Chapter 9- Ashlea
"Don't hurt me! Leave me alone or I'll hurt you!" the girl screamed frantically. Tom was stood there gobsmacked. He had found a girl in a laboratory inside a huge KORPS base with a barcode like Zoe's, glowing blue eyes and was screaming. Finally he spoke.
"Hey, hey it's okay. I'm not going to hurt you" Tom reassured. She stopped screaming and her eyes stopped glowing. They were light blue.
"Who, who are you?" the girl asked still scared.
"My name's Tom, what's yours?"
"U19, that's what they call me. Sometimes they called me project A but not a real name" Tom took her arm but she forced it away. "Get off me!" she bellowed.
"It's okay I need to look at your arm!" he shouted back but quietly. She slowly lifted up her arm to expose the code. "Hmm… I think your name is Ashlea" Tom said.
"Ashlea? I like that name!" she exclaimed but she was still very worried.
"Okay but we really need to get out of here!" Tom said seriously. She nodded and he followed the wires to where they were connected up to and turned them off. He then pulled off all the wires and pads off her and she slowly got up.
They made their way out of the lab with caution; there were probably loads of guards on high alert now. They turned every corner with fear of getting caught. Even if they got past the guards, how would they get off the floor? They couldn't go into the lift because they would be spotted straight away. While he was thinking this he didn't realise guards were up ahead.
"Tom!" Ashlea hissed and pushed him into a room.
"W-what?" Tom asked confused.
"Shh! They might have heard us!" Ashlea replied. They waited there for a few minutes and then Tom looked through the key hole.
"Coast is clear" Tom whispered and they sneaked out quietly. They finally came to the lift but they couldn't get in it. "We need another way to get down and alert my other team mates. Do you know if there's any stairs round here?" Tom asked.
"No sorry. The only places I've seen round here are the lab and my cell" Ashlea replied. Tom sighed and started looking around. He noticed a door which said 'emergency exit'
"Ashlea, maybe there's stairs behind that door?"
"Okay, we'll give it a try" she didn't feel scared anymore and she actually felt fearless. They pushed open the door and there was stairs! They quickly went in, closed the door behind them and shot down the stairs.
When they got to the end of the staircase, they opened the door and there was a wall with big luminescent writing which said: Section 7: Advanced theft. "Section 5 must be around here somewhere!" Tom sighed.
"How do we find it then?" Ashlea asked.
"Well we could find a map of the place or…" Tom started but was cut off.
"We could ask someone!" Tom looked at her in disbelief and then looked away.
"If we do that we'll be toast. Burnt toast in fact!" It was too late. Ashlea had already gone off to some woman and asked about it.
"Urm, where would we find section 5?" Ashlea asked.
"Newbie huh? You need to go straight east then turn left at first left turn you come to. Go straight ahead then right again and you'll see the big writing" replied the short, red haired woman. Ashlea nodded and walked away.
Ashlea told Tom the directions and they walked there. They were still very cautious about the guards and were surprised they hadn't been caught yet. When they finally go there, the place was heaving! "How are we supposed to find Dan now?" Tom huffed.
"Who's Dan?" Ashlea asked sounding unsure.
"Dan's another one of my team. There are four of us. I'm supposed to be inside monitoring but my friend Zoe has to do that and we swapped for this mission. Dan is supposed be in this section and Aniesha on section 26" Tom explained.
"Well can't you contact them?"
"Oh yeah my communicator" Tom had been in such a rush that he forgot all about it. He contacted Dan.
(Dan is in italics and Tom is normal)
"Hey Dan where are you?"
"I'm in a closet looking for some manual what about you?"
"I'm at the section 5 entrance with someone. Meet me as soon as you can"
"Wait with whom?"
"I'll explain when you meet me okay?"
"Ok"
He put his communicator down and waited nervously. He was constantly looking around to see if any of the agents from upstairs had followed them.
Ashlea was also looking around. She was much better at observing than Tom. It was probably because of her genetically engineered eyes. She noticed two agents looking at them suspiciously.
"Tom" Ashlea whispered to him. She nodded towards the two agents.
"We've got to get out of here!" Tom whispered back. Ashlea nodded in agreement and they slowly sneaked through the crowds of people. Tom was now very frightened and was shaking. He started to walk faster and faster and then he was almost running.
"Tom, slow down! We'll get caught!" Ashlea exclaimed but quietly. But it was too late. As they approached another long corridor, an alarm sounded and loads of KORPS henchmen were pouring out of every angle…