Operation Shutdown

...Chapter 2...

Screaming.  That's all Rosie could process.  All the screaming.  A boy lay lifeless on the floor.  Bullet wound in his head.  The gunshot must've been an accident, that's not how it goes.  You go through the door, it's painless.  Why was this happening?  What went wrong?  But even with all the shock of the shot, the guards, and the body, she knew that wasn't why there was screaming.  

FAILED.  It was written next to every name on the board.

That's why they were screaming, they had passed—most of them at least—and now they're going to die.  "Rosie, ROSEMARY!"  Emma was shouting, but Rosie could barely hear her over the others.  “We have to get out of here!”

Emma was right.  Rosie knew that much, but the constant flashes of terror coursing through her kept her melded to the spot she was standing.  “ROSEMARY!”  She was crying now.  Emma never cried.  Rosie broke out of her mesmeric state and started running.  Emma better have a plan, she thought to herself.  Emma starts running toward the open doorway.  Rosie hesitated.

"We can't go in there..."

Emma turned around, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape.

"Why—"

"You know what room that is!" Rosie exclaimed.

"Do we have a choice is the matter?  We can't just waltz out the front door!"

Rosie sighed and continued after Emma.   They ran full speed towards the failure door.  The moment Rosie's eyes focused on her surroundings, she saw...nothing.  The room was bare except for a vent in the ceiling and a airtight door directly in front of them.

"Too easy."  Emma spoke Rosie's thoughts.  Emma jumped into motion anyway and sprinted towards the door.  She rammed her shoulder against it and began to repeatedly bang on it.  "There must be some sort of hidden handle."  BANG!

Both girls turned around.  The other door was closed now too.  Rosie was at it in seconds, her panic level increasing.  "Trying to escape are we?  No bother.  You have activated the emergency kill system."  The voice was cheery like it were welcoming them to a five star hotel.  "Prepare to die."  From the vents, a thick vapor started to seep out.

"What kind of sick game is this?!"  Emma shouted at the ceiling.  "We've done nothing wrong."  Rosie felt her legs wobbling. This is it, we're going to die in an empty room, she thought.

"Rose, come on, we can't give up," Emma would never embrace death.

"No.  Don't you get it?  There is no way out of here."  Em looked at her with sad eyes. Rosie was never the kind to give up, but something about this room and this air and...Rosie's vision started to blur and shift.  She couldn't look straight and trying to made her head hurt.

"Rose stop breathing!  The vapor is bad.  Geez don't you watch TV?"  

Rosie's eyes widened and she gasped.  Emma looked appalled, “ROSIE, WHAT DID I JUST TELL YOU!”

“Sorry!"

Emma looked at the door and then back at Rosie.

"If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die trying!"  She took off towards the door and rammed into it with her shoulder.

"Emma-stop!"  Rosie pleaded, starting to lose consciousness.

"No! I...will.....get....us," Emma's eyes started blacking out and fell backwards on the ground.  Rosie couldn't see anything, but heard Emma hit the ground, then all was silent, except for the quiet scream of mist spraying out of the ceiling.

--- Two hours later ---

 

Emma woke up slowly at first, but then quickly after her body was flung to the side and hit a wall. Van?  She heard the sound of tires screeching on the road.  Van.  What the heck was she doing in a van.  And where was Rosie?  In a state of extreme panic, she started pounding on the back two doors of the van screaming.  The back of the van was completely empty.  Empty.  I can’t work with empty.  

“Hey kid!”  A voice came over a speaker that Emma was unable to locate.  “Stop that bangin', we’re trying to save you!”

“How can I trust you?”  Emma's eyes searched for anything, anything, she could use as a weapon or crowbar.  She had to get out.  But the van was empty and dark.  The only light came through the crack in the doors, and it cast shadows over the expanse of the back of the vehicle.

The voice came back on the speaker.  “You can’t and you shouldn’t, but you have to work with us right now if you want to live."  If I can't trust you, then for crying out loud lie and tell me I can. She needed something to cling to and she was desperate enough to even consider this guy.  Rosie.  Oh my gosh, Rosemary!  She had processed that the van was empty but she forgot in her terror filled state that Rosie wasn't next to her.

She lost it.  All her anger.  Her voice was thick with impatience when she asked slowly, “Where is Rosie?”

There was silence for a full minute before the voice casually drawled, “The redhead?  She’s with John ‘n the other van.  Needed medical help.  Breathed ‘n too much gas.”  The voice had a slight southern accent.     

"Medical help?" Emma's anger returned with sudden clarity.  "Well, if this 'John' hurts one hair on—"

"Don't worry about it.  She's 'n good hands.  Now, mind tellin' me what happened in The Test and how you two got 'nto that room?"

"Why can't you ask someone else?  Did you only save Rosie and I?  Why us?"  Emma shouted, annoyed that she still had no real idea who she was talking to.  The next words over the comm made her heart stop, and her hope of going home shatter into a million pieces.

 

"Because everyone else is dead."

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .