The Queer Rebels

Chapter 18: Confronting

As I walk back to the elevator with Harry, I have a swagger in my step. There's a new weight in my core. A shift in my balance.

"Feeling it already?" Harry says, pushing my shoulder playfully.

I stroke my neck. "My throat feels thick. Is my voice changing?"

Harry laughs. "Be patient."

But I can't help myself. I run my fingers across my face and the hairs on my chin feel coarser. Every cell in my body is vibrating. Growing. Transitioning.

We step onto the elevator and press the button to rise to the top floor. The doors close and as the elevator jerks us, my stomach drops and I feel a pull in my groin. A swelling.

The numbers and letters along the top of the elevator–B2, B1, L, 2–light up to mark our ascent. I wonder if Marcy will notice the changes that I can already feel.

Boom!

A loud noise jolts the air.

The lights flicker.

Our movement stutters.

Then we are plunged into an eerie dark stillness.

"What the fuck?" Harry curses as the emergency lights turn on, flooding the tight space with red.

My body freezes. "Wh-what was that?"

Harry doesn't answer me. He smashes the call button over and over. And when that does nothing, he tries to pry the elevator doors open.

"Help me," he grunts, his fingers prodding at the small crack in the center of the two doors.

I jump to his left and we each try to pull back one of the doors. My fingers keep slipping on the stainless steel interior, but after a few more tries, the space begins to open.

Harry jams his foot into the widening crack, allowing our hands to use their full grip.

With one more yank, the doors slide open. We are almost to the second floor. We only had about two more feet to rise.

My palms are sweaty and I take a deep breath. "What do you think is happening?"

Harry shakes his head. "I need to find Christopher."

Without saying anything else, he reaches out to start prying open the next set of doors.

Knowing that I need to find Marcy, I join him, and quicker than the first set, the exterior doors open, revealing the second floor corridor.

Harry crawls up first, then reaches down to help me. I grasp my fingers around his thick forearm and step up.

"Go," Harry says, pointing down the hall to my room. "I'll find you when I know more." Then he rushes off in the opposite direction.

I run.

The hallway is empty, but I can hear a commotion in the distance. Indecipherable shouting. Dull clangs. I don't know what time it is, how long I've been gone, but I hope Marcy is still in bed. Still in our room.

What if she went out looking for me? Is somehow tangled into the chaos on the other side of the building? I would never forgive myself for lying. For not telling her I was with Harry.

"Attention everyone, Attention," Sequoia's voice blasts out through speakers on the ceiling. "All non-emergency residents must report back to their bunk rooms. Repeat, if you are not an emergency responder, clear the common areas. Go back to your bunks."

I turn the corner, with every intention to obey the given command, when I see Marcy stepping out from our room and closing the door.

"Marcy!" I yell.