The Ink Infection [Brief hold and Editing]

Chapter 18

"Come on, Neil!" Derek whispered to me as we quietly raced down the halls.

"What about Cody?" I whispered back, tears forming in my eyes.

I remembered Cody running away, not a few seconds ago, going in the opposite direction from us, shouting, and leading the guards toward him so we could safely get inside the medical room.

"We all promised to risk our lives to accomplish this." Derek winced, clutching at his side with his hands.

That part was true. We had all devoted our lives to seeking revenge and hopefully finding a cure. I winced, feeling stitches on my sides as I ran through the walls. I told myself to take in huge breaths, and the feeling relaxed for a second.

I thought about Cody, who was probably trying to distract the guards. I hope he didn't get caught.

Don't worry, he will. He probably lost them by now and is trying to find you guys.  

Somewhere in my brain, a small voice responded. Feeling somewhat assured, I huffed and kept running through the endless halls. There seemed to be countless halls and corridors branching off to the left and right as if the school were a maze. It probably was, considering all the dead ends we encountered, having to retrace our steps and continue on our path.

How did the guards know all the routes in this horrendous school? It must have taken them years to memorize them! We took a sharp turn to the right, and I almost tripped. Maybe the guards had a wristwatch that told them where to go. We had already tried using the wristwatch, but the map only showed grayness, and a green question mark appeared, telling us that it didn't know where we were.

Derek stopped running in front of me, and I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I almost ran into him, tripping on my feet. I was about to say something, but Derek placed his hand on my mouth, silencing me.

His alert eyes moved right and left before dragging me behind a staircase we had passed. In the hallway we were just in, guards walked past, talking among themselves.

"Have you heard?" One of them was telling the other two.

"About what?" The second guard had a thick British accent.

"That if the students find the cure, Matt would give them the cure?" The first continued.

"Really?" Pitched in the third.

Chuckling, they passed through the hall, and that was all I could hear. I slowly looked at Derek.

"You think?" I whispered to him with wide eyes.

Derek nodded slowly, and his eyes darted around once more before he pulled me up. This time, to go up the stairs.

I reluctantly followed, stepping softly on the metal stairs. Each step was made of metal, the material fabricated into criss-cross patterns. We rounded the stairs and quickly made our way to the next floor. This story was painted bright white: all the walls, ceilings, and floors. It contrasted highly with the story we were on, which was all a shade of dark gray. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to these changes, but I slowly moved on.

I was dimly aware that there was shouting on the other side of the hall, but Derek noticed and stopped me again, scrambling back a couple of steps and crouching down behind the staircase.

A girl's voice was shouting. "It wasn't my idea! It was someone else!" A high-pitched scream followed, and a thud. Silence fell, except for the sound of boots walking in the hall.

"Could it be Kit?" I asked Derek in a hushed whisper.

"Maybe, but I didn't know she was that type of person," Derek said, shaking his head. We had allowed Kit and Kevin to join us, and they vowed to never expose each other when caught. I trusted Cody and Derek enough, so they didn't have to vow.

As the sound of boots got fainter, we started to move, turning to the left of the white walls. The medical room had to be somewhere white, right? The only color that popped into mind when saying medical was white. It had to be here. I was sure of it.

We continued to slow down from a run to a fast walking pace, passing rooms and rooms that stretched forever.

We walked briskly below a sign that said, 'Medical Wing,' and we stopped. Looking at each other. I could see the thrill in Derek's brown eyes as we finally found the medical room. Inside the double metal walls, I could see people in white uniforms walking around. 

"This is it," I whispered to Derek and pulled out a tube filled with the cells from the Inks.

We crouched next to the wall and slipped the open tube into the space between the floor and the door. We quickly ran away as fast as we could and waited for the chaos to happen.

A few moments passed before I heard screams erupt from a female's vocal cords, as another piped up, this time from a male. Red blaring lights and sirens began to ring, and we heard the steps of the guards running in our direction.

I looked at Derek and gave a firm nod. We both raced towards the door as I swiped the card on the scanner, and the door opened.

I got the card when the guard, who was carrying a tray full of blue liquid, was walking past, opening the door to our room, when Tim attacked the guard. The chaos allowed us to quickly slip past the door with the test tube filled with Ink's cells. I also managed to pickpocket Tim's pocket along the way.

We ran headfirst into the room. Tables were turned, and chairs and papers were scattered on the floor. People in white coats were running around, spraying blue liquid everywhere. I ducked as the blue spray grazed my head, instantly bringing a burning sensation. People were busy panicking, and we went through the room, unnoticed. We pushed through two more doors until we reached a cold storage room. Thrusting the white plastic flaps out of our faces, we ran deep inside the refrigerator to find a box labeled 'Cure' on one side.

I grabbed a blue needle from the box and shoved it in my pocket. That needle might come in handy. We turned around, almost running smack into a metal shelf.

I looked up, steadying my breath. Rows and rows of long tubes flowed in and out of the walls, carrying dark red liquid. Confused, I looked at the tubes and slowly traced them behind the metal shelf. I gasped as I saw rows and rows of bodies behind the shelf, hanging upside down.

"What in the world-" I started to say, but Derek cut me off.

"Come on Neil! We have to go!" he urgently said, pushing me towards the exit. I moved forward, but my feet kept on tripping over themselves. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Who were those people? Are they alive? Or are they fake? And what were those tubes carrying? 

Derek now grabbed me by the arm and began to pull me out of the storage, the warm air hitting my cold skin. The warm air brought me to my senses, but I still felt dazed. I rushed down after Derek, exiting the medical room, and down the white hallway.

We somehow found the stairs and ran down them to arrive at the gray, bleak walls. We stopped for a second to catch our breaths. I looked around us. On three sides, the same gray walls extended, with identical rooms in every hall.

We were lost.