Liz bolted upright as she was able to regain control of her body again. Her muscles were screaming in pain, all but whimpering from the abuse Nicholas had subjected them to. Nicholas might not have been able to extract information from her mind, but apparently he could induce an odd sort of coma where she was aware of her surrounding while under.
She’d seen Nicholas turn to Max, had heard the gleeful orders to take him to another room until preparations could be made. And the sheer terror concerning what those preparations were haunted Liz.
It was still dark, and if possible even darker than it had been before she’d been knocked out. Had the sun set? They obviously weren’t far enough outside of the city to feel safe enough to turn the lights in the facility on. That was a clue. Liz clung to it. They weren’t too far for help. At the very least, they had to be close to a highway or street of some kind that people were likely to drive down.
Liz didn’t even have to reach out and feel for Max. She already knew he wasn’t anywhere near her. It was the absence of Max’s presence that scared Liz even more than the rest of the problems facing them. Beyond the oppressive darkness, beyond the despair that Max would never be the man he was a week ago, Liz was afraid that she would never see him again. Nicholas could take him far away from her, deciding that they were too dangerous close to each other. He could decide to simply kill Max and follow through with his promise to use Isabel to unlock the Granolith in another hundred years.
The guilt was almost overwhelming. It was hard to believe that she had told Nicholas as little as she had, but it wasn’t anything she could do about now. She had been afraid, terrified that Max would be punished for her silence. And he’d suffered enough already.
Forcing her mind to focus, Liz sat up, leaning against the cold metal bookshelf for support. Fear and guilt weren’t going to get them out of this situation. Max was in even worse shape than she was, which meant it was going to be up to her to get them out. She simply needed to review the situation.
Max was still in the building. She knew that much from the dim hum of electricity she could feel just beneath her skin. She hadn’t been able to feel it before, but if she closed off her mind completely, it was there. It was something. So, Max was at least still in the building. For how long was anybody’s guess, so she might not have a lot of time.
She was able to in some way amplify or maybe borrow alien powers. She had done it with Isabel, with the Skin that had taken her, and she’d done it with Max. She hadn’t even known that the Skins had powers, but why wouldn’t they? It was interesting to know that she could use their own powers against them. Of course, they were bound to be more careful now, but it was a place to start.
In fact, the whole thing was so interesting, Liz wanted time to simply sit and think the whole thing through. There had to be a scientific way to explain how coming into contact with alien life forms enabled her to borrow their powers. Did it have something to do with brain waves? Some secretion like pheromones? It was fascinating really. Unfortunately, not something she had time to work through at the moment. She needed to focus again.
Isabel and the others were looking for them, but they really didn’t have any idea where to start. So, they really couldn’t be relied on to help. Liz was on her own.
She needed a plan. Her wrist was bleeding and raw from her earlier attempts to escape, and she didn’t think continuing with that plan was the best of ideas. Which left her with two options. She could either find the key to unlock her cuffs, or find an alien that was willing to lend her the ability to melt steel. Either one was bound to be tricky at best since the Skins wouldn’t voluntarily come near her.
Could she feign some sort of sickness? Something they would have to come close enough to check out? Nicholas wouldn’t want his prize human damaged. Surely they would understand that.
With the beginnings of a plan forming, Liz began kicking at the metal bookshelf. She needed to make enough noise to garner some attention and she didn’t think shouting was going to work. Every time someone had come into the room, she’d heard footsteps first. Which meant they didn’t simply sit outside of the door and wait.
Giving the bookshelf another good kick, Liz paused to listen for the inevitable footsteps. And just as she’d both hoped and feared, she heard the muffled thump of feet approaching. She took a deep breath and waited.
*~*~
“I don’t get it.” Michael threw his hands up in frustration, pacing a line in the dirt. “How can this be the wrong place?”
Tess shook her head, unsure what sort of platitudes were expected in this sort of situation. She wanted to call Kyle and make sure he was okay. She’d grown used to his company over the last few days and in light of their newfound…was relationship the right word? In light of their newfound relationship, she wanted to hear his input on things. Plus, being with Maria was bound to get him in some sort of trouble. “I don’t know, Michael. We just assumed they’d be out here. We really didn’t have any evidence to go on.”
“Kyle. This is his fault. We wouldn’t be out here in the middle of nowhere if he hadn’t sent us this way. He probably set us up. He’s never liked Max to begin with.”
“Hey.” Tess swung her gaze onto Michael, her eyes flashing hot. “Leave Kyle out of this. He’s done more in the last three days to help Max than you know.”
Michael paused when he saw the heat of her gaze. He held his hands up in retreat, knowing he’d crossed some invisible barrier, but not understanding it. Since when were Tess and Kyle close? “Max is out there somewhere and we’ve been running around all this time for nothing. Somebody’s at fault.”
Alex turned away from the bickering couple and set his gaze on Isabel. She was sitting in the Jeep, her head bent against the headrest. Her eyes were open, but barely as she watched Michael and Tess argue. With each growled word or insult, she seemed to flinch, as if the words hurt her. Or maybe it was the tone.
“Enough!” Alex’s voice cut through the loud squabbling. To his surprise, all three aliens turned to look at him. “This isn’t helping and you’re giving me a headache.” He was pleased to note that they had indeed shut up, and it was really all he’d been hoping for. It was amazing they ever got anything done at all.
Softening his tone, Alex turned to Isabel. She was continuing to look weaker by the minute and no one else had realized how drained she was from the afternoon of trying to find Max and Liz. “Are you alright?”
Isabel looked up at Alex, silently reassessing him. She’d never heard him simply…command like that before. And it was definitely something to think about for later when lives weren’t at risk. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She found herself offering him a smile. There was something about the way he was looking at her that said he knew too much. She’d spent her whole life shying away from that, instinctively closing down. But maybe, just maybe she didn’t have to for once.
Alex nodded, not really believing her but not questioning her further. Staying by her side, he turned back to Michael and Tess. “Obviously, we’re in the wrong place. But what are we going to do about it?”
Michael had recovered from the shock of being yelled at and he crossed his arms over his chest. Tess glanced at Michael and then back to Isabel and Alex. “We need to regroup, find Kyle and Maria and come up with another plan. Maybe Isabel could try to dreamwalk one of them again.”
Alex heard the soft moan that escaped Isabel’s mouth when she heard Tess’s suggestion and he shifted closer to her. “I agree. We should at least get together.” He wasn’t about to let Isabel try to dreamwalk anyone anytime soon, but if he said that, Isabel would kick his ass and do it to prove she could. “Isabel?”
Though it was painful, she nodded. “We should meet up at Michael’s. Tess, where’s your phone? We should call Maria and see where they are.”
“Don’t I get a vote?”
Isabel turned to Michael and flashed him a cold glare. “No.”
“The phone’s between the seats,” Tess informed her.
“Actually, I moved it.”
“What?” Tess turned to look at Michael in question. “Where and why?”
Not waiting for an answer, Isabel began searching through the car. Not seeing a sign of Tess’s phone, Isabel popped the glove box open and it fell into her lap. Frowning, she turned to Michael. “You turned the phone off.”
“Well, one of us had to think ahead. How conspicuous would it have been if we were trying to sneak in and Tess’s phone started ringing?”
“That’s why we would have left it in the car, Michael. Unless you were planning to drive the car into the building and park it there.”
Isabel powered up the phone and decided to ignore Michael for now. Her head was beginning to pound and she knew it was only a matter of time before the migraine kicked in. It had happened once before, after Max had been taken to the White Room and she had overexerted herself trying to find him. Until that happened though, she could suffer through. But if Michael pulled anything else, she would have to kill him.
“There’s a message on here.” Isabel watched as Michael and Tess moved to stand beside Alex. They gathered around the side of the car and watched as she keyed in the correct numbers to listen to the message. “It’s from Maria.”
Isabel tried to take in the message from the semi-hysterical girl on the phone, but it was becoming harder. That odd feeling she’d been having ever since they’d arrived at the abandoned warehouses was coming back with a vengeance. The tingle at the back of her neck was spreading along her spine in a way that could only mean trouble.
Something was wrong. Isabel realized it with a blinding clarity as Maria’s voice rang in her ear. She caught words like Skins and Max, but nothing else.
The slightest of movements behind her friends caught her eye. A shadow moved in ways that shadows shouldn’t and even as Isabel’s eyes flickered toward the movement, even as she opened her mouth to warn everyone, she realized it was too late. Hands reached out, grabbing them and restraining them despite the kicking and struggling.
They were Skins. Isabel could tell even as she was shoved to the dirt beside Alex. Michael was still on his feet, struggling to fend off two of the attackers. One of them had pressed a cloth to Tess’s mouth, no doubt wary of her skills.
Idly, Isabel wondered if they would try to restrain her further or if the simple knee that was pressed against her spine would be considered enough. She knew she should be fighting more, clawing for her life, but her eyelids were drooping closed. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Isabel registered that she wasn’t being treated to any of the same force the others were. Even as she tried to focus her eyes on Alex, she noted that a line of blood trickled down his forehead.
And Isabel had one last moment of clarity where she realized that things had just become even more hopeless than they had even imagined.
*~*~
“Maria, if you don’t shut up, we’re going to get caught.” Kyle had been hissing warnings at her for five minutes and he was beginning to see the merit in Michael’s lock her in the trunk plan.
“Kyle, they’re in there. I know it.” Maria crouched beside Kyle behind a line of low bushes. They could just see the main entrance from where they were. The sun had long since set and the Skins had been using flashlights to patrol the outside of the building.
Their friends in the blue Toyota had pulled right up to the door and had left their headlights on, casting the front of the building in its high beams. A group of four Skins lounged against one wall, laughing as they talked in low voices.
“I don’t see any weapons.”
“They don’t need any, Maria.” Kyle sat down in the dirt with his back to the building and let out a deep breath. They were in trouble. Deep trouble. Max and Liz were inside that building, of that he was positive. Tess still wasn’t answering her cell phone and he kept telling himself it didn’t necessarily mean anything bad.
Nevertheless, it meant he had to assume he and Maria were the only two left. Which meant that he needed a plan.
“Shit. This was not a part of the job description.” He wasn’t a planner. He was a jock, the Sheriff’s screw up son, the boy that had rounded second base with Tess Harding earlier that day. The last thought sharpened his mind.
Tess needed him to be more than he’d ever had to be before. He could do this. For her. For Max and Liz who deserved at least one minute of happiness. For Isabel and Alex in hopes they finally figured it all out. For Maria who was terrified of losing everyone she loved. For Michael who…he really didn’t care much about. But he’d do it anyway.
Another set of headlights on the horizon had Kyle pulling Maria down in the dirt with him. On their bellies, they peeked though the lower branches of the bushes to watch the new car bump its way down the path.
It was another minute before it pulled alongside the Toyota. The car was parked to the side in a way that partly obscured their view, and as Maria dug her fingers painfully into Kyle’s arm, he saw what she had seen and he bit back a curse.
The Skins had moved from the wall to the new car. They were pulling Michael from the car, carefully keeping a foot of distance between them. His hands were tied behind his back and from the glare that even Kyle could see in the near dark, he understood why. Michael would happily blow them all away given the chance.
Alex came next, untied and dragging his feet as he nervously glanced behind him. Isabel followed behind the men and she all but staggered after Alex. A second Skin followed Isabel, and when Kyle saw Tess’s limp body thrown casually over his shoulder, he had to fight not to rush forward and create any kind of disturbance to help Michael break free. His own rage surprised him, but he supposed it shouldn’t have. Buddha hadn’t ever had to deal with the shit that had become their lives.
“Kyle, look. They have the bag.”
Following Maria’s finger, Kyle saw that a third Skin did indeed have the cloth bag Alex had stuffed the device into before heading out to the warehouses.
“Okay.” He scanned the sides of the building as best he could, but there really wasn’t much to see. But there had to be windows. There were always windows. “We’re going to see if we can move quietly to the side of the building.” There was a line of trees that was a bit further away from the building than he would have liked, but he’d take whatever cover he could get.
“What are we going to do?”
Kyle turned and met Maria’s worried glance. He wasn’t going to insist she stay here. She had just as much at stake as he did, maybe more. But he wouldn’t lie to her either. “We’re going to get them out or die trying.”
Maria absorbed the words and closed her eyes briefly. When she opened them, the thin layer of hysteria was gone. “Tell me what I need to do.”
Kyle nodded, knowing he could trust her to help regardless of the task. He could have told her to walk out and give herself up and she would have done it. It was odd and a bit exciting to have that level of power and confidence.
“We’re going to find a way into that building and we’re going to do it as quietly as we possibly can.”
“Let’s go then.”
Nodding to the left, Kyle led the way, crawling along the dirt to stay as close to the ground as possible. Maria followed as silently as she’d promised and Kyle offered up a quick prayer that her faith in him wasn’t going to be the death of them all.
