Labyrinth of White - The Moon Trilogy - Book #1

Chapter thirty-three:

Everything happened so quickly that Clarity almost couldn't track exactly what was going on.

The telepath woke up, fell from Rachel's shoulder, rose slowly to his feet, and stood there for a short while, only to collapse again.

Then there was the briefest pause before the grey-haired man released Johnny from the disk's control, watched as Johnny lilted sideways in a faint, and then shot himself in the leg.

Either their adversary had gone completely insane or the telepath had been working his magic once again.

Just the thought of it reminded her of when she had been controlled against her will. She shuddered.

After the impassible roller coaster of a conflict that had seemed to go in slow motion, things seemed to be moving far too fast. The telepath was retrieved—Rachel again volunteering wordlessly for the job. Alex and Sam had a very short-lived argument on whether or not they should bring Johnny, but Sam quickly got subdued, and so Sam and Clarity were assigned to drag the unconscious group member behind them.

There was very little time to go until the building exploded, thanks to their lengthy standoff, so they had no choice but to jog through the white halls. At times, she feared that they might be lost, but the golden-haired woman seemed confident that they were going in the right direction.

She felt like they were going impossibly slow. She imagined that, at any second, everything would explode, and she would be engulfed in flames and reduced to ashes before she even realized what was happening.

Her arms were starting to hurt from dragging Johnny. She ignored the ache and pulled faster. She didn't want to die. She didn't want anyone to die.

After what seemed like forever, she saw the double-doors at the end of the hall, and she breathed a sigh of relief. They could finally get out of the labyrinth of white.

Her heart was beating a-mile-a-minute and she could hardly drag in a proper breath of air, but she forced herself to go on. No way was she going to give up, especially not when they were so close to the end.

When they finally crashed through the chrome doors, she was exhausted. She was quite sure that they run solidly for at least a couple miles of twisting, maze-like hallways, and she had been dragging a dead weight behind her the whole time.

Seeing as she and Sam had brought up the rear the entire time, everyone else was already prepared to teleport by the time they made it through the door and dragged Johnny onto the metal disk, which was already pretty much crowded.

Apparently, Sam had already prepared the teleporter beforehand, because instead of fiddling with the machine, he stepped right onto the plate with the remote activator in his hand.

From somewhere else in the building, she heard a series of low popping sounds. The floor shook faintly.

Sam activated the teleporter. Through the haze of swirling blue and violet, she could see the machines sparking violently. The floor was still shaking with the force of what could have only been far-off explosions, which explained the popping sounds.

Just as the bright yellow started to join the blue and purple, the machinery erupted into flame. The fire crackled as the yellow slowly overtook the other colors.

She heard a deafening explosion from somewhere worryingly close, and the space inside the swirling colors became momentarily scalding hot.

There was the strange up-rooting sensation and then the heat was gone.

Soon, she could make out the surrounding room again. They were back in the underground room. She saw the black mouth of the staircase off to the side.