X-periment 5

The Tunnel

"What did you find?" I whisper loudly at Levii, pushing him back. The nerve of him.

"What do you remember?" He presses again. Raising his arms behind his head and turning away from me, Levii tries to slow his breathing. I realize that he asked first but he's done nothing to deserve my compliance.

"Why do you care so much?" I mimicked his tone and cross my arms

"Rye please just cooperate. This is important...and I asked first!" he turns around and narrows his eyes like daggers into mine.

I look around us and see no one in sight. "Fine. I need to be completely sure that we're not being followed." With that, I jog back onto the main road and walk further down, turning onto the alley I remember pushing down the garbage bin with Xander.

"You're kidding me?"Levii raises an eyebrow at me but one look at my blank face, he rolls up his sleeves and together we push the bin to the side and climb down the ladder into the dark abyss.

"Ok, now that I can't see you, will you tell me what you remember?"

"Your mom killed that girl."

"What girl?"

"I don't know, her name was Vida. She was in the photograph that I saw in the folder before I ran off,"

He doesn't say anything so I take that as a sign to continue.

"Your mom worked for Dr. X, or at least she had to. I mean I remember being in Primary and seeing her and then Vida and I don't know how I know but I know Vida died because of your mom."

I can hear Levii grinding his teeth. "I also remember that Rye isn't my name. I don't know what it is but my name isn't Rye. I think- I think I was taken."

"At least you figured it out by yourself. Quite the genius." Levii sighs and I hear the weight of his body as he leans against the ladder.

" What do you mean?" I rub my eyes, and sit down on the wet, dirty cobblestone.

"Well if you would've continued to read the rest of that file you would know that already. I guess I'm obligated to tell you the rest now," he pushes himself off the ladder and walks over to me. He crouches down and pushes a strand of hair out of my face.

"Are you sure that you want to hear it from me?"

"Rather be it you than your mother or some report." I whisper, mentally preparing myself.

He swallows and sits beside me, not touching me but close enough that we share the same breath.

"Rye-"

And then we heard footsteps. Quiet ones, if I hadn't covered Levii's mouth with my hand we would've missed them.

"Follow me." I motion to him and begin to carefully untie my boots and roll up my pant sleeve. Levii does the same and we leave our shoes off to the side.

"No one has direct access from Tent City to enter the tunnels. The only other entrance is on outskirts of the city...in the middle of the forest.."

I place my hand on his shoulder, signaling for him to keep quiet. I begin walking further down the tunnel to better hear the muffled voices.

"Experiment 24 reporting. Near supposed compound, approximately 4 kilometers away. Tunnel length is approximately 25 miles total with water levels decreasing as we near central location with current levels measuring 1 foot. Experiment 26 has volunteered to break her ankle as a way of entering the compound. After speaking with an outside source, the targets insist on aiding wounded travelers, consequently giving us a way inside which from there...we will carry out the extraction of 5."