Chapter 12: When he fled

Jeremy's sleep was interrupted in a very roughly manner. He didn't move yet, just to hear where the sound – which woke him up – came from. In the beginning, to make sure nobody started to act like a monkey, Jim and he had created some basic rules to make everyone's stay as comfortable as possible. All refugees agreed to have Jim execute the punishments, if they were to be broken. There it was again! Someone, or more than one person, were busy trying to push things over – well, Jeremy hoped they were just doing that – in the main hall.

He didn't want to get up, but he had to punish them for disturbing the peace of night, so he put on his glasses and sat straight up. Yep, he'd definitely continue sleeping if he weren't in his current position – he practically unofficially owned this factory, considered it his own. He quickly dressed himself; he didn't have a pajama, and walked out of his room, to the main hall. Normally, this place was abandoned, because nobody necessarily had to be there, but there normally were two guards, just in case. These two couldn't have made the sound. It was more comprehensible to think it were people from outside the factory made the sound, forgetting to mention Jim or Jeremy's name. Then it would be logical, and nobody would be guilty, even if these were the first forces that come to help, if the video was just posted yesterday.

Despite this, something in him told him to catch them, as a spy, as a child he couldn't normally be, so he went stealthily for the last meters to the main hall. The sound grew louder as he came closer, and one of these noises was being repeated – the sound of… something that was repeatedly fired. Jeremy wondered why this one noise among random noises was making him worried as he was almost very sure the refugees were causing it.

When he placed himself in the sight of these hooligans, he saw no other option then to go hide behind the wall again after a few seconds – which was in his case the best thing to do. These 'hooligans' were not real hooligans, and were not even human – it was the three Krabs who were camping before the factory. His brain was working at the speed of light: how did they get in there? The Barrier was still turned on, wasn't it? With one look, he didn't see the force field, but he did see the two guards lying on the ground. Were they dead, or just unconscious? Would they even ever wake up? Anyway, those three Krabs weren't supposed to be in the main hall, and God knows how they got in there. It was a complete disaster!

When Jeremy looked a little further, he noticed Jim too was awakened by the noise of the Krabs, and already also noticed nobody was breaking the rules, but that XANA had managed to get in there somehow. Jim noticed Jeremy was motioning him to come closer, and because it was already a wonder the Krabs hadn't heard Jeremy come close to them, Jim slowly advanced towards the blonde Einstein. He was lucky the Krabs were too busy destroying everything for no apparent reason to notice him.

"How did those Krabs come in?" Jim whispered viciously to Jeremy, who shrugged.

"I don't know! They shouldn't even be here!"

"I have my suspicions. Did you see the Barrier? 'Cause I didn't!" Jeremy's eyes widened. He too had noticed, but he had thought he must have gotten that wrong. But now he got his confession from Jim, the Barrier must have… failed? Been destroyed? He didn't know.

"But that's impossible! I-It can't be broke already, it should have stopped those Krabs for at least three months," Jim raised an eyebrow, "I'm preparing an upgrade. What I meant is – they can't have entered without help from the inside!"

"Then someone must've disabled it," Jim reasoned, and he looked at Jeremy, reproachful, because he was the only one who knew where the handle was for the force field, and if the force field didn't break, they must have had some help… and Jeremy could count as a suspect, Jim found.

"Jim," Jeremy whispered when he saw Jim's face, "I swear I have nothing to do with this – I'm just as surprised as you are. But that's not important. We need to get the others to safety." Bring them where? The main hall was blocked and there was no other way in.

"And activate the force field," Jim added, "you'll keep yourself busy with that, I'll get the rest to the Evacuation Room." That sounded as a reasonable plan with their 'guests' in the main hall.

"What will we tell them," Jeremy wondered.

"An evacuation exercise," Jim suggested, "now, go! And make sure this situation doesn't get any worse!" Jeremy nodded and he walked to the room where he hid the handle of the force field, while Jim himself walked to the sleeping rooms of the refugees. There were only a few who were privileged and had an apart room, while the others – those who came in later – slept in common spaces which weren't used. Jim hurried to one of those privileged people; to someone he knew he could trust. He needed someone to know what was going on, but to keep it a secret so the fear wouldn't spread like hell. So Jim walked to the room of one of his students, who could keep a secret and was in this factory since the beginning. That's why he woke Emily Leduc by trying to shake her awake. He wasn't very sure if she was still asleep, or if she pretended to be asleep.

"Miss Leduc, wake up!" He said, and shook her in a rougher manner, until she sat up, still feeling a bit sleepy and irritated by Jim – since they were equals here, she didn't have to act with respect towards him.

"Darn it, Jim, what is it now!?" she growled – she's never been a morning person.

"Go to the girl rooms, I'll take the boys. Wake 'em up, and take 'em to the evacuation-room-thingy, the one with open pillars-liked thingies." He'd been her gym-teacher for a while now, and so he knew about her being so curious, and so he merely had to answer a question, instead of saying: 'yeah, there's three Krabs loose in the factory, but I'd appreciate it if you would keep it secret'.

"Wow, why so hasty?" Emily wondered, and she didn't say a word until the moment she figured it out herself, eventually, "A Krab's inside, isn't it? That's why you're so hasty." Jim nodded.

"There's three of them, Leduc, and they're no kittens. Just call it an evacuation exercise, and take the to… to that place. They'll be safe there –" He was being interrupted.

"Safe? You're saying that place is safe? Just try to get it, Jim – I've always been against that particular room, because we'll be trapped there! If one of those find us there, we're done for!" Jim just let her be – there was nothing better to do. In fact, it had been Jeremy's idea for that place to be the evacuation room, and Jim was also against. But Jeremy wasn't trying to get rid of them, he was trying to help. When she was done, he talked again.

"We don't have anywhere else to go, do we? Anyway, I'm a grown-up and you should listen to me. Let's bring them there." Emily nodded, though not very happy, and the two left. Jim went for the boys, and Emily the girls, and soon they were all walking to the evacuation room, calm and convinced it was just an exercise. Jim hoped Jeremy had restored the force field now. True, the Krabs would be trapped inside, but no outside help would be able to reach them. It wouldn't be easy, but he'd destroy those damned monsters – with Emily, if necessary. The movement from the sleeping quarters to the 'pillars room', also known as the scanner room, came very great, because this was the fourth time they would do this, and because of this, they knew the route they had to pick. That's also why Jim took Emily's arm and dragged her to the main hall.

"It couldn't hurt to check the Krabs," he suggested, and Emily walked with him out of free will. The two silently departed from the group, to the main hall. They were ever careful, in case any of the smaller monsters had entered the factory. They eventually reached the main hall without passing anything, and Emily looked around the corner to the Krabs. When she turned to Jim again, she could be laughing with him, and she did – she especially insulted his observation skills.

"Well, Jim, I don't know what exactly you mean with three Krabs, but you possibly see doubles, or triples, because there's only one Krab!" Jim's eyes widened.

"What!?" Now he also looked around the corner, and turned his head towards the noise. The Krab couldn't be interrupted from its path of destruction, and so Jim had enough time to look around properly without getting caught. And, indeed, there was only one Krab left. This made Jim frown.

"I could've sworn there were three…" Jim wasn't the smartest man on Earth, but brain had started to work. There were only three Krabs, and a few corridors they would fit in, if they walked behind one another, in a row. And because he's lived in this factory for at least five months and a half, he knew these corridors. He got an overview of where those Krabs could venture, and one of those corridors lead directly to the scanner room, though not accessible by the sealed elevator…

"Shit!" the Krab turned around and, seemingly without even trying to aim, shot a laser to Jim's direction, as if it had known about Emily and Jim all along, thus being a distraction, so the two others would have access to the other parts of the factory. "It's a trap!" Jim yelled, and the Krab stopped its fire for a while. But only because he needed to move. Jim and Emily were smart enough to run – it was a small corridor, but also a long one, and there was not much place to hide in there. Jim let Emily run before him, so he had to go down first before she could become a possible target. They either had a lot of luck, or the Krab was bad at aiming, because none of the lasers hit the two.

"Go to the others," Jim demanded, and Emily ran to the scanner room while Jim went to Jeremy immediately. He didn't know where the handle was located, but he did know in which direction Jeremy went, so that was a start for his search.

He heard how chaos erupted with the refugees. The chaos had finally broken out.

Jeremy ran as fast as he could. The faster he reached the handle and knew its position, the faster he knew how those Krabs got in. at this point, it still was impossible for those Krabs to get in, unless they've learned to teleport. Jeremy knew nobody could've touched his handle. He placed it in a room guarded by a password-locked door, and only Jeremy knew the code. Yet, everyone could easily guess his password was Aelita. The Krabs couldn't have destroyed the force field either, because – according to Jeremy – it shouldn't be possible.

The force field was designed to hold for at least eight months, of which five already had passed. By calculating the strength of the strongest laser of the strongest monster, he had designed the force field to hold off a force twice as big as the calculated strength. And with the recent addition, it should be impossible for the 'second rate' Krabs to enter it by breaking the force field, or enter at all, without inside help. Unless they indeed could teleport.

He kept running until the door came in sight. He was getting exhausted, so he walked the last meters. If Jim had come with him, he would've told the blonde he'd better not have skipped the gym classes. Jeremy couldn't help it there were more important things to do than gym – like, designing a program that could destroy XANA once and for all. Jim would understand, and add gym wouldn't be bad for him.

Jeremy typed in the code Aelita and the door opened. He recognized all 57 handles which he'd placed there, and saw that everything was on and off if they had to be. As was the force field's. he'd expected it to be turned off, but no – it still was on, or was supposed to be that way. This was alarming. And, because it was illogical for the monsters to teleport, their lasers must've grown stronger.

While Jeremy was walking down the corridors – still tired over the running – his exceptional brain was working again. Because his thoughts were following up at the speed of light, there whole version won't be displayed here. But the words XANA, force field, laser, Krab and William did cross his mind at least ten times. He was even too deep in thoughts to almost not notice the laser.

He turned to the Krab before running back into the corridor, the Krab following him. This was wrong. This was very, very wrong – he hadn't thought the Krabs would find their own way around the factory. And, not thinking straight, Jeremy ran into the less small corridors. After a while, he got tired again and the wild goose chase ended in a smaller corridor.

This one was, in the length, 4 meters, but small enough so the Krab wouldn't be able to enter. Jeremy pressed himself against the wall, so the paw (claw?) of the Krab wouldn't be able to reach him. This Krab's paw didn't even reach the half of the corridor. After a while, it seemed as if the Krab had given up on his prey, but Jeremy knew XANA wasn't the type to let people go once he's set his mind on it. He carefully stepped forward, just one step, and out of the Krab's reach, should it try again.

Jeremy hadn't counted on the laser that hit him full in the stomach. The impact pushed all air of out his lungs. He fell onto his belly, gasping for air, lying with his head towards the Krab – not a faithful position. He tried to push himself up, but before he got the chance to actually get up, the Krab somehow managed to hit his back. With a 'thud', he fell on the ground again. Anyway, he wasn't hit in the head – it could've given him a permanent damage.

He didn't have the power to try a second time – the energy just had left him. He did try to crawl back when he heard the paw reach out for him, but he failed again. All of a sudden, completely unexpected, the Krab found the kid genius. Or, the Krab found the left side of his head. The sharp point of the paw (again, claw?) scratched against the skin, down to the ground, leaving a big wound. Jeremy, who had stayed quiet all those time, couldn't keep it in anymore and screamed out of pain. Blood was leaving his body through his head wound quickly, and the more the blood flowed out, the faster Jeremy accepted the darkness that crept upon him.

I know you'll hate me for this killer cliffhanger, but I'm not sure if you'll hate me more for this, or the next chapter - you'll know why in a week. Will Jeremy make it? What about the Krabs, and Emily? How did the force field fail/broke? And now some breaking news: the Friday after next chapter, I'll start with mid-term exams of my major courses (math, Dutch, French, Latin). So, if I write the chapter sooner, we'll see Nicholas and Sissi right on schedule, on the 27th of March. If I can't, or my mum forbids me to, it's gonna have to be the 3rd of April. The title of next chapter will not be announced anymore, because it might spoil some events and I don't want that to happen (When he fled; Jeremy fled). On with the reviews:

Bluedog197 (I know, I know, I'm mean! and I might even get meaner, depends on where William takes me with his methods of punishment...)

See ya next time!

-DutchWriters2