A/N Just so you know, the timing's in all of this are gonna be important. It''ll be jumping between POVs for the next few chapters, so keeping up with the timing's will help y'all know how it all fits together with who's doing what and when. I've tried to state how many minutes have passed as much as possible!
Jeb squeezed her arm slightly, telling her not to panic, and lifted his head to face the other scientist.
'Afternoon, Stellengard,' he said, and the whitecoat nodded her head back at him.
'Good day, Dr Batchelder. Another one for the aerial deck?' she asked, jerking her head towards Nudge.
'Indeed. If you'll excuse me, I'm in a hurry.'
'Of course, Dr Batchelder.'
The whitecoat moved away down the corridor, her heels clicking on the hard plastic floor. Nudge looked at Jeb, and he tilted his head down towards her.
'People listen when you're The General's second-in-command,' he said out of the corner of his mouth, giving her a small wink. She snorted despite her heart feeling like it was about to beat out of her chest from nervousness.
As they neared the control room, passing a few more people along the way, Jeb let go of her arm.
'Nudge. The room isn't going to be deserted. We need to take out whoever's in there quickly and quietly before they can set an alarm going or shout out to anyone else. You ready?'
She nodded, balling her fists up and trying to breathe slowly. Together, they rounded the corner and the door to the mainframe centre came into view. A man stood outside it, eyeing them as they approached and Jeb quickly put a hand on Nudge's back, making it look like he was pushing her along. He gave the guard a long-suffering look.
'Masterton, have you got your Taser with you just now? This one-' He gave Nudge a shake. '-is causing me trouble and I think she needs to be taught a lesson before she goes to the aerial deck.'
A horrible light came into the man's eyes and he leered down at Nudge, his hand going to a pouch on his belt.
'Yeah, I've got it,' he sniggered, handing a small black box over to Jeb and leaning back against the wall to watch.
'I really don't know what's been going on lately, but all the subjects have just been so-' Jeb broke off, moving faster than Nudge knew he could move as he aimed the Taser straight at the guard and shot two small electrodes into his arm; the man shuddered for a second as the electricity flowed through him, and then Jeb landed a solid punch on his face so that he fell to the floor, unconscious.
'In, quick,' he whispered, opening the door as quietly as he could. Two people sat on wheeled chairs in front of the biggest computer unit Nudge had ever seen; multiple screens of various sizes covered the wall, controlled by a massive panel of keys and buttons spread out in front of them. The woman turned around when the door opened, standing up at the sight of Nudge and Jeb standing in the doorway. Her face was wary, and she tapped her colleague hard on the shoulder, making him turn too.
Firing the Taser a second time, Jeb immobilised the man as Nudge flung herself towards the woman, who was moving quickly towards a button on the wall that was presumably the alarm. Pulling her arm back, Nudge slammed her elbow against the woman's head, knocking her out and sending her crashing to the floor. When she turned around, Jeb had already picked up the man and started to haul him across the room towards the door. He paused when he saw Nudge staring.
'Don't forget who taught you to fight,' he said, his eyes twinkling a bit. 'You start getting into the system; I'll hide these guys away.'
As he was dragging the woman from the room, a wailing noise started up, shrill and piercing: the alarm. Jeb dropped her just outside the door, springing back and pulling it shut.
'Nudge,' he said urgently, 'there's a lockdown option for this room, meaning it can't be opened from the outside.'
Her fingers skimmed across the keys, reading the ghosts of movements that were piled on top of one another, stretching back to days, weeks, months ago. The information poured into her brain, filling it up with keystrokes and passwords, and ten seconds later she'd found the codes for the lockdown; with a beeping sound, the door was sealed shut.
'How long has it been?' Nudge asked Jeb, her eyes fixed on the screen.
'Ten minutes,' he replied.
'Isn't there some kind of manual override to the alarm system?' she asked anxiously, mentally searching through the reams of data and facts that she'd just acquired, finding nothing.
'No,' Jeb grimaced. 'The alarm system is set so that it can only be turned off at the location where it was activated. Besides, everyone will be on the alert now; I'm not sure turning it off would make any kind of difference.'
Nudge nodded as her fingers drilled at the keys in front of her. It was frustrating because some of the buttons she needed were placed way over at the other side of the unit, meaning she had to zip back and forth on the wheels of the chair. She pulled up the surveillance cameras, and the whole left-hand side of the wall began to flicker with the movements of people all across the School. In the back of her mind, Nudge registered how cool all of it was – she could see everything. Then, among the screens, she picked out Dylan, Ratchet, and Kate trying to make their way down a corridor. They were having very little success because Ratchet was, for what felt like the hundredth time today, staggering with his hands over his ears.
'The alarm's too much for him,' she muttered, her mind searching desperately for a way to help him; if he couldn't move properly then that group's chances of getting caught shot way up.
Come on. How can you help him? You can't turn off the alarm, so find a way to help him deal with it. He's got those earplugs hasn't he? Why doesn't he use them? Ah, but they can only be used for one sound at a time, can't they? Hm… One sound at a time, huh?
Nudge pounded at the keyboard, making her way through walls of coding until she found what she wanted. Tapping one last key, she watched the screen in front of her flick from 'ON' to 'OFF' as the debilitating high-frequency tone that had been set for Ratchet's arrival was inactivated. She whipped back to the screen that showed his group; if she had understood Jeb's explanation of the earplugs correctly, Ratchet should now be hearing both the alarm and the sound from the plugs themselves that had originally been cancelling out the first noise. He spasmed slightly as the sound in his ears intensified, then seemed to realise what had happened, his hands moving up to wrench off his headphones and pull the buds out of his ears. Pressing the ends just as Jeb had done, Ratchet reinserted the earplugs and instantly relaxed. Nudge grinned. It had worked just as she'd hoped; getting rid of the high-frequency tone had meant that Ratchet could use the earplugs to cancel out the sound of the alarm instead.
'Time?' she asked Jeb, her eyes fixed on the screen as she went back to looking for the files that would save Dr Martinez.
'Just over eleven minutes gone,' he replied, and she nodded, her hands moving even faster. If they were going to get back in time to meet the others, she was going to have to hurry.
Not two minutes later, a resounding bang shook the floor.
'Star, Holden, can you two get up to the testing area? Set the other experiments loose…'
Holden reached up to unlock another cage, checking his watch quickly as he did so. Eight gone, twelve left until we're meant to be at the door. The creature in the cage in front of him huddled in a corner, pulling away from his hands as he reached in.
'It's okay,' he said softly, trying his best to sooth it. 'You're alright, we're getting you out.'
So far all the experiments he'd set free had taken a few moments to adjust, then made a break for it, blending into the walls, leaping from the window, swinging out onto the outside wall of the building and sliding down the smooth surface like crazy Spiderman people. This one suddenly flung itself forwards at him, flying past as he dodged out of its way; with a speed to rival Star's, it shot across the room and disappeared out of the door.
He was reaching for the next cage when a voice rang out behind him.
'You still in here?' Star mocked.
'I am,' Holden replied calmly, moving to the side as something that didn't even look human slithered from the cage, making its way up the wall and squeezing with a squelch through the grills of the vent.
'Gross,' muttered Star. 'Why are we even bothering to free them all, anyway? They'll probably just get hurt or recaptured or something. And what if someone sees them and raises the alarm?'
'We can't save them all, but we're giving them a chance,' he said.
Star didn't respond for a moment, then:
'I did all the other rooms. Knocked out the whitecoats before they even knew I was there and unlocked all the cages. Some of the things I let out could barely move. They're not gonna survive.'
Holden sighed sadly, opening the next cage. Clearly he had been lucky, getting a room where all the subjects were mobile and able to do something to escape.
'Like I said,' he whispered, hating himself for it, 'we can't save them all.' He turned slightly, looking at Star. 'Speaking of saving people… Any luck?'
It was a stupid question, really; if Star had found Fang then he'd be with her, wouldn't he? But for once she didn't take the opportunity to ridicule Holden's words, shaking her head regretfully.
'Nothing.' Her voice was quiet.
That was when the alarm rang out. Holden flashed a look at his watch. Ten gone.
In an instant, Star had zipped around the remaining cages, flinging them all open. Experiments rocketed out, all leaving the room in their own way, desperate to escape the loud noise. One remained in its cage, hands that looked like flippers held over its ears.
'Get out of here,' Star said urgently. 'Move, that way, go!'
The creature picked its way out of the cage, lumbering clumsily on all webbed fours towards the door. When it reached the hallway, however, it came tripping back twice as fast as it had left.
'What? What is it?' demanded Star exasperatedly. Not expecting a verbal reply, she jumped a little when the thing spoke back – albeit with difficulty – in a low, melodic voice:
'Guards coming. Laser heads. Hurt us before. Our guards.'
Star sent a disturbed, worried look over at Holden; the 77.31 kids were coming down the hall.
A/N Okay, so that was a cliffie. Two, in fact. You should expect a lot more coming. :P Review!