Stargazer (Write Awards 2013)

Chapter 4 (Write Awards 2013)

I searched around for something that would disarm the launch. My fingers franticly hovered over buttons but I didn’t press any, unsure of what they could do. Finally, I gave up and leaned up against the panel. My eyes rested on a clipboard that was mounted on the wall. Two pairs of keys dangled from hooks and a sign over head read ‘Cage Cells’. Quickly grabbing them both and a glance over my shoulder at the time, I made my way back to my cell. Squeezing through the hole, I made sure that the entire room was empty before unlocking the cell. Sliding the door open, I quickly unlocked the other girls as well.

Tip toeing in, the damp, dark and smelly cell was much smaller than mine. I noticed the girl curled up in the corner, her arms wrapped around her much smaller body trying to keep warm. I gently placed a hand on her shoulder, and she woke with a small gasp.

“Let’s go.” I whispered. Nodding, she griped my hand and I led her back into the control room. I didn’t want to take the chance of going through the door and stumbling in on a bunch of Guards. This time the countdown read two hours and fifteen minutes before launch. I quickly filled the girl in on the information and she nodded. Now in the artificial lighting, she looked to be younger than Rune. Her large eyes looked over everything but she remained behind me as if the computer screens were going to come alive and attack her.

“What’s that?” she asked, pointing to a hidden panel that was behind the controls. Shrugging, I walked over and found out it was some sort of thin metal that covered a tunnel that lead into the prison. Kneeling down, I went first on hands and knees into the tunnel. Dirt and cobwebs covered my hands and knees as we made our way through the tunnel. We passed little windows in the tunnel and I knew we were going through the vents overhead.

“We nearly there?” the girl asked from behind me. I had no idea where ‘there’ was. I was just going to keep crawling until we came to a place where we could escape from. I didn’t answer the girl’s question, in fear that I could be wrong with the answer.

We crawled for what felt like forever until a small panel opened up on the side of the vent. The other side was quiet. I hushed the girl before we started crawling. After a few meters we still couldn’t hear anything that indicated someone was ahead of us so we sped up.

“Hey!” the girls silently said behind me. I stopped and turned to see that she had found a panel that led down into an empty room. I could see the faintest impression of rust around the panel as I gently moved it aside. The girl lowered herself into the room and landed with a soft thud. I waited as she searched the room before indicating that it was all clear.

Shuffling forwards, I dropped through the hold and landed in a crouch. The room was actually rather large despite the white walls and tiles. A silver toilet flashed in the corner and multiple buttons flashed along the lip. I could see a sink chipped into the far wall but I didn’t stick around to admire the details. I could see a panel next to the sink and quickly rushed over to take a look.

It was a four number code and with incredible luck on the first try I managed to get through the door using the code 1-2-3-4. Very slowly door shape part of the wall slide down into the floor. Breathing hard, I slowly peered around the side of the doorframe into the very large control room.

Large computer monitors sat on large white desks in a semi-circle around the room. Control panels and buttons lined two walls and on the far side of the room the entire wall was a window and on the other side of the window I could see the rocket that would take off very soon. Red and white points which lead off out of view, metal railings and from here I could make out a port hole and the black figure of people moving around inside the window.

“Ten minutes until launch’ echoed from speakers that were placed around the room. From here I could see people switching flips and talking into their head pieces. There had to be at least twenty people all in this room and thank luck none had noticed us.