Mind Over Matter

Chapter 18

Carroll

I stopped.

What am I doing? I had been running through the hallways. The way out has been there the whole time! I just needed to think outside the box. I assumed there was a way out through the maze. But there wasn't, it was a distraction. I went through and ended up in the white hallway. Big shocker. I turned around and punched the locked door behind me. It broke open to reveal a gray hallway. This is new. There were three doors, one on each side and at the end. They had the numbers 1, 2, and 3 on them. I started to go through the one with 1 on it, but then I stopped. I turned around. There was an intact door there. I grinned, and punched it open. Another gray hallway. It had the same design with three doors, but they had the letters A, B, and C on them. I turned around, but I saw the gray hallway I was just in. A, B, or C?

Don

I wait longer. Nothing. I try to keep acting calm. The silence is bugging me. But I can't let them know their winning. I keep calm. And wait.

Mark

We make it to the white hallway, almost effortlessly. Alex was about to open a door, when something caught my eye. I tapped on his shoulder, and said "Look!" He looked at the end of the hallway. The door we had just walked through to get here, was broken, revealing a gray hallway. We hadn't seen a gray one yet, so we went in. There were three doors, labeled 1, 2, and 3. We decided to go through 3.

Carroll

I looked closely. B was solid black, but A and C were an extremely dark gray. Barely noticeable. I went through B. It led me to a dark room. There was a man strapped to a chair in the middle. "Who's there?" he asked. It was Don. "It's me," I said. He sighed, relieved. I cut him loose. "Do you know about Area 51?" he asked. "The old legend about people who collect alien artifacts?" I replied. "I guess not then," he said. I turned around, and the door I came through was gone. I looked around. There was another door on the other side of the room. I ran towards it and rammed it with my shoulder. It busted open. The room flooded with light and I guess it was too bright for him, because he had to squint. Then, several guards came running towards us. I knocked most of them out, and Don got a few. I noticed that they all had the number 51 on their uniforms. We ran, not knowing where to go. We knocked out a bunch of guards. Then, some finally came armed. They shot something at me, and I blacked out.

Mark

We found ourselves were we just were. A gray hallway. Three doors, 1, 2, and 3. We went through 1. Same thing. We went through 2. Same thing... This is getting annoying. "We've gone through every door and it just takes us to the same place," I said. Alex paused a minute. Then his face lit up. "Not every door," he said, turning around. We went through the door behind us. It took us to the white hallway. I never thought I'd be happy to see that. We turned around and went into the gray hallway. We turned around. Another gray hallway, but this time with the letters A, B, and C. I noticed that door A was made of a different wood. "Let's go through A," I said. We went through A.

Carroll

I woke up. I was in a dark room, just like the one Don was in. Suddenly, the door opened. A man walked in with a weird gun pointed at me. "Come with me," he said. I didn't know what the gun could do, so I followed him to another room. He opened the door. "Get in!" he said, waving the gun. I walked in, and Don was standing there. "Get in front of him," he said. I got in front of him. "Go a few steps back," he added. I walked back a few steps. Then, another man walks into the room, holding a regular gun. "Now," he said, "We were hoping you'd answer some questions for us." "Never!" Don replied. He pointed the gun at me. "I wouldn't be so sure," he said, "Now, what exactly do you think you're doing, running around in the tunnels?" Don was silent. The man pulled the trigger.

The bullet hit me right in the hip. I winced. Don had his hand pressed up against his hip, and had his eyes closed. He was trying not to show the pain. "Answer the question!" the man yelled, then shot me in the stomach. I clenched my fists. That hurt. Really bad. But it hurt Don worse. He collapsed, screaming in pain, clenching his fist. He pointed the gun at my head. "What were you doing down there?" the man yelled. I could see the terror in Don's eyes. I didn't know what to do, so I closed my eyes.

But then, all of a sudden, everything felt different. I opened my eyes. I was in a different room, at a desk. There was a computer on the desk, with a huge monitor. Where am I? Suddenly, a face showed up on the screen. She looked familiar, but I don't know her from anywhere. "Welcome to you're control room," she said, "In case you don't know who I am, I'm your designer. If you don't know that, then I'm sorry we never met. But, enough about that! If you're here, that means something bad is happening. You're programmed to come here in the case of a malfunction, or emergency. You should always come here if you're malfunctioning. This place is where you can control everything about you, manually. This place isn't real. It's, 'in your head,' in a sense. Right now, you're thinking is being sped up by 10,000%, so everything around you appears to be happening slowly. Anyway, I'm sure you'll figure it out, good luck!" The face disappeared. This is in my head. Cool. Four windows popped up on the screen. One was showing what was apparently what I was really seeing. I see Don on the ground. He's barely moving. I am thinking fast. The next window shows what I think are input codes, for my senses, etc. The third shows a place where I think I can type in manual output codes, for my movements, etc. The fourth looks like an easy access menu. There are several subheadings, as follows:

Power

Strength

Senses

Actions

Processes

Programming

I click on Senses. Then, another menu pops up:

Vision

Touch

Hearing

Taste

Smell

I click on Touch. Then, another window opens. It has three subheadings, each with a box next to it: Texture, Pain, and SuperSense®

The boxes next to Texture and Pain are checked. I uncheck Pain. There's other stuff under the subheadings, but I close the window out and exit to the first menu. Then, I close my eyes.

When I opened them, I was back in the interrogation room. The man was yelling. Don didn't say anything. "Fine!" the man exclaimed, "You're dead!" He pulled the trigger. The bullet hit me right on the side of my head. I smiled. I didn't feel a thing. Don is stunned for a second, and then smiles a little. The man is puzzled. "Aaarrrgh!" he exclaims, "How did you do that!?!?" I punched him, and he blacked out. Quickly, I grabbed his gun and pointed it at the other man. He dropped his gun and put his hands up. I ran out of the room, carrying Don.