Bad Decisions

•TEN•

She did not eat the slop that had been slapped on the black tray that had been given to her.

Instead, she had pretended to sleep for dinner, tucked on the hard slab of the concrete, her arm a pillow under her head, her knees tucked up to her chin, and eventually, the voices outside the cell faded away as they left, one by one, for the night.

"Goodnight, Rory," Noah said, his voice carrying over to her, apparently the last to leave, or maybe even come back, and it took all of her restraint to not react. "Everyone's asleep now."

She didn't know how long she had been asleep for when she woke up, the blinding light above her, which had not been shut off, knocked away all the sleepiness she had in her. She rose silently from the slab, and lifted the flap of the slot as silently as she could, until it creaked open enough for her hand to poke through.

She turned her fingers at an angle, and felt the metal buttons, counting each one down, familiarizing herself with the distance between each button. She dredged up the memory of Noah's hand bouncing over the pad.

She typed it in, going by feeling as her eyes slipped closed. Six button taps, and then a turn of the lock.

It didn't unlock.

"Shit," she whispered, and then she tried again. Another failure. And again, with another failure. On and on she pressed, until finally, finally, the lock threw open. He left the code his birthday, and how she remembered that from his license was beyond her.

Aurora wanted to scream in elation, but instead she let the door silently swing open, and she passed through on silent feet to the other side of the room, and stepped by a single guard who was asleep on a cot, his eyes closed past the eyeholes of his ski mask, a handgun on his hip.

So carefully, Aurora knelt, and slid the gun from the holster, until it came free, and he only breathed in and adjusted his head on the pillow. She slowly pushed the slide back, and in the dim light, saw it was empty. She set the gun down on the ground, careful to not make any sound. She was smart, but so were they, and this was probably a set up.

But still, she pressed on. She tested the door, found it unlocked, and it slid on oiled hinges as it swung open, making only a silent creak as it yawned all the way open. The stairs up were lit by tiny lights tucked under the lip of each step, only enough to illuminate the steps themselves, and she tested each one before putting her full weight onto the step as she crept up them to the next door.

She pressed it open to find an actual basement, with so many different hiding places, and lights, casting shadows all around. As silently as she could, she crept through the basement, swiping a haphazardly tossed aside pair of boots beside the stairs that led up. Again, she tested each stair as she went up, and quietly prayed that the door at the top was not locked, or alarmed.

The floor level building seemed like it was for commercial use, with doors that led into separate rooms, each one with the possibility to hold someone who would take her freedom from her. One room she even passed by had screens mounted on them, camera feeds of the M.I.N.D. Labs clinics on every screen and someone watching them, their backlit silhouette against the screens.

Aurora found the front door; all glass with paper over them to block out any prying eyes. She tested the door, found the lock, and turned it.

There was only silence as the door opened into the cold night air, and Aurora stepped outside. A chill immediately settling over her skin, and she sat down on the ground to slide her feet into the boots, a few sizes too big for her, but it didn't matter.

She rose from the ground, and took off at a run, ignoring the sting in her heel as she traveled through the dead commercial district full of dark warehouses and loading docks, until it turned into fast food chains and strip malls. Occasionally, cars passed her by and she flagged down a taxi, who pulled to the side and looked at her.