A red light illuminated the dark room, and a piercing shrill filled the silence. Emma jumped out of her bed, slamming into the corner of her room. She slowly slid down the wall, ignoring the pain of a dresser handle digging into her side. With a panic of not understanding anything that was happening, Emma pushed her hands to her head, as if the sound was coming form her own mind and she needed to push it out.
"I'll eat it! I'll eat it! Just stop!" She cried, pushing her hands harder against her head, unaware that she was not, in fact, being tortured. Jason kicked in Emma's door, quickly rushing over to her. The sudden motion caused Emma to turn away from him, her face pressing against the wall. "I'll do what you want... I'll do what you want..." she murmured to the wall.
Putting a hand under Emma's arm, Jason lifted Emma onto her feet. "Emma, look at me." Emma twitched, looking towards the wall. "Emma, it's an alarm, we have to get out of here." Jason glanced at the glaring red light that bounced off the walls. "This isn't torture, Emma, you're okay." He added.
Emma looked at Jason, taking in the troubled expression of his furrowed brow and brooding eyes. "Jason..." She looked around the room, and noticing how the flashing red light glanced off of the white walls and the sound of running feet outside her door had nothing to do with electric chairs and wire, Emma began to grasp this reality. "What's going on?" She asked, distracted by the panic that seemed to be coming from the hallway.
A girl dressed in a black shirt and black pants stopped in the doorway, her dark hair falling out of a loose ponytail and a scowl on her face. Emma remembered it was the girl she presumed to be related to Mora. The girl stepped inside Emma's room, an unconscious Mora under her arm. "Go. Now." She barked.
Jason pulled Emma along. "They somehow snuck Morgan down here with the two new guys yesterday. She's part of Kat's revolution team that Travis had been hearing about with his phone calls." He explained as the girl fled the room.
Once in the hallway, Emma stopped and turned to look at the double doors that separated their hall from the super-soldier hall. Logan was just on the other side, and if Morgan could carry Mora out under her arm, what was going to stop her from saving Logan? Emma broke free of Jason's grip and dashed for the doors. Once through she could hear the frustrated yells of Jason, but she did not stop until she was met by the barrel of a gun. One of the soldiers stood poised in the hall, a riffle trained at Emma's head, and the soldier not moving a muscle as the double doors slammed shut behind Emma. She paused for a moment, and then decided to go for it, diving at the soldier's legs. He fell with a heavy thud, helmet sliding down the hall, and Emma quickly grabbed his gun. Struggling to stay on top, Emma turned the gun around, and smashed the butt of the gun against the soldier's head, knocking him out cold.
Keeping ahold of the gun, Emma then rammed through Logan's door, finding him alert and positioned to fight a few feet away his bed. "Logan, come with us." She pleaded, motioning towards the door with the gun. Logan said nothing. "I know you remember things, that you aren't completely controlled by them... please..." she looked for better words, but she was still fighting off the fog of her psychotic break moments ago.
"I'd rather die." He sneered, throwing himself at Emma. Emma slammed the gun against Logan, but he simply took hold of it and wrestled it from her hands. Training the gun on Emma, a small smile spreading across his face.
"Well, if you want to play it that way!" Jason yelled, launching himself on top of Logan and jabbing a syringe into Logan's neck. Logan yelled, whether in pain or frustration Emma could not tell, and slumped to the ground, allowing the gun to fall into Jason's hands. Slinging the gun over his shoulder, Jason lifted Logan up, and gave Emma a disgruntled look. "We have to move now, we'll be lucky if we aren't all dead because of this."
Emma nodded and helped Jason carry Logan out of the room and down the hallway into the kitchen. Inside the kitchen a hole had been blown through the roof, and series of chairs and tables were made into a make-shift stairway. More guards could be heard running down the hallway, and Jason and Emma worked quickly to push Logan through the hole. Once Logan had been shoved to the surface, they then scaled up themselves, making sure to knock over their make-shift system, buying them some time with the guards.
Once outside Emma felt the frosty air and wetness of snow as she pushed herself onto the ledge. "Snow..." She muttered, glancing up and feeling the soft, wet touch of the flakes. Morgan came over and pushed Emma to the side, placing a giant metal weight over the man-made hole.
This may have upset Emma, but this shove caused her to notice how dark and gray the sky was, and that while it may be snowing, most of the snowflakes seemed to be gray, not white. "What is this?" she asked, looking up at the darkened sky with an outstretched hand.
"Mount Cayley, a local volcano, decided this would be a good time to let off some steam." A tall, red haired girl explained, kneeling in from of Emma. So this was Kat, Emma thought to herself as Kat helped her up. "Welcome to Canada." Kat smiled. She was fairly thin, but had an air about her of strength as she pulled a leather jacket over her toned arms and fixed her sloppy ponytail back on top of her head. Kat went off to speak with Jason, Raven, and Travis.
Looking around frantically, Emma finally set her eyes on Logan, who was still lying in the snow next to the covered escape hole. Slowly, Emma moved over to him and knelt over him. His blonde hair was starting to gather the gray ash from the volcano, and Emma, with a sense of guilt, pushed her fingers through his hair. She wished things could be like they use to be when they were together and happy. His face seemed more familiar as he slept in the snow. A guilty part of Emma wished he would sleep forever, to never wake up and hate her again. Emma rested a dirty on the side of his face, brushing her thumb over his cheek bone. "You'll come back to me, won't you?" She whispered, holding back to desire to cry uncontrollably.
"Cars are here! Everyone move out!" Morgan yelled, pulling her little sister off the ground, and placing her into a dark blue Jeep. Beyond the Jeep, were two more, one red, the other a dark green.
Jason came over with Travis and Chandler. "We decided to load Logan into the trunk of one of the cars, less of a chance he will kill us immediately that way." Jason explained while Travis and Chandler got into position to lift Logan off the ground. Emma simply nodded and followed the three boys and an unconscious Logan to the red car, and she climbed into the middle of the backseat. Jason closed the back and climbed in next to Emma, producing a green blanket, and wrapping it around her. "You looked cold." He explained. Travis got in on the other side of Emma, and in the front Kat was in the passenger seat, while a guy Emma did not know sat at the wheel.
After they had been in the car around an hour, Emma began to get weary. The bumps and rocking back and forth were quite unenjoyable, and an anxiety about what she was going to do with Logan began to drive Emma crazy. "How much longer?" Emma asked, pushing the blanket down and freeing her arms.
Kat turned around, taking in the situation. "Not too much longer." She assured.
Emma sighed, leaning her head back against the seat. After a little while, they finally stopped, everyone but the drivers pilling out in what looked like the middle of no where. Kat walked a few steps, and then squatted down. A few seconds later the ground shook, and Emma thought for sure the Volcano was going to destroy them all, but instead a hole just appeared in the ground.
"Welcome to our secret base." Kat said, motioning to a rope ladder leading into the dark hole.
The three Jeeps then seemed to rev up and drive away, tossing gray slush everywhere and leaving them without cars. Emma's stomach sank. She wanted to go home, see her family, enjoy the sunshine. The last thing she wanted was to be stuck underground once again.
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