2050: A Time of Courage

Chapter 32: Commander Petrovich

In the military, there were many days on which I woke up early or stayed up incredibly late.

My training as a soldier has taught me never to hesitate when someone comes to wake me, so when Eryn comes for me at three-thirty on the morning of September fourteenth, I am ready to move. It takes only a few moments for me to register what is happening, to climb out of bed and gather my supplies.

All four of us assemble in the hallway in front of my door. Eryn and I each have a gun, and I have the sneaking suspicion that she reclaimed hers from the clutches of the other scientists at some point when they were preoccupied. All of us wear a pack filled with supplies of one sort or another. Somewhere in the haze of it all I catch Olivia saying that she is the one with most of the medical supplies.

If something happens to her, I reason, someone should try to ensure that pack doesn't get lost with her.

As we confirm the escape plan, my gaze keeps wandering to Clancy, who can't seem to make himself stand still long enough to listen to a full sentence. He has likely heard it a thousand times now, at late hours of the night when we discussed this under the pretense of testing the children.

Still, I reprimand him firmly for his eagerness. He is too focused on the end goal, not the means of reaching it in one piece.

Gather next to my insignificant blue car. That sounds simple enough on its own. The car is less than three meters from the laboratory door, yet it seems much further away at this moment in time. Before any of us can reach my car, we will have to leave the building without being detected by Torres and Kristenson.

The others are not supposed to awaken for another half hour, which should reasonably give us the time to disappear without being noticed.

We have the plan, but it almost sounds like one of those concepts that is much too good to be true.

~*~

Olivia and Clancy cannot force themselves to be quiet.

We have been walking for only a few minutes, navigating the second-floor corridors on our way to the staircase. Eryn and I have mastered the art of staying quiet, of conveying the message with a glance instead of words that could serve as a dead giveaway.

"This is going to happen." Olivia keeps hissing, as though her childish optimism prevents her from shutting her mouth, "Clancy, we're actually going to-"

"Shhh." I spit, feeling the uncontrollable momentary urge to strangle the girl, "Quiet! For heaven's sake keep your mouth shut."

"Please," Clancy rolls his eyes at me, a form of reckless abandon in his gaze, "they're sleeping. They can't hear us. They're fools, they won't even wake up."

As if to prove him wrong, a muffled sound comes from downstairs.

"What was that?" Olivia wonders, stopping with a foot on the edge of the top stair.

That, I reason, is a good question.

I glance at Eryn, who is standing perfectly still next to me. Her expression says she is equally as surprised as I am.

It is too early. If one of them wakes up now, this will get much more difficult.

Olivia takes a hesitant step, moving down one stair and then another. Clancy follows, and I've just taken another step when a door at the end of the ground-floor hallway is thrown open.

"What is going on?" Torres snarls, stepping furiously out of her bedroom. Her hair is still out of the usual braid, looking as though it hasn't been addressed at all this morning. Her outfit is the same as yesterday, and it would appear that she has come straight from bed to investigate.