The Race Against Time

Chapter 31

Brooklyn

There were at least three armed bodyguards in the hallway. A small handgun was stripped in the side of his pants and a large one was in both hands. We needed a distraction and fast, time is of the essence.

"How about I distract them, I could pretend that I'm sleep-walking or something."

"It's worth a try because we ain't got no time to waste, it'll be 3' o'clock soon," Xander said.

I dropped my head and closed my eyes beginning to walk down the hallway when a high pitch alarm went off in the building. I hurriedly ran back to the corner the rest of them were panting because of how fast I ran from that corridor. That was too nerve recking for my liking.

The guards that were there were on high alert now an if waiting for some sort of the announcement. The alarm stopped and a voice was heard through speakers.

"The candidates in room 101 has escaped, find them, and kill them immediately before they leave this building."

The guards that were in the corridor were coming in our direction, and fast.

"We need to hide now."

"There's nowhere to hide," Lucas replied.

"There's a closet over there, let's go now they're coming."

We all ran over to the room and closed the door shut. It wasn't the best room to go in since all of was squeezing each other in this little space but it would do for now. I could hear the guard's footsteps in the corridor passing the room. When the footsteps faded away, I opened the door of the storeroom.

When we went into the corridor that the guards were in, we spotted the room that the other candidates were in but when we looked through the transparent part of the door everyone was on the floor dead.

We were too late. My brain imagined every detail of how their death must have been. Them having difficulty breathing, vomiting, nausea. I've learned too much about what this gas does to you in chemistry. I couldn't bear to look at it anymore, I looked away from the gruesome image before me trying not to think about it excessively.

"O, damn I think I'm about to puke," Xiomara announced.

"Why does time fly so fast, we could have saved them," Xander shouted.

Can this day get any worse?

"What is that?" Lucas said pointing behind us.

Everyone's eyes followed where Lucas was pointing towards. Some sort of gas was passing through the corridor and coming straight towards us. I am officially dead.

"We forgot to close the door and now there's a deadly gas coming our way, just great," I spoke.

"Well, that's our cue to go, time is not in our favor."

We ran down the next corridor in the opposite direction, alarms we blaring in every corner. The building was like a maze. We took many turns but it didn't seem like we were getting anywhere near the entrance of the building.

"We don't even know where we are going, this gas is going to invade this entire building and we don't even know where we're going."

"Well, we can't stop either," Xander answered.

He was right we can't because that gas is spreading quickly and if it caught up with us, we'd be dead in a matter of minutes, no cap. But we sure did not know where we were going, that's one thing Xiomara was right about.

"Let's just keep moving I'm sure there are signs somewhere that we could follow," I said ending the argument between Xander and Xiomara.

After running through even more and more hallways we came across a sign written 'the second floor' on it. That was the greatest help we have gotten thus far.

"We're on the second floor so that means that we're going in the right direction, it shouldn't take long to reach the first floor and get out of this atrocious place."

The hallways were dimly lighted with the flashing of red lights everywhere. I could barely see where I was going but I kept on moving. The alarm was quite annoying and was giving the purge vibes. Right now, the only way of keeping myself calm and preventing an anxiety attack once again was talking to myself to keep my mind off the entire situation.

When I looked behind there was the gas coming from the end of the hallway.

" You guys we need to move faster the gas is spreading quickly, it right behind us."

We sped up and ran as fast as possible. There was a staircase in front of us so we ran down. We are finally getting somewhere. There were about five flights of stairs and by the 3 one I was exhausted and I'm sure everyone was too. I was heaving, my lungs were begging for air so I slowed down just to catch my breath.

"Come on Brooklyn don't fall behind," Xander shouted.

I continued to run down the flight of stairs following the rest of the group in front of me. Reaching the bottom of those steps was a workout by itself. When we reached the bottom of the stairs there was a huge hallway and at the end of it, there was a door leading to the entrance where we came from the first time, we entered the building.

That entrance was the only thing that lightened up my day so far because from the time I woke up everything kept going downhill.

"Finally, we're getting out of this death trap," Yori explained.

My hope for a better day simply vanished when I saw a glass door sliding down from the ceiling that was going to trap us inside here.

"We need to get past the end of this corridor before the door closes come on!" Xander yelled.

If the others weren't fast before they are now because in a split second everyone dashed off. As we neared the glass it was halfway closing already.

Tyler bent and went under, Xander slid below, Yori crawled and Xiomara slid, falling in the process but getting over but when I finally reached the glass it sealed shut.

I whipped my face to the back and saw the smoke slowly entering the hallway. I couldn't even explain how fast my heart was beating right now. I banged against the glass but it was nowhere near breaking. This wasn't just any type of glass. Everyone else on the other side tried banging also but it was futile.

Yori's eyes held a pang of sadness for me and even Xiomara looked sad. It surprised me. Xander, Lucas, and Tyler screamed my name but I couldn't hear them. Tyler looked so heartbroken that it brought a tear to my eyes. I didn't even bother breaking down in tears because I already knew my fate.

The smoke engulfed me and one inhalation of it was enough.