The Rebels (on break)

Chapter 8: Veil of Darkness

"Eddy! What do you mean? Don't we have to try to get to the front?" I whispered yelled at him, as spit flew into his face since I was internally freaking out. He had kinda sunken down onto the floor, seeming like he wanted to become as small as possible.

He was shaking with fear; I'd never seen him like this. I didn't like it. He finally looked at me, "See for yourself. Quickly though, before we're next." Next?!

I quietly made my way over to the desk he had been on top of, with Zach right behind me and then Shannon behind him. Eddy stayed back, frantically looking up ahead and back at us all at once looking like he wanted to crawl into a hole. I pushed myself up onto of the old wooden desk and knelt on top as I waited for Zach and Shannon to scramble on too. Once we were all on top, I peeked my head slowly over the crowd of people and they did the same. I waited a minute and nothing looked out of the ordinary as I scanned the darkened road up ahead. Then I saw what it was Eddy was talking about.

It was the masked officials milling around the fence. They were using those strange looking weapons on the people in the crowd. It seemed they just got people one by one down the line. But the people didn't appear to be dead as there didn't look to be blood on the ground, so it couldn't have been a gun or rifle.

What it seemed was happening from my point of view was that as the weapon's trigger was pulled an almost invisible ray was shot out and when the ray hit a person, the person seemed to freeze in mid motion. When I say "freeze", I don't mean they were frozen by ice or something. I mean they looked frozen in time; they were completely stationary. The only thing that looked different was that the unmoving people's feet looked like they'd joined together with the ground. They can't be moved or picked up. It seemed to me, at least from here that they were not dead, because if they wanted to kill, they could just shoot at us. I think this weapon was being used so they could get the whole crowd. The officials must have realized that after the first gunshot went off, people would have scattered. But this weapon was silent, it didn't make a sound. This way, they had everyone in a really tight area where you couldn't really see up ahead, and all of a sudden, they'd just be right in front of you and then they'd get you. OMG!

I looked to Zach and Shannon, and their faces now mirrored Eddy's. We all looked at each other, and then we slowly put our heads down and carefully got off the desk, trying not to be noticed by the slowly approaching officials. We really did need to get out of here.

As we arrived back to where Eddy was, I just noticed that people were gathering behind us on the narrow road too. It was now completely dark out, but there were still some street lights, but those really didn't help much.

"So, I guess they do care if we leave now." I muttered in a whisper.

Eddy stood up then, "Apparently. So, what do you guys think we should do?"

I turned around and looked past the people filling up the area behind us. Maybe we should just go home. But that's obviously what they want since they're trying to keep us from leaving. I wanted to scream when past the people, I saw that some kind of metal wall was blocking the way we had entered this alcove. I quickly tugged on Zach's sleeve and gestured in that general direction and he immediately noticed what I had.

He turned toward Shannon and Eddy and nodded in the direction of the metal wall, "Well, it looks like we can't go back the way we came, and I say we still try to get out to the Zone. So, what I think we should do is look for some kind of door on the side of one of these buildings. Judging by all the officials with the freeze weapons, these buildings are probably the security buildings for Birchwood. That means the controls for the fence would be inside somewhere. If we find those, we can either figure out how to open the gate, or try to turn off the electricity for the fence. Assuming we are able to get inside and past the no doubt plethora of officials, this should be a piece of cake." He kind of smiled after his big speech, and it kind of made me smile to myself as well. Damn it.

"Okay then, lets search for some doors in the dark then." Eddy whispered. He began walking back toward the desk on the side of the road and began walking along the side of the building and sliding his hand up and down the concrete.

He was in front and then Shannon, me and Zach behind him. Shannon leaned toward Eddy and despite her whispering I heard her panicky voice, "Eddy, what happens if a door we find is locked?"

"Shan, I...don't know." Eddy didn't sound convincing at all. I wasn't convinced either. Personally, I thought we were going to die. Scratch that. I thought we were going to be "frozen". I just didn't see us finding a door because that would be extremely lucky in our current circumstance. And if we did happen to beat the odds and found a door, what are the chances it'd be open. It made me anxious just thinking of it.

We continued along the building and kept feeling along the wall. At one point, my heart skipped a beat when Zach tugged my hand and whispered, "I think I found one!" I had told the others to stop moving as Zach was fumbling for "the doorknob", but then after a minute he realized it was just a weird piece of concrete, and after messing with it, it had fallen off the building and into his hand.

We had been moving along the buildings in the direction we had come and I was getting really nervous that we hadn't found a door yet. It was extremely stressful because we just kept getting closer and closer to the metal wall, and that meant the masked officials would close in sooner if we had to turn around and try the other side of the road going in the other direction.

After about 20 minutes of walking at a slugs pace feeling up and down the walls, Shannon stopped abruptly in front of me and I smacked into her back and then Zach slammed into my back. "Eddy, come back!" she called ahead.

Eddy whispered back, his footsteps coming closer, "Shannon, shhh!"

Shannon lowered her voice, "Sorry, sorry, but I think I found something." Shannon found my hand and guided it to the wall. "Did you find it Ellie? I think it's like a lever, right?"

I frantically felt around the concrete spot she put my hand on. Sure enough, I found it. It felt like a little lever about the size of a hand, and it barely stuck out from the wall. "Yea, Shan I have it. Shan, your brilliant!" I whispered.

Zach piped up from behind me, "What are you waitin' for? Pull it El."

I put my hand back on the lever and I tried to push it up. For a minute, it wouldn't budge and a lump formed in my throat. But after a minute or two it slowly started moving and I pushed it up till it wouldn't go anymore. Suddenly, a stream of light was shining down on my feet. The light became bigger and bigger until I was face to face with a small lit hallway, that was inside the building.

I gripped Zach's hand and stepped into the hallway and walked in so there was enough room for Shannon and Eddy too. The whole hallway looked to be made of metal and was very shiny. Once we were all inside, the door abruptly went back down and the lights went out.

"What the hell!" Eddy yelled, slamming his fist on the now closed concrete door that had just closed to reveal a new undertaking.

"What now?" Shannon squealed as she stomped her foot like a two-year old. Shannon's question didn't get an answer when we all got silent as we watched what looked like flashlight light started making its way toward us from down the hall.

We all kind of crowded together in a little huddle as the streak of light kept creeping closer to us. How long is this hallway? Then I began hearing the really, really, quiet thud of footsteps coming closer and closer until the flashlight was shone up, into our faces and I felt whoever was holding the flashlight, throw me up against the metal door.

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