The Sector

Chapter Ten

Stumbling weightily towards the door, righted by the firm grips of his escorting Officers, Seth suddenly doubled over.

"Wait," he groaned. "Wait, I think I'm going to throw up..."

Immediately, on reflex, the Officers released him, jumping away.

The vomit never came.

Instead, as soon as the men let go of his arms, Seth bolted for the door. He was smaller than they were, making him lighter and faster. He felt a hand claw at his back as he darted towards the exit, but whoever it had been, their fist closed only around air.

Reaching Frasier where he stood by the entryway, Seth headed right for him, ducking between his arms and barrelling into him hard. The man stumbled backwards, his skull cracking against the large steel door behind him. Unconscious, he slid to the floor.

In the time it had taken for Seth to deal with Frasier, the two Officers had caught up to him.

A strong hand clamped around his forearm, but Seth spun, twisting his arm in a wide circle until the Officer's grip on him loosened.

Breaking away, Seth kicked the man hard in the stomach and he lurched backwards, losing his balance and sprawling on the floor in an ungainly heap.

The second Officer turned and lunged at Seth. Side-stepping and ducking under the man's arm, Seth spun and, latching his foot around the Officer's ankle to help him drive the blow, landed his elbow in the Officer's spine and drove him face-first towards the ground. The man jerked under the force of the blow, tripping over Seth's foot, and, with a sickening smack, his face collided with the solid concrete underfoot.

Without missing a beat, Seth looked up to find Gianna in the threshold, mouth gaping wide and eyes almost bulging out of her head.

"Frasier was right..." she breathed.

Not bothering to acknowledge the comment, Seth stalked forward.

As he approached her, Gianna backed away, pressing herself against the wall of the corridor outside. "Please, Seth. I know you and I know this isn't who you are or who you want to be."

"You don't know anything about me, Gianna."

"We can work something out," she bargained. "I can protect you, I can—"

Seth pushed her hard up against the wall, his forearm pressed against her throat. Gianna choked, clawing at his skin, her eyes wide and panicked. As the breath left her body, she weakened until finally she slumped, her arms falling to her sides and her head lolling lifelessly.

"I guess they kept you in the gene pool for your brains more than your brawn," Seth said, pulling back and letting her body crumple to the floor, unconscious, but not dead.

With a quick glance over his shoulder at the three similarly unconscious men he'd left in his wake, Seth strode quickly down the passageway. Reaching the end, he stopped and listened.

Gianna had told him that it had been eight hours since they locked him up—placing the time now at roughly eight in the morning.

People would be waking up and going about their usual morning routines by now.

As he listened for voices or echoing footsteps, Seth noted that so far he had only seen guarding Officers at the entrances and exits of the main rooms of the building—the foyer, Darbee's office, the courtyard, and the Testing Room when it was occupied... There had been no one guarding smaller offices like Frasier's, and as he peeked around the corner at the end of the hallway, he found that there were no Officers guarding this room either.

Not willing to risk missing his chance, he slid out of the corridor and around the edge of the room, keeping his back to the walls so no one could surprise him from behind.

There was only one other corridor, positioned on the opposite side of the room and, after checking to make sure it was clear, Seth darted quickly down it.

Emerging at the other end, he continued with his system of listening, checking, and moving through each room in turn.

The place was a maze and Seth had no idea how he was going to find his way out, but he knew that if he stopped, he was bound to get caught sooner or later. At least if he kept moving he had a chance at getting out.

Almost an hour had passed by the time Seth was yanked from his thoughts by the sound of a voice drifting down the hallway.

He had no idea where he was, but he'd been sticking to the right wall of each room, hoping that eventually it would lead him out. He knew that taking random turns was only going to get him more lost.

"Find him!" a woman's voice was hissing, low and clear and furious.

Seth would recognize that voice anywhere. It was Gianna.

He heard the slap of her palm against something wooden.

"H-How?" a man's feeble voice stuttered. "He could be anywhere by now..."

"I don't care how you do it," Gianna growled, "I just want it done. He's not getting out of this facility alive, do you hear me?"

"Maybe this is a sign that we should stop the program—that it's g-gone too far..." The man faltered. "Maybe it was meant to happen..."

Seth wondered for a moment if he'd heard that correctly. Was someone in this place actually opposing Gianna? Opposing the entire program they were running here?

"Now is not a good time to test me, Darbee. We've been through this time and time again; I am not shutting down this program. Not for anyone or anything. You may not agree with it, but that's your own problem to deal with."

There was a brief moment of quiet, then, "Why not just let him go?" Darbee questioned in a small voice. "Even if he found his way back to the Sector, no one there would ever believe him... A-And if he managed to get to the outside world, who would take a seventeen-year-old boy blabbering on about superhumans seriously? You've already taken care of Frasier and the Officers... What risk does the boy really pose? Who would ever believe his story? You could... You could just let him go..."

"Do you really think I'm willing to take that risk, Darbee?" she snapped. "No. Now find him, or you'll be joining Frasier and those fools in the ditch."

As soon as the words were spoken, Seth heard Darbee's fingers tapping furiously away at his keyboard.

Gianna's high heels clicked, echoing off the concrete as she stalked out of the room.