Alora Factor: Invasion of the Realm Jumpers

Slipping Through My Fingers

Alora steps on a button on the portal and a door appears. She opens it and we carefully walk through, finding ourselves on the same rooftop we were looking at just moments ago. Alora gently closes the door and it disappears.

"Where'd it go?" I'm on edge and easily alarmed right now.

"I programmed it to disappear when closed since we don't know how long we'll be in there and we don't need anyone seeing some random door standing by itself on a roof," Alora explains. "It's still there." She reaches out, grabs the knob and opens the door a crack. "See?"

"Breathe, Drew." She grabs my hand for a moment and places it on my heart with her hand on top. Alora being in leader mode helps me settle down and turn my focus back to the mission at hand.

Amare is peeking around the storage shed to see if there is anyone else up here. He signals that the coast is clear and we proceed to the stairwell. The warehouse stores large equipment, like backhoes and dump trucks, so there are only two floors. The top floor takes up one-third of the building and is full of offices, grouped on the north end.

The first floor takes up the other two-thirds of the building with a ceiling that ends at the roof. This gives ample space for the heavy-duty machinery here, especially the cranes and bucket trucks that need a lot of vertical space to safely store.

"Where should we begin?" Alora whispers.

"Halmeoni says captives are usually kept away from escape routes, so probably not near the stairs or rooms with exterior windows. Halmeoni says on the left, towards the center, is the best place to start."

We look at the blueprint and identify three rooms that fit the bill.

"We should enter the rooms simultaneously, just in case she's being guarded from inside of the room. That will increase our chances of catching them off guard," Amare says.

"What do we do if the rooms are empty or the doors are locked?" Alora asks.

"I can pop the locks if they don't open. If we don't find Drea in these three, we try three more, rinse and repeat until we find her," Amare says.

We walk up to the doors, count to three and open them.

"Shit," I whisper. My room is full of young women and they all looked terrified. We are locked in a staring contest when Alora and Amare walk up behind me.

"Oh, my goddess." Alora truly looks stunned. "Who are they?"

"Who are you?" one of them finally breaks the silence and whispers.

"We're here to find our friend. Are you being held captive, too?" I try to keep my voice friendly and approachable.

"Yes. I've been here for about two weeks, but some of the girls just arrived today," the young woman says.

"So, there are more than the ones in this room?" I ask. "Where are they being kept?"

"Next door and downstairs."

"We just checked the rooms to the right of this one," Amare says. "She must mean the one on the left."

"Please don't leave us here," the young woman whispers. Some of the others begin to cry quietly at the thought that we are going to abandon them.

"We won't, but we need to find out where your captors are and subdue them before we can safely get you out of here," Amare tells the group before moving into the hallway.

Alora walks over to the young woman who is speaking and puts her hand on her shoulder. "We won't leave you, I promise. Do you trust me?"

The young woman nods.