After Dawn (Book 3 of the Into the Shadows Trilogy) (8 page)

Peter snorted. "What a bunch of arrogant bastards. They really were convinced we'd never get free." He shook his head. "Still be on your guard, we have no idea what's inside."

Paivi turned to face the group of bedraggled former EOS prisoners that gathered behind her. She could read their nervousness on their faces. Pressed mouths and furrowed brows. All except Xavier, who played with a small flame that floated in his hand.

"I know the camp was horrible, but I promise you, I've seen what happens in here." Paivi took a deep breath to try and bolster herself. She could feel the energy humming under her skin. It was ready and willing to make an appearance. She only hoped she could control her desires to destroy the mountain while they were inside it. "There's a guy, Dr. Todesengel is his name, and he does these experiments on the EOS prisoners."

The group’s eyes went wide and one of the older women gasped.

"Just prepare yourselves. It's not pretty." Paivi turned to Peter. "Let's do this. My dad is in there and I'm not leaving without him."

Peter nodded. "Besides, we can't leave anyone able to call Washington on us. We need a decent head start and some confusion for them. Destroy any communications you see. If they've got to drive out here just to figure out what's going on, or even helicopter in, it's going to take some time to organize it."

Peter waved to the group. "Keep your hands at the ready, and make sure you're touching someone else. We're all more powerful connected than we are separately, even Paivi."

The group moved together, shuffling into a cluster, each with a hand on the person next to them. Paivi moved to the head of the group and felt a warm hand on her arm. She looked back and Xavier smiled.

She tried to force one, but couldn't manage. There were some things that smiles couldn't help. She hoped there would be time for smiles later. But first she had some havoc to wreak.

They stepped into the entrance, a large hole in the side of the mountain. The edges of the stone were smooth, not jagged. Paivi pictured the entrance as a mouth, swallowing them into the darkness.

The shadows slithered around them. Fluorescent lights flickered to life down the corridor and chased them off. Paivi stopped immediately, listening for any sounds of humans approaching, or the sound of their very thoughts, but got nothing. She was hit by a wave of overwhelming pain and sadness that tore through her.

She gritted her teeth. "They're still in here. I feel them. Let's go."

She pulled them forward down the hall until they could no longer see the entrance. The mountain had truly swallowed them now. They were in the belly of the beast. They trudged down the hallway for more than five minutes, their ragged breathing echoing through the cavernous hallway.

"Looks like a dead end," said one of the men at the back of the group. Paivi thought he had said his name was Dennis.

They moved closer to the wall of soaring concrete that contained a heavy metal door with a box on the wall next to it. It consisted of a hand scanner and a keypad, along with a plastic card reader.

"So we need a hand, a card, and a password?" asked Dennis. "This just got very complicated. Shouldn't we just get back to the group and be on our way?"

"Trust me, Dennis, not much can stop us." Peter separated from the group and nodded at Paivi. "I've got this. There isn't a computer system in the world I can't figure out."

Peter rubbed his hands together and placed them on the box. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

The hall was silent and Paivi focused on the cool air gliding across her skin. She appreciated the moment out of the sweltering heat.

"And, we're in." Peter stepped back and rejoined the group. Paivi felt a surge of energy when his hand connected with the skin of her arm. With a whoosh the metal door slid open.

Chapter 10

"So we finally get to see the computer genius in action," Paivi said. "Glad you're on our team."

More cool air rushed through the opening, sprinkling Paivi's arms with goosebumps. Having been in the scorching sun so long, what was refreshing now turned to a creeping chill.

The group moved through the door, which remained open behind them.

"I disabled the door," said Peter. "It only answers to me now."

They crept down the corridor, which led to a main hallway as wide as the entrance tunnel itself. Along the side, concrete walls were lined with smaller versions of the metal entry door they had just come through, each with their own computer system on the outside. Clipboards hung on hooks next to some of them.

The corridor curved out of sight a hundred feet ahead.

The group stopped, running into Paivi's back as one of the doors, three down, slid quietly open.

"Dr. Todesengel will want to know the progress you've made, Jennifer. Well done," said a lab-coated man who emerged into the corridor in front of them. He stopped fast and stared at Paivi. Before he had a chance to move toward a red phone on the wall, Paivi flicked her wrist and hit him with a blast of energy. He froze mid-air. The young woman behind him was frozen to her place in fear long before Paivi hit her with another dose of energy.

Paivi quickly admired her handiwork.

The two grotesque statues, their features twisted in surprise, blocked part of the hallway.

"Let's get these two back in the room." Peter approached the door they just exited and placed his hand on the box. It immediately slid open. "Take their clothes. Some of us can change into them so we don't all look like a bunch of prisoners."

They poured into a small lab room, dragging the scientists with them. Two of the women from the group proceeded to start stripping the clothing from the two human statues and handed it around the room. The clothes fit Dennis and a woman named Lola. They quickly dressed and tried to neaten their short hair. Paivi knew the hair would be enough of a giveaway, but maybe out in the real world it would help them blend in.

Paivi walked around the room and observed the instruments and computers that lined the walls. This room lacked the sharp torture instruments she had seen in the room her dad had been in. Her eyes landed on a drawer in the wall that contained a small window. She squeezed past a woman in their group and peered inside.

"There’s someone in here!" she shouted. She tugged on the drawer but it didn’t budge. She had no idea if the person was dead or living, but she had to make sure it wasn't her dad. "Peter, I need you."

Peter crossed the room to her side and placed his hands on the drawer. The drawer gave and Paivi yanked it open. The body in the drawer was a man, but not her dad. He was alive. His chest rose and fell beneath his hospital gown. His eyes were closed, the skin dark and bruised. Shadows clung to the hollows underneath them.

An IV ran into his left arm and blue liquid dripped into it slowly from the interior of the drawer. It was connected to the computer just outside of the drawer.

"What do we do?" Paivi asked. "Do we wake him?"

"I say we don't leave him here to rot in this drawer." Peter tapped the man's arm, but he didn't respond.

"He'll only slow us down," Dennis said. He adjusted the collar of the lab jacket. He almost looked human again.

"If we can wake him, let's just send him to the exit and tell him to wait for us," Paivi suggested. "Look, these people may be in no condition to help us, but I would rather set them free. Even if they don't make it, I don't want to let them die here at the hands of a maniac."

She put her hand on his arm and sent a jolt of energy through her fingertips. The man in the drawer made a loud honking noise as he lurched up from the slab and sucked in a deep breath. His eyes shot open. They were dark brown, the same color as the stubble on top of his head.

"What happened?" he stuttered. "Who are you?'

"We're here to save you." Paivi reached out to the man.

"I don't want to be saved. I just want to die." His face crumpled in horror. "Can you please kill me?"

Paivi stared at the man. "I know it's bad, but we're going to get you out of here. You're free."

He looked at her hand like it was a deadly weapon and shrank back to. "Just leave me here."

"Sounds good to me." Dennis moved toward the door. "I told you he'd slow us down."

"Shut up, Dennis," Lola spat from beside him.

"Look, Paivi, we can't stay here forever." Xavier placed a warm hand on her shoulder. "If he doesn't want to go, leave him."

Paivi looked to Peter, who nodded.

"We'll leave the door open." Peter pointed to the closed door. "If you turn right out of the corridor, you'll find the entrance open as well. If you change your mind, wait for us by the truck. We'll be out soon."

"You'll never get out of here alive. He'll kill you all." The man whimpered and lay back down in the drawer.

"Not if we kill him first," Paivi said. The energy under her skin tingled, excited at the prospect of putting an end to one person who really deserved it. She wasn't sure Master Song would understand, but this man was a monster. If any death in the world was warranted, it was this one. She would live with his blood on her hands forever and she was okay with that.

"Let's go, guys," Xavier said and gestured for the group to move toward him.

Peter skirted the group and placed a hand on the box next to the door. It obeyed him immediately and slid open. He peered around the corner into the hallway. "It's clear for now. Let's move."

The group followed Peter into the corridor and Paivi gave one last backward glance to the man from the drawer. He lay in a fetal position and rocked back and forth. As they exited, she noticed that the clipboard had a number on it that matched the one tattooed on the man’s neck. MD180583.

"Hey guys, if the clipboard has an EOS number on the top of it, there is most likely a prisoner inside that we can help." Paivi shouted to the group as she brought up the rear. She grabbed the next clipboard. SK875043.

"There is someone in here, what do we do?" Paivi stopped walking, her mind racing at the prospect of having to save all of these people. She hoped they wanted to be saved more than MD180583 did.

"I'll just open the doors while we pass," Peter said, pressing his hand against the door nearest him after scanning the clipboard. "If there is someone in there that wants out, so be it. But we can't deal with them all at the moment. We're offering freedom. It's their choice to take it or not."

Paivi glanced inside after each was opened as others in the group shouted to the patients.

"You're free! Run now while you have the chance," Lola yelled into one room.

A skeleton in a gown stared back at Paivi. Her dead eyes floated in her face. She didn't seem to comprehend the words Lola was saying. Her head rolled from side to side as she struggled to hold it up.

What had they done to these people? They were nothing more than barely living dead.

"Paivi, what is your dad's EOS number?" Xavier shouted over his shoulder. "It might speed things up a little."

"JA110838. But his name is John Anderson. He's a name, not just a number." Paivi muttered the last part under her breath.

"You said his name is John?" Lola asked, glancing into the next room Peter had opened.

Paivi nodded.

"John?" she called into the room. No answer.

They continued down the hallway. Peter had opened ten rooms with clipboards on them. Not one patient had emerged.

"Dude, I'm a little weirded out that we haven't seen any guards in here," Xavier said as they neared a corridor that crossed the one they had entered.