The Unaffected

➠2.1

-PART 2-

ESCAPE

it's dark. The red light isn't on.

"Anyone awake?" I ask quietly.

"Me." Ella's voice.

And a moment later, Tom spoke up, "So am I."

"Why's the light turned off?"

"I have no idea; this has never happened before."

I stand up and move carefully to the wall. Maybe the light's off so we can escape.

"Who turned off the lights?" John's voice.

"We don't know," Ella responded.

I'm apprehensive now: either something's gone wrong, or something's gone right. Again, I feel a shred of worry about Baby Soldier betraying us, but I push it away. I have to focus.

Then something drops onto the ground behind me. I whirl around, putting my arms out. Something - or more likely someone - grabs them. "Careful," says an unfamiliar voice, male, with what I think is an English accent. "I'm helping you to escape."

Ah, so this darkness must be intentional. "How is this going to work?" I ask.

"We're traveling up the void," he says.

"Who are you?" Ella asks.

"I'm Nick. Everyone come here."

I'm already next to him, so I don't move.

"I'm going to put you in harnesses, and then Matt - he's the soldier that you know - will pull you up. Pay attention, because they'll wake up soon. We knocked everyone out with alien gas." He chuckles. This all seems like a joke to him, apparently.

Then a pair of strong but oddly gentle hands (obviously Nick's) lift me up and secure several things around my waist and through my legs. It feels like rope.

"Up you go," he says. And then I begin to ascend.

It takes a while, and I can't see anything. Then finally I see a pinprick of light above my head, and then someone's face illuminated in it; Baby Soldier's (or Matt, now).

The light shines on me. "Scar," he says.

"Howdy, Matt," I reply. He rolls his eyes and pulls me up, and then I'm standing on solid ground. I look around, and through the dim light I can see that we're in a hallway much like the others. It's dark everywhere.

"You're Scar?" says a female voice. I notice a girl, tall and slim and pretty, standing behind Matt. She's holding a flashlight. "I've heard about you. You're the supposedly special one, right?"

"Yep. That's me. Super special." She laughs. "I'm Katelyn."

John, Ella, and Tom follow fairly soon after me, and then finally a young man, about twenty or so. His curly hair falls onto his face in some places. He has bright green eyes (from what I can see in the diminutive lighting), and is muscular and fit, in a black suit. I realize I have to look up to face him. He's really tall.

He must be Nick. He notices me examining him, and grins at me. I smile back.

"Okay, time to go," he says, looking away.