The Gemini

4. Retry

Lena Matthews

Finn managed to make a lot of excuses to be at the Experiments. Sometimes he would slip letters into my cell, and on days when he felt braver, he would open the door and talk to me. Footsteps near the cell sometimes meant the Lab, but now, it also meant that there was a chance I would see my brother again.

As Aaliyah's lab day approached, I couldn't help feeling nervous. The agents seemed to understand that the trial would be extremely risky, and were diverting guards from all around the Experiments for extra support. Ambition would be their downfall, or at least that's what we hoped.

I was held upstairs, but Kiara, Carter, and Jessica were all stuck on the floor beneath me. Even worse than that, Jane-Anne was located in an isolated room on the other side of the building. Getting all of us out of here wasn't going to be easy, and I secretly feared that ambition would be our downfall, too.

It was too late to change anything now.

Today was the day we were supposed to get out. It didn't feel real to me yet. A part of me believed that I would get escape this place and find nothing but more stone and cement. I shuddered at the thought, and continued to pace restlessly.

A siren blasted down the halls of the Experiments, making me flinch. There was a shuffle of panicked footsteps as the agents scrambled to figure out what was going on. I froze, staring into the abyss blankly. As usual, it didn't have any answers. I was supposed to be prepared for this. I was supposed to be excited. But I felt terrified.

What was I supposed to do now?

I glanced at the floor, and got on my hands and knees to search for the vent. After a few frantic moments, my hands brushed over familiar metal grates.

"Hey!" I called, my voice echoing on the floor beneath me.

"You weren't joking." the voice from the vent commented. "It's really happening."

"We're going to get out of here." I smiled, but only for a second. I didn't want to think about what was happening to Aaliyah. If anyone could handle themselves, it was her. But I was still worried.

"What happens next?" the voice asked.

"The generators are going to cut out in a couple of minutes." I explained over the sound of the alarm.

"How?" the voice asked.

"They're all going to overheat." I explained. There were barely any agents guarding the generator, so all Finn had to was disable the cameras and start a small fire. "When the siren stops, push against your door and get out. The locks are fail-safe, so they should unlock when the power goes out. Tell everyone."

"Got it." the voice agreed. "Good luck, Lena."

"Thanks, um..."

"Liam." Liam finished. "Might as well know my name, I guess."

"Good luck, Liam." I said. "Maybe I'll see you on the other side."

"Yeah, maybe." said Liam.

I took a deep breath, waiting for the alarms to stop. The cells upstairs needed to be unlocked with a physical key, so Finn was going to get here as soon as he was done with the generators.

As I stood up, a low pitched hum droned across the building. The sirens died out, leaving an eerie silence in their wake. I wriggled my way back to the grate to listen to what was happening downstairs. The loose echoes of screams promised the chaos we had expected. I closed my eyes and hoped that Carter, Kiara, and Jessica were going to find a way out of there.