Heroes

Chapter 10. The plan is set (sort of)

"What do you want now, Mark?" Nate asked me, his eyes looking more bored than anything else.
"It's time to set the plan," I told him. I was expecting a reaction from him, but what I got was not what I was expecting.
"Plan for what?" He asked, yawning.
I rolled my eyes internally.
"The plan to rescue Jack," I said.
"Oh yeah, that one. Well, I'm still sticking to the deal. So lay it on me," he answered, looking at me expectantly.
"What deal?" Mat asked from next to me.
"Don't worry about it," I replied hurriedly. "Ok, Nate, here's the plan:..."

"That seems really in depth, Mark. I mean, isn't that gonna be difficult?" Nate asked me.
"Yes, but we have the power don't we? I mean, I'm guessing you do," I looked at Nate searchingly but he didn't give me any kind of responses. I was determined to get an answer though, so I didn't continue until he gave me confirmation.
"Yes, Mark, I wouldn't be down here otherwise."
"Ok great. So Nate, we'll need you at the elevator-" I said, but he cut me off.
"Wait, wait, hold the damn phone. You want me...out there?"
"Yeah, you're a crucial part of the plan!"
"Sorry, Mark, but that wasn't part of the deal."
I couldn't believe him. He didn't care about Jack enough to leave his cell and show himself to us.
"I didn't say you'd get to stay there, did I? I just said I wouldn't tell anyone your secret!"
I was getting really het up.
"What secret?!" Mat asked, really confused.
"His door's open! He leaves every night!" I shouted, then slapped my hand over my mouth. I hadn't meant to say that, it just came out! I heard Morgan and Mat gasp and Steph appeared on the scene crying, "What?!"
But what drew my attention most was Nate. He didn't look mad, or upset or annoyed. He just looked.
"Nate, I-" I began, but I couldn't get any more words out before my vision blacked and I was sent into whirling darkness.

When I woke up, I was in a dark room that I didn't recognise. It wasn't the main room or any of the other rooms I'd been in. It looked vaguely like one of the cells, but the door was closed. I slowly looked around and saw a pair of black eyes staring right at me.
"I can't believe...you said that..." I heard Nate say. This was the first time I'd seen him close up, and there were no remarkable differences. He looked just like a normal guy, except that the left side of his face was in shadow. But there was a menace in his eyes I'd never seen before. He looked more than angry; enraged is the only one way I could describe it.
"Nate, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!" I said...or rather, I tried to say, but I couldn't. There was something stopping me from opening my mouth. I couldn't feel any bonds on me or anything, so I didn't know what it was. There was no noise from outside. There was nothing. Only Nate. I looked back into his eyes and just held his gaze.
"Look, Mark, I've tried really, really hard to like you," he said, beginning to walk closer to me. "But there's just something about you that gets on my nerves. So, I've come to a decision."
I sat up slightly straighter, interested to hear him.
"You're staying here," he said, before slowly turning away from me and heading for the door. Suddenly, I found my voice and shouted, "I've been wanting to help you this whole time! All I've wanted to do is help everyone here!"
This made him face me once again.
"If you wanted to help me...that was the worst possible thing you could've said out there," then he opened the door and walked out, slamming the door closed behind him. I jumped up and ran over to it, pushing on it, but it was locked. I don't even know how he did that; when he left the cell, he just walked off straight away. Putting all my pressure into it, I hurled my body at the door and I felt a little bit of give. But doing that hurt my shoulder. I was about to give up, before I remembered that I have super strength! How could I forget that?! I'd tried it on the door before, and it didn't really work, so I went to the wall beside the door. Raising both fists, I slammed them as hard as I could into the wall. The wall seemed to concave slightly, so I did it again. And again. With each time I did it, the wall took a more defined concave shape until, on the fifth attempt, the wall blew open and scattered bits of stone into the main room. I ran out through the dust and almost tripped over something; or someone. Mat was lying on the ground, in the same place as when me and Nate had our discussion. Everyone was in exactly the same place. He must've knocked everyone out then. How he did it, I'm not sure. I didn't know then, and I don't know now. All I knew was that I had to find Jack...even without everyone else's help.

The elevator looked so...different. There was nothing wrong with it, everything was exactly the same as when I arrived a few days ago. But it just seemed different. More inviting. This might be because I knew it could help me get out of here. A surge of hope rose in my chest, but I forced it down and focused on the task at hand. Jack. Stepping onto the elevator, I remembered the button the guards pressed to get down here, and I pressed it. As the elevator ascended, I took one last look towards the main room before it disappeared from view. The closer I got to the surface, the more my heart rate picked up; I didn't know what to expect, whether there would be a full army waiting for me when those doors opened, or if Jack would...I tried not to even think about it. He couldn't be dead. He wouldn't be. I told myself this over and over, thinking that if I just said it enough, it would become true. Then the elevator stopped moving, and the doors opened to reveal...