Subjects

16- Runaways

The halls are empty. The group runs through the halls, hoping they meet no one. Not that it would matter, just try and stop a group of teenagers and see if you make it out alive. And so they run.

"Do you even know where you're going?" Emily whisper-shouts at Ben, who is in the lead.

"I think so," he answers without slowing down even a bit. They keep running, and the hallways and rooms never seem to end.

"Wait, Ben, can you just slow down for a minute?" Emily holds Angie's hand as she runs, barely keeping up with Ben's insane pace.

"Would you rather get caught?" He keeps running forward.

Roger stops and goes to Angie, he lifts her on his shoulders with ease and continues running after Ben. "Come on, Emily. We can't stop."

Another lab, another dead end, another engine room. Even Ben is beginning to realize that escaping this ship is not as easy as he thought. His sense of navigation does not apply to outer space, apparently.

And then the alarm goes off.

They hear distant footsteps approaching them. Ben stops running, he turns around and says, "You have to get out of this place. No matter what, you can't let them get you again."

And then they run again. Up ahead two characters spot them and start running towards them. "Don't stop," Ben shouts. They run.

"Stop!" the aliens yell as they run toward the group. They don't stop. They are now about five meters apart. The aliens slow down but the subjects don't. One of the aliens makes eye contact as she speaks, "Stop."

Ben stops. The rest stand right behind him. At this point Emily starts to freak out. If Ben is influenced, they really are doomed, in a minute she'll probably be under as well. She keeps thinking about how she can't think. Don't think, don't look, don't hear, don't understand.

The first alien comes closer, "that's better." She takes out an injector. Right before the tip of the tube touches Ben's neck he pulls back and punches her in the face.

"Run!!" Ben commands. The group surges forward, hitting the other alien on their way. The third alien starts running as he realizes what's happening.

He was defiantly not prepared to fight. His mom always said he should work in science, and this was his first time traveling away from... Never mind, I'm getting side tracked here. The point is that he ran as fast as his two legs could carry him and probably proved wrong every adult that ever said he has no future in sports.

Ben has no clue where that alien is running, but he has no intention of finding out. The first opportunity he gets he turns away from the alien's path and takes a quick look behind to make sure everyone's okay. There are a few boxes with a familiar label laying in the corner of the hallway. Ben sure doesn't miss the taste but he knows the first, well- second, rule of survival is that you need to have food. He grabs a box and continues to run.

"Look!" Eva spots something that looks a lot like where they came from, the dock. Ben bursts through the door and there it was, their ticket out of this place. The only thing standing between them and the three emergency ships is a skinny looking guard and a pissed off scientist.

Ben recognizes him immediately, he ordered to shoot Leo. The moment he sees them he turns to take the guard's weapon but Ben throws the box he has in his hands at him and runs toward the shock stricken guard. He takes the gun and points it straight at the scientist who looks even more pissed off than before.

"Put it down," the alien says. Ben doesn't move. "Put it down, now." But Ben hears nothing, he can only think of Leo, of all the things this alien did and deserves to die for. "Very interesting," the alien says. "Very interesting indeed. It seems that the gene isn't perfect after all."

"How could you do it?" Ben is furious. "How can you even live with yourself? He only wanted his daughter back."

The alien looks up at the sweet little girl. She has the same eyes, same serious look, even at this age. He looks back at Ben. "You don't know anything, boy."

Ben looks at the guard that still stands there uselessly, "open this ship," he orders.

The guard stumbles onto the control panel and clicks a few buttons before one of the emergency ships opens. Roger picks up the box Ben threw and walks inside the ship after Emily and Eva. Ben goes in too but he stands at the door and keeps the gun pointed at the guard and the scientist.

"Umm..." Eva says, "does anyone know how to fly a spaceship?"