Chapter Three: Radio contact

Li listened anxiously for a reply but received none. Stunned she stared at the radio as it went completely blank. Wordlessly she glanced up at Hex.

'He probably turned it off' Hex's green eyes were serious but his voice was steady. 'They'll be ok.'

Briefly Li squeezed his hand and smiled anxiously, grateful for the reassurance, even if she knew neither of them totally believed it.

'What do we do now Hex?'

'We move on as planned. I know it's hard but we agreed. The files are on the computers down the hall. Once we have the information we leave.'

'But...'

'No buts. Sorry Li but we did all agree to that. We have more chance of helping each other once we're outside this place. It's dangerous; so far it's been too easy.' Saying this he glanced around the room one last time. He pushed the door open and after looking out, motioned for Li to go through.

Together they moved through the door, glancing up and down the abandoned corridor at frequent intervals. Li was so anxious to keep moving that she didn't notice the door and jumped violently when Hex pulled her back. 'Don't do that!' she hissed angrily, pulling her arm away from him.

Hex rolled his eyes and entered the room, Li following. 'Sorry. I'm just worried about Paulo and Amber…and Alex. We shouldn't have split up.' she apologised. 'We had to. We've done it before, and we were fine then.' Hex looked around the room. The small room had a low work surface running around three of the four walls and eight computers stood at intervals along them, their screens staring blankly at the two teenagers. Hex moved to the nearest one and turned it on. 'This shouldn't take long' he said before getting to work.

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Paulo froze as Li's voice came over the radio. Smoothly he turned the radio off with one hand, still holding onto Amber with his other. The footsteps had paused and he could hear a low insistent murmur coming from the middle of the room. The words weren't clear but both Paulo and Amber knew that they had been heard. Paulo glanced wildly around for a way to escape and his eyes fell on the security system by the weapons room door. The light had gone off.

Silently thanking Hex he slipped sideways, pulling a stunned Amber in after him. A second later, a torch beam fell on the closed door. Inside the weapons room, Paulo let go of Amber and she slid down the wall to the floor where she sat hugging her knees tocalm her racing heart.It had been a narrow escape.

Paulo crouched down next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. 'Amber? Are you alright?' She nodded silently. Paulo picked up his radio and turned it on 'Li?'