One morning they awoke to the building shaking violently. The three of them jumped down and got underneath their cots. The earthquake continued on and on, knocking books and plants off of shelves and pictures off of walls. Jess heard the building crack somewhere but didn't move to look. A few seconds later, it stopped.
They got out from under their cots and stood. Jess could see that everything had fallen from the desk in the room across the hall and all the pictures had shattered on the floor. The trashcan in their room was knocked over and its contents were still rolling everywhere. She could hear men shouting all over the place. They sat down and waited to see if anything else would happen.
A few hours later, they heard someone say that the road out had been completely blocked by a landslide (Norrel was surrounded by mountains and the road went through them). What was left of the road on their side was cracked and torn apart. A few buildings in town had suffered minor damage but nothing had collapsed. There were a few aftershocks throughout the day but the excitement was over.
The next afternoon, Packard walked in and sat down at the small table in front of the cell. "Hello, long time no see. How are you three idiots today?" he asked smiling at them.
Jess stared hard at him until he looked away from her. Brad and Sarah followed her example.
"I bet you've been wondering why you weren't able to get a hold of your 'Boss'," said Packard finally.
"What did you do?" said Jess feeling her anger rise.
"I blew up your precious 'HQ' and everyone in it. They never even saw it coming," said Packard smiling. "The explosion was quite large. Too bad no one was there to watch it with me."
"Shut up, you-," Jess yelled.
"Ooh, temper, temper. I'd watch that if I were you," said Packard.
"Well, I'm not you am I? That'd be lowering myself down there quite a bit," Jess retorted.
Packard's smile faded and he gritted his teeth. Jess smirked at him and turned away. She heard Packard get up and leave. They sat around for another half hour or so until he came back. This time he unlocked the cell and grabbed Sarah.
"What do you think you're doing? If you're taking anyone, you're taking me," Jess said stepping foreword.
Packard slapped her across the face with the hand that had the key in it. She fell to the floor, not expecting the blow, and felt her face. There was blood on her cheek where he had hit her.
"I'll be okay guys, don't worry," said Sarah smiling at them.
"You'd better not harm her in any way, Packard," Jess and Brad said at the same time.
Packard just locked the cell door and took Sarah out of the room without a word. Another thirty minutes later, Packard brought Sarah back, unhurt and took Jess.
"Where are we going?" she asked, a little irritated.
Packard said nothing and kept walking. They went into a small room with a desk and two chairs. He handcuffed her to the chair nearest the door and sat down in the one across from her.
"So… why are we here?" asked Jess, getting bored with Packard.
"I want to know how you got the information about Rowley."
"No way."
"I think you'll change your mind," said Packard reaching into his pocket and pulling out a large knife.
"Pretty. Do you use that to shave in the morning?" said Jess sarcastically.
"Do you think it wise to say such things to me?" asked Packard getting up.
"Do you think I care whether or not it's 'wise'?" Jess said as Packard came behind her.
"The information, how did you get it?" asked Packard again placing the cold blade against her neck.
"Some of our agents, that you likely killed, came here as tourists a few months ago, got the information for us and reported back. That's all I know about it because they came back out here again about two months ago to destroy the lab and disappeared. Part of our mission was to find out what had happened to them."
"Well, your right about me killing them, though I did not know that they had gotten in before I did so. That will be all then."
He unlocked the handcuffs, led her back to the others, threw her in the cell, locked the door and left.
"He was asking me about how we got the information about Rowley. What'd he ask you?" she asked Sarah.
"The same thing. I told him that I didn't know because I wasn't entrusted with that information, and then he asked about you. I told him a bunch of things that didn't matter and things that weren't true. He got annoyed and that's when he brought me back," finished Sarah.
"Oh, wow, he asked about me," said Jess in mock flattery. The three of them laughed in spite of themselves and looked for something to do. One of the men brought their dismal little meals in about ten minutes later. They ate silently.
A few days later, the three of them were sitting around with nothing to do, when they suddenly heard someone yell "Intruder! Intruder! Don't let him get out alive!" They heard shooting from the other side of the building and saw a few men running in that direction.
"Alive. That must mean he's not a zombie. Well, if he's a good guy I hope comes this way and lets us out," said Jess walking to the bars.
"What if it's that mystery guy we saw on the mission? We really do have hopes of getting out of here if it's him," said Sarah.
"What makes you think he'll be on our side? He might not have loyalties to anyone," said Brad.
"That's a possibility but I think I'll stick to my idea," said Sarah.
The shooting and yelling lasted for almost thirty minutes, and then they heard someone say that they "had lost sight of the intruder". By the end of the day, there had been a guard assigned to their cell. He was a tall man dressed entirely in black. He had the keys to the cell, a radio and a gun. He put the keys on the table, sat down and fell asleep.
"Some guard," Sarah snorted as he began to snore.
"That snoring is going to get annoying," said Brad.
Jess eyed the keys and kept quiet. There had to be a way to get to them. She looked around but didn't see anything to help her. There were no ventilation shafts this time. Frustrated, she sat down on her cot and began thinking about nothing in particular.
Suddenly they heard the loud crash of a breaking window and the guard's radio fuzzed to life. "Get down here, something got through, we need you!" yelled a voice over to him.
The guard jumped up, grabbed his gun and ran out the door, upsetting the table and chairs in the process. The keys flew towards the cell and landed only a few feet from Jess' reach. The guard didn't look back or turn around to get the keys. They heard a few cries of pain from some of the men and many gunshots before it went quiet again. A few moments after word, there was the sound of hammers and construction.
Jess rolled a blanket up and squeezed it through the bars. Then she tried to throw the end of it over the keys and drag them to her. After numerous tries she finally succeeded. She grabbed the keys and unlocked the door.
She sprinted across the room and unlocked the locker, passing around the items inside. They walked out and went to the room that Jess and Sarah had come in through. The window was still open. They checked to make sure the coast was clear and ran back towards the cabin.