Just before his head hits the ground, he pushes his legs in front of him and lands perfectly 100 feet below. He quickly unties the knot around his waist so I can tie the rope around my waist. This is the most stupid idea ever. I can’t believe I’m doing this, I think. Before I can talk myself out of it, I bend my legs and jump off.
My hair flies around my face, cutting my vision into parts. Every muscle in my body tenses as the air blows all around me. I’m sure I’ll throw up as soon as my feet hit solid ground. The rope feels even tighter than it did before I jumped, which isn’t helping my stomach. Down below on the pavement, my brother spreads his arms out to the side and nods his head yes. He’s trying to tell me to open my arms, but the force of the air pushes them to my sides, and I shake my head no. He holds his arms out and continues to nod. I’m guessing he’s done this before, so I have to trust him. I slowly move my arms away from my sides, like a baby bird opening its wings for the first time. I shut my eyes as tightly as possible, and when I open them, I feel as if I’m flying. I start to smile as the adrenaline rushes through me.
The wind bunches up all around me, wrinkling my shirt. Kyle is only a few feet below me, and I remember to straighten my legs, or it’s basically just falling and hitting the ground. I push my legs in front of me, ten times less graceful than Kyle, and hit the ground with a thud, sending a jolt throughout my body. He starts laughing but immediately stops when he sees my facial expression.
“Well that was fun,” he says. “But next time, straighten your legs sooner and spread your arms more. That might help you land more gracefully.”
“Yeah, if there even is a next time,” I mumble. He just shrugs and continues walking.
I haven’t been down here since Kelton betrayed Daniel and me, and it feels eerie. The sudden openness feels unfamiliar. Kyle finds a flashlight in his belt and clicks it on. The sudden light hurts my eyes, and I have to blink a few times to see again. The air gets colder with each step, and the flashlight is the only thing keeping me from tripping. I hold on to Kyle’s shoulder so I don’t fall.
“Are you scared?” he taunts me. He looks over his shoulder and grins. I roll my eyes and let go of his shoulder. “I didn’t mind. It’s nice to know someone relies on me to feel safe.”
I put my hand back on his shoulder. “Who said I was relying on you?” Sarcasm fills my voice. He rolls his eyes but doesn’t say anything.
He points his flashlight at the different crates lining the walls. Each one is labeled with something different: food, weapons, bombs that I’m guessing could explode any minute if they wanted, and some tools used for who knows what. I’m just starting to read some of the labels when I hear the voices.
“I’m pretty sure they went that way.”
“Are you sure? I saw some figures go in the opposite direction.”
“I’m positive. The escapees are up on the platform. I saw one of them leave yesterday. Or maybe it was two days ago.”
“I heard one of them jumped. Sad.”
“Probably a good thing if there’s less of them.”
“Yeah, I guess so. We should go find out.”
“Not until Boss gives us the orders. Remember what happened to Kelton Brown?” Kelton?
“You mean the skinny initiate? That kid was a joke! The only thing he cared about was getting out of here. If I were him, I would’ve stopped after the first time. Stupid, and then Boss tells us to look after him. I mean, we could have had any job, and we got stuck with babysitting.”
“We lost him, remember? He ran away when our backs were turned. I heard he saw some girl and thought she could get him out. How stupid! And then Boss yells at us because we left trying to search for him. When I find him, I’m going to give him a piece of my mind!”
“When you find him? We’re doing this together. We find him. And what piece are you going to give him? There’s nothing left! Not that you had a brain to begin with.”
“Watch it! Boss wouldn’t like it if one of Kelton’s babysitters ended up dead.”
“If it was you, he probably wouldn’t mind! And just remember who got the higher score on the accuracy test.”
I see Kyle tense up next to me. He’s thinking the same thing I am: these two idiots know about Kelton; they worked with him. Well, to be more accurate, they babysat him. I’m the girl they were talking about. Who’s their boss? Where is he? Why would he be mad? I consider asking Kyle what he thinks about those guys, but I don’t want them to hear me. They might tell their “boss.” Kyle grabs my arm and squeezes it. In the faint light, I can see my arm turn white from the pressure of his fingers.
The two men eventually leave, and Kyle loosens his grip. I take the flashlight from him, because I can tell he’s a little shaken from almost getting caught. I point it at the ground and start walking with slow, careful steps. Kyle follows close behind; I can feel his breaths on my neck. He’s not too much shorter than I am, and his strong build makes him look sixteen instead of thirteen.
We find the edge of the room and skirt the outside until we find a door. I figure the door might lead to a closet or some storage area, but when I open the door, it leads to a long hallway. It’s brightly lit; huge lights hang above, spaced out every few feet. The floor is made of stainless steel, so when I look down, I can see my reflection. I look worn out and my hair stands up on end on some parts of my head. Now I know for a fact that Kelton doesn’t love me because of my looks. I’m scared of my own reflection! I step into the hallway, tentatively, and find the walls are made of mirrors. The mirrors reflect back the light from above, making the room even brighter. I have to squint to see the end of the hall.
The hallway is long and only a couple yards wide. The lights overhead provide a warm golden glow. Unlike the platform I’d just spent days on, the hallway looks like it gets cleaned every day, maybe even multiple times.
“Hey!” Kyle exclaims, laughing at his reflection. His voice echoes off the walls. “The mirrors make my body look really weird.”
“You don’t need a mirror to tell you that,” I say with a laugh. He glares at me and then rolls his eyes.
I’m glad he’s here. I would be a lot more terrified if there wasn’t someone to joke around with. But then again, he is the one who brought me down here. I look back and find him examining himself in the mirror. I laugh again, but my laugh is interrupted by a loud screech. I see the door slowly closing behind me and run to stop it. But I’m too late, and the door closes with a thud. I lean my head against the cold, metal door. It feels good to stand like this, taking in the smell of freshly painted wood and metal. My eyes begin to blur, and I feel my face get hot with tears.
“It’s going to be okay,” Kyle says gently. “Maybe they’ll come and clean this hallway out soon.” I look at him sideways and smile through my tears. Leave it to Kyle to keep me on track. I turn toward the mirror closest to the door and smile.
Why is this room so bright and reflective? I wonder. Kyle stands at the end of the hall, flexing his baby muscles and examining his so-called perfect face. I try the door handle again and again, hoping that maybe someone would’ve unlocked it by now. No such luck.
My stomach growls loudly. I’m not tired anymore, just extremely hungry. I try to trick it by biting my fingernails, but it only grows louder. It only makes me think of food and how I might starve myself in here.
Kyle looks over at me and waves. I wave back, which I find to be a miracle considering how weak I feel. It’s a wonder to me how he has this much energy. I try not to think about my stomach as I slide down the mirror into a sitting position. After staring at Kyle for a few minutes, I let my eyes drift into sleep.
I’ve always found dreaming an interesting topic. How can your brain still imagine things even after you’ve told it to shut down? Why are dreams so obscured all of the time? You can dream of anything from kittens and sunshine to being attacked by an animal on a rainy day. And then you wake up and forget everything you just saw. So what’s the point in dreaming if you can�
��t remember the good stuff and forget the bad?
I allow for my dreams to wander. I see Kelton running toward me, his arms outstretched. He throws his arms around my shoulders and pulls me closer. I feel his heartbeat racing and tears come from his eyes.
“I thought I would never see you again!” he says, his voice filled with tears and joy. He pulls away, and then his lips lightly touch mine.
I wake with a start, and my heart races inside my chest. I breathe heavily into the palms of my hands. I slowly stand up, putting all my weight against the wall. Too soon, I think. I don’t know him well enough to kiss him. But he kissed me, so technically I didn’t kiss him, right? Besides, he wouldn’t do that in real life. It was just a dream, right?
I can’t convince myself it’s just a dream, but it’s not reality either. Yet.
Kyle stands at the end of the hall, talking to someone behind the golden door. Someone has come to rescue us, I think. My mind is foggy, and I feel like I should be happier, but leaving this hallway only means I get to live longer and possibly see Kelton again. It’s not a bad thing, but the dream made me see him differently, and not necessarily for the better.
Kyle runs toward me, grinning. The hallway is long enough that I have time to collect my thoughts before he reaches me and tells me why he’s smiling from ear to ear.
“You saw the guy I was just talking to, right?” He doesn’t wait for me to answer. “He’s some maintenance guy who comes around every other day and cleans this floor. He came today to clean this hallway. Looks like I was right.”
I give him a weary smile and let him take my hand. He grabs it and pulls me down the hall toward the giant door on the other side. My feet trip over each other, and running seems impossible, but Kyle continues to speed-walk through the golden hallway.
The man behind the door sits, eating an apple when we arrive. His hair has turned white, and the wrinkles around his forehead seem to cut deeper when he catches sight of me. His small frame reminds me of Kyle. I look away from him and to the cart that sits directly behind him. It’s filled with gadgets and trinkets I can only assume are for cleaning the hallway.
The man nods at Kyle and moves gracefully around him and into the hall. I watch him go until he is behind the door. and Kyle motions for me to follow him.
I haven’t explored this part of the building yet. It’s fancier than the platform we’ve been on for the past couple of days, but not as fancy as the first floor or the hallway we were just in. The room that leads out from the mirror hallway has light red stained glass windows and blood red carpet. The three walls that don’t contain any windows are painted a basic red with dark red streaks. We must be on the Red Floor, I think. I hadn’t noticed before, but the mirror hallway descended at a steep angle. We must be on the floor below the Blue Floor.
The sun has already set for the night, and maybe has been set for a while now, so the stained glass isn’t as pretty as it would be in the daylight. Kyle turns on his flashlight and points it at the end of the hall to a painting of some man. I walk around the long office table and rest my hand on the side of the painting. Underneath the painting is a caption stating who the painting is of and why he’s important to the Corps’ company.
“Ha! Would you look at that?” Kyle says, laughter filling his voice. “Mother’s boyfriend is the leader of the Corps. Who would have thought that she is dating the galaxy’s worst enemy? And we didn’t even know it.”
I look at the painting closer and see the same man who was in my home not too long ago. Chris is the leader of the Corps, our worst enemy, sitting in my house, drinking tea, and probably kissing my mother. She doesn’t know that it was his order that made my father disappear. She’s been depressed all of these years and didn’t know she would date the reason for her depression. I suddenly get a sinking feeling in my stomach. Mother is being manipulated into thinking she’s doing something good, but she might be killing hundreds of people.
“We have to get back to the platform and leave. Kelton will have to wait. I’m sorry,” I say and turn to the door. Or, to be more accurate, what should have been the door.
“You’re coming with us,” one of the men says. He’s tall and has a strong build. It’s hard to see his eyes, but there is a familiar glint in them. The man standing next to him looks a lot like the first one but shorter.
I try to run, but the first one grabs my arm and pulls me back. The second guy ties a blindfold around Kyle and then me. They push us out a door I didn’t know was there and make us walk for what seems like a mile. When the blindfolds are removed, and I can see again, I begin to panic. The room I’m in looks all too familiar, and not in a good way. It looks like the cell I was in when Kelton trapped Daniel and me. The only thing good about it this time is that I’m not locked to the thick post in the middle of the room. I try to stand, but my ankles are chained to the floor, which makes me just as useless as being chained to the post.
The camera in the corner of the room blinks, which lets me know it’s on. I turn away and find Kyle sitting in the cell across from me, like Daniel did, crying silently. I’m pretty sure that unless you have special permission from one of the head officers, you won’t be able to hear anything from outside of your cell.
I bring my knees closer to my chest and slowly rock back and forth. I realize that there is no way to get out of this cell. My father doesn’t know where we are, Kelton is missing, and as far as I know, Daniel is dead. Things could not be worse right now, and the only thing I can think of is how much I want to get out of here—to save myself and then Kyle.
People used to tell me, when I was younger, that I was the most selfless person they had ever met. I would smile gratefully, but I always knew it was a lie. I would imagine myself and someone else falling off a cliff, and I would always think that saving myself would be more important. I would be safe, and then I’d go and save the other person. I never wanted others to know that I played out that scenario in my head, or they might think different of me.
Asking Daniel to take me here and finding my father and someone I love, it’s changed my view on life, on myself. If someone comes and asks me who, between Kyle and I, should they let out, I know my answer. It’s simple, and I’ve always, deep down, known the answer.
Sure enough, a tall man comes down the hall and stops in between our cells. He looks at Kyle and then turns his head and stares at me a little too long. He clears his throat so that we can hear him. He must have permission to talk to us, otherwise I doubt we would be able to hear him, I think.
“Kyle,” he says looking at Kyle, “Zandrea. I’ve been meaning to talk to you before but never had the chance. My name is Rowan, and I believe I have something of yours. Unfortunately, you also have something of mine. Just so you know what you’re trading for, let me show you what I have.”
He walks back down the hall and slips out the door at the end. My breathing speeds up. What do we have that he wants? We’re just a couple of kids, I think, but then another thought hits me: What does he have that we would want?
Kyle glances over at me long enough for me to see the pain in his eyes. I want to reach for him, to comfort him, but my hands stay chained together. Brute force won’t break them, but maybe something else will. The man could be getting us a key, to unlock us and let us go, in exchange for whatever we have. I look back at Kyle, and he mouths a word to me.
We used to have to do that kind of thing, because we never knew who would be listening. We both got really good at it. I guess some things never change. The word becomes a phrase, and I decode it before the man gets back.
“I have what the man wants,” he mouths to me. I nod my head like I understand, like he didn’t need to tell me because I already knew, but I honestly had no idea what he was talking about. I need to trust that he knows what he’s doing.
The man comes back a few minutes later. “I have what you want, now where is my end of the bargain?”
“Unlock me first, so I can give it to you,” Kyle says defi
antly. He looks at me and pouts. I translate the pout into: I’m sorry we didn’t get to talk about this first, I didn’t have much of a choice. I nod back.
The man unlocks Kyle’s cell door and steps in. Kyle hands him a small card that reads on the outside: Corps’ secret files. I gasp. If that’s a card full of secret files, maybe ones that can bring down the entire galaxy, why does he hand it over like he wants to? But I know why, because I see it too. If he doesn’t hand over the card, Kelton could die.
Rowan tugs on a thin chain and that’s when I see our end of the deal. Kelton’s face has scratch marks running from east to west. Blood drips from his mouth and hands, and chains weigh him down. He looks smaller and weaker, and I can’t help but think that it’s all my fault. I try to stand up to reach him, but the chains around my ankles pull me back down. He doesn’t look up, not even when I pound on the glass wall. Why can’t he hear me? Why isn’t he looking? Does he even remember me? These questions spin out of control, and I sit sobbing, tears flowing from my eyes to the dirt-littered ground. I don’t know if either of them can hear me, but I speak anyway.
“Sir, can I please talk to Kelton? The boy sitting over there. You promised if we gave you what you wanted, then you would give us what we wanted. Right?” I ask, my eyes pleading.
“No. You can’t be trusted.” He swipes the card from Kyle’s hand. “Besides, he’s not even there.” He quickly steps out of the cell and closes the door. Kyle screams, but it’s silent to me because of the soundproof walls. He pounds his fists on the glass, but the man doesn’t stop hurrying down the hall. Kelton disappears like the hologram he is.
My screams don’t come. Only my sobs echo in the small cell. Kyle continues to pound his fist on the glass, but his screams have stopped as well. Tears streak his face, and his eyes are puffy and red. I should be trying to find a way out of here, trying to find a way back to Kelton. Why can’t I think of a way out? Think, Zandrea, think! There must be some way out of here.
Spaced Out Page 9
