Magical Mystery Tour

Part Two- Chapter Twenty-One: Serena's POV

Serena's POV-
Finally I was all clean. I tried not to spend too much time in the shower, but some of it I couldn't help. I felt dirty as I came to the realization that I hadn't showered in a week. After I was clean, I went downstairs and found John sitting at the dining room table with a glass of water. Stryker was in the kitchen helping Louise. I didn't expect to see him there for some reason. His dark hair was wet and plastered to his forehead and he was wearing clean clothes.
I sat down next to John and I sighed, "Hello." I said. He smiled at me and I smiled back, a bit surprised by him. He must have just been glad to be cleaned up. "What's got you so happy?"
"I get to eat food." He said nodding to where Louise and Stryker were cooking. I was caught off guard when I saw Stryker laughing as he helped her cook. "I haven't eaten good food since Paul's and I didn't even get to finish it." I laughed at him as Lina and Cindy came in and sat down.
"Hey guys," I said, suddenly remembering my suspicions of the two. While we were driving last night I had another dream about George. He was talking to a big dark scary man who'd called himself Mr. Bellamy. He looked terrified when they brought Beatrice in the room suddenly. They were planning to hurt her I was sure. But it was like someone hit Mute on a movie and I couldn't hear after Mr. Bellamy introduced himself to George. After Beatrice was brought in George seemed to give something away right before they were taken out of the room and dragged down the hall. I woke up to Stryker readjusting his shoulder. Did Lina and Cindy know something about what was going on with George and Lilly and Beatrice?
"You OK, Rena?" Lina asked, pulling me out my thoughts. I looked at her and found I was rather upset she called me that.
"Don't call me that," I said getting up. I glared at her and walked into the kitchen. Stryker smiled at me and I smiled back at him. "Is there anything I can help with?" I asked hoping I didn't have to go back to the dining room.
"Oh well I think we've all got it covered-"
"You can come help me Serena." Stryker said taking my hand and pulling me over to the stove. I took a long whiff of what was cooking. I felt my mouth water as I was so hungry. Stryker smirked at me and handed me a spoon. "Just stir that, and I'll add this in." I nodded and stirred the whatever it was in the big pot in front of me as Stryker started to pour in something. I wasn't sure what we were having, but it smelled marvelous. Once Stryker had finished pouring in whatever it was - I think it was chicken broth maybe - he told me to keep stirring. I did as I was told and suddenly I felt him kiss my cheek. I looked at him in surprise and he smiled at me before he acted like it was totally normal. I felt my cheeks getting hot, but I blamed it on the heat of the stove.
Pretty soon dinner was ready and we were all sitting around the dining room table eating a nice warm dinner of Parmesan Chicken and risotto. It was really good, but it also seemed a bit awkward to me because no one was talking. Finally Louise started up.
"Now why don't you tell me what's going on here?" She asked looking at me. Why, oh why, did she have to ask me.
"Well where do you want me to start?" I asked putting my fork down as I spoke.
"Start at the beginning." Louise shrugged. I nodded and recounted everything, starting with waking up to find George in my bed. Louise stayed quite through it all and when I'd finished she nodded and looked at Stryker.
"And what's happened to the other girl, Lilly?" She asked sternly.
"She was taken, the same night that they got George." He said looking guilty, "And it's my fault."
"What's your plan from here then?" Louise asked seriously. She seemed to have dealt with something like this before.
"Well, I was hoping you might be able to tell us where George and Lilly might be." Stryker said looking at his plate. I'd never seen him so intimidated. Why did George's sister scare him so much? A thought suddenly came to me that she could quite possibly be on the wrong side.
"I can, but how do you know I will?" She asked cocking her head to the side.
"Because George is your brother and you don't want him getting hurt." I said cutting in.
"We haven't seen on another in years, miss...Serena," She appeared to forget my name briefly, "And even then we weren't on very good terms. How do you know I don't want George getting hurt?"
"Because he's your little brother." I said frowning, "Lina and I fight all the time and I still wouldn't want anything to happen to her."
Louise looked at me, really close, like she suspected I didn't believe my own words. "I see." She sighed and looked at my sister, slightly caught off guard for some reason before she spoke again, "I will help you, but you're going to need a very intricate plan to get into the place they're holding them."
"We can work it out, just tell me where they are." Stryker said seriously.
"Daniel, this isn't just sneaking into your normal building," Louise said shaking her head, "They have high tech alarms and cameras in every corner. It's going to be tough."
"I know, but hopefully, we can get in. I know what we need to do if you just tell me where they are."
Louise looked at all of us, stopping on me for the longest time before she sighed again, "They're locked up tight in the old Science Museum across town." She said glumly. Stryker mumbled a string of curses and looked at his plate in thought. "See? I don't think any plan will get you in without getting caught."
"Then we get caught." John spoke up. We all looked at him and I frowned.
"What?" I asked leaning forward, intrigued.
"If we can't get in without getting caught then the only way in is to get caught." He said simply. He shrugged at us and I thought about it. He did have a point until...
"How would we get back out?" Stryker asked frowning. He wasn't totally shooting him down, which was a change.
"We'll figure it out. Do we have any idea what this place looks like? Like blueprints or something?" John asked. Stryker got up and came back with three pieces of paper.
"There are three floors." He said sitting next to John to show him. I got up and walked over to look over Stryker's other shoulder. "The first floor has most all the guards. At the entrance, and at every one of these doors." He drew out a hallway and about twelve rooms, six on each side. "But who ever is holding George, Lilly, and Beatrice won't be so stupid as to keep them on the first floor so close to the entrance. So they're probably up here." He drew on the second piece of paper a long intricate maze of hallways and rooms. I didn't know how he knew all this was there, but I didn't really wanna ask him.
"What's that? The second floor?" John asked looking at the picture in concentration. Stryker shook his head and grabbed the other paper. He drew out an even more intricate and confusing maze for hallways and rooms.
"No this is the second floor, and this is what we have to get through to get to the stairs, to go up to the third floor and to this room here where George and Lilly and Beatrice are probably being held." He made the path with his finger.
"What about Midge?" John asked suddenly. Stryker looked at him with surprise. "Wasn't she captured too? Ringo really sounded like he wanted to save her too."
"I don't know if she's still alive." Stryker said looking at the drawing.
"But if she is where would she be?" I asked looking with him. I picked up his pen and labeled where George and Lilly probably were before Stryker sighed and pointed to a room on the other second floor.
"Probably here. It's hidden and hard to get to." He sighed, "And I'm sure that whoever's got them isn't gonna let them go without a fight."
"Right, so back to the question of how do we get back out." I mumbled looking at the blueprints. The longer I looked at each floor the more complicated they seemed to get. Then I suddenly remembered a bit of one of my dreams of George. "Hey what about the air vents? Couldn't we crawl through those?"
Stryker looked surprised by my suggestion, "Well I guess we could, they aren't very hard to navigate, but that's only assuming we're all put in the same room and there's a reachable vent." He said, "We'll need a plan B if that fails."
"Um, Serena." John said pulling on my sleeve. I ignored him and tried to think of something else, "Guys look at this!"
"Serena! Look at what John's doing!" Lina said loudly. Stryker and I both looked at John and I yelped with great surprise. He was making his fork levitate.
"John?" I asked moving toward him, "How are you doing that?" John shrugged and looked away from his fork. It feel to the table with a clank and he grinned.
"I don't know! I could just...do it! I looked at it, trying to think of a way out when suddenly it started to move!" He said giddily.
"Do it again." Stryker said, like he had an idea. John looked at the fork for a long time, concentrating on it hard until it was a good ten inches off the table. "Can you possibly unlock doors with that?"
"The fork?" I asked making a face. John laughed and let the fork fall to the table again before he got up. He closed the bathroom door down the hall and locked it from the inside. He stood in the hall as Stryker and I got to him. He was staring at the knob of the door in concentration.
"Please work." I pleaded under my breath when suddenly the lock clicked. John and I looked at each other and I went for the door. I turned the knob slowly and pushed the door open.
"We've got ourselves the start of a plan." Stryker said clapping John on the shoulder.