The Normals | ✓

T H I R T Y - E I G H T

I release the button allowing my voice to be broadcast throughout the Core, and Cal plunges us into darkness. A second later, the beams of light from my friends' flashlights illuminate the room, and the banging on the door stops momentarily.

“GO!” Jessix yells, and we race toward the door. It flies open when we’re about halfway to it, revealing four guards who stop in their tracks, blinded by our flashlights. I launch myself at one, forgetting all about my taser, and rip his mask off and attack his face with my bare hands. He starts crying out in pain but I don’t stop. I take all my anger out on this one Mask, until Arden has to drag me off of him. We leave the four of them, plus the three unconscious ones in the communications room, and continue on.

In the darkness, the Core feels foreign yet familiar. I can hear sounds echoing down the long halls, sounds of rebellion. People are waking up, spreading the message.

But with the sounds of rebellion come the yells, the shouts. The sounds of feet hitting the ground hard as people run away. The Masks may be weakened, but they’re still fighting back against the people emerging from their rooms. They're still strong.

I just have to hope my words made us stronger.

As we near the more common areas of this building, the sounds get louder. I can see people running down the halls, hear the confused shouts of Masks looking for one another. There’s blood under my nails from the guy whose face I beat up. Its smell reaches my nose when I brush my hair out my face, the metallic scent filling the air.

Another small squad of Masks turn a corner and run into us, but are quickly taken out by our weapons. They’re weakened without contact with each other, and their efforts to fight back are sloppy and disorganized.

Arden hits the side of his dart gun angrily once the last one has fallen. “I’m out of darts. Anyone got any more?”

“I’m all out too,” I add.

“We’ll have to use normal weapons then,” Finn says. “Shoot for their legs or arms. We want to disarm or incapacitate them, not kill them!”

We run along the halls of the Core, this time sticking to the main halls. Fawn pours trails of gasoline behind us, and Jessix and Bear lead the group. We go into rooms, helping the slow and the weak, and stuffing as many supplies as we can into our bags, pockets, boots. By now, chaos has erupted everywhere. The yells we had heard earlier, ones of defeat, are now overpowered by yells of anger. And it's the Differents that are the source of them. For every Mask there’s at least three Differents pushing back, and they’re quickly learning how to work together. People stand at the dining hall entrance, handing out food to anyone passing by. There’s a stream of people going in and out of the Training rooms, getting weapons and ways to defend themselves. Someone’s figured out that if they pull the fire alarm, it sets off an ear-splitting bell that causes even more confusion with the Masks. They could barely see each other, and now they can’t even hear each other either. Their main advantage, their strength in numbers, is now reduced to nothing.

The fire alarm also sets off red lights along the halls, which brighten and dim regularly at a fast pace. While they’re bright, I catch glimpses of the scene around us. It’s one that scares me and one that empowers me. Amidst the chaos, no one notices the small group of people that started it all.

Sprinklers in the ceiling start to go off, soaking everyone within several minutes. Cal, who seems to know just about everything, says the water won’t do anything to stop the fire. “Not a gas fire,” he yells, shaking his head with a smile, “not one like this.”

Mimi, whose sensitive hearing is now working against her with the loud alarm, points to the exit at the end of the hall. I can see it, the clear double doors, and the courtyard beyond it. We run the last few metres to the end and then burst through the doors into the cool night air.