Vagabonds

Chapter Fifty-One: A First Time for Everything

Eliza tried to make herself as small as possible in the tiny space between the vending machine and the wall as shapes trotted past her, wavering in the flashing red alarm like deep-sea creatures.

Please don't look in here, just keep going, don't look right.

They didn't. The men and women in uniform made a beeline for the stairs, swarming down where Tori and Joe had disappeared.

She'd been staring at that door for the past ten minutes as the cluster of guards who had stumbled upon them flashed in and out of her line of vision, calling for backup, shouting orders, locking down the base. They might have managed the seemingly impossible task of sneaking inside, but their cover was officially blown. The army knew they were there.

The real game was on.

Eliza could only pray that Joe and Tori were safe, because there was no way she was getting through that door without being seen.

Finally, as the last of the swarm disappeared into the stairwell, Eliza stuck her head out. She looked left, right, squinting through the emergency lights. There was no hope of escaping at this point. Not that Eliza planned to go anywhere without her friends, but she wondered how deep the lockdown would go. What would she do if all the rooms were shut? What if even the soldiers couldn't get through in the case of such an emergency?

How would she find Aquila and his brothers?

Feeling overwhelmed by the task at hand, Eliza forced herself to swallow.

One step at a time, she thought.

And the first step was emerging from her hiding place.

Taking a deep, calming breath, Eliza curled herself around the vending machine. When no one shot at her, she stepped out of the shadows, into the flashing red hallway. Picking a direction at random, she began to side-step along the wall.

She came upon the corner closest to the stairwell and peeked around it, careful not to let too much of her hair show.

There were two men standing by a door, arms folded, looking angry and ominous.

It was the only guarded door in the hallway.

Something must be in there.

But Eliza was alone and armed only with a gun she had no idea how to use. She raked her eyes along the ceiling, but there were no vent openings anywhere near the guards. The alarms were already going off, so she couldn't distract them that way.

Gritting her teeth, Eliza glanced around for something, anything, to help.

Her eyes fell on a wheeling cart, stacked high with paperwork.

It was a terrible plan, really, with an endless number of things that could go wrong. But she couldn't think of a better one.

If you're there, Katie, I could really use some supernatural protection right about now.

Grabbing the handle of the cart, Eliza tested it. Rolled it once, twice. With a sweep of her arm, she cleared out the bottom shelf. The folders rustled to the ground, falling open, spilling pictures all over the white floor.

Eliza froze.

The photos were of her. Of Joe and Tori and all the faces that made up her life at Meru. Greta, Marta, Yuri, Hector. Snapshots of Eliza's homeroom teacher, Mrs. Henderson, and the headmaster who had scolded her for being rude to Amile. All of it mixed in with blurry Polaroids of hulking wings and glinting goggles.

Crouching down, Eliza flicked open the nearest file. And the next one. There were hundreds, if not thousands of pictures, notes, records. All obsessively catalogued, all labeled with the mysterious stamp of MISSION LABRADOR.