Grounded

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

When we reach the ground floor, the boy pushes me aside, wires still pinched between his fingers. In a flash, he squeezes through the opening doors into the atrium, releasing his electric hold. The elevator freezes and the lights go out.

As we exit the elevator, the atrium is complete chaos. People flood toward the exit, but no one is leaving. Instead, they bark into their phones and snap at each other. I glimpse a security guard with his thin plastic phone to his ear. He looks at us, then the elevator, confused, presumably because the elevator shouldn't run with the power out.

"I have them," he says. Then he pulls a gun.

There's a scream from a woman in a yellow suit next to the guard, but the boy is unfazed. With a burst of speed, he charges and kicks the gun toward the ceiling. The weapon discharges, eliciting more screams from the already panicked crowd, then drops and skims across the floor. A second guard rushes from the crowd and thwacks the boy with a club. The boy plows the heel of his hand into the soft spot under the guard's chin and blocks a punch from the first guard with his forearm. Bam! Thwack! He spins and plows his foot into the second guard's chest while punching the other under the ribs. His strikes are powerful and true. This boy is a skilled fighter; even I can see that. The officers crumple. Blood sprays from the mouth of one of the men, stark red against the bright white floor. I have to cover my mouth to keep from getting sick. The men don't get up.

Ears ringing from the gunshot, I'm disoriented as the boy grabs my wrist and drags me through total chaos. The glow of his skin lights the darkened atrium, reflecting off the glass of the front windows. We move toward a crowd of people gathered near the glass entrance.

"They can't get out," the boy says to me. "CGEF security. When something goes wrong, none of the Biolocks work. They lock everyone inside on purpose. Down with the ship."

"What? Why?" What he's saying doesn't make any sense to me. Why would CGEF lock their people in? But I can see right away that what he says is true. A woman beats against the glass, arms spread in panic like a bee caught in a storm door. When the others in the crowd notice the boy's blue body shifting ghostlike into their midst, they scramble away in terror. Normally, my upbringing would move me to comfort them, but under the circumstances, I'm more concerned about our freedom.

"No time for explanations. There will be reinforcements." He sweeps me slightly behind him. With a deep breath, he throws his hand toward a break in the crowd. A lightning bolt flies from his palm, thick and white. The air crackles around us. It plows into the glass and the entrance shatters.

Instinctively, I turn to the side and cover my head. A waterfall of falling glass washes toward my feet. It's loud and it keeps coming. New glass breaks and falls, each section shattering and sending a new swell of razor-sharp segments. I expect to be sliced to pieces by the influx, but when the glass comes to rest, I'm unharmed. I look at the floor in confusion and see that the shards have missed us by a fraction of an inch.

"How did—" I start.

"Come on!" he commands. His hand grips above my elbow and moves me forward.

He leads me through the broken window and into the panicked crowd. People race out of the building, darting in all directions in a stampede that closes in around us. We shoulder through the masses toward the streets. A traffic jam has formed in front of the building, drivers gawking through downed windows.

Suddenly, I remember the containment cuff Officer Reynolds placed on me. "Wait," I say, holding up my wrist to the boy, but all that's left is residue.

He tugs me forward, annoyed.

Flashing lights. Sirens. The boy yanks me into the street, weaving between vehicles.