Isle of Sanctum | The Aya Thrasher Chronicles | Book 1 |[Editing]

Chapter Seventeen

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

RAYNE

Lake and I sprinted down a narrow hallway. My legs were moving at an incredible speed, but the walls felt like they were gradually closing in on us. My ears were hot and throbbing. My heart was pounding rapidly inside my chest. My eyesight started to go fuzzy. Though, my symptoms quickly ceased when I spotted a door.

As I ran, sweat from my hands fell to the floor, providing for a slick surface. My shoes came into contact with the wet floor, and my legs danced for a brief second before I slipped completely. Falling onto my behind wasn't exactly something I needed right now. Lake turned around and started making her way back toward me. Embarrassed and out of time, I discouraged her from going back for me and got up from the floor.

Now, we had a way into the meat of the building -- well maybe. I tried to toggle the door handle, and it miraculously creaked open. I strained my neck and glanced over my shoulder. The guards were starting to gain on us.

There was a second hallway inside the door. I shut the door behind us and smashed the keypad. Now, no one would be able to get in without breaking the door down. This hallway was a lot bigger than the previous one. There were several carts lined up in perfect formation beside the walls. The guards were shouting and whacking on the door.

I scanned the room. There was another door directly in front of us and two smaller doors -- one on each side of the wall. I started to make my way toward the largest door, but Lake stopped me.

"We can't go for Aya now. They'll have people searching this entire building. We need to hide for now," Lake explained, eyeing the door on the left.

"We don't even know where that goes," I complained.

"It's worth a shot." Lake pushed herself inside the room.

I gave in and followed Lake inside. We stood in a tiny foyer in front of yet another door. The third door posed a problem that we didn't have with the two previous doors. It was locked and could only be opened with an access card.

I lifted my arms up in frustration. "This place and its doors! It's getting ridiculous."

"Lucky for us, I swiped this." Lake held up a guard's keycard.

"Smart girl." I smirked, and Lake pressed the card against the keypad's sensor.

"ACCESS GRANTED," the keypad announced in a robotic female voice as the door clicked open.

I felt around the dark with my hand, searching for a light switch on one of the walls, but I had no luck. Lake clapped her hands together twice, and the lights faded on. The room was the size of a meeting room with several computers and electronics. Lake's face lit up like she was in computer heaven. I wasn't as gleeful. Exhaustion had sunk in, and I fell back in one of the leather chairs.

"So, what you did back there, I mean how did your powers work?" Lake asked.

"I guess they work on the outer ring." I spun around in the chair.

"That makes sense, I guess."

"What about your butt?" she asked, chuckling slightly.

My cheeks flushed red. "My what?" I muttered. "Oh, it's uh-fine."

"Glad to hear." Lake looked up at me before she turned her attention back to the computer system. 

Lake had been pressing random buttons on the keyboards, trying to get the monitors to turn on. She bent down on one knee and crouched below one of the desks. She flipped a switch, and the computer monitors started to power on.

"We might have a small problem." Lake frowned.

I spun around in the chair until I faced the monitors. "What? The guards?"

Lake pointed to the bottom monitor. There was a security video of us in real-time. "Now look at this." Lake pointed to another monitor on the far right, and it showed a video feed of Aya.

"Aya isn't in this tower," Lake pointed out.

I popped up from my chair. "The map. We went over this a hundred times. We were sure she was in this tower."

"Maybe they moved her?"

"Maybe we were wrong?" Lake sighed, and I started to pace around in a mini-circle.

"We can at least open the gates." Lake eyed a couple of buttons on the control.

I walked over toward the monitor, examining them for a few seconds before settling my eyes on the monitor that focused on the front gate. I pressed a random button, thinking it would have opened the gate.

The robotic female voice spat out, "The gate can not be accessed by Tower B controls. Gate controls can only be accessed via Gate A controls on the right panel in Tower A." 

I didn't understand. I thought we were in the first tower. While both towers were identical, I would consider Tower I to be closest to the entrance of the city. That's usually how directions worked. It was absolutely ludicrous to make the other tower, Tower I. 

While Aya wasn't my friend, she was Lake's and I wanted to help Lake get her out. And the plan we had come up with seemed flawless. We had worked everything out to the T. I spun around and looked at Lake. She didn't seem confused, just angry. Her face was calm, but hers glared at me. It was almost like the glare-equivalent of shouting at me. I couldn't understand why she was mad at me. It wasn't my fault. 

EDITED: 01/20/2019