Red Skies- Book One [[ DRAFT ]]

Chapter Seven

Cherry sucked in a breath as they approached the front gate. There was a keypad and a buzzer. 

"Damn," Rodney muttered. He pressed and held the buzzer, and then let go. Nothing happened. He tried to punch in a few different codes but had no luck.

"Damn! Why didn't we consider this?"

"Hang on... I think I wrote down a code," Acker said, feeling in their pockets for a paper he wrote the code on. He pulled out a small scrap of paper and handed it to Rodney. 

Rodney punched in the code, and hit enter. 

BZZZZ 

It didn't work. Rodney swore again. 

"They must have changed it or something," Acker mumbled. Rodney shot him a glare and he recoiled.

"Well, this sucks. What do we do now?" Wynn said. Lacee still had her arms wrapped around her. 

"We could try and climb the fence..." Hina said, trailing off.

"No, there's barbed wire..." Cherry said, pursing her lips. The group stood there for a few more minutes. This messed up their plans. They didn't have a ride back home, and they didn't have a way into the facility. Rodney felt in his pockets for anything that could open the gate. Cherry approached the buzzer and pressed it again. This time, it connected.

"W-What did you do?" Hina said, running over.

"I don't know," Cherry said.

"Who's there?" A deep male voice said through the speaker. Acker walked over to the buzzer.

"We're here to figure out what's going on. We did research and thought there would be people here," Acker said. The voice on the other end paused, and then the gate opened.

"Alright!" Cherry said, almost smiling. The group walked through the gate and to the entrance to the building. There were some bushes but they weren't well watered. Cherry wondered how the weather changes had been affecting nature. It hadn't rained in days. 

They arrived at the front doors, and they automatically swung open. A guard stood there in a uniform.

"Follow me, please," he said. Everyone followed him into an elevator. It was very awkward and quiet. Acker and Rodney still weren't speaking. Lacee held onto Wynn's back a little tighter, and Wynn held her hand. Cherry and Hina were so close they were almost touching. The elevator dinged and opened. The group followed the guard down a hallway and finally into a room.

The door opened, and there stood a group of people. Amongst them was a tall man with curly black hair that was beginning to gray... Cherry's father, Jackson King. Cherry's eyes widened and locked with her dad's.

"Dad!" She nearly screamed and ran over to him.

"Cherry!" He gasped. The father and daughter embraced. Cherry began to cry.

"Oh, hon, I thought I'd never see you again!"

"Me neither," Cherry said through her tears.

"Are you okay?" He asked, pulling back from the hug to look at his daughter.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What about you?" 

"I'm alright. I've been very busy," He said. "Speaking of which... would you like to introduce me to your friends here?" Cherry turned around and looked at her team.

"Dr. Phoenix Acker," Dr. Acker said, stepping forward and holding out his hand to shake. Mr. King took it. Everyone else introduced themselves, and then Mr. King's eyes fell on Hina.