Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Disclaimer: Duh.
A shed. One, lousy, dilapidated, little shed sitting in the middle of a cornfield. That is where Iggy's directions led us.
"Are you sure this is where you last got the signal?" I asked.
Iggy gave me a glare that would peel paint. "Of course I'm sure. If I was unsure, I would have said something by now, wouldn't I?"
"Well crap." I said. We had got this far, only to come up empty. I just have the most fulfilling life, don't I?
Things are not always what they seem. Sometimes you need to look below the surface.
What the hell is that supposed to mean? Not surprisingly, the Voice didn't answer.
I kicked the bottom of the shed door in frustration. It slowly swung open, revealing a faintly gleaming metal panel on the opposite wall.
Hello. I thought. Maybe we hadn't come up empty after all.
A metallic voice issued from the panel. "Input password." It said, green letters scrawling across its burnished steel face. I stepped up to it, and a touch pad appeared.
"Input password." it said again. I punched in "Itex".
"Incorrect. Please try again. You have four tries before security is notified." The voice sounded distinctly pleased with itself.
I tried "Institute for Higher Living" and "School". Both were incorrect. I had two tries left before they put Erasers on our trail. Wait a minute, what was I doing?
"Nudge, come here please." I said, and she hurried over.
"What, Max?" She said. She sounded as anxious as I felt.
"Can you sense the last password punched in this thing?" I said, motioning toward the device. Nudge paused, then ran her fingers lightly over the panel.
"Try the word forty-two, followed by a big H, big G, two little t's, then another big G"
I typed in the sequence, squinting to see through the darkness.
"Welcome to Itex Corp. bioengineering laboratory 6-24-7." The panel said. Then the shed creaked, shook and began to slide steadily underground.
"Get in the shed, quick!" I shouted, and Gazzy, Iggy and Angel bolted for the door, slipping in at the very last second. We continued to descend, the wood creaking and groaning eerily. The end of the elevator ride was marked by the arrival of bright fluorescent lighting and antiseptic smells. A plaintive wail sounded from somewhere, presumably from one of the experiments. I shuddered. This place was evoking some bad memories.
"Ok, here's the plan." I whispered. Four heads leaned in close to mine. "First, we run in there. Bust up anyone who gets in our way. They won't be expecting us, so we have surprise on our side. We find Fang, crack a few heads, then get back to this elevator, pronto. We don't want Erasers on our tail. Iggy, Gazzy, stay by the elevator. Make sure it doesn't turn into a trap."
They nodded, so I pushed the elevator door open and stepped out into the artificial light.
I was in a sort of entrance way, a featureless white room with a door at the other end. We walked right through, bursting out of the other end to surprise any potential guards on the other side. There were two Erasers across the room, facing the opposite direction. Angel dealt with those, making them run headfirst into a stainless steel counter. I smiled proudly at her, and she slapped me a silent high-five. We walked through that room, and emerged into yet another stark white room. Here, however, there was one principal difference: it was filled with cages. I bent down, scanning the faces within them as I walked quickly past. Some registered surprise, others anger, and still others nothing at all, but no face jumped out at me. I glanced up at Angel and Nudge. They both shook their heads. Fang wasn't in this room.
We moved on quickly, checking room after room. We met Erasers from time to time, but never so many that they couldn't be taken care of. We didn't see many whitecoats, but we were avoiding the labs. I suppose even evil genetic scientists need sleep sometimes. Finally, we came to a room with no door leading off of it. I hoped that Fang was in here; otherwise we'd have to retrace our steps, all the way back to the door of the elevator. This room contained a large metal tank, sunk into the floor. The rest of the room was taken up by rows of shelves containing sciency-looking metal instrument.
Angel tugged on my sleeve. "Max," she whispered, "Ari is right around the corner, with two whitecoats."
I swore under my breath, and ducked behind the tank, just as Ari and the whitecoats stepped into view. One of them was Jeb.
"You know," he said, "It may not have been such a blunder, grabbing the wrong experiment. The rest of that group was picked up by the microphone hidden in the elevator not fifteen minutes ago." He stepped over to the tank I was hidden behind.
"Frankly Max, I'm disappointed."
So much for the element of surprise, I thought, standing up. I gave Jeb my sweetest, most polite smile.
Then I decked him.
The response was instantaneous. Jeb staggered back, nose bleeding, as Ari lunged at me. I dodged, my side coming perilously close to his claws. I swung around, snapping a roundhouse kick to his chest. He stepped back. From behind me, I heard Nudge unscrewing the top of the tank. Ari came at me again, arms raised. He moved to hit my stomach, but instead went for my collarbone. I ducked, narrowly avoiding getting brained. I swung a few punches, landing an uppercut to the jaw, then kicked out, catching Ari between the legs. He swore at me and doubled over.
"Max, we got Fang!" Nudge said. I ran to help them pull a shell-shocked Fang from the tank. He was shivering and sodden, his jaw clenched.
"Max." He whispered, his voice barely audible. "I knew you'd come." He slumped, unconscious but breathing.
"Nudge, grab his shoulders, I got the feet." I said. She did as I suggested, picking up Fang by the armpits. Together we ran, stumbling through the doorway as Ari lunged after us.
"You're tired. You're going to sleep." Angel said in that creepy little girl voice, and Ari obediently curled up on the ground, snoring. I almost giggled, but thought better of it, as Nudge and I ran awkwardly on.
Security had apparently been notified, because the place was swarming with Erasers. I tucked the still-unconscious Fang into a relatively safe corner and stood there, trying to pummel a way out. Iggy and Gazzy burst into the room, scratched and bruised. Even with them on our side, we were badly out numbered. I returned my attention to the fight as a hairy fist collided with my lip, causing it to split open and bleed. I punched back, catching the Eraser upside the head. I roundhouse kicked another behind the knees, then moved on.
"Max! This way!" Iggy shouted a few minutes later, and I grabbed Fang, running past the Erasers. God, the boy was heavy. The six of us sped through a door to find ourselves face to face with three more whitecoats. An experiment lay strapped to a stainless steel gurney, its intestines spilling loosely out of a cut in its stomach. The experiment weakly raised its head and mewled pitifully at us. I shivered with disgust. These people were sick, treating a live being this way.
"Move it or lose it." I growled, awkwardly shoving aside the whitecoat out of our path. "You really, really don't want to mess with me today."
The whitecoats fled.
Sitting outside, in the barn where we had rested before, we examined each other for serious injuries and rested. I'll assume you know how most of our fights end, and skip the revolting details.
"Well, that was interesting." I remarked through my split lip.
Nudge gave me a one-eyed glare, her other swollen shut and purple. "You can say that again." she remarked. From his bed of hay, Fang groaned and opened his eyes, squinting.
"Max?" He said. His voice was quiet and weak. "That you?"
I walked over to his makeshift bed. "It's me."
He clapped his hands over his ears and grimaced.
"You ok?" I asked, concerned. Yes, I know it was a stupid question, but I had to ask.
"Don't talk," he whispered, pain contorting his features. "Everything hurts."
"Oh. I'm sorry." I was whispering also.
"Stop!" he cried. "It hurts!"
With a compassionate look and a smile, I walked away, puzzled.
OK, I had no idea how to end that chapter, I know that sucks. Sorry about long delay, I went to camp for a week. Summer vacation, woohoo!
I (heart) reviews.