Labyrinth of White - The Moon Trilogy - Book #1

Chapter twenty-two:

Before anyone could even blurt out a single word in the way of asking a question, the dizziness from before came back full force, all at once, hitting her like a ton of bricks. She stumbled back before she felt her muscles lock up. She couldn't move anymore, which meant that it was working. She regretted her decision.

Sam jumped right on the task at hand as soon as he realized what had happened. "We found an AFG in the works of the teleporter. Is that all? Or is there anything else that can kill us that we should know about?" he asked, directing the question towards her, but clearly not at her.

She wondered what an AFG was.

"There's more." Her mouth was moving but it wasn't her doing the talking. Despite the fact that it had happened before, it still felt very strange to have no control over what she was doing.

She felt herself walk over to the wall of machines, still with no prompting whatsoever on her part. Unlike before, no one tried to stop her or get in her way.

When she reached the machines, she crouched down and pulled open a panel. She rummaged inside for a few minutes before pulling a chrome disk out. She tossed it over her shoulder and it clattered to the floor behind her.

Still controlled by the telepath, she reached behind one of the smaller machines and groped for a second. She closed her hands around a bunch of wires and tugged. The wires came away with little resistance. She pulled it up and turned around. She dropped the wires near the chrome disk.

The movements passed in a blur, and the metal swam before her eyes. She could hardly focus on anything that was happening, so she just tuned it out entirely, trying not to think about how strange it felt to move without moving.

She tried her best to focus on the world again once she was pretty sure that the telepath had done everything he wanted to. There was a small pile of most-likely-deadly things near her feet. The telepath's eyes continued their unnerving flickering.

"That's all." She heard herself say. And after a second, she knew that she was in control again.

She flexed her fingers and then crossed her arms pretty much just for the fact that she was doing it now, then walked over to where Rachel was standing.

Sam and Alex stepped back onto the metal plate. Sam was holding the remote activator for the teleporter. Or at least that's what Clarity assumed it was.

She noted that the telepath had finally closed his black eyes, and she let out a sigh of relief. Maybe he was finally actually unconscious and would stop using her like a puppet.

"Is everyone ready?" Sam asked, turning back to look at each of them in turn, an eyebrow cocked.

They all remained silent, but Rachel was the only one who didn't nod—except for the telepath, of course.

Sam seemed content with their responses because he pushed a button on his little remote. She must have guessed right after all.

At first, nothing seemed to happen, but after a minute, a translucent, swirling blue veil surrounded the metal plate that they stood on. Subtle purple hues mixed in with the sapphire blue as the machines on the wall whirred to life. She was struck with more deja-vu, and she was almost afraid that the telepath was back at it again, but then she realized that it was actually deja-vu of her earlier deja-vu. After a moment of thought, her best guess was that she had been seeing one of the telepath's memories.

Suddenly, the purple and blue were joined by a bright yellow, streaking through like a sudden crack of lightning. It was stunningly bright compared to the more subdued, cool blue and purple.

However, the yellow didn't want to stop with just a few streaks, and it was soon spreading to a third, then half, then completely covering the strange veil of colors. She realized that the brighter color wasn't translucent like the earlier ones had been, and she couldn't see anything past it.

And then she suddenly felt strangely hollow, and yanked away from something... but what that was wasn't exactly clear. It didn't hurt. It just felt like she was being uprooted and thrown to somewhere beyond where her eyes could see, but then again, the only thing she could see was the nearly-blinding curtain of yellow.

The feeling stopped just as suddenly as it had started, and the yellow veil faded back into blue and purple. She could see beyond the swirling colors again and, at first, she couldn't believe her eyes. She had known that it was a teleporter but, for some reason, she didn't really think it would work.

Instead of the dull, metal walls of the underground room, she was surrounded by white. Harsh white light spilled from two rows of overhead lights. Machines similar to those in the underground room lined one wall. Directly in front of the metal plate, there were metal double-doors.

Clarity was about to step off, but Sam's hand shot out to block her way, only dropping once the blue had faded entirely and the air around them stopped shimmering.

Alex and Sam were the first ones off, Sam heading over to the gadgets on the far wall, and Alex going over to peek through one of the doors. She wished she had something to do as well because as it was, she felt pretty useless.

Alex returned from the double doors. "The hallway is clear, but it won't be for long. We should get going." He said, a trace of urgency in his voice. He seemed tense as if he was a rubber band stretched tight enough to break with just the slightest pressure.

Sam murmured something unintelligible and continued fiddling with the wall of machines, but after a few moments of silence only invaded by the clicks and hums of the machines, he walked over, apparently finished.

Sam and Alex lifted the telepath again, Sam gripping his legs and Alex holding his arms.

Alex took the lead, walking over to the double doors and taking another cautious peek through before pushing into the sterile, white hallway beyond. Clarity looked at Rachel and shrugged before following.

They walked through the stark-white hallway, occasionally passing an unmarked, metal door. The pure white of the hallway grated on her nerves. Do these people use any color besides white?

If it weren't for the metal doors and the people around her, she could almost believe the entire place was just a sea of white nothing. It was enough to drive someone crazy, and she wondered if that had anything to do with the way Alex seemed so terse.

After they walked the full length of the hallway, they came to an intersection. They could either continue going straight, turn to the left or right, or go back the way they had come. Only one option could be ruled out, which didn't leave her any better off than before at puzzling out which way to go.

Alex paused at the head of the group, as if unsure what to do. She noticed again how tense his shoulders seemed. She might have been imagining it, but she thought she could see the feathers on his wings puffing out a bit.

After a minute's contemplation, he seemed to reach a decision. He set the telepath down, propping him against the wall, and then he ducked into one of the unmarked doors.

She was surprised that the door was unlocked and undefended and she started to wonder why but her train of thought was interrupted by Alex exiting the room, a gurney in tow. She caught a glimpse of metal lab equipment before the door swung shut behind him.

On the gurney, there were two small gun-like objects. Alex took one of them and handed it to her. It was surprisingly heavy for such a small thing. He handed the other gun-thing to Rachel. She took it without comment.

"What is this for?" she asked, her voice hushed.

"I have a feeling that you might be needing it," Alex said gravely as he helped Sam lift the telepath onto the now-empty gurney.