THE PRODIGIES

Chapter XX

The sight on the screen will give me nightmares for the rest of my life.

Bree gasps while Mila just covers her mouth, trying to keep from sobbing. I'm frozen in place because this person just managed to kill five of the people who were meant to protect us, in three seconds.

It doesn't take long for more bullets to start flowing from one side. The assailants have quick reflexes though. They cross their arms in an x shape and the bullets start ricocheting off of them. This causes the bullets to fly back towards the other direction, injuring a few more of our people. The one who has frozen breath starts running towards everyone, still using their arms as a shield. The other starts running to the right and out of frame. This causes Bree to frantically grab the remote. She clicks a few buttons, and the screen changes. We see one of the training rooms. It's empty so she clicks again. We see the break room: empty. The design room: empty. The garage: empty.

The next time she clicks, we see a room I've never been in before. In it are Penelope, Skylar, Mr. Axel, and Chance. It must be another safe room. I let out a sigh of relief because now I know for sure that Chance is safe, for now. He's pacing back and forth. Penelope is on the floor with her knees to her chest. Mr. Axel and Skylar are talking to each other. I can only see Skylar's face. I wish there was audio because I need to know what they're saying. I'm sure it's important.

Skylar also has some papers in her hands. I can't read them at first, but then she suddenly looks directly at the camera. It's like she's looking directly at us. She holds the papers up.

The first one says, "Stay put! Don't do anything!"

Bree reads it out loud.

Skylar then places that piece of paper behind the others so we can read the next one.

"They won't be able to break into the box."

She lowers that paper, and the last one reads, "We'll come when it's safe."

We finish reading the signs but a buzzing sound echoes from outside of the box, causing us to forget everything we just read. It's faint, but it's still there. It's close enough to scare the hell out of us.

Bree starts fumbling with the remote again.

"There has to be a camera on the outside of this box." Bree exclaims while switching the channels.

The buzzing stops, but I make no motion to go towards the door. In fact, I grab Mila's shirt and pull us closer to Bree.

Bree finally ends up with the screen showing what's going on outside of the box. We see one figure. We can't see their face because of the mask, but we can see that they're facing the door that leads to us. This person in the skull mask is trying to open it.

Mila is clutching my arm so tightly that it's starting to hurt.

Bree exhales sharply.

"They're coming for us."

I nod as I talk. "The SFA."

"What do we do?" Mila asks.

Bree throws down the remote on the counter before backing up to the wall.

"We need to get ready to fight."

I follow Bree's lead, but I don't know what I'm going to be able to do. I'm basically useless, and these Skulls seem to have powers just like us. The SFA must've started using their new vaccines.

My heart is beating so fast. I think I'm about to have a heart attack. There's so much pressure in my chest, and I can't get any release. I'm going to die fighting, or I'm going to die standing here.