Taken

Chapter 4

Before anything can register in my mind, my hands are being pulled behind my back and Emmitt stands beside me, hands behind his back as well. I am scared, no, I am petrified. Everyone in the orphanage stares at us, wondering why we were out, but the guards must know exactly why. They dragged us out of our compound and into the now lit hallways. Everyone in the Society was awake, children were crying, parents were shushing, and then there was Emmitt and I: prisoners in the hands of the Society Guards.

We walk down countless hallways and secure doors until we are finally taken into a white room with a table and three chairs. The guards sit Emmitt and I down in two of the chairs, and begin to walk out. Emmitt stands up and sprints towards the two guards. He kicks them from the back and knocks them over. I run towards the door and Emmitt and we sprint through the doors. There are countless doors in the white hallway, each one leads to a different interrogation or testing room, but Emmitt and I don't want to go into another one of those, we want out.

We continue to sprint down more hallways, and I begin to think that Emmitt has done this before. He knows all the turns and makes definite decisions at each turn; never second guessing himself. I am out of breath now and I wish that I had put more effort into gym class and my fitness, but Emmitt keeps running, barely fazed by our surroundings.

Suddenly he begins to slow, and then he stops. There is nothing around us but an empty hallway leading to another empty hallway. Emmitt walks into the wall and he disappears.

Are my eyes playing tricks on me? Nope, he's gone, through the wall, so I walk through the wall too and out of nowhere, a lab appears. Emmitt is already putting a scientists' lab coat and glasses on so I join him and we walk slowly with purpose through the room towards a door that says Transferring.

"Emmitt, what is through that door?"

He doesn't respond, but instead, he shushes me and opens the door with a security card attached to his lab coat. The door opens and my jaw drops at what I see. Citizens are hooked up to countless brain simulators and monitors. They are alive, but something isn't right, why would this room be called Transferring? Emmitt walks through the people hooked up, their eyes are all closed and they aren't moving, but their breathing is steady and their heart monitors have a steady beat showing.

After walking through that section of the room, we come to a new sector that is filled with scientists studying more citizens. Something clicks in my brain and I realise, this is where people are taken. Emmitt walks past the scientists and the citizens into another room where I see citizens sleeping, waiting to be tested on. They are all dressed in hospital gowns and hooked up to many machines, but they are not attached to simulators yet.

These citizens are all of the people who were taken in the past two months, and my heart races, could Tucker be here? I search through the sleeping bodies until my eyes find his blonde, shaggy hair. He is sleeping, only sleeping and I am relieved, nothing has been done to him, yet. I begin to walk over to Tucker when Emmitt stops me, he motions to the cameras on the walls. I realise that the Society Leaders are watching these rooms, so I will have to think of some other way to get Tucker out.

Emmitt walks out of the room with Tucker inside and back into the main Transferring room. Sirens are blaring and lights are flashing.

"Two juveniles have escaped detainment. Proceed them with caution; they are dangerous."

Shoot. We have to run again. Emmitt grabs my armand pulls me through the crowd of panicking scientists, when I brush past aperson and instantly recognise the face of my father.