The Elements

Chapter 19 - For Our Friends

"Aura, I'm in," I pressed the earpiece to my ear.

"Where?" she asked back. "Sorry, can't talk much. Xavier's trying to tell me about a random monument somewhere."

"Okay, um, remember the washroom you used just now to discuss the plan? It's to the left of the washroom door - a blank wall, but you've just gotta push it."

"Got it," she repeated her favourite phrase (I've caught her saying that millions of times) and disconnected. Then, I turned my attention to the darkness beyond.

It closed in on me, slowly but surely, nearly ripping my breath away. I ached to see what was in the room around me, but all I could see was the dark. I groaned in desperation and exasperation (oh god, those two rhyme) and groped my way forward. Abruptly, I screamed and I felt the world turning upside down as I fell forward. Instinctively, I flailed my arms wildly (though I think I should've stretched it forward to break my fall instead), and, due to my innate clumsiness, it only worsened my fall.

Only when I attempted to push myself up did the pain register in my body. I gave a sudden wail of agony as excruciating pain sank into my blood, coursing through my veins. The impact of the fall washed over me in tidal waves, originating from my left foot. I silently cursed my clumsiness. If only it would just disappear into thin air. Groaning, I attempted, once again, to push myself up. Ignoring the aching agony still circulating in my legs, I stood up shakily. And that was when I realised that my eyes had adjusted to the darkness surrounding me.

I looked around for the object that I had knocked against - it turned out to be a table leg. I was sure I could tutor an entire lecture titled "How To Injure Yourself On Common Household Items". Tracing the table leg upwards, I saw that on the table sat a box. No, not the one I had found at the start. This one was white, less high, and had something protruding out from its smooth surface on the top. Something like... a switch? Without thinking, I reached my hand out to push it.

Out of the blue, blinding lights flooded the room and I forced my eyes shut just in the nick of time. Just when my eyes had finally adjusted to the dark, it was bright again. I couldn't believe my luck. Soon, my eyes fluttered open, meeting with the still-too-bright lights. Rubbing them in disbelief, I suddenly espied so many things around me all at once - was that another one of those Identifier machines? Was that one of the claws at the manufacturing machine? But where were the girls? And it couldn't be that their base was so small, right?

"Oh wait - is that a washing machine?" I stifled my laughter, realising that I had said my thoughts out loud. Why would there be a washing machine in the middle of a secret base? Then, a thought struck my mind. Most people would look past a washing machine. Well, what if that contained the clues I needed? I approached the washing machine, almost certain that I would find directions to where the girls were being kept. But, as I neared it, the only thing out of ordinary about it was the putrid stench of unwashed clothes. I gagged, pinching my nose in disgust as I backed away as fast as my legs could carry me. Well, that was a terrible lead - and I was sure that even if I were to search it, the only thing I would find under the unwashed clothes would be more unwashed clothes.

I looked around the room, trying to find anything else out of the ordinary that could possibly lead me to the girls. And - lo and behold - I found a corridor, in plain sight (not even hidden at all). Smacking my forehead for looking past such an obvious link to the next room, I made my way towards the corridor - which was also flooded with light. I sprinted through at breakneck speed, fuelled by my desperation to find the girls. Soon, I found another door, and I pushed it open slowly.

A gust of cold wind greeted me - like air-conditioning, I realised - as I stepped into the room. The light was just an ambient, and it felt more like soft flickering candles than the white fluorescent light that was shone at me in the rooms before. I looked around the room and found multiple white, long tables, on top of which were all sorts of multi-coloured liquids, contained in flasks, beakers and even syringes. My surroundings were deadly silent, and even the echo of my footsteps felt eerily out of place as I moved forward slowly, eager to explore the weird liquids. I neared the closest table and found one of the flasks containing a reddish-brown substance. The flask had a label which said, "ELEMENT REMOVER: DOSE OF OVER 150ML CAN KILL WITHIN CONTACT WITH SKIN. DO NOT TOUCH." But that was exactly what curiosity compelled me to do: I reached my arm out, and, without a moment's hesitation, closed my fingers around the smooth, cool surface of the cylinder flask.