the turn of a corner, there was a split, he stopped for a second and then went down another hallway. The others had no idea who Darien was chasing, or why, but at the end of the last hallway, there were double- doors. Darien pushed them open. Light! They were outside! They all looking around. They had just come out of a seemingly abandoned building, and they were now in a parking lot.
Darien was just as confused as everybody else.
"Where did Devon go?" he said to himself. Amy, noticing that Darien was confused, went up to him.
"How did you know how to get out?" she asked him. At this question, everybody turned to look at him for the answer.
"I followed the traitor Mr. Devon out." He said. Amy raised her eyebrows, "What?" he asked
"You're kidding, right?" she said.
"No. Tell me why you're looking at me like that!" Amy's face went pale.
"Darien, Mr. Devon is dead."
Plans and Great Escapes
"I need a plan." Darien said, "I need a pen." He felt all of his pockets. No pen. He continued to pace around the small room. Tons of ideas ran through his head, and then they were all dismissed, too wild. Why couldn't he think? On yea, he was in the beginning stage of QSM.
Darien had been feeling the headaches for some time now. He didn't dare tell Amy. He didn't want to scare her. He also dared not look up. His eyes were already streaked with red. Pretty soon he wouldn't be able to hide the symptoms. Amy kept looking out the door window, which helped him hide his eyes. A pain shot through his head, taking him by surprise.
"Ah!" he said as he rubbed the back of his neck by habit. He was in a kneeling position. His eyes went wide and he looked up.
"You're in trouble." He said. He needed to cling to what sanity he had until the very last moment. He didn't want to look at the monitor on his wrist. He knew what was going to happen. What was happening.
"Darien?" she asked in a shaky voice. He was really freaking her out now. He didn't say anything. He had to divert all his strength to keep himself from going totally out of control. Even if he did say something, what would it be? Get away, run? Like she would be able to go anywhere in this small, intense white room.
But surely the guards would realize that he was different?
"Hobbes, I hope you get here quick. And I mean, right now." He whispered to himself.
Hobbes van', two separate agency vans, and Eric's Bike were now parked out of view behind the warehouse. When Eric was discovered, Nancy and David got really angry at him, telling him it was dangerous. Hobbes thought it odd that a kid would risk his life to save his friend. Maybe it was more of an adult thing.
"Eric, go home, this is not a job for you." Nancy had said. Dave agreed with her. One by one they had gone down the hole that led to the underground base. Each carrying a weapon of their choice. He had caught the look of fear on Nancy's face when it was her turn to go down what seemed like a never-ending slide. Now he was alone.
He had not gone home, he was curious, and that was enough to keep him from going home. But he was also nervous, beyond anything. He paced near the hole, even 15 minutes after they had gone. He stopped dead. Someone was moving around outside, he heard footsteps. He heard voices. One of the voices was obviously coming from a walkie-talkie, the other one was talking into it.
"It seems we have visitors..." the guy said. Oh no! The guy had spotted to cars! He quickly hid behind one of the boxes, because the footsteps were coming closer to the door. Eric tried to slow down his breathing, because if he was heard, he might as well be dead. It was then he realized that he could clearly see his footprints in the dust, it would lead the guard right to him!
Creeeeeeeek...
The door opened slowly. The guard walked in, past the now cleared table. He walked past Eric's box, and he was right on top of the footprints.
"Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down..." Eric thought. He got even more worried because he couldn't see the guard. He heard the guard turn this was an that. And then he started moving again. Eric sighed, it sounded like he was walking away.
"What have we here?" said the guard. Eric looked up at the guard, whose face had an evil smirk on it. Without even thinking, Eric leapt up and punched him in the face. The guard was stunned, and fell back a little. He swung his arms at Eric, mostly blindly, but one caught him in his stomach. It knocked the wind out of him, and he gasped for air. Before the guard could reach for his gun, Eric shoved him backward into the hole leading underground.
"AHHHHHH!" The guard screamed. It echoed down the tunnel. Eric hesitated for al little bit, then shook his head and jumped down. This guard had to be unconscious when he got there, or else he would alert the organization.
The rush was amazing. "Now this, is a roller coaster," He thought , "Without the roller coaster." He added. He stifled the urge to yell out "WOOHOO!" and the ride was shortly ended when he hit the floor at the bottom. The guard was there, too, and knocked Eric unconscious before he could do anything.
The guard grabbed his walkie-talkie and clicked the button.
"Intruders in the base! Intruders in the base!" he yelled. Instantly an alarm sounded.
Hobbes and his group had recognized the security cameras as soon as they got there. They knew it wouldn't be long until someone caught them. Now that they heard the alarm, they were running through the small hallway with nowhere to hide. Sooner or later someone would find them. They came to a fork in the corridor. One sign read "Main" and the other said "Lower Levels" without being spoken to, the group split up into almost equal sections and they each took a passage. None of them knew what to look for. Except for maybe Hobbes and Claire, who were looking for a Quicksilver Mad Darien. He had probably used his invisibility to get past the cameras undetected, and it was a long trip.
People rushed past the door to Amy's and Darien's room. Darien had his head in his hands and was sitting in a corner. He had slipped into full QSM not long ago and was now contemplating what he would do. Amy was on the opposite side of the room.
"She got me into this mess." He thought, "I'm stuck here because of her." Hatred radiated from him. Amy knew what was happening and was uneasy, she tried to silently back further into the wall. He looked at her with crimson-red eyes. She was scared. Good. He wanted her to be scared of him. He smiled evilly. She could hold her fear no longer. She got up and pounded on the door.
"Help!" she yelled, "Help!" But help wouldn't come for a long time. They were all busy trying to find the intruders. He launched at her. Her abilities allowed her get away and he slammed against the door.
"I'm not scared of you." She said with confidence she didn't have. It was the absolute wrong thing to say. True, she could hold him back with her powers, but it wasn't enough to stop him. He immeadiatly turned around pushed against her hands, hoping to shove her out of the way. But she was shoving back, and for awhile she was a match for Darien's QSM strength. She let a breath out that she didn't know she was holding and he shoved her against the wall. She slid to the ground, tears running down her face.
"You scared yet?" he said and smiled again. He took a step toward her and she crunched up.
Suddenly, the door was kicked open and two men were standing there. One was Devon, the other was the man Darien saw him with earlier. Darien turned around to face them, and the man shot him with a tranquilizer dart. He fell to the ground. She watched the man drag Darien out of the room and close the door. She cried. Mr. Devon watched her through the window, and quietly continued down the hall
"I'm never going to get out of here. No ones coming for me. Darien and I are as good as dead!" she whispered. She did not know if it was night or day, she hadn't been able to keep time in this place, but she cried herself to sleep anyway.
The people that had gone into the lower levels were not lucky. As they traveled downward, it got darker and darker until it was pitch black. They couldn't see a thing. When someone tried to go back the way they came, there was just a wall in their way! It was impossible! How could you take a step, and get a wall put up behind you. Without even hearing it? They were beginning to get scared.
"What if we never get out?" one Agency guy said.
"We will, don't worry." Said David. Although he was very scared too.
"David, what if they've killed Darien and Amy already?" Nancy asked, sounding nervous.
"They haven't, I'm sure of it." He tried to reassure her. At the moment he was sure they were all going to die down here. It must of been a trap for when the old hallways were used. He had tried several times to contact the others, but at least they could receive messages from them. He wished he could send one back saying "Help, we're stuck down here!" but it was better that they couldn't. They would've gotten stuck down there too. And there would be no one to save Amy and Darien...
Amy was running through a hallway , and people were chasing after her. She didn't know how she had gotten out, but it didn't matter, she was free. As soon as she had lost the organization guards, she stopped to rest. She needed to get out of here and warn her mom. Maybe then she could come and help Darien. "Ameeeee..." a voice said, drawing her name out she looked behind her and saw Darien. How had he gotten out?, "Amy!" she jerked awake and gasped. Scared by the face inches away from her own. A woman with blonde hair was looking at her worriedly.
"I'm a friend of Darien's." she said with an accent, "Where is he? What happened?" Amy hesitated and took a deep breath to calm herself.
"He went mad....tried to hurt me...they took him away." She said quietly. The woman looked even more worried.
"Where's my mom?" Amy asked. The woman looked at the man behind her and then back at her.
" My name is Claire. This is Bobby," she pointed to the man behind her, he waved, she tried to smile back, "We split into different hallways, your mom is in the lower levels."
"Do you know where Darien might be?" Bobby said. Amy concentrated. Where could they be keeping him? On her way from the testing lab to the room she was in now she had seen labs, empty rooms. What looked like where they were living when not working, and a padded room. They could be keeping him there, she thought.
"I think so." She told Bobby. Claire helped her up and they walked out of the room, Agency back-up following them. She checked each of the rooms as she passed them, and she knew she was coming close. When she made her next turn, things were much more familiar. She knew where she was going. She looked in the forth door from the corner. There was Darien, just standing there in a straight-jacket. Suddenly, there was gunfire. Claire pulled Amy to the floor as Bobby and the Agency guys fired at the attackers.
"Get to Darien!" Hobbes yelled over the shots. Claire opened the door from the floor slowly. She and Amy went in and closed the door. Claire slid along the wall until Darien turned to look at who came in. He saw Amy and was about to go after her when the keeper injected counteragent into his neck. He fell unconscious as he usually did when injected with counteragent while QSM. Claire eased him to the ground and waited until he woke up. When he did he stared into blank space for a moment trying to remember what happened.
"I'm sorry." He said and looked at her. Amy looked away but said, "It's okay, it wasn't you." Darien got up and the keeper started undoing the straps to the straight-jacket.
"It's not okay." Was all he said and he went to the door. Hobbes and the remaining Agency guys were sitting on the floor, every once in awhile checking if the organization guards were coming back and reloading their guns.
"We have Darien and Amy, meet us by the entrance tunnel." Claire said into a walkie-talkie, "Come on then, we have to get out of here." They opened the door and Hobbes almost went up to Darien and hugged him.
"Nice to have you back, partner." He said.
The two groups met at the slide they had come in through. They had met more guards along the way, but they were easily dealt with.
"This place's security sucks." He commented. They waited for the other group to come back, but it took quite some time. When they got back, Nancy and Amy hugged eachother. Claire went to help Eric, who was still on the floor.
"Mom, I missed you." She said. If she had any tears left in her, she would've cried, but she was all dried out.
"Don't ever get kidnapped again, you hear me?" Nancy said with a little bit of a joke. Amy tried to smile.
"We got lost on the way back." David said, "It's pitch black down there and it's like a maze. We followed some sort of light out, otherwise I don't think we would've gotten out."
"Oooooo, ghosts." Eric said. He felt the bump on his head and frowned. The Keeper had just revived him. Amy went over and hugged him too. He smiled.
"That was some hit that guard gave you." The keeper said, "We have quite another problem, though." They all looked at her.
"How are we going to get out?" Nobody had an answer to that. There was no way that they could get back up the way they came. Darien turned around and saw a glimpse of a face.
"Wait!" he yelled and took off down the hallway. He had just spotted Devon. The others had no choice but to follow. At the turn of a corner, there was a split, he stopped for a second and then went down another hallway. The others had no idea who Darien was chasing, or why, but at the end of the last hallway, there were double- doors. Darien pushed them open. Light! They were outside! They all looking around. They had just come out of a seemingly abandoned building, and they were now in a parking lot.
Darien was just as confused as everybody else.
"Where did Devon go?" he said to himself. Amy, noticing that Darien was confused, went up to him.
"How did you know how to get out?" she asked him. At this question, everybody turned to look at him for the answer.
"I followed the traitor Mr. Devon out." He said. Amy raised her eyebrows, "What?" he asked
"You're kidding, right?" she said.
"No. Tell me why you're looking at me like that!" Amy's face went pale.
"Darien, Mr. Devon is dead."