PROJECT 12/21: CHAPTER FOUR PART TWO Emmie- I already hated the plan. It was bad enough that Hope was going to go meet this random person. Taking me along just made it worse. My parents would kill her if they found out. That is if I made it back. The thought made me shudder. The next time Hope asked me to go on some crazy dangerous mission, I would definitely say no. The only reason why I came today was because I didn’t want Hope to get hurt and I knew that once Hope made a decision, you couldn’t change her mind. I was just hoping that this didn’t take too long. When Hope walked into the gym, I ran into the girls’ locker room and crouched by the door where the gym connected with the lockers. I could hear every word, yet still remain hidden. I heard Hope walk into the middle of the gym and it was silent for about a minute. Then suddenly a man walked out from somewhere because she heard someone else talking. The new voice almost made me start freaking out. I listened intently to hear what they were saying, but after a while, I got bored because the guy was very confusing. I glanced left and right along the dark hallway. She just wished she had brought a flashlight. Then, I remembered I had my phone. For a second, I hesitated, because I wasn’t sure if I should take it out or not, but in the end decided against it because I knew the school had cameras. What if we were too loud walking down the hallway and the cameras caught video of us? That would be terrible. We would probably get arrested and expelled. Then we’d be placed in juvy. My dad would probably be ashamed of her and get really mad. After all, how ironic would it be if the police chief’s daughter got sent to jail? My parents would hate me forever. I would make the Linnaean family name become known to others as a bad family. I definitely didn’t want to give my family a bad reputation. What if my dad lost his job because of this? There were too many “what ifs”. I knew all the consequences of being caught would be harsh. I was the type of kid that didn’t ever want to get anything less than A+’s. That’s really all I ever got anyway. Other kids thought I was weird because she would cry over plain A’s, but I knew that was only because they’d gotten plenty of worse grades. It was good to have a friend like me who knew really what it was like to get an A with all the other A+’s. It was like an imperfection. Getting bored, I tuned in again to what Hope and the man were saying. Scolding myself for not listening, I hoped I didn’t miss anything important. But it seemed that I was right on time because what the man said next stunned me. “You must help us end this world,” he said. Then I heard Hope scream. Remembering Hope’s words, I didn’t care what anyone would say. All I knew was that that was my call to duty. I got my pepper spray can ready and took out my phone. Once again, I heard Hope shout something. I flipped open my phone and the light filled the hallway. But I never reached Hope to help because a second later, I felt a huge hairy hand the size of a baseball glove wrap around my mouth, muffling a scream. Then they grabbed my hands and pulled them behind my back, making me fall to my knees. My knees hit the ground hard, probably bruised. I tried getting away, but the guys grip was still too strong. Then I bit his hand as hard as I could, trying to get it off my mouth to warn Hope. “Aww, the little girly learned to bite,” he whispered in a baby-like voice that people use for dogs. “Bad girl, bad girl, bad girl,” he said each time slapping me in the face. “Get off of me!” I tried screaming but instead nothing came out. I knew that these people were up to no good. I knew I’d never get away so I just gave up. Why would Hope listen to those messages? It was a stupid idea. Now I would probably never see my friends or family again. I’d be stuck in a dog cage given only bread and water. Hopefully, I’d at least be able to read the newspaper to see my parents’ efforts to come find me. Maybe I’d at least get to see what my parents looked like. These people would probably not even give me something as simple as that. Finally, the guy stopped pushing me through the halls of the school. But when I looked up what I saw made me want to beat up this man and his cronies to go help Hope. But I knew it was hopeless. I would have to live a terrible #life. Nothing would be better ever again. I was in the gym with Hope and another guy who was pointing a gun straight at Hope. ​______________________________________ Hope-- The second after the scream was chaos. The man ripped something out of his inner pocket just like what I thought. It was a gun and it was pointed straight at me. Suddenly, men appeared everywhere in the same black as the first man and I knew that this was his company. He knew I was going to bring a friend and that wasn’t allowed. I was in huge trouble now. Slowly, I raised my hands above my head in the universal sign that meant that you surrendered. Soon Emmie was pushed into the room by a guy with big bulging muscles and was as hairy as a monkey. She looked me in the eye then seemed to notice my hands above my head and the guy pointing a gun at me. Her eyes widened in surprise and then she started silently crying, tears rolling down her face. "You will come with us and do what we want you to do," the man ordered. "Yes," I said reluctantly on the verge of tears. "But I thought I should let you get what you asked for before. Here's your friend Adrianna." The girl that I saw in a Facebook profile was standing next to another strong burly man with tear tracks down her face. Her clothes were dirty as if she had tried fighting them somehow. She looked at me and seemed to understand what was happening. "Okay let's take all three of them to headquarters and then we can prepare for the end of the world." "No," I announced almost surprised by my own courage. I would rather die than know that I killed trillions of people. At least my distraction might buy Adrianna and Emmie some time to run away. But then I remembered just how stupid this was. What am I doing? I can fly so why not just fly away now? I knew that I'd have to leave everyone else behind, but I would come back for them very soon. I just needed make a new plan. Then I'll come back to save Emmie and Adrianna. I looked at Emmie and she seemed to agree with my idea as though she could read my mind. But then I got an even better idea. What if I distracted them letting Emmie and Adrianna get away then I'll follow? Quickly, so the man wouldn't know what I was planning, I flew all the way up to the ceiling. "Go!" I shouted to Emmie and Adrianna. They ran out the door easily getting out of their guards' holds because of all of them momentarily stunned. I flew to the door, dropped down, and ran after them. I caught up to Emmie, but Adrianna was still a couple paces ahead of us. We ran down the hall, and soon we were on the opposite side of the school, far away from any entrances. Still we ran through the maze of halls passing through almost all of them. All I knew was that I had to get away from these guys. Suddenly, Emmie, Adrianna, and I were near the bathrooms. I quickly stopped holding out a hand for them to stop, too. I had heard footsteps in front of us. Then what I dreaded happened. Not only were footsteps coming from in front of us, they were also behind us. We were trapped. The only escape was the bathrooms which were locked. Knowing what I had to do, I walked toward the locked doors. "What are you...?" Adrianna started, but stopped once the lock clicked. We rushed into the bathrooms and I locked the door again. "Woah, and I thought what I did was awesome," Adrianna said, astonished. "Okay, what are we going to do?!" I whispered tears forming in my eyes. The doorknob started moving, but the door didn't open. "Open this door this second or else I'll shoot a hole through this lock. It would be easier to just listen because no matter what, you lost," a voice demanded from behind the door. I almost went to unlock it and give up, but something caught my eye. There was a vent in the top right corner of the bathroom. It looked like a 7th grade girl would easily fit through it. I ran to a stall and closed the door. "Hope, this really isn't a good time to be going to the bathroom," I heard Emmie say. "I'm not," I answered my voice strained from trying to pull myself on top of the stall door. After the third try, I remembered I could fly. Why is it that I keep forgetting I had powers? Well, it's not like everyone has them, I answered to myself. I flew the short distance to the vent and tried pulling out the bars. This was one thing that I really couldn't do. I just wasn't strong enough. I tried pulling it out with my mind, but that just gave me a headache. Then I decided to change tactics. Instead of trying to pull out the bars, I could try pulling out the screws. The second I started using telekinesis to pull out the screws, it came off. I threw it to the ground remembering at the last second how that would tell the guys the plan and stopped it in midair laying it slowly on the ground without a sound. "Come on," I whispered to Emmie and Adrianna. "I'll give you three seconds to open this door," the man outside threatened. I pulled my friends up to the vent. "One," he started. I pushed Emmie into the vent. Soon she was completely inside and I started to push Adrianna up behind Emmie. "Two." Adrianna was completely in the vent and I went in after her shimmying into place. "Three." I heard a loud gunshot unlike anything else. Right before the men walked into the room, I used mind to place the bars in place and all three of us slid forward in the cramped area like snakes. We kept moving in the same uncomfortable position until finally there was a crossroad. "Which way?" Emmie asked quietly from the front. "Go left," I replied not sure where that left at all. A few seconds later, I heard a gasp and a small thump. I hurried worried at what that meant. Then suddenly I wasn't moving through a tunnel, but instead air. "Wha...!" I managed before falling to the ground a couple feet below. I landed on something soft and noticed it was Emmie. "Oww!" Emmie exclaimed. "Is everyone okay?" I asked. "Yeah." "Yes, besides that bruise you just gave me." Quietly, I inspected our surroundings. Then I noticed I'd never been there before. "Where are we?" Emmie asked stating exactly what I was thinking. At first I didn't know, but then I realized that this was probably the school basement. I heard footsteps above us and put my finger to my lips so I could hear what was happening. "They aren't here," one man announced. "You checked all the lockers and the bathroom stalls?" someone else asked probably one of the more important people by the sound of authority in his voice. That told me that we were under the locker rooms. "How would they get out of the bathrooms anyway?" someone asked. "They probably flushed themselves down the toilets," another man replied sarcastically. "No, I know!" the man in charge exclaimed. I crossed my fingers hoping they wouldn't figure it out. But it was no use. "They went through the vents," he stated. "We have to go," I whispered. "We can't let them find us." "But how are we going to get out?" Adrianna asked. "If we go up the stairs they will find us. They're there right now," Emmie added. "We should go back into the other halls to find another staircase. We can't go up this one because of what Emmie said and we have to be quick before they figure out where we went," I suggested. Emmie and Adrianna agreed so we set off again. I tried remembering where we went to make sure we didn't keep going in circles. I started forming a map in my head. Soon we heard footsteps getting closer. We ran in the opposite direction from where they were coming from. Once again they became distant. After what felt like hours of running through the maze-like basement, we found another staircase. Without thinking we ran up it and opened the door. A man stood right in front of us. He started to call for others, but before he could, Emmie pepper-sprayed him in the face. We rushed by him, me in the lead, and ran toward the front doors. But I had to quickly stop to not be seen. What I saw worried me. Right in front of the doors were four guys all with guns and on guard. That meant that they were probably blocking all the doors. We were never going to get out. As if noticing my reaction, Adrianna said, “I think we can find a way around this. I have an idea. What if I went in the bathrooms and created a hurricane while you guys run to the door? I can run away fast and I’ll be able to make it, too. Let’s go.” With that, she stealthily ran to the girls’ bathrooms that were right behind us. “Wait, no!” I tried whispering, but she was too far away to hear. “She’ll make it,” Emmie reassured me. I still wasn’t so sure. A couple moments later, water started flooding out of the bathrooms. Without looking to see if Adrianna was getting out, Emmie and I ran toward the door, behind the guards that were looking the other way. I shoved the door open as hard as I could, but by then, it was too late to stop. The thing that happened next made the situation a lot worse. Now we definitely were in huge trouble. At that second, I remembered one thing that we forgot to plan even before we got into the school. The school had an alarm.