Deadlocked 5 (13 page)

We continued this way until the shower stopped and the door to the readiness room unlocked, ushering us in so that we could dry off and get dressed. Neither of us had any interest in that and instead took the opportunity to lie down and continue our exploration. Hailey got on her back and squealed as her skin touched the frigid tile, but I stormed over her and reignited her passion by pressing my hand between her legs while licking her breasts. She arched her back and moaned as I continued to rub her while running my tongue back and forth across her chest.

We explored each other lustfully and with exuberance. Our defiance of the Administrators was exhilarating, and helped to heighten our passion. Our lives had been spent under the strict guidance of a faceless regime, and we'd adhered to their rules because we knew no other way to live. Now our revolution had begun, and I would never look back.

Hailey and I pleasured each other until our bodies quaked and our muscles burned. When I
thought I could endure no more she would plunge back down and bring me to completion again until I finally had to plead with her to stop.

"I can't," I said as I lay back on the tile. "I can't do it anymore."

"All finished?" She crawled over me and I slid to the side so she could lie down beside me.

"I've never felt this good." My entire body was flooded with endorphins and every muscle was relaxed. It felt like I was sinking into the floor as Hailey curled up beside me.

"I know. This was better than I ever dreamed it would be."

"How can we do it again?" I rolled to my side and propped my head up on my left hand as I used my right to trace the curves of her breasts.

She shook her head and said, "I don't know. It's not every day that a body falls out of the ceiling and they cancel our courses."

I shuddered at the mention of the grim event. "I almost forgot about that. Is there something wrong with us?"

"What do you mean?"

"Right after that happened, we snuck in here and did this," I motioned to the shower. "That's kind of disturbing, if you think about it."

"I guess, but this might've been our only chance. I wasn't going to let it slip by."

I sat up and Hailey put her arm around my waist to keep me seated. "We should get some clothes on," I said and pulled away from her grasp.

"I don't want to." She acted like a petulant child as she frowned, but stood up anyhow and waited for me to hand her one of my jumpsuits.

"I hope it fits," I said as I gave it to her.

She wiggled her way into the tight suit and did her best to zip it up. Her breasts were packed in and she huffed as she tried to push them down. I watched and laughed while she squirmed uncomfortably. "Stop laughing," she said.

"You look ridiculous."

"My boobs feel like they’re being pushed back inside me." She was having trouble breathing in the tight suit.

"If the Administrators show up, we can tell them that you were shaken up after what happened in the Common Room, and that's why you came in here."

Hailey closed her eyes and sighed. "We're going to get in trouble."

"Probably."

"Do you think they're going to scan the videos of us?" she asked. "Once, they accused me of not drinking my protein and when I lied and said that I did, they scanned the video of everything I'd done in my room the day before."

"They did the same thing to me, just this morning.
I threw my purple in the incinerator last night and they caught me."

Hailey looked up at the corners where the cameras were located. They were nearly imperceptible unless you knew they were there, and I'd spent most of my childhood ignorant of their existence. "What will they do if they catch us?"

"The same thing they did to Echo and Paris, I guess. They'll let us out, but we won't be Graduates."

"Is that what happened to them?" asked Hailey of the two girls that had been expelled recently. "I mean, I know that's what the Administrators said, but how do we really know?"

"How do we really know anything?"

Hailey looked at me with a glimmer of devious glee in her eyes. "Would it be so bad if we got kicked out?"

It was a preposterous notion. "Yes," I said emphatically.

"Why?"

I thought I knew, but the answer eluded me. "Because we're going to be Graduates," I said unconvincingly.

"What does that even mean?" She didn't give me a chance to answer and took my hands as she continued. "If we get thrown out, then we can be together every single night if we want."

"I don’t know, Hailey."

"Don't know what?" She was desperate to convince me to leave with her. "We can be together every single day."

"What about Junction, and Xyz?" I asked about the games that Hailey excelled at.

"What about them? They're just games." She put her hand on my chest and then put it on her own. "This, what we have, is real. What happened here was the greatest moment of my entire life. Nothing else even comes close. I can't go back, Cobra. I can't go back to my room knowing that we might never be able to do this again."

I put my palm against my head as if I'd caught a fever and spun to stare at the mirror. Hailey stood behind me and put her arms around my waist. I watched through the mirror as she set her chin on my right shoulder. "This is crazy," I said as I stared into her emerald eyes.

"So?"

"You're talking about leaving behind everything we've ever known; everything we've lived for." I shook my head and looked down. "Doesn't that scare you?"

"Yes, but not as much as the idea of being with you again excites me." She put her hand on my cheek, and touched her thumb against my lower lip. "There's nothing I wouldn't do to be with you."

"Like you said, we don't even know where they took Echo and Paris. What if they're in a prison somewhere?"

She looked incredulous and shook her head. "No. They wouldn't put them in prison for touching each other. That's insane."

"Maybe we should think about it," I said. "Let's take a few days and just think it over."

Hailey shook her head and smiled. "I can't wait that long. I want to go now. I want to get to the Surface and hold your hand as we walk out into the sunshine for the first time in our lives. I've never wanted anything more. Just think about it, Cobra, think
about the warm sun touching your face for the very first time. Don't you want to see that," she paused and then said, "with me?"

I nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go."

She smiled jubilantly and asked, "Are you sure?"

"No," I laughed. "Not at all."

"Then why did you say that you'd go with me?"

"I want to leave, I hate the idea of staying here and not being able to be with you, but I'm just scared. I'm scared of what's out there." I pointed toward the door that led to the Main Hall. "We just saw a guy fall through the ceiling and a bunch of other guys come out with giant weapons. They blew the guy's head off! It's not exactly a ringing endorsement of what the outside world has in store for us."

Hailey looked as if she was going to say something, but then she withheld her rebuttal and instead started to laugh. I joined in, and we managed to find humor in the horrible truth. "That's a good point," she said.

"Thanks."

She was quiet for a moment, but then took a deep breath, which caused her breasts to heave in the tight jumpsuit, and said, "I don't care. I still want to go."

I nodded and closed my eyes as I dared to say, "Me too."

Hailey reached out and embraced me before kissing my cheeks over and over. "Let's do it. Let's go right now. Are you ready?" She was excited and spoke quickly.

"How? We're on lockdown."

"We'll just have to get their attention." She climbed onto the counter, in front of the mirror, and started to pound her palm against it. She waved at the camera and then continued to hit the mirror. It shook with each strike until she suddenly stopped and stared down at the top edge.

"What is it?"

She hit the mirror again and stared at it curiously. "The mirror isn't sealed to the wall up here." She knelt lower, precariously balanced on the edge of the sink, and pointed at the side of the mirror along the plastic edge that connected it to the wall. "It's connected here, but not on the top."

I climbed up beside her on the counter to see what she meant. She was right; the plastic edge of the mirror was missing from the top. Hailey slapped the mirror again and I saw how it wobbled enough to reveal the space behind. "There's no wall back there."

"I know," said Hailey with delight. "Help me try to get it pulled back."

The space between was too thin to fit our fingers, but we were able to slip our fingernails in. It hurt to pull the mirror back, but we managed to apply enough force to get our fingers behind it. The plastic on the edge to my left cracked and the mirror jolted back, nearly causing me to tumble off the sink. I steadied myself and then pulled harder, allowing a view behind the mirror.

"What's back there?" asked Hailey.

"It's dark," I said as I peered into the hidden world inside the walls. "It looks like the same sort of hallway that the men came out of."

"Let's keep pulling," she said as she anchored herself for another attempt.

We tugged harder this time, and the plastic splintered further, but the mirror didn't seem willing to break off entirely. We were about to try again when I saw a stream of blood dripping down the front of the mirror from under Hailey's grip.

"You cut yourself."

Hailey didn't pay attention to the wound. "I know, just keep pulling."

Her determination to escape was undaunted and she struggled even harder this time, causing the plastic to crackle more. Then, with a loud crash, the entire molding on her side of the mirror broke free. She fell backward, off the counter, and slammed down to the floor. At the same time, the lights in my room turned off and were replaced with a flashing red one. I wasn't sure if it was because of our vandalism or if something else was happening elsewhere. In either case, we needed to get out of there.

I was left alone to hold the dislodged mirror as Hailey sat on the floor, and it was too heavy to keep balanced. It tilted back and I had to quickly push at the front of it to force it to the right. My hand slid through Hailey's blood and squeaked as I moved the mirror off the side of the counter.

Hailey moved as the mirror's edge smashed into the tile floor near where she'd been sitting. I was worried that the glass would shatter, but it stayed solid as it collapsed against the door to the Main Hall.

"Are you okay?" I asked as I panted.

"Yes." She winced as she stood up. "My butt just hurts."

"How's your hand?"

She looked at the slash on her right palm as it pulsed blood. "I'll be okay." She took a towel from the rack on the opposite wall and wrapped it around her hand.

I looked into the room behind the mirror in fascination. The idea that this had been hidden here my entire life was both terrifying and exhilarating. The walls were hollow, and my entire world had suddenly become larger because of it.

The corridor inside of the mirror was grey and lined with wires that crisscrossed over the ceiling and connected to various outlets. It appeared that the mirror was one sided, and that someone standing inside of the walls could watch the person on the other side. I braced myself with my hands on the walls inside of my Ready Room while stepping down into the grey hall.

Hailey climbed through behind me with the towel still wrapped around her bleeding hand. She wasted no time exploring the corridor once inside and I had to rush to keep up with her. The hall was brightly lit by a pulsing red light, similar to the one in my room. The hall led along the side of my unit and then branched off, requiring us to turn right or left.

"Which way should we go?" I asked as I looked in both directions.

Hailey pointed left and said, "That's the direction of the Common Room. I don't think we should go that way."

"Fair enough," I said and we headed to the right. 

Our footsteps echoed through the hall. It was an alien world that I marveled at as we passed. There were large vents on the ceiling that pushed out cool air on us. It seemed that each room had
its own hallway connected to the main one that we ran along. If we wanted, we could spy on each of the girls in their Ready Rooms from this area, and I wondered how often someone had been standing behind my mirror, spying on me as I got ready for my day. Luckily, there was no one here now, and I imagined this was because they were dealing with whatever had happened in the Common Room earlier.

The corridor ended at a metal door and we searched for a place to put our hands to signal it to open. "How do we open it?" asked Hailey as she pawed at the metal.

"Maybe it's not a door," I said. "Maybe they just sealed up the area."

She grasped a small rod that was set inside of a circle and fiddled with it for a moment. Then she turned it and the door's intricate bar lock shifted from its brace, allowing the door to open.

"Aha!" She looked back at me and smiled.