The Henhouse

Laboratory

"That's- that's the guy," Dany mumbled, dumbfounded. "In the letter. Right? One of the ones who designed the experiment. How did you-?"

"I looked him up as soon as I got it," Ivy said. "If I was going to be subject in an experiment, I wanted to know who I was dealing with."

Justin paid little attention. The old man wasn't speaking for himself. It was like he was paralyzed.

"Are you alright?" he asked Dr. Lowery, stepping forward, arms outward in a show of peace. Lowery shivered but didn't move his head any way; instead he lifted a frail arm, on which fingers eventually flexed, forefinger pointing feebly to a beige storage cabinet in the corner.

"What-"

But in a split second Justin took the meaning. Heart sinking, he looked to Ella, who stood just before the cabinet.

Get away from there, he begged with his eyes and a tilt of the head. She squinted before backing from the cabinet slowly, even rolling her feet along the way.

"Whatever," Justin said. "Casper clearly isn't here. We'd better g-"

The cabinet burst open, doors whistling past the space where Ella just stood. A suited man lept out, reaching for a coat pocket.

Look out! Justin wanted to say. Nothing came out of his mouth. He ducked. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Lowery raising both arms in surrender, rising from his chair with notable difficulty. Justin slid behind the benches, where the others joined him, save Peter and Jonah.

He peeked his head over the black-top. Jonah was struggling with the man, who dwarfed her, grappling for the gun in his hand. His movements were quick, decisive – he was disciplined, like some kind of agent. Peter was squaring up, extending his good arm towards the counters.

Justin lept up. Ella cried something, but he couldn't make out what it was over the sound of Jonah smacking into the wall. She crumpled to the ground, dazed but conscious. Gun still in hand, the agent pointed it at Peter, who stopped dead in his tracks.

Too late.

Justin didn't bother to duck again. He could only watch....

Watch... what?

The agent stood still. His arm began to shake, as though the gun were too heavy for him.

But that's not right....

The man was hesistating, Justin realized. His eyes were narrowed, but doubt was written all over his face. It seemed he wasn't sure what to do, and Justin wondered if maybe he could be talked down....

The gun shifted from Peter's head to his leg.

Just before he could fire, Dany sprinted in from the right-hand side, using a sturdy shoulder to tackle him and send him flying towards the inside wall. It was temporary, but effective; he collapsed, and with his arm outstretched Jonah could easily scramble up and knock the gun out of his hand. Dany dove for it, holding it in both hands and pointing it at the agent with a smirk.

Dany wanted to say something but didn't. His eyes oscillated between the gun and the agent, who laughed in his face as - to their collective horror – he rose from the floor with ease.

Justin, having scrambled back to cover, waddled his way to the far end of the counters. Plan B.

"Not bad," the man whistled, voice smooth as butter. "You know, for 7 on one."

Dany gulped. Justin flopped a hand up onto the counter, patting around for something long and thin.

"What're you gonna do?" he asked. "Shoot me? You'd better hurry up." He was on his feet, now. He held up his hands in mock surrender.

"I've been in this situation before, and guess what? I usually win."

Justin gulped. He noticed Lowery standing in the back corner - hunched over, hands still up, though he'd lowered his shoulders from before. No doubt his arms were too weak to hold high more than a few seconds. Lowery seemed to notice Justin and he squinted, white eyebrows bunching together like a folded accordian.

"You don't even know how to use that thing, do you?"

Dany's grip tightened. His eyes grew desperate.

"Seems easy enough," he answered, voice steady as an earthquake. "And even if I don't, I'm sure someone else here does."

Lowery reached for something on the counter. He looked up at the agent, then passed the something off to Justin. A laptop charging cable.

Perfect.

The agent laughed again. "Do you even know what you're doing? Or why?"

"We're finding our friend," Dany growled. "We're finding our way out of here, and we're going home."

"Or what?" the man said. "Oh, 'Or they'll kill us?'"

Dany drew his other hand to the gun. A pause froze the room. Justin, who'd been crawling around the counters, froze with it. The only sound came from a leaky faucet on the far wall.

"You know," the agent said, "If you meet a rabid dog that wants to tear off your leg, you don't fight it. You lean down, lie on the ground, get on its level. And you don't look it in the eyes." His head cocked upward. Justin followed his eyes to another eyeball camera in the ceiling.

"You meet these guys?" He laughed. "You do what they tell you. You lie down..." - he stepped forward – "you get on their level... and you don't look them in the eyes."

Dany blinked. He was losing himself in thought and the man knew it; Dany stared into empty space as he lept forward, hand reaching for the gun. Justin lept forward in kind, wrapping the charging cord around his thick neck.

The man got hold of the gun, but was still stunned by the cord like a dog choked by its leash. He turned around, head still wrapped by cord, to stare Justin in the face, eyes no more than 6 inches from his. The man smirked, his arm shifted- Justin panicked, loosened his grip, but another pair of hands pulled on the rightward end of the cord, swinging it back around to the front of the man's neck.

A gunshot rang out.

Justin backed up, ears ringing. He watched Jonah pulling tight on both ends of the cord. She twisted the agent's head like a puppeteer towards Peter, who kicked him square in the gut with all the precision and power of a bullet. The impact sent the gun flying out from his hand as he keeled onto the floor. Peter pushed him onto his back and held him down. Dany jumped into the fray to hold down a leg, Ella the other, and the man soon lay prone on the ground. His upper body lie inclined just enough for Jonah to choke him out. Only when he lay motionless for a minute did Jonah let go, and the others backed from the body slowly.

Ivy gaped at him, then turned to Jonah.

"And where'd you learn that?"

"I didn't," Jonah answered. She stared at the fallen agent, stunned.

Justin blinked a few, head pounding. Then he turned.

"Oh, fuck."