Chapter 9

We were outside now. Well, it was a courtyard located in the middle of the massive building. So it was entirely surrounded by walls. I laid on one side of a picnic table and Ali and Shawn sat on the other side. Jake was laying on the ground and Chris and Mem had climbed a nearby tree. Chris had his mp3 player given back to him and he was listening to it now.

"My body hurts," said Alicia.

"Mine too." I said. I had my left arm flopped against my stomach and with my left hand I clutched my locket.

"We all hurt," said Jake who was on the ground beside me.

"Why are we out here anyway?" asked Meme.

"Apparently we needed fresh air,' said Shawn. "But all I need is fresh cloths. If I don't get at least a new shirt in the next half hour, I'm filing a complaint."

"Like a complaint will get you anywhere," I said.

"There has to be cloths somewhere in this gloomy building," said Shawn.

"Hmm.." I said. "Chris, touch the building."

"Say what now?"

"Touch the building and see if you can figure out if there is cloths available somewhere," I explained to him.

Chris slid out of the tree and walked to a close by wall. "I don't know if this will work or not," he said as he placed a hand on the worn out brick. He closed his eyes, trying to concentrate. "A thousand rooms, twenty of those bathrooms," he started. "a cafeteria that they never told us about. Ummm…hello.." he trailed off.

"What is it?" asked Meme who still sat on a thick branch with her back against the trunk.

"There's a locker room…basement level…take a right as you come out of the elevator walk to the end of the hall…last door on the left," he opened his eyes. "There must be clothes in a locker room."

"Yeah, clothes that belong to the robotic goons that work here," said Ali. "I'm not stealing their clothes."

"Then there's nothing else we can do," shrugged Chris as he walked away form the wall.

"Wait," I said, "did you just see a map of the building in your mind?"

"Yeah, why?

I thought for a moment. "Can you find us a way out of here?"

Williams and Stanley starred once again at the display of monitors. "See, she's starting to use her mind," said Williams with a smile.

"Yes, but she's planning to escape," said Stanley.

"They can't escape. They will be unable to make it past security."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive, just as soon as we can figure out which path they will take, we can stop them in their tracks."

"That Chase girl she's really strong. She broke Doctor Matthew's rib cage, and she wasn't even trying to hurt him."

"How do you know she wasn't trying to hurt him? She was pumped on rage."

"Rage from what?"

Williams was quiet for a few seconds. "Rage from her mother,' he said simply. "Her mother?"

"Chase's mother was bi-polar."

"So?"

"So, that can do a lot of damage to a young child's brain and emotional state."

Once they heard the teen's plan of escape, they left the room to contact security.

Chase could hear screaming again from downstairs. She clutched the necklace her father just gave her and climbed out of bed. She watched silently from the top of the stairs as her mom and dad yelled back and forth at each other. "Why are leaving? There's another woman, isn't there? Isn't there?"

"You're the only woman in my life, Lynne. But now I'm not so sure because lately you've been acting like two different people! It's like I don't even know you anymore!"

'I haven't changed since the time we met!"

"Yes you have! You aren't the same person anymore!"

"Then why don't you stay around more often to 'get to know me'? Why are you leaving me?"

Blake sighed. "I just can't handle it anymore. The mood swings, the medication….it's all too much for me."

"Too much for you? You're not the one who was diagnosed bi-polar, were you? Were you?"

"I'm sorry, that's not what I meant."

"Then tell me what you mean. talk to me, Blake."

"I AM TRYING TO TALK YOU! I'VE DONE NOTHING BUT TRY TO TALK YOU!"

"Well you're not trying hard enough!"

Blake picked up his suitcase. "Good bye Lynne."

Chase held onto the banister as her father left, slamming the door behind him. Her mother started to cry. She covered her eyes with her hands and wept, and wept.

"Why did daddy have to leave?" Chase asked quietly.

Lynne stopped crying and looked up at Chase. "It's your fault. It's your fault he left us! It's all your fault!"

"What did I do? I didn't mean it! I didn't mean it! It wasn't my fault!" she cried.

"It was always you fault!" she came up the stairs, rage pumped in her eyes.

"NO!" Chase screamed. "Daddy! Daddy, daddy, daddy!"

"He isn't coming, honey bunch,"
"NO! Daddy! Come back daddy! Come back!"

"Chase?"

I shook out of my daze, again. "What?"

"I said are you ready to leave?" asked Jake.

I looked around and slowly began to nod my head. 'Yeah, let's go."

"You were thinking about it again, weren't you?" asked Ali.

I tried to lie, but out came the truth instead. "Yeah, I can't seem to get it off my mind."

"Get what off your mind?" asked Mem.

I didn't feel like keeping her I the dark anymore. But I wasn't going to tell her everything, not yet. "My parent's separation," I said simply.

"Is that why the locket is so important to you?" she pointed at the chain in my hand. "Jake told me it was of you and your father."

I nodded as we walked back inside the building. "Yeah, that's why it's so important."

"Shhh!" said Jake.

"What now?" asked Chris.

"Someone is coming. They are on the floor above us," he looked up. "They must know our plan. Quick Chris where do we go from here?"

Chris closed his eyes. "Down here," he pointed down a dark hallway. "To the basement."

"How is going to the basement going to get us out of here?" asked Meme.

"Trust me, okay."

"No offense buddy,' said Shawn, "but the last time we trusted you, you burned down the club house."

"I was eight. And tell me you still aren't holding that against me."

"My stash of Oh Henry bars were in there,' said Shawn. 'Do you know how heart breaking it was for me to see that chocolate liquid flow out fro under a pile of burnt rubble?" He joked.

"Come on guys, we have to go!" said Jake as he started to run down the hall I the direction that Chris had pointed in.

I ran after him, as much as it hurt me to, and soon I could feel the vibration of feet running behind me as everyone else followed us down the black hallway. We reached the end, thankfully alive, but out of breath. "Last door on the right," panted Chris.

Jake went first through the door, which led to the stairwell to the basement. Okay, so Chris' directions were proving to be accurate so far. But how was going in the basement going to get us out of the building?

We raced down the damp stairs and pushed through another door. It took a while for my eyes to adjust to the pitch black darkness that greeted us. "Wow," said Meme.

"What?" asked Ali.

"I can see perfectly. It's like I have night vision or something," she answered. 'Oh darn," she said.

I could hear a door open somewhere in this room. I heard Jake mumble a swear under his breath. Soon racing footsteps that weren't ours grew louder and louder. A light finally turned on, but I didn't like what it reveled. Robotic goons dressed in black. At least ten of them.

"Thanks Chris," said Meme sarcastically. 'Personally, I would prefer a fire then having to face these guys.

"I hope you don't mean that," said one of the goons. Ali had told me that he was Dan, the leader of the goons.

"Oh but I do," said Mem. "You people make me sick."

"Shut it, Mem," I said. 'We don't want to start a fight here."

"Why not?" asked Dan. "I think hurting you guys would be so amusing."

"People who take pleasure in watching others hurt deserve to die," I said.

"Like your mother?" he smiled evilly.

Boy, he really just crossed the line. "Chase," said Jake holding his arm out to me as if to stop me from advancing.

My hands curled into fists. I felt my finger nails dig into my flesh. "What did you say about my mom?"

"Crazy woman deserved to die. You said people who take pleasure in"- I cut him off.

"I know what I said!"

"Chase, calm down," said Jake. "And you," he looked at Dan. "Leave her alone! Or I'll" Dan interrupted him.

"You'll what?" he looked at me, "lock me in a closet?"

His statement brought me back to the past, one last time.

"I didn't mean it!" Chase cried as her mother picked her up.

"Be quiet! I've had enough of you!"

"Stop it! Please don't!" Chase cried as her mother opened the hall closet.

"Don't tell what to do! I hate you! It's all your fault!" she slammed the door, leaving Chase in the darkness.

"No! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! What did I do to deserve this? Let me out! Let me out!" she banged on the door. "Please let me go! Daddy! Daddy, daddy, daddy!" She cried again. 'What did I do to deserve this" she asked again.

"EVERYTHING!" she heard her mom yell through the wooden door.

Dan's laughing is what brought me back. "AGH!" I screamed. Everything, still rang in my ears. I snapped, right there and then. I ran towards Dan, full speed, screaming at him. Not a scared scream like from before. It was more of a war cry. I was different now, and there was no going back to the coward I was before.

Chapter 10

I tackled Dan by his waste, and since he didn't expect it, he went down hard. I sat on his chest and started punching his face. But Dan was flexible, because he was able to bring his left leg up and around me to push me back. He brought his leg up again, and brought it down hard on my ribs. "That's for Doctor Matthew, the poor fellow who had his ribs broken by you," Dan said scornfully.

It took me a few seconds to catch my breath again. Half laying on his right leg and the other half on the damp ground, I kicked the side of Dan's face and rolled away from him. I stood up and saw that everyone had formed a circle around us It felt like I was on a school ground. I twisted my neck around to crack it.

Dan stood up an spat something out of his mouth. It was blood, in laying in the pile of it was a tooth. Score one for Chase! I celebrated too soon. One of the goons behind me grabbed my arms and held them behind my back. No fair, I tried to struggle free but the man was too strong for me.

Dan came at me and started punching me all over my body and face. They weren't sissy punches either. Each one felt like a ton of bricks. Jake somehow managed to break through the crowd. I don't know what he did, but he was able to get Dan away from me. The next thing I knew he was laying on the ground, and the man holding me released my arms. I fell like a damp rag, but Jake caught me before I smacked my head on the stony ground. I looked around me, through the blood, and realized that we were in some sort of parking lot. There were cars scattered all over the massive room. Why would there be cars in a basement...unless….unless they had a way of getting out. Chris was right to lead us down here. We could have stolen a car and driven out of here.

"Chase, talk to me," said Jake.

I rolled over, slightly, and spat out….blood? I was a mess, that much was certain. "We're in a parking lot," I managed to whisper.

"I know, come on. See if you can stand," he tried to lift me.

"No, I can't."

"Come on Chase," Mem said longingly. She looked afraid and I couldn't blame her. Our lives had become a nightmare and were about to get worse and worse.

Dan came over, pushed Jake to the ground and picked me up by my shirt. "It's detention for you," he snarled.

"Oh no! Save me, save me," I said sarcastically.

"I've had enough of you."

"Than why did you provoke me you loser? Didn't expect that I would fight back?"

"you're coming with us too," he said to Jake.

"Hey, just how do you know about my mother anyway?" I asked point blank.

"It's our job to know everything."

We started walking away from everyone else. "Ah, so you're a bunch of stalkers who have nothing better to do than learn everything you can about a group of kids?"

"Shut up!" he smacked me across the face with the back of his hands. I would have hit him back, but I was too weak. So I made a silent vow to someday, soon hopefully, beat the living day lights out of him.

I looked back at Jake and rolled my eyes. He smirked, and made a funny face by crossing his eyes and sticking out his tongue at Dan. I snickered and Dan looked back just as Jake finished making a face at him. He looked down at me, than continued looking straight ahead. We were silent for the rest of the walk to the "closet".

Me and Jake were thrown inside and Dan slammed the door behind us. "It's okay, Chase. We'll be okay," Jake said to comfort me. I found the wall, leaned against it a slid down until I was sitting. "I'm okay," I said to Jake. Which was a lie cause I felt like I could die from the beating I just got. "Are they even allowed to do that?"

"Do what?" asked Jake. The room was pitch black, but I could hear and feel Jake sit down next to me.

"Beat us like that? They shouldn't be able to. I mean, what kind of place is this anyway?" I ran my hands through my short black hair and rested my arms on my knees in front of me.

"I wish we could just wake up from all this."

"I know," I thought for a while. "I can't stay here."

"Neither can I.'

"So what are we going to do? That escape plan was very flawed. We didn't stand a chance."

"How about," Jake whispered, "we just do what these creeps ask of us. For now, anyway. We let them train us, and when we have a better understanding of how to use our stronger senses…we get out of here."

I thought about this. "I guess we really don't have a choice on the matter do we? We're too weak to fight theses men."

"We'll have to tell the others the moment we get the chance to."

"yeah but, we don't know how long we'll be in here for. Williams said something about people being locked in this thing for days."

"Well, maybe since it's our first offense, they'll be easy on us,"

"Technically this is my second offense," I said.

"Well, I think Williams discarded the first one."

"Let's hope so. Man, I'm tired."

"Try to get some rest."

I leaned my head on Jake's shoulder and closed my eyes. For the first time that I've been here, I wasn't afraid. I wasn't afraid of the darkness, I wasn't afraid that I was locked in a closet like my mother had done to as a child, and I wasn't afraid of these goons and doctors. Maybe that's why I have been remembering all these things from the past. To confront my fears and overcome them. That way I could be strong ; strong enough to fight this. Strong enough to survive.

Chapter 11

We learned a few things from being locked in that closet. Firstly, it wasn't your typical closet that you would hang clothe in. it was made entirely of metal and was more like a bomb shelter really. Secondly, a minor assault on a guard equaled one week in the Box, as we started to call the "closet". Within this week, you got one sandwich a day, of your choice, and two bottles of juice, also your choice. And every now and then someone would check up on you to bring you to the bathroom.

With everyday me and Jake would train. We did as many push-ups and sit-ups as our bodies could let us. We figured we might as well start to get our bodies into shape so that we didn't fall behind with the other physical stuff the others were doing. As well, Jake practiced his special hearing. He zoned out some things and focused into others. It was challenging for him though, considering our isolated location at the time.

After the week was up, Williams himself came to let us out. The light burned my eyes, as it always did every time they opened that door. We walked in silence down the hall towards the third floor : the floor with our bedrooms. Williams walked us all the way there, but left as when we reached the top of the stairs. "Don't do it again," he said very sternly. I didn't agree, or disagree. I just walked through the door out of the stairwell with Jake behind me.

I could hear low talking from down the hall "I can't believe you beat me again!" I heard Ali say. Beat her? We walked into Ali's room and saw that everyone was sitting in a circle on the floor playing some sort of talk show. "Chase!" exclaimed Alicia when she saw me. I embraced her as the other four stood up. "you got new clothes?" I asked Shawn when Ali pulled away from me.

"Yeah, I finally gut the courage to ask them," he said.

"Ask them? You practically begged them," said Chris. He was wavering a card over the flame of his lighter. I had forgotten that he had that thing with him.

"Hey, careful with that, Chris," said Jake. "We don't want to start a fire."

"Why not? At least we'd get out of here," said Chris.

"No, not yet," I said.

"What?" asked Mem.

"Guys, we have a plan," I said. Then Jake and I filled the others in on our plan to train. It got a few complaints at first, but we were eventually able to convince them that this was the right thing to do.

"Chase, what did Dan mean when he was talking about your mom?' asked Mem.

Alicia, Jake and I all exchanged glances. "Mem," I started, 'my mom…she had some mental problems."

"Doesn't everyone's mom?"

"No, Mem, I'm serious. She was bipolar."

"Was?" said Chris who no longer played with his lighter.

"Yeah…she's dead."

"How did she die?" asked Shawn.

I shrugged. "I don't know, the doctors wouldn't tell me. Or, my guardians didn't tell me what the doctors told them. Which leads me to the conclusion that she took her own life."

"Chase," Meme whispered. "Chase, I'm so sorry. I had no idea."

"It's okay," me and Jake looked at each other. "It's over," Jake nodded slightly and Meme hugged me, totally unlike her to do.

Someone knocking on the door made her pull away from me and Ali checked to see who it was.

"Training grounds, pronto," said a husky voice at the door. I turned to see the goons in black waiting to take us to the gym, the "training grounds". We all looked at each other, and nodded in silent agreement that we were going to try hard. We were going to give it our all so that we could get out of here. For some reason, these guys weren't going to let us walk out, so we had fight our way out. Let's do this, Bring it on! I heard in my head. Was that me?

I was running at a steady pace on one of the tread mills when they brought him in. He put up a slight fight, pushing away the goons as they tried to restrain him.

"Who's he?" Ali asked me. She was on the treadmill beside me.

"I have no idea," I huffed. "But I have a feeling he's on our side."

"What makes you so sure?"

"He isn't dressed like them for starters. And he doesn't seem to be getting along with them," I stopped as he made eye with me, this stranger.

He smiled slightly and walked towards Alicia and myself. He had longish brown hair. Well, half of it was brown, the other half was black actually. It stood up a bit on his head, but in a stylish way. I could tell he worked out a lot, which meant either he had been here a while and we just didn't know about him, or he had just arrived with an already built body. As he got closer I saw that he had dark brown eyes, to match most of his hair. He kept these eyes on my green ones as he approached us.

"Hello there," he smiled as he got on the treadmill on my left. "How long have you been here?"

"Um…I think the real question is, how long have you been here?" I asked.

"Why? I've been here since I was twelve. So it's been six years that I have never seen the likes of you around here."

"You've been here for six years?" my eyes grew big.

"Why are you surprised?" he started to jog.

"Williams said me and my friends were the only successful humans they experimented on," said Alicia.

"Don't believe anything that clown has to say. He's a fake," said the stranger. Why didn't Williams tell us about him? I asked myself.

"Who knows, that guys on crack, I swear," said the boy.

"Excuse me?"

"Right…you don't know."

"Don't know what?"

The boy stopped running and turned his body to face me. "Name's Brian,' he held out his hand, "I read minds."