Project ELE (27 page)

"Willow! Are you okay? What are they talking about?" My dad asks as he helps me out from under the bed and to my feet.

"Dad, it's Dr. Hastings and his son! They knocked me out and were trying to do tests on me to find out why I have these powers. They hurt my friends. We were in a cave and they blew up the entrance leaving my friends there. They are trying to find me! They are going to kill me!" I mumble so quickly that I don't have time to keep the tears from falling down.

"I knew that he was up to no good!" My dad says. He starts pacing the room. His face is red with anger and he keeps clenching his fists. He stops in front of me. "I won't let them hurt you. Do you understand?" My dad says as reassuringly as he can. He stares closely at my eyes and seems awed by them. I forgot he's only seen me with the contacts on.

"Dad, I love you but you are only one man. They have the entire shelter after us. They will hurt you. They threatened my friends with a gun. They shot Alec!" Suddenly worry for my dad consumes me. I can't let him get caught up in this!

"They shot him?" He seems amazed that this was even possible. We rarely hear about shootings now a days. Officials still carry weapons but rarely is it ever necessary to use them.

"Yes, but I healed him. Well he helped too with his own healing powers." I run my hands through my hair. My body is alert with nervous energy.

My dad looks awed again at my powers. "Honey, you are so strong, you know that right?"

I start to shake my head but my dad's gaze tells me that he believes in me so I nod.

"This is so hard for me to say, but you need to go. You need to leave this shelter. If anyone can make it out there you can. You can use your powers. I will try to get out as soon as I can but you need to get out of here now." He looks torn at sending his daughter out into the elements. "You can make it through the walls can’t you? Isn't that one of your gifts?"

I stifle a sob and nod. I can't imagine leaving here, leaving my dad. Leaving my friends trapped. Alec.

"Then you need to do it." My dad pulls me into his arms.

A series of thunderous knocks pound against the door.

My dad whispers in my ear, "I love you. Go now."

I look around frantically. I have to calm my heart rate first so I climb under the bed. My dad must realize that I need a moment because he pushes his blanket so it covers the area under the bed where I'm hiding.

The knocking persists. "Mosby family, open this door immediately or we will open it by force.

I hear the toilet flush and then my dad calls out as he opens the door, "Sorry, I was in the restroom."

I hear several footsteps enter the small room. "We are looking for your daughter Mr. Mosby. She is a dangerous suspect and we must see her immediately. If you are harboring her here you will be implicated as a party in her crimes as well." A man I don't recognize calls out.

"My daughter is not dangerous. What exactly is it that you think she did?" My dad asks.

The man clears his throat. "Murder."

"Murder?!" My dad yells. "Impossible. Who do you think she murdered."

"Three of her friends."

I nearly gasp out loud but catch myself. They are saying that I murdered my friends? What a convenient out to explain why they are missing! Rage fills me.

"She would never!" My dad demands. I can hear the outrage in his voice.

"I will not discuss anymore information with you sir. Do you wish to give up your daughter willingly or will we have to search the room?" This voice I recognize as the evil Dr. Hastings.

"She's not here." My father says confidently.

I look down at myself. I'm obviously still here. I work hard to focus on melting through the floor. My heart is still beating too fast.

"Well then, you don't mind if we search the room?" Dr. Hastings says.

"Be my guest." My dad says.

With that I change my tactics and focus on trying to turn invisible. I don't want my dad to suffer for this, so they can't catch me. I look down and feel my heart calming as my arms disappear before me.

"Thank you Mr. Mosby." Another man says.

"Candy, please proceed." Dr. Hastings orders.

Candy? Why is Candy here?

"Why do you need her to search? This room isn't that big. You can obviously see that she's not here." My dad says.

Dr. Hastings must hesitate a second but then deems it okay to spill the beans. "We know about your daughters abilities Mr. Mosby." He chuckles and says, "Don't pretend with me and act like you don't know." I guess my dad gives up his false look of question because Dr. Hastings says. "My daughter has an ability too. She can see through any type of facade that these abilities can create. That means she can see the invisible and a lot more than that."

Oh no! My heart starts racing now. Chill out Willow, chill out. I focus everything I have on moving through this floor. I feel myself slowly sinking. That's when the blanket pops up. I look down at my arms and see that I'm invisible. Then I look to the side at Candy's big blue eyes staring at me. My heart races again and just like that the floor becomes hard again beneath my body. No! Now not only am I in this mess but my dad is too!

Candy opens her mouth and I expect her to call out that I'm here but instead she mouths the word 'Go,' to me.

My mouth opens and I find myself in pure shock. She drops the blanket back over the bed and tells her dad. "I don't think she's here father."

"Are you sure?" Dr. Hastings asks.

"Yes father, of course I'm sure. I would have seen her if she were here and she's not." Candy plays the act of annoyed teenager well.

I can't take time to consider exactly why Candy is letting me go. I calm my heart and then find myself melting through the floor again. This time I focus on my feet going first. I can feel my feet dangling from the ceiling in whatever room is below me. I allow myself to slowly drop through. I nearly lose my focus when Dr. Hastings flips back the blanket again and looks right at me! His eyes dart back and forth because, to my relief, I'm still invisible.

"I told you father!" Candy whines.

Dr. Hastings reaches his arm under the bed and swipes it around. I push the rest of myself through to the room below just before his hand catches me.

I hit the ground feet first but fall to my knees from the drop. I knock a metal tray off of a table at the same time and I cringe as it clashes to the floor with me. Looking around I realize I'm in one of the patient rooms of the nurses station.

"What was that?" A nurse runs into the room and looks around. I'm still conveniently invisible.

Another nurse comes in. "Is everything okay?" She asks.

"Yeah, this just fell? That's strange. Do you think someone was in here?"

"No Silvia. Look around, where would they hide. You need to stop being so jumpy." The older nurse chides.

"Sorry, it's scary though. I don't know what that girl did but I don't want to run into her." The nurse leans down and starts picking up the items that fell to the ground.

I take that as my cue to exit. I walk as quietly as I can out of the nurse’s station.

The most obvious question I have to ask myself is how the heck do I plan on getting out of here? I don't know the answer yet but one thing is for certain. I have to go back to save my friends.

I stealthily make my way through the halls trying my best to remain undetected. Luckily the halls seem pretty much deserted. The same female voice comes on the loud speaker every five minutes reminding people that there is a high risk red alert. She also continues to remind everyone that I'm a dangerous fugitive. Hearing my name repeated over and over again doesn't help my nerves. I keep going though. I figure if I can make my way to the area above the cave, I could drop through a couple of floors and be there in no time. I can't chance taking our usual route through the tunnels since they are likely to be heavily guarded. The only problem is that if I'm right, the cave is two floors below the commons area. I just hope that the place that is usually bustling with people is as deserted as these hallways.

I look down and realize my hand is coming back into focus. I stop mid step and regain my composure. My hand becomes invisible again. I breathe a sigh of relief. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this up. My body is trembling from using my powers this long. I find the will power to keep going. My friends need me.

A moment later I find myself turning the corner of a hallway that spills out into the commons area. I stop suddenly seeing all the people struggling to make their way into the auditorium. Seas of people take small steps towards the far entrance on the opposite end of the room. People are packed in tighter than a sardine can. Is this the protocol for a high risk, red alert? There is no way I can weave through all these people and still remain undetected.

Think, Willow think... I have to find somewhere to hide before I materialize out of thin air in front of all of these people. I suddenly remember the very first time my father and I made our way into the mountain. There was a hallway that has since been closed off. I move along the wall as stealthily as possible making sure I don't bump into anyone. My hand accidently hits a lady's bottom. She turns around and slaps the man behind her. I hold my breath as I watch the two of them yell back and forth at each other. A small hole opens up in front of me as people meander over to where the argument is taking place.

Soon I come to a spot in the wall that looks to have been recently sealed. There is a light grey substance, almost like grout, surrounding the outline of a door in the mountain wall. I look down making sure I am still invisible. I pray that I have enough strength to make it out alive. My knees are threatening to buckle from weakness of using my gift of invisibility. I place my hand up to the middle of the newly made wall. I slide it through and am pleased to find it is only as thick as the stone itself. I concentrate on pushing myself the rest of the way through. I feel someone ram into me from behind and I am thrown to the ground on the other side. The wind is knocked out of me and I just lay there for a few moments, in the dark corridor, catching my breath. I let my powers go allowing myself to get a break from using them.

I hone in on my healing gift for a few moments and feel the shakiness reside. I don't think I'll ever get used to the idea that I can regenerate myself. Soon I feel back to normal. I focus on going invisible first. It's too dark in this corridor to know if it worked so I'm just going to have to hope for the best.

I start allowing my body to melt through the floor. I move much faster than usual this time. I fall down into a small patch of leafy green stuff. Looking around I realize I landed in a row of spinach in the garden level of the shelter. Usually I hate spinach but I feel a little more affection for it now that it cushioned my landing. The sprinklers come on and they start soaking my scrubs.

I move as fast as I can through the floor and only fall a few feet before I land with a thud on top of one of the storage containers. I throw my hands over my mouth worried that someone might have heard the fall.

I wait a few minutes and when nobody comes running my way, I jump down. One more floor to go! I focus again and this time I try to move much slower through the floor. My biggest fear is I’ll land in the cave and go falling four stories to the ground.

As I continue to move through the dense mountain matter, I get a panicked feeling inside. I try to focus on staying calm and eventually I feel my feet touch the ground. I have to drop to my knees because when I come out of the wall all together I'm in the small tunnel that we had to crawl to in order to get to the main cave.

I can't believe I did it! I crawl in the direction of the outer cave quietly. When I reach the entrance I peer around and find that the cave seems to be empty. It's extremely dark inside so it's hard to tell for sure. I remain invisible just in case and stealthily move towards the entrance to the second cave.

The rock debris left over from the explosion cover the mouth of the tunnel. My heartbeat starts picking up as I think of my friends on the other side. I have no idea how damaging the dynamite was. I don't know if they even survived and that thought sickens me. I clear my head and try not to focus on the worst possible outcome. Instead I imagine the most gorgeous pair of navy blue eyes waiting for me. I push my hand through the rock. I think of Alec the whole time I move through to the second cave. Our cave.

I let go of the invisibility and when I step out on the other side my heart soars. The cave isn't completely collapsed in. I look back at the tunnel and see that only a few rocks lie there. The explosion must not have gone as deep as they thought it would.

"Alec!" I call out excited to see him. The sun is still shining through the opening in the ceiling. Nobody answers me. I look around for my friends but I don't see them.

"Claire? Connor?" I call out unsure. My brain starts going through all of the possible scenarios. This cave is a good size but there isn't an area that they could hide in. I would be able to see them. Why aren't they here? I look back at the rubble. There's no way that all three of them were in the tunnel when it exploded. Right?

I walk around looking for any sign of them. I must look around for at least an hour because the sun shifts in the sky. I walk back and forth along the water’s edge trying to think of what to do next. Maybe Connor found a way to get them out using his gift. If I could use my gift on Alec what would keep Connor from using his gift on other people.