Desolation

Chapter Twenty Three

((OMG Desolation is ranked #44 in Adventure today! Yay! That's the highest it has ever been ranked, thanks to all your reads, votes and comments! Here is a picture of Tristan and I hope that you enjoy this chapter!))

I freeze, my fingers still hovering over the keyboard.

"What did you just say?" I say, my voice trembling.

"Someone is coming right now. One of them," Ian calls out.

I immediately stand up, shaking with fear. We all run out into the main room, where Ian is still sitting on the couch. He stands up, pointing out the window. I look and my heart skips a beat when I see a man in a white lab coat walking towards the building.

"What do we do?" Nikki asks frantically.

I look around the room, searching for a place to hide, but there is none.

We are screwed.

The man is coming closer and closer and the pit of dread in my stomach deepens every step he takes.

Suddenly, Tristan exclaims,

"Look!"

He points his finger to the floor across the room. At first, I don't know what he is pointing at. But then, I see it.

There, cut into the wooden floor is what appears to be some sort of trap door. We all run over to it, kneeling down. I glance out the window again and my stomach flips when I see that the man is almost here. Tristan quickly pulls the handle and lifts the trap door open. I look down apprehensively into an abyss of blackness.

Without a word, Tristan drops down into the blackness. I hear him crash down below, grunting in pain. Dylan goes next, then Nikki. I glance up at Ian with fear in my eyes.

"You go first," he says.

I take a deep breath, then jump down into the darkness. I fall a few feet then crash onto a cold, cement floor.

Ouch.

A few seconds later, Ian drops down, landing right next to me. He immediately stands and reaches up, closing the trap door. I stand up as well, unable to see anything in the blackness.

We wait in an eerie silence. Then, I hear the loud creak of the door opening from above.

The man is here.

With my heart pounding in my chest, I listen as the man walks across the floor, his footsteps making the floorboards creak. I pray to God that he won't open the trapdoor and find us. The footsteps get closer and closer, then stop right above us.

Sheer panic floods throughout my entire body as we all wait in a tense silence. Then, a few moments later, the footsteps restart as the man continues to walk.

Phew.

The footsteps are getting further and further away until they finally stop. Another long silence passes by. I stand completely still, rooted to the spot with fear.

Then suddenly, the silence is broken by the man's voice.

"Yes. This is John, reporting from Building 1B"

Another pause. He seems to be on the phone with someone.

"Yes, I am currently looking for the subjects who escaped."

My blood runs cold when I realize that he is talking about us.

"No, I haven't found them yet. But I will keep looking. They don't have anywhere to go, so someone will find them eventually."