Labyrinth of White - The Moon Trilogy - Book #1

Chapter twenty-seven:

After discovering that Johnathan could make the whole group disappear, they had taken small groups up in the elevator. One group would wait nearby until the others came up. The whole time, everyone had been holding hands.

Once they had gotten all of the people out of the sublevels, they had made their way to the closest unlocked room.

It had been difficult. They'd had to avoid any occupied space, because, although they were invisible, they were still there. Several groups had come within inches of being discovered.

And now they had a huge group of people, all crowded against each other even though the laboratory was one of the bigger ones in the building. As it was, Clara was pressed up against several people, and someone with incredibly rough skin was chafing up against one of her arms, which were bare now that she'd given her coat to a young woman who clearly needed it more.

After arriving, they'd cleared the floor of most of the equipment, which was piled high in a corner to leave more room for the huddled mass. The only piece of furniture that had been spared this fate was a singular table, located more or less in the center of the room.

Around the table were the group of intruders, quietly discussing their next course of action. On the table was a schematics chart of the building that someone had somehow managed to scrounge up.

As they talked, they pointed at the map. She couldn't hear what they were saying from where she was, but she could see as clear as day that they were talking about how they were going to get everyone to the other side of the building, and consequently, the teleporter room. When the innocents were clear of the building, they were apparently going to blow it up, though Clara didn't know how they planned to do that without any explosives.

Since she couldn't hear what they were saying and thinking so much about the plan without any more info was just making a lot more stressed out than she needed to be, she concentrated instead on naming the people situated around the table.

Agent 89443, the one with the wings, was named Alex—that much she'd already known. The one that looked like a cat was Sam. One of the girls, the shorter one with amber eyes, was named Clarity. The last one was named Rachel.

On Clara's observation, Rachel seemed stiff towards Sam. Maybe she didn't like him or didn't trust him. Or maybe it was just a coincidence.

There were, at the very least, seventy people in the lab, and she was suddenly shoved forward, which effectively broke her out of her thoughts. She tried to settle back into her place, but the gap had been swallowed up by the rest of the cramped crowd. She didn't like the way she felt like all of their eyes were on her now that she wasn't among them, so she crammed herself back into the throng, pressed almost to the point of not being able to breathe.

Time passed slowly. Every once in a while, a murmur would pass along the crowd as something was whispered at one end, and spread to the other, but mostly, they were silent. The hushed conversation of the four leaning over the table seemed louder than it should have been, and that made it much more irksome that she couldn't make out a single word they were saying.

After another unspeakably long moment, Alex turned from the table.

"All right, everyone. It's been decided. The people that need medical attention will stay here, Clara will take care of you." He said, his tone instantly drawing the attention of everyone in the room. She was again shoved forward, and this time most of the eyes in the room really were on her. "The rest of you will go with Sam to the teleporter room. Because we can't teleport that many people at a time, you'll have to go in small groups. Johnathan will help you sneak by unnoticed." He gestured to people as he said their names, though most of the crowd probably already knew who was who by now. "If you have any questions, just ask one of us."