Our Sanctuary

Chapter 10

We stood there a moment longer, staring entranced at all of the creatures milling about in the glass boxes. My eyes kept shifting from the box on the right to the one on the left and back again, until Ezekiel's voice broke our attention from it.

"I'll be right back," he said, turning away and not bothering to give us any more information.

My head snapped in his direction and my eyebrows immediately drew together. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Matteo and Willow had done the same thing.

"Hey," Matteo shouted out to Ezekiel's retreating figure. "Where do you think you're going?"

Ezekiel, who had looked down at his watch as he was walking away, looked back up and turned around to stare at Matteo and the rest of our confused expressions.

"There's something I have to do," he replied. "Stay right here. I'll be right back. It'll only take a few minutes."

And then he was gone. Disappearing down another hallway at the end of the one we were currently on. Worry pricked at my insides at the thought of the Feymon attacking Ezekiel while he was off on his own, but I quickly shook my head to push the thought aside and looked over at Xian.

"Where did Ezekiel go?" I asked, hoping to get a response out of him.

His eyes which were still glued to the contraptions remained there as he responded. "I can't tell you that. Not right now at least."

Matteo shook his head angrily and stepped in front of Xian to draw his attention away from the bugs and onto himself. Xian's eyes shifted ever so slightly to look up into Matteo's eyes.

"So, there is something you guys aren't telling us? What is it?" Matteo demanded.

Xian huffed a breath and crossed his arms over his chest. "You'll find out once Ezekiel gets back."

"And what if he doesn't get back?" Willow spoke up. "What if the Feymon got him and we don't know?"

Xian turned his head to the left to look at her. "If that were the case, –them actually being here– then we'd already have been attacked. The five of us compared to their numbers is nothing. They would have attacked us as soon as we had stepped foot into the building," Xian took a step away from Matteo and spread his arms wide as he gestured to the empty space all around us, "and look at that; we're still here. We're still very much alive."

Matteo rolled his eyes and turned away, walking over to the far side of the space in the direction of the two contraptions. Willow followed him over there, leaving me with Xian who took a few steps closer to stand next to me.

"What are you going to do about Zack?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

It worked.

I shrugged and looked up at the top of the glass box which was left wide open. "I'm not sure."

"Well," Xian followed my gaze, "if you do confront him, don't say it was me who told you."

"Why not?" I asked while looking over at him, even though I wasn't planning to tell Zack who it was anyways.

The very tiny smile that had been on Xian's face completely vanished from his features as he turned to face me. "You really don't know him very well at all, do you?"

Before I could open my mouth to respond and ask what he had meant by that, the sound of a pair of boots slamming against the ground grew closer to us and I turned around to watch Ezekiel running at us.

The expression on his face, –his wide, fear-filled eyes– made my heartbeat pick up until I realized that there was nothing chasing after him like I had originally expected. His large gun was still in his hands and he came to halt in front of us. Sweat coated his skin, making his forehead shiny and his short hair stick to it in strange angles. Matteo and Willow's concerned, yet, confused expressions came into view as they too met with us in the middle of the hallway.

Ezekiel ignored the three of us and our worried words, asking if he was okay. His eyes remained on Xian as he sucked in large gulps of air.

"It's gone," he said to Xian once he was able to get a few words out.

I looked at Xian to see that his face was drained of colour and his eyes were wide open as he stared at Ezekiel.

"What's gone?" the three of us who were confused asked.

The two boys ignored us and started jogging down the hallway towards the exit, not bothering to wait up for us. We all shared a look of straight confusion before chasing after the boys.

"What the fuck is gone?" Matteo demanded angrily once we had caught up to them. After a few moments of silence, Matteo spoke up again, even angrier than before. "Stop leaving us in the dark! What the fuck is gone?"

"The coordinates!" Ezekiel shouted, finally breaking. "They have the coordinates to compound forty-three. They know where the compound is."