Ignite

Chapter Six - Charity Cornell

           

Olly turned towards the place where the hidden door was and placed his hand on the metal plate. The small, green, capitalised letters appeared at the top of the plate.

UNAUTHORISED HANDPRINT

'Well, great.' I mumbled, pulling myself to my feet. 'Leyton has locked us in here.'

'I told you that he was a bad guy!' Olly teased.

'Yeah, yeah.' I said, combing my hand through my short black hair. 'I might have been an accident.'

Olly laughed mockingly. 'The first time I saw him I got this, evil aura.' He said 'evil' like it was a horrible disease. 'Anyway, that doesn't matter now. We need to find a way out of here.'

Olly turned and walked the perimeter of the room, looking for a button, or a switch, or something to open the door. Meanwhile, I was banging helplessly on the hidden door and screaming:

'LET US OUT OF HERE!'

Through the door, I could hear screaming and glass breaking. The occasional gunshot was fired, all of these things made me more anxious to reach the other side.

'LET – ME – OUT!' I yelled, emphasising each word with a loud pound.

To my surprise, the door opened to reveal Leyton, jacket torn, face scarred and hair ruffled.

'Will you shut up?' He screamed back.

'Exactly!' Olly said from the corner of the room.

'Um, Leyton, why is that on your shoulder?' I asked. Leyton's jacket had been ripped to reveal a glistening red V symbol. It looked more like it was branded there instead of tattooed. 'No, you don't work for the Reihn, do you?'

'I told you! I knew it!' Olly said bouncing up and down excitedly.

Leyton glanced behind him, I still didn't know what was happening because he was blocking the doorway.

'I can't talk about this right now, Harper.' He said cautiously. 'Now's not really the time...' He looked behind his shoulder again and ran away, his knife drawn, towards someone in a camouflage tracksuit.

I gaped at the havoc that was now visible. There were multiple camouflaged people attacking people in the same black outfit as Leyton was wearing. Mattresses were strewn across the room, the majority lining the walls, the stuffing ripped out of them. The people who were on the mattresses were being carried by people in nurse's outfits out an open door to the right.

'PRIMA found us!' Olly cheered. 'Took them long enough!'

'Why aren't the Premians using their powers?'

'Probably because they aren't Premians.'

'But you just said that they were PRIMA.' I said, confused.

'Yeah, not many of the PRIMA employees are Premians.' He explained. 'Anyway, we should probably help them.' He ran towards the wreckage.

'Wait!' I grabbed his arm and kept a strong grip. 'I don't know how to use my powers yet! I was only told about 20 minutes ago! What am I supposed to do?'

'I don't know!' Olly said. 'Follow the nurses and ask for Jamie, tell them Olly sent you.' He laughed. 'I've always wanted to say that. It probably won't make much of a difference if you tell them that I sent you, actually.' He wriggled out of my grip and ran to some of the Reihn, throwing mattresses at them with his clear-ribbony telekinesis.

I ran to the open exit and up the stairs into daylight. I ended up at the courtyard which I saw out of my hospital room window. Olly's paper planes still littered the ground. I picked them up and shoved them in the pockets of my black-leather jacket.