To Be A Rebel

Chapter 58: Follow Me, Follow You

"Veronica, are you sure about this?" Jody asks, biting her bottom lip. "We're miles away from Abel now."

Veronica adjusts her glasses. "They're still dealing with the chaos at the party. You have time before Sigrid works out what you've done. If you're lucky, you'll be inside her defenses before she turns her attention back to Abel."

She nods. "Alright, and then we enter her code into the panel in the control room, and then her guards can't use their weapons, and we disable her defenses. We take our home back. We get Sam and Milo back."

"So where are we?" I ask, looking around at the mouth of this weird tunnel.

"It's some World War II tunnels we found leading into Abel," Veronica replies. "I think there's been a survival center here for quite a long time. They just keep repurposing it.

"Did you know they build several bases in this area over the decades? Strange, really. Just like the Vikings, digging out the same thing over and over again. Anyway, uh, Sigrid knew about these tunnels. She opened them up to store some of my experiments."

Jody tenses, looking at the younger girl fearfully. "What... what's in here?"

"I really only found out about this a few weeks ago," She rushes out. "It's not like we could do anything about it."

"What's down there?" Four asks again.

"I didn't know Sigrid was actually doing some of the hypothetical things I suggested. She was doing my suggested experiments on... on living people."

"Oh, God!" She gasps, and I mirror her expression of shock.

"I don't know what's down there," Veronica says, "or what she's done, but it's not heavily guarded. There should be a safe way through into Abel."

Jody swallows, looking stricken, but finally she nods, turning to me. I'm the only team member here. By the look on her face, she's about to explain why, even though I've already guessed.

"Runner Five, I'm... I'm sorry about this. I've been askin' myself what Janine wants me to do... and we can't risk our whole force in these tunnels. If there's a safe way through, you'll find it, and we'll find you. And if not," Jody grabs my shoulders, forcing me to look her in the eye, "turn around. Come out."

"If you can," Veronica mumbles, and my shoulders tense as Moonchild laughs. Thankfully Jody thinks it's because of Veronica's words.

I take a step back, swallowing nervously. And I nod. "I'll find a way."

"Okay," Jody says. "I'll be on coms with some of the team, and if you do find away, if it's safe, we'll be right behind you."

Her words are only slightly soothing. They don't calm the raging fear inside me, but I still run, my footsteps echoing down the tunnel. I look around, the sights of it too familiar for a place I've never been before. But I think my mind is just playing tricks on me. Being alone in a tunnel that's growing darker and darker the further down I go leaves room for the dark imaginations in my mind to make the shadows come to life before my eyes.

But they aren't real. I'm real. Sam's real. Milo's real. Nicole's real. They're real and they need me to save them. So I keep running, ignoring the shadows, and the jars of stuff that are on the shelves built into these tunnels. I don't stop to see what they are. I don't want to. Whatever experiments Sigrid's been doing down here on live people... I don't want to see bits and pieces of all the people I couldn't save. I just want to save the people I love.

So I keep running, my steps echoing off the walls, making it sound like multiple people are in here with me. But I'm alone. It's just me. Me and Moonchild, who is surprisingly quiet-suspiciously quiet. Her eyes look funny, unfocused. Can her eyes do that, since she sees through my own? Just because she's real doesn't mean this figure I'm seeing is actually her. It's a mental imagine my brain is creating, to make her voice in my head seem more realistic, like she's actually here.