Schoolgirl Secrets

Chapter Nine: Before It's Too Late

The tunnel finally opened up wide enough for Jenifer to turn around and crawl faster forwards. Eventually, there was enough room for her to straighten her bleeding legs and run in an absurd crouching position. After some time; Jenifer reached the place where she and Jane had parted ways what seemed like hours ago. Jenifer kept running and started to think about the message. Stuck in chamber off to second right, she had said. What was that?

Jenifer did a double take and looked over her shoulder, breathing heavily. There was a another tunnel leading off to the right. She walked more slowly know, searching for another. There it was! Jenifer climbed into it.

This way was both wider and taller than the main passage so Jenifer moved with complete ease. She was now straining, not her eyes, but her ears. Listening for the slightest sound. Was Jane already held captive or was she just keeping very silent to avoid being captured?

"Ouch!"

Jenifer had walked straight into something in her idleness. She staggered and tried not to fall. A large hand grasped her upper arm and helped her to stay upright. Jenifer looked up into the face of the person she had hit. A large round nose, thick, flat brown hair and two dull green eyes. It was eleven year old Gregory Latch who had been on the list of testers!

"What are you doing here?" whispered Jenifer, perplexed.

"I came to hide didn't I?" said Gregory, in his low confused voice. "Just like you."

"What do you mean?" said Jenifer, frowning.

"I've heard them talking about you," said Gregory, quieter still. "They're always talking about you Jenifer. Interfering they call you. Nosy, even."

"Well I'm inquisitive," said Jenifer, a little reproachfully. "And I've been finding out what they're up to."

"And have you figured it out?" asked Gregory.

"What are you doing here anyway?" said Jenifer, ignoring his question.

"I escaped and ran away when they tried to kill me," said Gregory simply. He had always been a boy of truth.

"Kill you?!" said Jenifer, alarmed. "With what? Why?"

"They were going to stick a needle in me I think,"  said Gregory. "And I think it was to test a new kind of deadly drug they're planning to use as a weapon in wars or something. They've already killed two kids from our school and I think they killed a third today. I would have been next as well if I hadn't escaped and hidden in here."

"Where does this tunnel lead?" Jenifer asked.

"Into a chamber," Gregory said, sounding and looking suddenly wary. "The drug developing chamber."

"What do you mean the drug chamber?" asked Jenifer with mounting panic.

"I mean that's where all the machines are that they use to invent the deadly drugs they've been testing on us. They don't usually let us prisoners go in there unless they want to hurt us and kill us in a worse way than usual,"

"When you say worse," said Jenifer, dreading the answer. "Do you mean worse than death?"

"Well I don't know do I?" said Gregory as if Jenifer was stupid. "I escaped. But we will know soon."

"Huh?" said Jenifer confusedly.

"They've got someone in there right now," he said in a lower voice than ever. "A tall girl, about your age, with a red ponytail."

Jenifer felt her heart stand still.

"What are they doing to her?" she asked, her voice shaking.

"They only just caught her," said Gregory. "So she might have a chance."

"A chance of what?!" Jenifer said becoming a little hysterical.

"Living," Gregory said. "If she can get away."

Jenifer pushed past the boy and sprinted down the tunnel. She skidded round a hairpin bend and almost fell out of the exit. Steadying herself with her grubby hands she lay down on her front and peered over the edge down into the room below. After a drop of about ten feet there was a wide stretch of smooth white marble floor with bookshelves lining every inch of the wall. On the shelves there was hundreds and hundreds of little white boxes with labels on that Jenifer couldn't read. Her eyes were drawn to the little group of rapidly moving people in the centre of the room right next to a large, white table with a long coil of thick rope next to it.  One of them was easily recognisable by her tight black dress and red high heeled boots; Miss Amanda Brightlight. Three of them were some of the men in white suits carrying guns and the other man was tall and completely obscured in an operating mask, pale green gloves and a doctor surgeon's suit. He wore thin, rectangular glasses. Jenifer was sure it was the headmaster, Mr. Maple. He was grasping Jane's hands behind her back whilst she struggled and yelled and tried to fight him off. He held fast however and Jenifer heard a door slide open and shut and loud footsteps echoed across the room. A tall man came into sight. He had short black hair that lay completely flat on his head. His eyes were midnight blue and he had a very red mouth and flushed skin. He might have been quite handsome and good-looking if it hadn't been for the smirk he wore all over his face. His nose was wrinkled and he was holding a small shoebox in his hands. Jane stopped struggling. She simply gaped at the man advancing towards her in the upmost horror.

"You!" she shrieked. "It's been you all along!"

And Jenifer suddenly realised who the man was. It was the criminal who had escaped from prison a few weeks ago! It was the criminal Jenifer had seen climbing into a car with Miss Brightlight.

"Yes," said the man. "Me."