Two

  Elevator To Nope

  I learned very quickly that I did not like being cornered.

  Another gunman had joined the first. Both were much bigger than me. Both were wingless. They were dressed in thick, black clothes and wore helmets with clear face guards. I’d never seen expressions like the ones they made as they stared me down. My primal instincts were screaming the word “predators”, and I did not like the implications of being their prey. I tented all six wings until I looked like a giant puffball of metallic feathers.

  Where are Agoka’ta’jai and Ma’hy’nami?! Why haven’t they come to rescue me yet?! I thought desperately.

  Then, I heard that forewarning puff of air. In a flash, my wings curled forward, and I ducked into them, feeling a solid thump as the dart hit. The needle slipped harmlessly through my feathers and clattered to the floor.

  “Stop! Please!” I pleaded, peeking out from my wings.

  The men flinched at the sound of my voice, but they obviously didn’t understand. They kept coming. When they were no less than six or seven feet away, there was a faint buzz of static from something inside their helmets. The two froze like statues, eyes never wavering from me, but clearly, they were focused on something else for the time being.

  I seized the opportunity and desperately scanned for a way out of the corner they’d backed me into. There was more space between the man on the left and the wall. Could I make it past him? I ran the scene in my head. If I tucked my wings and dove down, I could slide across the floor, recover on the other side, and make it to the end of the hall before either man could fire. I’d just decided to chance it when one of them raised his weapon.

  Don’t hesitate … RUN!

  My feathers slicked down flat as instinct took over and I bolted. The wingless shouted in surprise as I blasted past, parkouring off the wall and barreling forwards. I didn’t dare look back. My feet clanged on the catwalk, head on a swivel looking for escape. Every tunnel I glanced down seemed to spawn more black clad wingless or white coated ones huddling in fear. Before I knew it, I’d gotten completely turned around. I stumbled to a halt, leaning against metal railing, staring in dismay.

  There was my pod, the big, white oval sitting there, serene and silent. To me, though, it was like it was saying, “Oh, you’re back already? That was fast”. I let out a growl of frustration, turning and running down a different hallway. More than just my footsteps rattled beneath my feet. Heavy boots seemed to come pounding from around every corner. Loud voices were shouting in a language I couldn’t understand. Something sharp grazed my left shoulder. I ran through another doorway and came face to face with my pod again. I didn’t stop this time, picking a different route and plowing ahead, only to be forced back. Every possible way out was being blocked up. I was running out of options.

  I can’t go anywhere! What direction do I have left?!

  The answer hit me right after.

  UP.

  I got a running start and leapt from the catwalk onto my pod. Balancing on the smooth, curved surface, I then jumped straight up, grabbing hold of the roof frame. I dug my fingers into the tough canvas and it ripped open easily. Wriggling through the tear, I climbed out just as a hoard of black-suited wingless charged into the room beneath me.

  Panting hard, I slowly stood as the scene around me came into view. I was now perched atop the center of a maze, a labyrinth of white tunnels winding and branching, connecting rooms and reconnecting to each other. No wonder I’d gotten so lost. But the land around the sterile habitrail … there was something very wrong about it. The ground was nothing but bare earth. A huge circle of raw soil stretched out hundreds of feet in every direction. At the radius edge, the dirt was all mounded up and filled with rocks, branches, and the remnants of trees. The tops of a forest barely peaked over the rim. I looked down at the tent I perched on and my pod bellow, then back at the bizarre landscape. I was standing dead center in the middle of the circle.

  Where … am I? What is this place? I stared in confusion as my heartbeats pounded in my throat.

  Then …

  *pth! – pth! – pth! – pth! – pth!*

  A line of darts stabbed all the way up from my hip to my shoulder. I opened my mouth to scream but no sound came out. My mind immediately felt clouded as I became uncontrollably dizzy. Whatever was in these tranquilizers was way stronger than the first batch. The world blurred and spun and I wasn’t even aware that I was falling until my face hit the dirt. Even then, I felt nothing. The last thing I remembered were thick black boots stepping into view before my vision dissolved.

  …

  For a while it felt like I was floating in a strange, empty dream. I caught flashes of sound and movement, feeling people around me, my body coming into contact with different surfaces. I wanted to fight it. I wanted to wake up. The split seconds of clarity were moving so fast by the time I realized one was there it was gone before I could hang onto it. But I kept trying.

  Next thing I knew, I was awake. My eyelids felt welded shut, but my consciousness was grounded and aware. I no longer had that weird, weightless feeling. After that, the rest of my senses decided to join the party in an almost overwhelming flood of sensory information. I was lying on my back on a surface that was soft in texture but uncomfortable to lay on. There were wide bands of something firm wrapped around my wrists and ankles. I felt a thin tube lying across my face that poked up into my nose, delivering air that had an odd chemical smell.

  My eyes shifted rapidly under lids that just wouldn’t lift. What’s going on? I’m awake now so why can’t I move?

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  I could hear a few people chatting now, but the words were still gibberish to my ears. Maybe if I could get into their minds I could understand whatever this weird language was. I reconstructed my telepathic field, immediately picking up on a swirl of emotions. The strongest were feelings of apprehension and amazement, intermingled with curiosity, confusion, wonder, and fear. But their mental voices were still in that odd, slightly garbled blend of “r”, “sh”, and “ch” sounds. Just when I thought I could get a hold of their meaning, the beings’ thoughts shifted. In fact, the more I probed around in the wingless’s minds, the more paranoid, anxious, and stressed they seemed to become. Suddenly, there was a metallic crash and shouts and I pulled back in surprise.

  What was that all about? Does my telepathy hurt them? I wondered.

  I sensed someone standing close to me and experimentally reached out again. There was a wave of intrigue, hesitance, then shock followed by a brief scream. The person quickly moved away. Even though I was scared and confused, the thought of hurting someone didn’t sit right. Keeping my mind’s reach within the confines of my body, I delved inwards, straining to kick in my body’s instinct to burn fuel. After a few seconds, I felt the effects of whatever drugs were in my system begin to lose their hold. There was only silence and the feeling of an empty room around me now. Taking a deep breath, I peeked open my eyes.

  Well … once again … the room’s different.

  Instead of an entirely opaque tent, a plastic rectangle surrounded me with large clear viewing panes taking up a majority of each wall. Outside, I could see a windowless, grey paneled room with white tiled floors. Light came from the fluorescent bulbs in the ceiling. Their buzzing made me want to dig my fingers into my ears. To my sides were plain curtains running on a track that looped all the way around the bed I was laid out on. I could hear clicking and whooshing and beeping noises emanating from something off to my right.

  Still feeling a little woozy, I struggled to get my hands under myself properly, but instead encountered resistance. I turned my head to see thick, brown bands fastened around my wrists. Based on the sensations, I knew the same things were holding down my ankles. Mustering up my strength, I pulled, and with a faint creak, the material broke and I wriggled my hands out. I sat up and pulled away the small rubbery tube that had been resting across my face, seeing it had two tiny prongs venting the source of the odd chemical smell. With it gone, I immediately felt the last of the cloudiness fade away.

  I traced the tube down to a large metal canister sat in a trolley with a few others. Beside it was a machine that seemed to be a pump and what was responsible for the clicking, whooshing sound. A little further away was a stand laid out with a variety of other medical implements, none of which looked pleasant. Looking to my other side, I saw several more machines, the beeping ones, with black screens covered in squiggling, horizontal lines. They had wires coming from them that ran up over the side of the bed and I jolted a little when I saw they were attached to me. Round, white patches were stuck to my chest, under my ribs, and across my stomach, so light I hadn’t even felt them. There was one on each of my wrists and ankles too. I quickly ripped them off, breaking the restraints on my ankles too, and fenagled my wings out from under me as I pushed myself off the bed.

  Alright, let’s try this whole escaping-and-finding-mom-and-dad thing again. I quickly scanned the room.

  Across to my right, there was a transparent door leading to a wide tunnel of some kind of crinkly greyish material. I followed its curve to a second opening in the outer wall. Stepping over to the first door, I found the thick, clear material was split in the middle by a metal frame that bordered the two sections. But there were no knobs or handles or anything. Just a rectangular panel in the wall beside it that displayed the outline of a hand traced in green. I put my hand on it, watching as a bar of light panned back and forth beneath my palm. A second later, the hand outline turned red, and I jumped as the panel emitted a disdainful beep.

  So that’s not going to work. I scrunched up my lips as I puzzled for a second. Maybe I can force the doors themselves open?

  Turning my attention to the metal-edged partitions, I adjusted my stance, put my hands back-to-back, and rammed my fingers into the center seam. The frame groaned and creaked as I pushed my fingers further and further until …

  *CRACK!*

  Spider-web fractures splintered through the clear panels as the metal bent like putty against my hands. The next moment, everything was washed in red light as a piercing, beeping noise filled the air. I ignored the sensory overload and kept prying the doors apart. It didn’t even cross my mind that the almost two-inch-thick transparent panes might have been heavy. They didn’t feel like it. When there was a gap big enough, I sidestepped through and sprinted down the tunnel. At the end was another set of doors like the first, except these looked like solid metal. The seam in the middle was barely there, but I jammed my fingers into it anyway. With a grating sound, the panels gave way and slid back into the walls.

  I looked out into an empty hallway stretching off to my right. There was a pair of large beige doors with big round windows at the end. Slowly I crept out and began making my way towards them. The red lights were still flashing, but the blaring beep had stopped. I didn’t hear any yelling or running. It was eerily quiet. All the feathers on my back were bristling.

  Pushing through the doors at the end of the hall, I walked a little further, emerging into a crossroads. To my right and ahead were identical short passages leading to identical bubble-windowed doors. The square space around me had a pair of chairs sitting in each corner. To my left, though, was another long corridor ending in metal doors like the ones I’d forced open moments before. I’d just taken one step towards that direction when I suddenly heard the soft clunk of another set of beige doors closing. I whipped around to see two tall men in blue clothes and long white coats. They looked to be in a hurry while at the same time having a debate over something on the clipboards they carried. When they caught sight of me, however, they froze and their expressions turned shocked. The next second, one shouted at me and they both charged.

  I screamed, turning and sprinting for the metal doors. “No, stop, please! Leave me alone! Please, just, let me go!”

  Tears welling in the corners of my eyes, I ran desperately towards what I hoped was successful escape. When I was nearly there, I heard the ding of a bell, and the doors slid open. A man in a dark suit started at the sight of me barreling down the hall and yelled something, but I wasn’t about to stop. I ran right up to him, grabbed him by the front of his shirt, and heaved him over my head at the other two wingless chasing me. They went down in a flailing heap as I dove into the tiny room the metal doors had revealed. On the narrow strip of wall beside them on the inside was a panel full of buttons. A symbol on one looked to be pointing up and I knew up was a good thing. Up meant freedom. I mashed my finger against it repeatedly until the doors began to close. They sealed shut just as one of the men got to his feet. The small room shuddered for a second before I felt it begin to rise. Letting out a shaky breath, I stepped until my back pressed against the far wall, legs trembling as I stared at the doors.

  Wherever this moving room is taking me, as soon as it opens, I’m just going to run. I told myself. I’m going to run straight out of this place. Not gonna look back. Just run. Run until I’m safe.

  I forced the muscles in my legs to brace. My wings lay so tight against my back my shoulders were starting to hurt. What I assumed were numbers seemed to be ticking down on the small screen above the doors. With a lurch and thump, the room came to a stop. I lowered my stance, touching my fingertips to the wall behind me, ready to take off the second the doors opened.

  The same bell sound dinged again …

  … the doors parted …

  … and my hopes fell like the tear that dropped from my cheek.