Electric

Chapter 7: The So Called Escape Plan

Beep! Whirr! Beeeeeep beeeeeeep BEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!

A red flashing light rang out obnoxiously, and my immediate reaction was to pull up the rubber guards over my hands and cup them over Cy's ears.

She didn't pull away, but whimpered against the noise. The other Unique jumped up, looking down the hallway before pulling on my arm. "We have to go, you need to hurry! This is when you die!"

I hug Cy to my chest to muffle the sound in one of her ears and free my hand so I can awkwardly reach into a drawer of her ECSU for her bright pink sound-cancelling headphones. I fought hard to get these for her from the student office after the last alarm made her sensitive ear drums bleed.

After I slipped them on her and she wasn't in any immediate danger of hearing loss, I grab Cy and follow 45U00 down the hall. My heart was racing wildly, but not because of the wonderful woman holding my hand this time.

Am I really going to die?

...

We race down countless hallways, dodging guards where ever possible. "So much for your grand escape plan." I huff to the girls beside me as we run, fighting the urge to cry and laugh at the same time. We come to the front entrance to the facility, which just so happens to be swarming with guards and the door itself is covered in a metal sheet that had dropped in lockdown mode.

I groan when one of them notices us, his deep voice firm as he told us to return to our rooms. 45U00 smiles oddly as if to reassure him, waving her arm in a dramatic manner. "Okay, no problem. We'll just mosey our way back. No problem. Yeah..." She starts walking backwards, and all I can do is stare. "What the hell are you doing?"

She waves her hand frantically to the group of men standing very close to the metal sheet, and her voice floats into my head, breaking through my careful barriers. "Hit the door, C5119. We have to go to the back way, but we don't need these guys following us."

I can feel panic rising at her suggestion, it could kill them! Or worse yet, get us killed!

I start to shake my head, but her mental voice stops me again. It suddenly dawns on me that she shouldn't know I have this ability, and I eye her questioningly and eventually get the answer to my unasked question.

"Look at their armor, they'll be fine. I can see the future, remember? I know everything that is going to happen."

I still feel very uncertain, but Cy places her forehead on my shoulder. She's getting tired, and I can't risk her getting hurt.

So reluctantly I place Cy's hand in 45U00's and push them forward. "I'll be right back, meet me at the end of the hall. Go." I whisper, and when they do, 45U00 pulling the confused cyclops, the guards behind me start to get suspicious. "Hey, we said to return to your-" I flip around inhumanly fast, extending my hand to hit the door behind him with a thick stream of electricity. It knocked out the man's colleagues, but the guard was far enough from the door it only kicked him forward. Before his body hit mine, I jumped to the side and brought up my knee and jammed it into his chest while slamming down my closed fist on his back, effectively winding him for several minutes.

I don't stick around after that, darting down the hall leaving spark marks on the floor in my haste.

"Syd!" I hear the sweetest voice ahead of me call my name, and I swing around the corner to see several robot spiders surrounding my two companions. I swear under my breath and snatch one of them up in both hands, adrenaline coursing through my veins as I slam the heavy chunk of metal into another, creating a path for them to escape. Cy tries to push one into a wall with her mind, but he doesn't shatter with any force because she's so tired. The dark haired girl pulls her along, taking my attention for a split second.

I feel something sharp pierce the scar tissue in my right leg, and my hiss of pain is followed by the violent explosion of several spiders being hit with my electric whip. I immediately kill any metal thing that tries to follow the two girls hustling down another corner. There had been ten altogether, and soon I leave their twisted metal bodies behind as I once again try to catch up.

This time I actually make it behind them and suddenly get a thought. "Why is this alarm happening? It can't be because of me this time."

45U00 shakes her head, and this time I wonder if she has a name. I mean, I could keep calling her by her number like anyone else I don't hang out with much, but helping me escape puts her straight on the friend's list in my book.

I almost ask, but instead she answers my first question as we head down a flight of stairs, the clattering of our footsteps hardly audible over the whine of the alarm. "Remember how your friend came back? He is breaking out of the Glass box as we speak and getting into a fight with another powerful Unique."

My eyes widen and I clutch Cy, startling her as we reach the bottom of the steps. Her eye is watering with exhaustion and confusion and I lift her onto my back without trying to warn her, because I knew she would simply wrap her arms around my neck like she's doing right now.

As we run further, I'm starting to get a bit suspicious of 45U00, this hallway she is leading us down doesn't lead to the back door. We are heading to the box, and a battle royale.

...

CRASH!

Benjamin smashes through the weakened wall of glass, shattering glass and ice onto the floor around Isis who smirks. As soon as he steps into the hall she blasts him with ice, making him curse at her. He breaks the ice clinging to his legs with a blast of wind, and uses his power to launch him into the air once again. "Is this what you want? A fight!?" He yells, diving towards her with his hands ready to summon any whirlwind he desires.

They battle hard as the alarms start to blare, and guards swarm to the hall they are in. However, Nix (8P013) is there, melting the equipment and blasting their helmets to protect her sister's battle. She releases a move she calls the Chinese Dragon, and her ebony skin starts to sweat as a literal figure of a dragon forms in her flames to bite at the men swarming their way. She twists the figure using her hands, diving at them with all the elegance of the figure depicted in Chinese books in the library.

They scream in pain and terror, some turning away from the flames licking at their boots. Others stay, dodging the fire as much as they can while they wait for her to burn out.

When her skin starts to bubble from the heat she hisses in pain, dropping the dragon and losing control of her flames. She drops to her knees as Syd, Cy and the Mysterious 45U00 come down the stairs and the guards converge.