Aegis: Catalyst Grove (15 page)

Chase creaked open the door, letting a sliver of light pour into the room from the stairwell.
 
All four of them tensed up at the sight of Chase’s form stepping through the door and into the room.
 
They all squeezed their eyes shut, as if doing so would help them disappear into the darkness.
 
Graham opened one eye.
 
He tensed up even more at the sight of Chase looking right at them.
 
Graham’s fist clenched so tight he thought he was about to draw blood with his fingernails digging into his palm.
 
Chase stood there for what seemed like hours, staring right at them, but eventually he turned his attention to the rest of the room.
 

Graham relaxed a bit knowing that Chase had not seem them, until he saw Chase reaching for a small switch on the wall.

Oh no.

Chase’s finger met the bottom of the light-switch.
 
Graham’s heart sank knowing there was nothing he could do.
 
The light would turn on and the would be exposed.
 
This was it.
 
It was over.
 
He took in a deep breath as Chase flicked his wrist.

“Click.”

C
HAPTER
E
LEVEN

The Escape

Darkness remained.
 
Click…click..click..click…
 
Chase moved the switch up and down multiple times, but the switch was dead.
 

Chase grunted under his breath.
 
“Great.”
 
He took a a few more steps into the pitch black of the room.
 
He held up his right hand as if he was motioning someone to stop.
 
His fingers spread and were cupped as if he were palming a basketball.
 
A few seconds went by as his hand began to glow a deep yellow color.
 
Brighter and brighter it grew until it was almost too much to look at.
 
The light from his hand casted large shadows on the wall of the tables and chairs scattered throughout the room.
 
He was using his glowing hand as a guiding light.
 
Never bothering to look behind him, Chase kept moving forward.

“Come on guys and gals.
 
Don’t you think you are a little old for hide-and-seek?”

Graham surveyed the room while the radiating light from Chase’s hand gave him light enough to see.
 
They were in a large open space.
 
A few chairs and tables littered the room, some standing and others turned over on their sides.
 
With the flashes of light instilling fear and curiosity, they all sat huddled in the corner of the room with their eyes open.
 
Wherever they were, it looked abandoned.
 

At that moment, the room reflected perfectly the feelings they all felt inside.
 
Abandoned.
 
Abandoned and hopeless.
 
Not only were they left in a dingy room tied to chairs, but they had no idea where they had been taken.
 
Who knows how far they had been transported.
 
They were orphans who intentionally snuck out of their rooms without anyone knowing.
 
Help would not come for at least a few days when Ms. Winstone and Mr. Kobble realized they were not just off playing in the woods.
 
Who knows what would happen to them in two day’s time.
 

The light was almost completely gone now as Chase continued into the heart of the building.
 
Still huddled together, Damien was the first to break the silence.

“Who are these people?
 
First he can move like lightening, now he can light up like it?”
 

What first got him excited and made him want to be a part of this ‘Aegis’ group now sent waves of terror though Damien.
 

“I don’t like this Graham.
 
This guy is some sort of freak, and I don’t want anything to do with it or him.
 
What do they want us for anyway?
 
Are they going to turn us into freaks too?”

“Keep your voice down,” whispered Kel.
 

“I don’t know.
 
We need to concentrate on getting out of this place, ok.
 
Let’s do that first, then we can worry about what they want with us,” said Graham, trying to calm Damien down.
 

The only option now was to go back upstairs.
 
This would be the only floor they had already searched and would not think to look for them on.
 
Waiting until they were back in complete darkness, Graham told them of his idea.

“You heard Cavaness.
 
They will be searching this floor and the lower one from both sides.
 
The only place we have to go is up.”
 

They all thought for a second, then nodded in agreement.
 
Standing up, they walked back over to the door.
 
Graham silently opened the door and let the others go out into the stairwell, closing the door behind him and followed them up the stairs.
 
Going back through the 3
^rd
story door again, they huddled together.

Kel wrapped her arm around Ailey for comfort as they tried to figure out what to do next.
 
Damien turned to look through a window into one of the many holding rooms.
 
Chairs, tables, wall.
 
That was it.
 

“We have got to be able to see outside.”

“I know, but we are going to have to tread carefully up here.
 
Opening any doors could trigger another alarm.
 
We got lucky last time.
 
I don’t think we will be that fortunate again,” said Graham.

The lights overhead continued to flicker as they ran down the hall, around the corner and past their old room.
 
Not stopping, they continued running to the other end of the hall to the next corner where Damien had first seen Chase and Cavaness.
 
They tip toed past a few bathrooms separated by a dingy water fountain with the front panel detached and lying on the floor.
 
The walls were stained with age and neglect, and cobwebs lined the top of the wall like crown molding.

The wall to their right ended, giving way for a large open room.
 
It must have been some sort of break room for the employees.
 
There were small circular tables and chairs with a dilapidated couch in the corner.
 
A few cabinets lined the wall 90 degrees from the hallway with a small sink and a coffee maker beside it, housing a broken glass pot.
 

Looking to the opposite side of the hall, they saw more doors, but they looked different.
 
There was one large window beside each door with long, plastic strips hanging from the top.
 
They were to type of blinds that could be manipulated with a little white stick.
 
You could twist the strips to let people look into the room or twist them shut for privacy.
 
These were all twisted shut, but fortunately the hands of time had torn some of the strips off of the track that held them in place.
 

They all ran to a different window to have a look into the rooms.
 
“These are offices for the people who used to work here.
 
Graham looked through the small gap in the hanging plastic.
 
There was a large wooden desk with a leather chair fallen on its side.
 
“This one has a window!”

“So does this one!” said Damien.

“I think all of them do,” said Kel, looking into the next office.
 

“Don’t you go screaming at me,” said Kel to the office door.
 
She grabbed the knob and twisted it hoping the alarm was intended only for detainees, not staff.
 
Alarm or not, it didn’t matter.
 
It was locked.
 
Graham and Damien tried their’s as well, but the knob would only turn slightly before the lock stopped it’s momentum.
 

“Give me a break!” said Graham.
 
Looking over at Kel, he said, “Hey, just do your little blast thing.”

“I told you, that wasn’t me.”

“It was you. You slammed your hands down and my chair blew in half,” said Graham, getting frustrated with Kel’s lie.

Kel’s face began to turn red.
 
“IT WASN’T ME.”
 

She stared at Graham with a spark of anger in her eyes.
 
She wore the angry facade, but Graham could tell she was hiding something.

“Whoa..ok, fine.
 
Don’t tear my head off,” said Graham, not wanting to rattle the cage.
 

Turning around to try the door again, Graham gritted his teeth.
 
Something was not right.
 
He couldn’t help but notice the tone in her voice.
 
She knows.
 
This isn’t the first time this has happened to her.
 
She is hiding something.
 
Either she is like me, or she is one of them.
 
He had to keep a close eye on her.
 
He had trusted Chase and looked where it got him.
 
Whatever companionship he felt with Kel was gone.
 
He was not going to be fooled again.
 
She could not be trusted.

As the rosiness of her cheeks faded, Kel looked to her side, realizing that Ailey was not with her.
 
Her gut sank as a wave of panic surged through her core.
 

“Ailey!
 
Where are you?”
 
Trying not to be too loud, she whispered as loud as she could.
 
“Ailey, where did you go?”

Graham turned around.
 
He hadn’t known Ailey for more than a few hours, but they couldn’t help but feel protective of her.
 
She was so innocent and precious.
 
They all ran down the hall, coming to an abrupt stop as they saw the open office door.
 
They ran through the door to find Ailey with her hands up against the outside window, looking out over the forest that surrounded them.
 
Kel ran up behind her throwing her arms around Ailey; her eyes getting misty.
 

“You scared me half to death!
 
Why didn’t you come get me?”
 
Cradling the back of her head, Kel pulled Ailey tightly into her chest.
 
“I thought something had happened to you.”
 

Ailey pulled away from Kel and looked into her eyes.
 
She smiled at Kel letting her know that she was ok.
 
Kel wiped a tear and smiled back cupping her hands around Ailey’s cheeks.
 
Ailey tilted her head so that she pinned Kel’s hand between her check and shoulder as a hug.

Meanwhile, Graham and Damien were looking out the window for a way out.
 
There were no stairs on the outside of the building, at least not on this side.
 
They were completely surrounded by trees.
 
Wherever they were, it was isolated.
 

“This just keeps getting better and better,” said Damien.
 
“We are no better off now than when we were in that room.”

Ailey moved her fingers in a series of three different patterns.
 
Kel looked at her hand and said each letter she was forming.
 
“O-U-T.”
 
Out?
 
You see a way out?”

Ailey shook her head up and down with a big smile on her face.
 

“Where?” Kel asked.

Damien and Graham ran over to the girls.
 
“You found a way out?”
 

Ailey walked over past the window and over behind the desk.
 
She pointed to a crooked picture hanging on the wall.
 
It was of a man with a large beard and top hat standing on top of a building with his hands clasping the lapels of his overcoat.
 
He had a very proud, beaming expression on his face, like that of a brand new dad.
 
As they looked at the picture, they noticed the photographer was not just capturing his moment of achievement, though.
 
Behind him, you could see the lay of the land.
 
There was a large path cut out in the forest leading to a few small buildings nooked in the woods.
 
Far off to the right hand side of the picture, there was a wide clearing in the trees with a large pond.
 
Graham looked at the man with the large grin.
 
Taking hold of the photograph, he snatched it from the wall to get a better look.
 
Taking the sleeve of his shirt and wiping the years of dirt and grime from the glass, Graham shouted.

 
“I know this guy!
 
This is Mr. Alexander!
 
This is the same guy who built Greenwood!
 
There is a picture of him over top of our fireplace.
 
We can’t be far from Portfield if he was the one who built this place.
 
He practically built the entire town.”

Ailey grabbed the top of the picture frame and pushed it down on top of the desk.
 
She moved her finger along the bottom of the picture.
 
Beginning at the path in the trees near the building, she traced it past the the small buildings all the way near the top of the picture.
 
It was hard to see because it was so far off in the distance, but if you looked hard enough, you could see a small construction site at the other end of the trail.
 
There was not much of a building there.
 
There was a small outline of a foundation, with a small structure to the front.
 
The arches were unmistakable.
 
It was a portico.
 
This was Portfield Manor in it’s infancy.
 
It wasn’t just a mansion.
 
It was a part of an entire complex.