Experiment VII

Chapter Forty-Three: Time For Round 3

"That should do it," Gemma comments, tightly securing the final bandage wrapped around my wrist.

"...Thanks,"

"Yea..." she grumbles, half-heartedly.

I shift around uncomfortably, a stiff tension filling the air. Gemma finally lets out a pent up sigh as she packs up her supplies, stuffing them into her leather satchel. Her eyes deliberately avoid my stare as she heads for the door. Just as her hand reaches for the doorknob, she half-turns around to look at me.

"Please never do anything like that again. Ever."

My gaze flickers up, meeting her soft amber eyes boring into me, the anger hidden behind them now evident.

Not finding the words, I merely nod.

Gemma sighs once again, her vacant expression unchanging before she takes her leave.

A second person appears, seizing the door before it has a chance to swing closed.

Chester's winged figure steps in, his unsettlingly cold eyes glued to me.

Now it's my turn to let out a sigh as I hoist myself up from the metal bench. "What do you want Chester? Rychner already tore me a new one."

"That's not why I'm here," he states simply.

With an obviously fake smile and unamused eye-roll, I humour him. "Then why are you here?"

He breaks eye contact for but a moment as his eyes dart around the room briefly.

"You don't hear it? The..." he pauses in contemplation, "...beeping."

I shrug impatiently.

"How blissfully uneventful everything must be without ultra-sensitive hearing," he ponders.

"And?" I scoff, sauntering passed him.

A firm hand on the shoulder immediately halts me in my tracks.

"What are you-" I start, just about ready to throw him off.

The blood instantly drains from Chester's face, turning it ashen pale (well, paler) as he pulls a small metallic device with a blinking red light off my back.

My eyes slowly widen as the realization dawns on me. "Is that a-"

"Tracker," he finishes.

I grab the device, crushing it between my fingers with far more force than necessary. "We have to warn the others!"

He nods wordlessly before bolting out of the room, leaving nothing but a trail of heavy footsteps behind him.

"I'll find Rychner," I blurt out before rushing out of the sorry excuse for a med-bay.

I take a few sharp turns through the old building, almost crashing into several walls along the way in my haste. The wooden floorboards creak furiously as my feet dash across them.

I sprint towards the door leading to where Lopez's cell is kept, finding my legs going far too fast to possibly stand a chance of slowing down in time. My body soon collides with the already partially-destroyed wooden door, snapping it off its hinges. I frantically scramble up off the floor, ignoring the intense throbbing in my arm.

Rychner's eyes widen as his attention shifts from Lopez to me. "What the-"

"Umbra-...Umbra's-" I fumble over my words, trying desperately to catch my breath.

"...What?"

"Umbra' coming...here," I finally manage over my panting from the adrenaline rather than fatigue.

Rychner's face drops, his eyes bouncing around the room in contemplation. "How do ya know-" he cuts himself off and shakes himself out of an almost trance-like state as the horror dawns across his features. "How long do we have?"

"They tracked us here. That's all I know."

He screws his eyes shut for a few moments and groans loudly, "Shit!"

"Well, what do we do?" I ask eagerly, my patience drawing thin.

Before he even has a chance to respond, ear-splitting alarms start blaring throughout the building.

Doctor Lopez steps forward, grasping the bars of her cell. "I told you they'd find me," she taunts.

My eyes dart between Lopez and Rychner.

"What do those alarms mean?"

"It means the perimeter's been breached. We only have a few minutes. We have to evacuate."

My eyebrows furrow. "Evacuate? We're running?"

"Of course we're running! We stay here we'll get slaughtered! Is that what ya want?" he all but shouts.

"No-"

Rychner briskly makes for the door. "Well then! We evacuate."

My eyes bounce back to Doctor Lopez standing in her cell, watching us like a hawk. "What do we do with her?"

"We don't have any time to bring her." Rychner spins around and with one smooth motion, reaches for his firearm, cocks it, aims, and takes his shot.

I flinch violently as the bullet shrills past me, embedding itself between Lopez's eyes and the deep red spray of blood coats the cell wall.

A/N: I actually really didn't like how this chapter turned out, despite all the re-writes which is why it's so short (and late). I sprinkled a little extra description here and there to get the word count up, but I didn't want to do more and bog down the chapter and ruin the pacing. Hopefully, it's still okay though! Thanks for reading!