ABOMINATE || Slow Editing

Chapter 9: The Mission

_JACKIE_

"I look like a potato in this dress" Jessie whined in my ears for the nth time.

"This is not a dress Jessie, this is a uniform. We are going on a mission and not in a fancy ball" I didn't know how I was still patient with her.

Erma gave us some identical costumes for our mission. Those were some dirty yellow overalls with some name tags like that of prisoners. The names there were fake and my alias was Amanda.

All five of us got ready and walked out of the cottage while revising Adonis' instructions in our heads.

"At 10.00 am sharp, there will be an assembly formed on the streets. It will comprise of all the residents between 10 to 20. They will most probably be taken to Daniel's castle. We need you trainees to join the assembly and do whatever they are doing. Observe carefully what Daniel is telling or doing to them. We need those information to learn about Daniel's actual plan. And lastly, you can't wear your suit as you'll be undercover. You'll be completely on your own so good luck."

We reached the streets that were already  filled with citizens of more or less our age. There younger and older members too, just like Adonis said. We were starting to blend in when suddenly a loud noise filled the air. Immediately, everyone present there, except for us five, formed a straight que. They stopped whatever they were doing and became completely silent, almost like a remote controlled machine. We had no other choice but to act as mechanical as they were. The line slowly started marching forward.

"What's going on?" Zhang whispered from behind me

"Shut up and go with the flow" I heard Jessie scolding him. I was just as confused as he was but we couldn't do anything stupid that could blow our cover.

After walking for some time, we reached the gate of Daniel's mansion. The line walked in through the open gates guarded by a few robots.

Everything inside was sophisticated and classy. But an eerily silence lingered in the long corridors. The line stopped in what looked like a ballroom. Unlike the entrance, no robots were guarding this place.

Daniel didn't yet show up so I decided to sneak in the place for some extra info. I moved back to the empty corridors followed by my friends. As we started to enter more into the building, the place started to look like a laboratory. Vials and test tubes filled with weird coloured fluids were aligned along the walls.

We were too engrossed to notice footsteps approaching behind us.

"Hey what are you doing here?" an angry voice shouted from behind us. I tried to turn around but I tripped on my toe and fell into a room that was right beside me. Fortunately they didn't notice me because of the low lights.

"Act like the others" I whispered from the room. My friends acted accordingly and the man fell for it. He took them back to the line.

As the coast was clear, I started observing the room I fell into and soon my attention was caught by some papers that were littered haphazardly on a table. I looked closer and saw that those were blueprints with drawings of human anatomy and the central nervous system. I took as many as I could and put them in my bag.

I was looking around when I saw an antique looking bookshelf. It looked out of the place in the science lab. I leaned against the furniture as I stared at the books. My weight must have generated some mechanism in it, the shelf turned itself around and I landed on the cold floor behind it. The shelf moved again to retrieve it's original position.

The corridor I fell into was even darker and I had no idea how to get out of there. I tried pushing the shelf but it won't move. So I started walking forward.

Suddenly I heard some noises. Like someone singing nursery rhymes. I walked towards the sound and entered a brightly illuminated white coloured room. The owner of the voice was an old man who was chained to the walls.

Was he a prisoner?

I moved closer to him and he looked up at me. His eyes were red and swollen as if he'd been crying for years. As soon as he saw me, his eyes widened and he spoke up,

"Rose?"