The Touch

Chapter 42 - Animal

We came to a large metal door and Max pushed some numbers on the keypad. He seemed to be doing it very slowly and I wondered why he was so reluctant. I did recall the numbers he punched into it though, 12,56,13, and 20. I made a mental note of it just in case I needed to use it another time.

The corridor we were now moving down was equally as large as the one outside my room and I noticed that we were moving towards another elevator. When we reached it and the door opened I could immediately feel the tension in the air. I looked at Max and his lips were tightly closed together in a grimace. When I looked at Theon he smiled at me but I also noticed that he looked nervous which made me feel uneasy.

As the elevator moved down and I noticed that we were moving down to floor six. Six floors underground? What exactly would they have down here?

The doors of the elevator opened and two guards were stationed straight outside. Max gave them his card and Theon did also. They looked at me and Max reached into his pocket and produced a card. I quickly had a look and saw that it had my photo and identification on it. The guards looked at me and then at the card then turned and swiped it into a scanner. A green light lit up and we moved forward one by one through the barrier. Theon pushed me in with him and the guards then gave us back our identification cards. We came to a double door that was grey and made of steel which automatically opened and Theon wheeled me inside.

We came to another corridor and I could see rooms with glass windows off to each side of the corridor. When I looked at the first window it was obvious that it was a lab with people looking through specimen samples with special lab machines. They had blue coats on and white lab hats over their hair and some of them looked up as we walked past but then went back to their work almost immediately.

A man came out of one of the rooms to my right and walked towards us. He looked to be in his early 50's with his hair turning grey on top. He looked tired and I could tell from what he was wearing that he was obviously a doctor of some sort.

"How is the patient today?" the doctor said looking at me. That's when I realised that it was the same doctor that had come into my room when I had first arrived.

"I am getting better, thanks to you" I replied, looking at his name badge I saw his name was Dr L Campbell.

"All the thanks should go to you Lacey. You are a strong girl who is obviously very determined. You are also very lucky that you didn't die in that laboratory".

"Well that is thanks to Max and his team for getting me out. I am sure the outcome would have been different if he hadn't been there".

The doctor looked at Max and then at me "Yes you are probably right there".

"Dr Campbell I would like to discuss my abilities. I have noticed that my eyes no longer light up so I am worried that I might have lost them".

The doctor smiled as he opened a case file in his hands. It was marked with my name.

"From what I can see and have heard from others, your eyes have not always lit up and were only triggered when you were at the farmhouse. It seems to me that everything else will return as normal for you, and your eyes may do the same in time. If they hadn't done that before then I would be worried, but because this has happened before then it gives me the indication that maybe you don't need them to light up to have the Touch."

He was correct. Although I was weak I felt that I still had my abilities, they were just not as strong as they normally were at the moment.

The doctor placed his hand on my shoulder in a fatherly way.

"Everything is going to be okay Lacey, in fact I think you are going to be surprised to hear that we have discovered that you are the one who has the key to something else quite miraculous".

I looked at the doctor wondering just what he was talking about and opened my mouth to ask him when Theon interrupted.

"Doctor I think she needs to see it for herself".

Dr Campbell looked at Theon and Max. "Yes I suppose you are right. But Lacey I must warn you that what you are about to see is highly confidential and a bit alarming at first and that I am here to talk to you about it when you are ready".

"Alright" I said, as I really didn't know what he was going to show me or what to expect.

Dr Campbell moved towards the end of the corridor and stopped when he reached a window on the right side of the wall. He pressed a button just as Theon was wheeling me up to it and a light switched on revealing a white room that seemed to be padded with soft material.

The light was very bright and I squinted slightly against it. At first it just seemed like a normal room with a bed in it and some books on the floor. Then I saw something move to the left of the room and I watched it as it came off the floor and walked straight over to the glass window.

I gasped at the sight in front of me. My heart started beating rapidly in my chest and I felt slightly faint.

Max looked at me then started to move towards the back of the chair.

"I told you this was too much for Lacey. We need to get her back to the room now".

"No" I said quietly at first then screamed "NO!" at him.

I turned and looked at the figure behind the glass. His arms were banging against the window and his head was jerking in rapid movements. My hands covered my mouth to stop the scream from escaping my lips. He had bright blue eyes like the children with the Touch and they were glaring straight at me.

It was Slade.