Alien X

Chapter 21

Everyone automatically split. I saw a few groups head back towards the alley but after a few shouts from Adrian everyone was running towards the factory. Legs pounded the ground as we made our way to the factory. Leading the group, I ran around to the front door.

“It’s locked!” I panted, my arms trying to budge the door. There was a single window on the door, but that was painted white with the letters S.A.F.E painted in black italic cursive in the centre.

“I’ve got an idea,” Zachery said once the front doors where useless. He ran around to the side of the factory leaving everyone else to scramble after him. When we had finally caught up to him holing a door open, leading down to what must be the basement of the factory.

“This leads to some of the back doors in the factory,” Zachery whispered in a rush. Already we could hear the sounds of cars and people chittering away on the streets. I quickly ushered everyone down into the basement where Shani took the lead and began leading everyone deeper into the factory basement.

Once Zachery had closed the lid after we had jumped down, we followed the others. The basement wasn’t anything like I’d imagine. Only the smell of dust made the place feel old. White tiles lined the floor and shiny reflective paint was painted onto the walls and I could just make myself out in a blurry picture. Cold steel doors opened into empty rooms along the side but we didn’t pay any attention to them as we ran down the hallway. After a moment of zigzagging around, we found the others.

They were standing around a large steel door and I could see Shani and Alexis fiddling with a touch screen panel, muttering to each other. I pushed through the crowd trying to see what they were complaining about.

“We don’t know the code,” Shani said once I had reached the front. Her fingers were flying over a small key pad on the wall. A bunch of numbers came onto the screen before saying ‘Access Failed’. Shani growled, her fist hitting the space next to the pad. Alexis was staring intently at the pad which still flashed ‘Access Failed’.

“Allow me,” Scarlet said walking up next to me. In her hand held a small cable that she must have picked up on the way over. She pressed one end which had small arm like grapplers patroiding from the end into the pad itself. Almost instantly the image on the pad wavered before ‘Access Granted’ flashed on screen and the door opened.

“How did you do that?” I asked as everyone ran through the door. She shrugged, looking down at the cable that was dangling from the pad which decided to shut down.

“I’ve lived here. I know these things,” was all she said before she ran through the doors and was lost in the crowd. I quickly slipped into the crowd as it began to thin out. I didn’t pay much attention to our surroundings until I came to a halt at a set of stairs that led down.

“Zachery!” I called out once I saw him. He looked up and I gestured with my hands ‘why are we going down?’ His mouth opened but before he could answer, the sound of boots hitting the tiles rang out. Hundreds of boots hitting the same tiles that we were walking on and each boot was getting louder. Sweat started to form on my forehead and we quickly got everyone through another set of doors. I glanced over my shoulder and I could see their shadows loom up along the back wall.

“Hide!” Zachery hissed once the last person had gone through. He shut the door and backed into a small vent that was built inside the wall. Realising I also had one; I crammed my body into the rather small vent. A cool breeze blew across my clammy back and I kept my breathing slow and even.

I resisted the urge to close my eyes as they grew closer, but locked them onto Zachery’s instead. My heart was hammering away in my chest as the shadows swept over us.