Subjects

37- Maybe I'm Crazy

"Where do you think she could be?" Ben asks as the four are racing back to the main deck.

"She can be anywhere," Eva remembers how often she gets lost in the ship. "This place is like a maze."

"We need to start somewhere," Emily says. "Where would the Captain not want us to go?"

They just got to the top of the first staircase and stop to catch their breath. All of them except Ben, of course, who runs on to the next one before noticing his friends who seem to have forgotten how to breath.

"There you are!" Ben looks up to see who is speaking. His face looks familiar, Ben probably saw him at the dinning hall, but he has no clue what is his name. "Your sister told me to get you."

"Wait, Angie?" Ben asks, it's a good thing that at least he still has the ability to speak. "Where is she?"

"She's in the Captain's office," the sort-of-familiar soldier says.

Ben looks back at his friends, "of course, let's go get her."

"Should I let anyone know that I found her?"

"NO!" All four of them say.

"Are you sure? I mean..."

"Yes, thank you for finding her, we will tell the Captain everything," Ben says.

"Okay..." The solider seems a little suspicious, but he assumes that this must be some weird family thing and decides to let it go. God knows he has more weird family things than he'd like to admit. "Just return this key to the Chief after you get her."

The four pick up their speed now that they know where they are headed. They slow down a bit when they get to the main deck, but keep walking quickly to the back of the deck, where the Captain's office is.

That is until they see the Captain.

"Hide!" Emily whispers at them and they duck behind a large container. "How are we going to get across the deck? If he knows we're alive he will know we got away from his beast."

"I have an idea," Roger says. "But it's crazy."

"What is it?" Ben will take anything at this point.

"You said you can make the creature not hurt anyone, right?" Roger glances at the Captain before turning back to Ben.

"I can," Ben says.

"So if it will be set loose in the ship, the Captain will have to go deal with it," Roger explains.

"A distraction!" Emily realizes.

"Exactly," Roger smiles.

"I have an even crazier idea," Eva says. "You said there was more than one metal box in that hall," she looks at Ben.

Ben half smiles, "it's been a while since I've done anything crazy." And he sure is missing it.

"We need to split up," Emily starts to form a plan in her mind. "One can go get Angie, someone should start the ship so we can leave right away."

"You should go to the ship," Ben suggests. "You know it better than all of us. When the deck is clear, go get Angie and we go."

"Wait," Eva looks at the deck. People are still running around calling Angie's name but something is missing, someone. "The Captain's gone."

"Do you think he went to check up on us?" Emily asks.

"I'll go see," Ben starts to walk away before adding, "no matter what, you all need to leave this ship."

They all know what he means, they can feel the influence now.

Emily goes back down to the cargo halls shortly after to get the ship. She still isn't sure about how she will get it out of there, though. When The New Age Panther had only found them, they opened some sort of doorway in the ceiling of the hall and put the ship inside using a crane. Given the fact that none of them have access to open the ceiling nor operate the crane, she will have to think of some other way to get the ship out. Right now her best option is to fly it through the halls all the way out, the passages are pretty wide so it should work but... You never know.

Eva and Roger are no longer hiding behind the container on the main deck. The Captain's gone now so I guess it doesn't really matter whether anybody sees them, they are going to be gone soon anyway, hopefully.

"Angie!" Roger opens the door to the Captain's office.

She gets up behind the table and seems relieved, "I'm here."

"We need to leave, Ange, right now," Eva tells her, failing to hide the stress in her voice.

"Where are we going?" Angie asks as they are running out to the corridor, not bothering to lock up the office.

"We'll take our ship," Roger explains. "Emily is already there, preparing it."

Angie nods, she knows there is not much to do in the plan department. When they exit to the main deck again the sight is a little too familiar. Crew members from all over the ship are running and screaming in terror. It worked, there is no way the Captain will find them in this mess.

They run to the stairs that lead down to the lower deck and the cargo halls, to the ship. Eva finally puts to use her sharper-than-naturally-possible elbows and clears the path for Roger and Angie as they run down the stairs.

"Angie!" They hear someone calling. "Eva!" Between all the people rushing to the main deck and away from the sounds of destruction downstairs, they don't see who is calling them. Eva looks up to see where the voice came from, it is the corridor that leads to the infirmary. As she looks down she can see someone desperately trying to make their way through the crowd in a wheelchair.

"Jeff!" Eva recognizes the wounded soldier. She turns to Roger, "Take her to Emily, I will come soon."

Roger nods and leans to put Angie on his shoulders. They disappear between the blue uniformed figures before Eva has the time to think her decision over. She makes her way over to Jeff.

"It's the creature again, isn't it?" Jeff says more than asks.

"Yes, but it is okay," Eva tells him. "You just need to stay inside until this is all over."

"Don't do this to me too, Eva, I know that you're leaving," Jeff has to shout so she can hear him. "What the hell is going on? Why are you running?"

"What? Who told you?" Eva pushes the wheelchair out of the main area and back to the infirmary despite Jeff's resistance.

"Tell me why are you leaving," Jeff insists. "Do you have something to do with the creature?"

"It's complicated..."

"Of course it is!"

"Listen," Eva leans so he can hear her. "I can't tell you, but you just have to trust me that you will be fine if you just get back in the infirmary."

"No, I'm not going to be fine!" Jeff takes her hand so she can't go.

"Please, Jeff, I need to go, it's not safe for us here," for some reason, an understandable one if I might add, this upsets Jeff.

"Do you know how long does it take for an emergency helicopter to get here?" He cries out. "Four, five hours, max! Do you know why it isn't here yet? Because nobody even called for a helicopter! They just leave me here to rot! I bet they just want to keep their little experiment a secret, maybe it's better if I can't tell anyone about it!"

"Jeff..." Eva starts but then changes her mind, as if one crazy idea wasn't enough for today. "Come with us, then!"

"Where are you going?" Jeff asks.

"Does it matter?"

"No," he says. "Let's go."

Eva gets behind Jeff's wheelchair and starts running to the cargo halls. Only there is a problem. Twenty problems to be exact. There are twenty stairs between this deck and the cargo halls.