Somnia (Dream Corp.)

CHAPTER EIGHT

They ran in the direction the girl had taken off, hiding in doorways and ducking behind cars. She wasn't hard to find, given that she was completely cornered by the 8 agents, who had their guns pointed at her.

Adrien moved closer, putting himself behind the agents so they won't spot him. Brandt followed.

The agents' voices were echoing down the deserted building as they screamed for the girl to surrender. Adrien wondered what more they could want, being the ones with the 8 electric rifles trained on her, ready to shock her heart into stopping.

"Just stay where you are!" One of them shouted. He nodded to the agent next to him who, under command, moved forward tentatively. In the same moment, the girl put herself on her knees, surrendering.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" The one in command yelled again. "Stand up!"

The girl placed her hands on the pavement and buried her fingers into the grass that had grown between the cracks.

The agent that was instructed to walk toward her now stopped and took a step back. He glanced at his captain, who was now pointing his rifle at him and shouting "Move- "

They all fell. All 8 of them. All at once, like someone turned the switch off on their bodies. The rifles clanked on the ground next to them. The street fell quiet. Even the birds appeared to be left speechless.

Adrien and Brandt stared, unmoving, with their mouths agape. Is this a joke? Adrien's thoughts scrambled to make sense of the situation. His feet were starting to go numb from crouching behind the car, but he couldn't move enough to put his knees on the ground to relieve the numbness. This is impossible, right? He asked himself, as if his mind had the answer hidden somewhere, out of his view. His muscles were paralysed; he was locked in place. Bea? Impossible.

It's a crazy thing, how confusion makes the brain come to the most far-fetched conclusion. When Adrien had been a boy, five or six years old, his life had pretty much been about being confined into white walls and windowless rooms. He didn't think about his childhood very often, not on purpose anyways. And like right now, his surroundings took his choice away and he once again found himself between white walls. And once again, he had electric rifles pointed at his face, and he was being shouted at and nudged and swatted over the head. For a second, grown Adrian thought child Adrian had made the agents who were cornering the girl fall asleep. Child Adrian had certainly been capable of that when he was, well, a child. Grown Adrian, however, had sworn to never again use his power of taking away other people's. For a second, grown Adrian was afraid of child Adrian.

"- yo! You good?" Brandt's raspy whisper pulled him to reality. He had put a hand on Adrien shoulder, who was just now regaining the sensation to his whole body.

The agents in front of them were still laying on the ground, arms and legs sprawled out, fast asleep. But the girl was gone.

"The fuck happened?"

Adrien stared at Brandt. Either his brain was scrambled or Brandt's was.

When he saw his visible confusion, Brandt said: "You kinda went into shock for a minute there. I got no idea what's happening either. But we better figure it out, cause she's headed for the building."

Arian sprained into gear. That statement would have been completely useless, given they were in a city full of buildings, if they hadn't chosen one particular building to be their home. The people, they hadn't had enough time to get out.

"Go! Try to warn them. I'll take the guns." Adrian ordered.

They separated, Brandt heading toward the building and Adrian to the sleeping agents.

"Brandt?"

He came to a stop at the sound of his name and looked at Adrian expectedly.

"Try out the back. Don't let her see you, she's-"

"I know."

"I'm right behind you."

They shared a nod and went the opposite way.

                                                                                            * * *

By the time Adrian collected all eight weapons, Brandt was out of sight. He started the jog back, straining under the weight of the electric rifles. He was regretting the decision of sending Brandt ahead and not asking him to share the load of the guns together.

He ran along the walls of the buildings, passing shattered windows and open doors, glancing around him every few steps. It was more stressful to run around the streets without any backup and his paranoid mind kept tricking him into thinking he was being followed. Or, even worse, that the eight agents were not the only ones.

When he stepped through the entrance of their building, a draft blew softly on him, chilling the places where his shirt and his hair had stuck to his skin. The familiar smell of the abandoned lobby gave Adrian a sense of security, a feeling that was challenged by the insecurity the recent events gave him. This was home, in a way, but it was not a safe place. And the people he was protecting were not safe.

Despite the load on both his shoulders, he still watched where his feet landed and avoided the areas where the birds nested. Something he could have done even in his sleep. Only now, the weight of the guns and the palpitations of his heart made it very challenging for his feet to take quiet and levelled steps, and the last few meters were excruciating.

The corridor the elevator shaft was located on was a long dark stretch, for the exhausted Adrian. He fell on his knees as he approached it, nearly dropping half of the guns down the shaft to the lower levels. He took a deep breath and straightened himself up.

It had taken him a bit longer than Brandt to arrive, which meant that everyone was warned and safely out. Which also could mean that Adrian might be here alone. He winced at the thought they left him here without a car, because he would definitely not be able to carry eight electric rifles on foot again.

He bent down to rifle for his climbing gear and froze. Brandt's harness lay in a heap next to his, untouched. Prickling panic rose in Adrien's body, starting from his exhausted feet and made its way up and up, like static, making all his hair stand on point. He looked around in alarm.

At the other end of the corridor was a door that lead to the back alley. Adrien picked up a gun. He fumbled with it as he walked slowly to the door. Only when he heard the wheeze of the rifle's electricity coming to life, he walked faster, with the confidence of being able to protect himself.

The door to the alley was ajar, propped by something at the bottom to prevent it slamming from the draft. Adrien's shirt blew flush against his skin, sticking from cold sweat. The sunlight trickled in through the little opening in a harsh line. Adrien squinted as he stopped in front of it. And then he saw the something propping the door open was a boot. A boot that clad a pretty large foot attached to a pretty long leg.

Adrian could feel his heart beat at the tip of his fingers when he reached to push the door open. Please, please, please don't be Brandt.

The door opened slowly, revealing the full-length body of Brandt sprawled on the floor.

Adrien stepped out in the light and he lost his sight.