Chapter 7
2002 October 23, Nevada, Never Never Land
The harsh sound of the drilling alarm pounded her eardrums. Stuffing the equipment into the large sports bag, she panicked, an effect of the adrenaline in her veins. Fight or flight. Trying to do both. Slinking out the door, she couldn't think. Where was it next? She scuttled down the corridor turning sharply left at the sound of footsteps. She tried to calm her breathing, as she felt them getting closer.
"Did you hear that? I think they're around here." "What direction?" she heard the shuffling of the guard's footsteps as he checked out the corridors "I dunno, we've hardly been here a week, I haven't memorised the base yet." "There's too many directions. Lets call for backup, she's somewhere here, but we need more men if we have any hope of finding her. Remember what the colonel said, she knows everything about this place"
The guards' voices were being drowned out by the beat of her own heart. She had one option. Singular. Might be easy, might be hard. Might get caught. And it all depended on one thing. Luckily that's where the adrenaline came in handy.
A quick glance round the corner and then she sprinted. Pushing every ounce of energy to steady her legs. Trading a little of her life just to get where was necessary. She HAD to get there. There was no time for mistakes. There was no time.
She yanked at the door that was her destination. Locked. A high left kick. Wham. The door cracked slightly from her weight against it. Once more. No effect. She cried out and pounded at the door with her fists desperately. A final realisation. She changed the direction of her hits, the weak cracking of the door replaced by the smash and tinkle of the broken glass. Fumbling to get her set of keys, she scrambled at them trying weakly to read them through her watering eyes. Which one was the right one? She reached round with her arm to test each one, afraid of dropping the bunch from the difficulty of the task and because of the pain of the shards that dug into her forearm, their abrasive edges slicing up at the fragile skin.
There was a click as the key fitted the lock and the door sprung open. Extracting her torn arm from around the window of the door, she somehow found the strength to run once more. Now the alarm was a louder shriller sound. It had changed when the breaking down of the door had alerted them to her presence. There were also various engineers and worriedly rushing around without a clue as to what was happening. The geeks up in the observation room seemed to scrambling around at the panels, ignorantly unaware of the little changes she'd made to the system, which meant no one could stop what she was about to do. The guards were coming, getting closer. She knew they were about to enter the room, she sped up and clambered in the end up the steps into the sphere, closing it just in time, so they couldn't do a thing
The whole thing was rigged. She quickly stripped down and got into the jumpsuit from the bag. Strapped in and pressed engage. The last few seconds thoughts and visions were of their confused faces, witnessing what they had never seen in their life. Of intense pain, weightlessness, an eternity. Knowing what this would be worth.
2002 October 23, Nevada, Never Never Land
The harsh sound of the drilling alarm pounded her eardrums. Stuffing the equipment into the large sports bag, she panicked, an effect of the adrenaline in her veins. Fight or flight. Trying to do both. Slinking out the door, she couldn't think. Where was it next? She scuttled down the corridor turning sharply left at the sound of footsteps. She tried to calm her breathing, as she felt them getting closer.
"Did you hear that? I think they're around here." "What direction?" she heard the shuffling of the guard's footsteps as he checked out the corridors "I dunno, we've hardly been here a week, I haven't memorised the base yet." "There's too many directions. Lets call for backup, she's somewhere here, but we need more men if we have any hope of finding her. Remember what the colonel said, she knows everything about this place"
The guards' voices were being drowned out by the beat of her own heart. She had one option. Singular. Might be easy, might be hard. Might get caught. And it all depended on one thing. Luckily that's where the adrenaline came in handy.
A quick glance round the corner and then she sprinted. Pushing every ounce of energy to steady her legs. Trading a little of her life just to get where was necessary. She HAD to get there. There was no time for mistakes. There was no time.
She yanked at the door that was her destination. Locked. A high left kick. Wham. The door cracked slightly from her weight against it. Once more. No effect. She cried out and pounded at the door with her fists desperately. A final realisation. She changed the direction of her hits, the weak cracking of the door replaced by the smash and tinkle of the broken glass. Fumbling to get her set of keys, she scrambled at them trying weakly to read them through her watering eyes. Which one was the right one? She reached round with her arm to test each one, afraid of dropping the bunch from the difficulty of the task and because of the pain of the shards that dug into her forearm, their abrasive edges slicing up at the fragile skin.
There was a click as the key fitted the lock and the door sprung open. Extracting her torn arm from around the window of the door, she somehow found the strength to run once more. Now the alarm was a louder shriller sound. It had changed when the breaking down of the door had alerted them to her presence. There were also various engineers and worriedly rushing around without a clue as to what was happening. The geeks up in the observation room seemed to scrambling around at the panels, ignorantly unaware of the little changes she'd made to the system, which meant no one could stop what she was about to do. The guards were coming, getting closer. She knew they were about to enter the room, she sped up and clambered in the end up the steps into the sphere, closing it just in time, so they couldn't do a thing
The whole thing was rigged. She quickly stripped down and got into the jumpsuit from the bag. Strapped in and pressed engage. The last few seconds thoughts and visions were of their confused faces, witnessing what they had never seen in their life. Of intense pain, weightlessness, an eternity. Knowing what this would be worth.