I woke up to what had become a familiar feeling of my head being a pulsating ball of mud. I was on a relatively hard surface in a brightly lit room. It was silent. Yet there had been commotion. I do remember commotion.
I opened my eyes to try and get a bearing as to where I was. The walls were white and without texture, a small door was close to the end of the bed. It looked solidly built and electronically operated; it had no handle, at least on this side. I remember seeing the Head Councillor walk through it…and Maria. That’s right she was here; and willingly too. Did I talk to her? I think I did; though I don’t remember saying anything. But why was she here? Too many questions. My brain just felt clogged, my thoughts couldn’t move.
Anyway, it didn’t matter. I had called for help from outside, Chloe may have escaped. All I could do was wait and hope that I had done enough. Though the camp was probably going to hell outside, Forrest and Maria had apparently sided with the head councillor. I had no certainty whether Chloe, Tyler or anyone capable of action was still at large. And what could Brian do by himself. He wasn’t even here ten years ago. That was depressing.
I pushed myself up to my feet and slowly walked around the small room. There appeared to be a potential camera in the far corner from the door. I wonder if someone was currently watching me. I stopped at the door. On its left was a facility for a swipe card. It was solidly built with a small screen on it which was currently blank. I doubt if it would be vulnerable for hacking, but even if it was, I had no tools. If I wanted to escape I would probably have to beat up one of the guards if they came in. Do the sick prisoner. I tried to picture myself actually pulling it off. The image did not come easily.
Suddenly the door beeped and I instinctively stepped back, expecting someone to enter. I stood watching it for a few seconds but no one came in. I wondered if they were watching through the one way window which was set in the door. Whilst I was staring at it, the door beeped again. Still it did not open. However the screen on the card swipe facility was illuminated with a set of six numbers. I guess it showed the id-number of the one who was trying to enter.
007-7e4
But why weren’t they coming in. This made no…wait a minute. I looked closer at the screen. That’s unexpected. The door beeped again and the number changed.
734-771
‘ILLHEL?’…Help maybe? It beeped again.
157-620
‘OZGLSI?’ Well, that’s nowhere near a word. However, it was oddly familiar to the last six digits of Brian’s ID number. I felt a wave of relief as I realised that Brian was finally here. His proficiency never ceases to amaze me. However, when the screen flashed ‘access granted’ and the door slid open, the realisation that I still had responsibility almost winded me. What the hell was I supposed to do?
Getting out would have to be the first step. Ever so cautiously I peered out the door and saw that the passageway was clear. So far, so good. Both ends looked identical. Now what? I wonder if its protocol to install exit signs in a subterranean base.
I didn’t have much time to think as Tyler ran around the corner. His eyes were fixed on me as he ran but he didn’t call out until he was very close.
‘How did you get out?’ He asked, slightly puffed. ‘You haven’t turned have you?’
‘Brian let me out; it appears he hacked the security system. I don’t know how much power he has though.’ I replied. Tyler stood dumbfounded.
‘And here I am thinking I was being resourceful,’ he said, holding up a card for me to see. I quickly grabbed it.
It had a magnetic strip on the back, obliviously a key card. On the front was a familiar picture of Maria as well as her name, a 6 digit ID number as well as what appeared to be a room number. It appeared to be in the same area as the cells however I was unfamiliar with the building layout.
‘How did you get this?’ I asked.
‘She came to talk to me. There may have been a bit of a commotion and I grabbed it,’ he said. ‘She appears to be working with the HC though she seems like she could still be won over. She just thinks he cares for her. That’s all.’
‘So we need to try and find her.’ I said.
‘Granted, that is important. However, I think it would be better to use this opportunity to have a look around. I want to see who’s working for the HC and how,’ he said, beginning to walk in the direction he was originally heading.
‘But we really should give this card back to Maria. We can’t steal from our team, if so then how can we convince them that we are right.’ I said, following after him.
He shook his head.’ At the moment we could use the card to get into areas which require a key card. We can also find any areas which cannot be accessed by Maria which will support us if we debate with her,’ He replied. We went quiet as he looked around a corner before continuing.
‘Brian appears to be in a position to grant us access to locks and Maria’s card could be cancelled as soon as she reports it missing,’ I said. ‘It could even set off an alarm if we use it. It’s best to give it back now that we’ve used it to escape.’ Tyler was silent as he continued walking. I didn’t know what he wanted me to do. I anxiously scanned the walls and doors. The numbers were definitely getting closer to that of Maria’s room. As we passed the entrance of another passageway the numbers began to move further apart. If I was going to find her I had to act now.
‘I’m going to find her room,’ I said, stopping.
Tyler stopped for a moment too, pausing for thought before speaking.
‘You can go and find her, and take the card if you want. I’m off to explore.’ What? I was going on alone? ‘Hopefully this Brian is as competent as you make him appear.’ He gave me an encouraging smile before continuing on his way. Great.
I stopped before a corner and peered around it. Coast was clear. I walked quickly, taking note of the numbers which labelled the doors. The numbers were definitely getting closer to that on the card. I felt my speed. I was getting reckless. I hope no one was around here.
And there it was. To remove any chance of confusion it even had a silver plaque with her name on it. I could imagine that would have appealed to Maria. I quickly made my way into the room, finding it empty. Though I didn’t have to wait long.
And then I was under her bed.
It happened so quickly. I barely had chance to talk to her and now Forrest is here. The one person I really didn’t want to see at the moment. Now the big question was whether she’d turn me into Forrest. It was probably likely, I mean, they were both on the same team now.
‘We need to run away, now!’ Forrest said. I wasn’t really expecting that approach.
‘But I only just started working here,’ she replied. ‘If I go now I’ll lose my independence.’
‘But you can’t stay here, the Head Councillor is dangerous. You don’t know what he will do to you,’ Forrest pleaded. He completely lacked his normal composure.
‘The Head Councillor is not dangerous; he only acts to prevent danger. He only locks people up because they are violent. Even Dylan was only captured because he attacked someone.’ What? I attacked someone.
‘Dylan was only defending Chloe. The Head Councillor set them up but they resisted his control.’ Oh, I guess I did attack someone. But Forrest wasn’t meant to be defending me. He caused it.
‘If you think he’s evil, than why are you working for him?’ Maria asked. A valid question.
‘Because he threatened me with you. He said that if I didn’t comply, he would take it out on you.’ His voice trembled slightly, though he was smart enough to keep it quiet. ‘Which is why you need to get out of here.’ He continued. ‘Which is why you can’t continue working for him. He isn’t giving you independence. As long as you are at this camp you are under his control. We are all under his control.’ So Forrest is planning on running away. That won’t work at all.
‘What about everyone else?’ I asked, dragging myself from out under the bed. Needless to say, Forrest was surprised to see me. I didn’t give him any chance to think.
‘If you escape now, and if the Head Councillor has as much control as you say he has, those left behind will be doomed. The number of people that can escape is extremely limited,’ I explained. ‘Even if we do escape, we’re running from an entity which had the power to get us all here in the first place, all of us feeling as if we came here on our own free will. Finding out how he did it is worth staying by itself but if that wasn’t enough, I know that if I leave now, I will be stuck thinking about this stupid camp for the rest of my life.’ And there it was, my reason for staying here. Being able to say it actually made me feel quite energised. Unfortunately it appeared to be lost on Forrest.
‘So you want to endanger everyone just because of your curiosity?’ Forrest asked, his voice condescending.
‘No, you’re missing the point.’ I said, glancing at Maria to see if she understood. Her expression was hard to read. Maybe she needed her diary to make sense of it all. Whatever she was thinking, she was not offering any support. I turned my attention back to Forrest.
‘Can’t you see? If we don’t take the offensive we lose. He has powers, whatever the source, which can control us somehow. Until we understand these we won’t be able to escape. ‘ Come on you idiot, why don’t you get it?
‘We can’t take the offense, he can read our minds. We can’t surprise him, he knows everything. Going against him will just hurt us. I have been fighting with him for this whole camp and what good has it done?’ Forrest said. He was getting exasperated. Had he really been fighting against the Head Councillor for the whole camp? Did he know how much evidence we had against him? His had me completely confused. The only thing I knew was that I couldn’t agree with him and I definitely couldn’t trust him.
‘I think, if the Head Councillor is evil, we should try and fight,’ Maria said, breaking her long silence. I felt my heart lose a good ton.
‘That’s great!’ I said. I almost felt like hugging her. ‘You’re on the inside; that would be a big help.’ Come on Forrest, Maria is happy, join us too.
‘So you are both deciding to stay,’ he said, his voice dead. ‘I know that fighting is impossible, and you have also ruled out running away.’ I did not like where this was heading.
‘Forrest, don’t!’ Maria pleaded. Was he going to turn us in?!? Without thinking I grabbed at his arm. He tried to shake me off as he made his way to the door.
‘Please, stop!’ I said. Failing to shake me off, he took the offensive, grappling my arm and aiming a blow at my head. I managed to partially avoid it but it still hurt, a lot. Pulling myself towards him I thrust my palm into his solar plexus. He recoiled and hit his head on the door frame before collapsing to the floor, gasping for breath. I didn’t know a body was capable of producing so much adrenaline. I glanced in confusion at Maria. She appeared shocked. Any attempt of thought on my part was interrupted by the sound of my own heart telling me to run.
Unfortunately someone had heard the commotion and was coming to investigate. Without thinking I was running as fast as I could in the opposite direction. I could only assume he was following close behind. I barged through some double doors, thankful they weren’t locked. The second I got through them a siren started and an automated voice informed that an all too familiar cell block had just been locked down. Hopefully Tyler wasn’t still in there.
I glanced behind me and, seeing that no one was following, slowed down to a brisk walk. They probably got caught in the lockdown. I needed to calm down and look for an exit. I was underground, so that would probably mean that I was looking for stairs. I just had to hope that I found them before the security guards found me.
My heart jumped as a person entered the corridor a little further down. He hurried towards me; there was no doubt that he had seen me. My body was paralysed as he approached. And then he went straight past me. Wait what?
‘What are you doing?’ I asked. He slowed down and turned to look at me.
‘The block where my room is in has been locked down. Apparently some prisoner has escaped. I don’t like the idea of some crazed person hiding in my room messing it up,’ he replied before continuing on his path.
‘But if it’s a lock down, they probably won’t let you in. The prisoner could escape through the door you open,’ I explained. That stopped him. I can’t believe I was talking to a potential captor.
‘Well that sucks, I wanted to help,’ he replied.
‘Don’t worry, the detention guards should be able to take care of it,’ I said. He walked back to me.
‘ So I guess I can’t do anything then. Are you doing anything?’ he asked.
‘Yeah, I need to get to ground level,’ I said. He cringed.
‘Have to help deal with the riots eh?’ he asked. Riots? Did Tyler know releasing the information was going to cause this effect? I nodded.
‘I’m hoping not to confront anyone,’ I said. ‘Do you know of any exists that open at the fringe of the camp? I only know of the exits inside the camp, though I don’t want to get caught up immediately in the riots.’
‘Sure, follow me,’ he said, heading in the direction I had originally been going. I followed after him.
‘So are you on some recon mission or something?’ he asked.
‘Something like that,’ I replied. ‘I have to make contact with a few people above ground.’
‘Be careful,’ he said. ‘Apparently someone named all the people who are working for the head councillor. That’s what started this riot. Most of us have retreated underground.’
‘I’ll keep that in mind,’ I said. After a little while longer he gestured to a door.
‘This will bring you up next to the lake,’ he said.
‘Thanks,’ I said.
‘Name’s Chris,’ he said, offering his hand.
‘Dylan,’ I said, regretting it immediately. ‘Bye’ I ran through the door which led onto a spiral staircase.
Sure enough, I exited from a rundown shack near the lake; the entrance to the stairway being covered by a door which blended into the floor. It was starting to get dark but there was still noise coming from the camp. There was a glow of fire and I hoped that they hadn’t set fire to anything important. I started to make my way towards the camp, wary as I did not know how far the situation had deteriorated.
‘Dylan.’ I heard my name called and quickly looked around. My eyes fell on a woman only a few metres away. She made no hesitation in closing this distance.
‘My name’s Alice, I’m a friend of Brian,’ she said.
‘Where is he?’ I asked, stunned. She shrugged.
‘Hiding somewhere.’ She held up her phone. ‘You can talk to him if you want.’ I nodded. She fiddled for bit before handing it too me, already ringing.
‘Hello,’ Brian answered.
‘It’s Dylan.’
‘Oh hey. Nice punch. Never thought you had it in you.’ I felt a bit of pride welling up inside me, but then I remembered what Brian had done.
‘How did you open my door?’ I asked.
‘I’m a professional. These factory produced security systems are nothing. Though there was some interesting things that I may want to talk with you about later. But you can rest now. Follow Alice, she’s our girl on the ground at the moment.’
‘Okay, thanks for coming.’
‘Heh, it’s all part of my job. Stay safe. You’re not finished yet.’ He hung up. I gave Alice her phone back.
‘Okay follow me and move quickly. The camps a little stirred up at the moment and you are classified as an enemy to them.’
‘An enemy?’ I asked. ‘I’ve been trying to help them.’
‘Well you’re a tick now, even if you weren’t before.’ She smiled encouragingly. ‘Don’t worry; we’ll take care of you.’
As she led me through the camp I saw that it was definitely different to what it was when I left earlier that day. There was paper everywhere, many of them having the campers list printed on them. Thankfully a bonfire appeared to be the only source of fire. If there was any chaos, it did appear to have calmed down. And then I was led into a dorm.
Chloe had a strained wrist, possibly broken. My cheek had developed a dark bruise. Tyler was possibly still underground. Maria was there too. Forrest said that the fight was impossible. That we couldn’t win. But we were not alone. For whatever reason, I had the staff of Labresci behind me, as well as other parties. This place holds a mystery, and I am not going to stop until it is unravelled.
