Curious Minds

Chapter 5

     This room was brightly lit and surprisingly organized. This was the first room that had actually looked like a legitimate high-security government room. Sterile metal tables, white walls, and state of the art machinery completed the look.
    
"Dak?" Caleb said. "Two things. One: The sirens have stopped." Now that I noticed it, the silence was more unnerving than the sirens had been. "Second: Is that the cube?"
     In a clear plexiglass case on the central table was a box everyone had seen on TV. It was a cube that looked unimportant. Caleb and I knew, though, that it was the object that had enabled the Heroes of Earth beat the Yeerk Invasion. The same Heroes everyone still talked about even ten years after the conclusion to a war that never reached a full-scale battle on Earth's surface.
     The best and most pronounced part of those Heroes: they were kids. They had been younger than the twins when they had received the cube and they hadn't broken when it came to killing and fighting every day for years.
     No one really knew the whole story, but they had obtained the cube and met a young Andalite and eventually won a war the whole Andalite race could not contain, all without their parents finding out.
     "Don't do it," I said before Caleb could even take a step forward.
     "But it's right there," Caleb pointed at it as if I wasn't really seeing it.
     "That thing probably has a thousand alarms," I warned.
     A thud from the door made us jump.
     "That's a big dog," Caleb said.
     "I don't think it's a dog."
     Both of us backed into the table where the cube sat in it's clear prison. I was busy trying to gauge how much longer we would be alive and possiby guess what would be coming through the door for us. Caleb took advantage of my distraction and turned towards the case.
     I noticed when the case was opened because deafening alarms rang out from where Caleb had opened it and in a smooth motion, removed the cube. Faster than I expected, Caleb grabbed my ungloved hand and pressed it against one side of the cube, his on the other.
     A strangely familiar tingle went through my palm. I didn't have time to think that over, though.
     The noise of the alarm must have covered the sound of the door cracking, but we did notice the giant brown bear that came through.
     Caleb tossed the cube onto a random table and raised his hands, "Don't shoot."
     I don't know which of us was more surprised; me or the bear. For a second the bear and I seemed to have the same thought: What was this guy doing? Caleb's glance had me drawing the bear's attention. I started walking away from Caleb, getting the bear to follow me.
     As it's head swung towards me, Caleb rushed forward and pushed his hand into the fur. It only took a few seconds for the bear to relax onto the floor.
     "Let's go!" Caleb called as he jumped over the bear.
     I really didn't think it was a good idea to go back the way we came. We just didn't have any choice it was the only way out.
     The room was empty. Neither of us wanted to stick around for the bear to wake up, though. We headed to the only other door.
     The hall was full of soldiers. They had set up a trap just in case the bear had been unsuccessful.
     "Don't move! Show us your hands," one of them shouted. All the soldiers had weapons pointed at us.
     Choosing the most logical option, I raised my hands. Caleb raised his a little slower. Neither of us moved any other way.

**************
Josh's POV

After Drake had accidently killed the soldier, he was quiet. I managed to finish hacking into the security feed and even delete quite a bit of their stored footage. Whatever happened now would not be recorded.

We had left that room and ran right into a set of patrolling guards. They had led us to a room and left us locked in. The lock was electric, though.

After being held in an electically locked room for a while, Drake had helped to get the door open and escape. We wandered for some time before finding a treasure trove of technology.

The control room.

It was surprisingly empty. The guards had logged out and placed firewalls around the information. The passcodes were easy, for me and Drake, of course. The firewalls took a little more effort.

It was when we entered this room that Drake started acting semi-normal again. It helped that the number of screens was too much for just one of us to monitor. Keeping his mind busy seemed to be helping, but I was worried for when this mission was over.

We needed to find Caleb and Dak as soon as possible, too. The plan was to get out of the compound before the sun rose. Not knowing where those two were meant we couldn't just leave.

Finally after twenty minutes of searching, we found them. They were on their way to a room full of creatures. I saw humans, animals, Hork-Bajir, and even Andalites.

<Track where they've been> I told Drake. There was no way they had been unsuccessful in the last two hours.

<Found the cube> Drake said from across the room. <Caleb also left a memento for us.>

When I looked over, I saw that the cube sat, unprotected, on a metal table in an isolated room. The memento Drake noticed was a necklace Caleb had been waving about in his cousin's living room.

Drake pulled out the pin drive we had a special concoction of music, viruses, and frequencies saved on.

<Ready?> my twin asked, brandishing the plan B. This drive was only an option if our friends were in an uncertain situation.

I nodded. The other two were getting themselves into something we couldn't possibly help with otherwise.

Drake plugged the drive into a port and made sure that the files had downloaded on the computers before removing it. No evidence.

<Go> Drake said, tilting the keyboard and mic towards me.

I leaned forward and typed out the command code. As I hit Enter, I said, "Begin operation FREE FREINDS."

The screen turned blue.

We headed towards the rooms where the memento and cube awaited. Then we were going to make sure Caleb and Dak had a chance to get away.

We usually placed ourselves in danger for fun. This time it was to help two people we called friends. They were the first people who didn't seen us as freaks, yet.

*** Let me know how you like it so far***