Expelled

by Ell Leigh Clarke

Vlad turned to her. “Did you really need to give us that image?”

  Merry snarled venomously at Vlad. “That’s what your last girlfriend said when she saw you naked.”

  Jayne rested her chin on her folded hands. “I think you might have something there, Fred.”

  +++

  Secure Sector, New Germany Sector, Tarem Ring

  Jayne fished a flat package out of her navy cargo pants pocket. “We have to hurry, Agent Burrett.”

  Burrett took several steps back and pointed at the floppy rectangle in Jayne’s hand. “What’s that?”

  Jayne unfolded the flesh-colored rubber to reveal a mask. It was a perfectly flat and oval, save for small bumps representing the cheeks, nose, and lips. “The best way for us to get out of here alive.”

  Burrett took the mask and held it to the light. “I thought we were going to take the spy route.” He was essentially back in reality now, speaking in full sentences and picking up on all the details.

  “That’s part of the plan too. Now put that on. We don’t have much time.”

  “How do I know there’s no poison on this? You shot me up with something a few minutes ago…”

  “That was to keep you functional so we could get you out of here. The mask is the same thing.”

  Burrett continued to contemplate the mask.

  “Just put it on!” Jayne insisted.

  Burrett stared suspiciously at Jayne, but finally pulled the mask over his head. The nanotech in the mask instantly melded to his face upon contact, transforming him into a younger man with a more bulbous nose and a facial scar. Burrett shook his head several times. “This feels like a vacuum seal.”

  Jayne took a counterfeit name badge out of her pocket, along with the keycard. She also produced handcuffs.

  “Why do we need those?”

  “Because you’re not out of prison yet.”

  Burrett allowed himself to be cuffed. Jayne held his hands behind him and opened the cell with the keycard. “Act natural,” she said, pushing him forward into the corridor.

  The two made their way down the row of solitary cells, each separated by about 50 feet of concrete. Burrett looked at each cell as they passed.

  Jayne guided him in the direction of the storage. “This way, Inmate.”

  Two large male guards gave Jayne the once-over as she passed. Jayne nodded in acknowledgement. “Taking this prisoner for his session.”

  Burrett whispered as soon as they were out of earshot. “Do you know what that means around here?”

  Jayne directed Burrett towards the storage and opened the door with her keycard. “Nope. Don’t need to. Now help me move these boxes so we can climb out of here.”

  Burrett seemed genuinely tickled. “Through the spy route?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Jayne and Burrett arranged a pyramid of boxes, testing each level to make sure it would hold their weight. Jayne quickly climbed the pyramid and removed the grate with her knife.

  Burrett’s face brightened beneath the mask. “I haven’t done this in forever.”

  Jayne felt a little warm and fuzzy inside. She motioned for Burrett to follow her up into the vents. Once he was behind her and they were away from any grates, she called Merry. “Okay. We’re back in the vents.”

  Merry hissed over the comm. “About five minutes ago would’ve been nice. There’s a little heat out here.”

  “Sorry. Where are we going?”

  “In short, away from the huge tech distraction I created. Go straight on for another 100 feet.”

  +++

  Civilian side of the Secure Sector, New Germany Sector, Tarem Ring

  Another security guard stopped about three feet in front of Vlad. “You two need to move along.”

  “Are we not allowed to be here, officer?”

  The officer folded his arms in front of him and cocked his head to the side. He reminded Vlad of a miniature brick wall in both physique and intellect. “No. That’s why I told you to move. What are you doing here, anyway?”

  Fred looked at Vlad, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. “We…”

  Vlad walked away from the corner so the officer didn’t discover Merry squatting with her laptop out. “It’s okay, Fred. He has an intelligent face. He would’ve figured the truth out eventually.”

  The officer suspiciously put his hand on his holstered weapon.

  “You won’t need that, officer. My friend and I are just two scientists doing a study on how the ancients… communed with nature.”

  Fred nodded. “Yeah. How they connected with the land.”

  The officer raised an eyebrow at Vlad. “I don’t believe you.”

  “Well, I don’t know what I could do to convince you. It’s just the truth.”

  “What’s your hippopotamus?”

  Vlad stared at the officer for several seconds, bewildered. “Hippopo—Hypothesis! You mean hypothesis! My, are you a scientist as well?”

  The officer blushed a little and shrugged. “I’m more of a dabbler than anything…”

  Vlad stifled a laugh and looked at Fred, who shrugged. “Our hypothesis is: Groups of individuals create larger energy loops between them and the earth than individual, erm, individuals. However, smaller groups and individuals create a purer energy loop between them and the earth. A small, pure energy loop is more powerful than a larger energy loop.”

  The officer scratched his chin. “That’s an interesting hippocampus. I never thought of it that way…”

  Vlad flashed him one of his charismatic smiles. “Well, I’m glad to share my work with someone who gets it. Who can really appreciate it.”

  Merry’s whispers could be heard as soft hisses from around the corner. The officer turned towards the sound. “What’s that noise?”

  Fred jumped to his feet. “The animals! These energy loops they… attract small animals.”

  The officer continued to walk towards Merry’s whispers. “Is it the thermos-dynamo theory, like snakes with the floral pit on their noses?”

  Vlad and Fred exchanged a quietly perplexed laugh. “Floral pit…? Oh! Yes, Officer. It is exactly like thermodynamic theory and the reptilian loreal pits.”

  “…motherfucker,” Merry hissed.

  The officer looked at Vlad and Fred, then walked quickly towards Merry. She turned a near-transparent shade of pale and her jaw dropped. Vlad steered the officer away from her. “You may want to leave her alone. She’s…”

  Fred piped up, “Recording messages she receives from the earth.”

  The officer looked at the three of them suspiciously, then his features softened somewhat.

  Vlad nodded. “Yes, she’s our best earth whisperer. But she needs privacy and silence, which is why we have been keeping watch. The equipment she’s using is very sensitive, but you probably know that. I mean, as a fellow scientist and all.”

  The officer blushed again and smiled at Vlad. “I always excelled in physics. Chemistry, too!”

  “Oh? At the graduate level?”

  The officer nodded. “Yeah. I graduated high school about 50 miles from here.”

  Vlad wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. “I like that I’m speaking to a fellow educated man. It’s… as refreshing as it is entertaining.”

  The officer beamed with pride. “How much longer do you need to be here?”

  “Not long. A half hour at the most. We’re approaching… the peak of loopage.”

  The officer paused for a moment. “Well, I guess it’s okay. You seem like nice people. And I don’t believe in standing in the way of science. Just don’t—”

  The crackling voice on the officer’s comm cut into their conversation. “All available officers. Attention all available officers. We have a 145 on the North Block. Repeat, we have a 145 on the North Block. Code Yellow.”

  The officer looked at Vlad and Fred, then spoke into his comm. “Copy for Barnaby.” And like that, he was off running to the gate.

  Vlad waited for Officer Barnaby to be far e
nough away, then he and Fred raced back to help Merry pack up her equipment.

  “We need to get the fuck out of here,” she told them urgently.

  Fred motioned for Vlad and Merry to run ahead of him. He remained several steps behind, checking as they went.

  Vlad turned to Merry. “Do you think she knows where she’s going?”

  “I hope so.”

  +++

  Secure Sector, New Germany Sector, Tarem Ring

  Jayne was smooshed against the side of the vent when the alarm rang.

  Burrett jumped, banging his head. “Ow!”

  “You okay back there?”

  He grunted in response.

  Jayne switched back to her comm. “What was that?”

  Merry whispered to her. “We’ve got to get out of here. We’ll leave you and Burrett and meet you in the next sector. Just go back towards the way you came but keep going straight. They’re calling a 145, which means they noticed Burrett isn’t there, but have no idea you’re not in the holding cell yet. It almost seems like they forgot about you amid all this chaos. So hurry!”

  “Shit…”

  Burrett sounded panicked. “What’s wrong?”

  “Remember how I said the government is going to make it look like a prison break, rather than admit they have the wrong guy?”

  “Yeah?”

  Jayne pressed herself to the side of the air duct and crawled until she was far enough away from the vent to continue. “We need to treat this like you’re being busted out of here the wrong way.”

  “Oh. Got it.”

  Jayne looked through all the grates as she passed them, hoping to find another unused room. Burrett pointed to a dimly lit grate about 15 feet in front of them. “I think that one might be the supply closet by the lobby. We could get out there.”

  Jayne started moving towards it. “Any thoughts on how we’re going to get through the lobby?”

  “Didn’t your friend say she was causing maintenance glitches in Control?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t know for how much longer. It sounded like she had to vacate wherever she was fast.”

  “Do you see another option?”

  Jayne laughed a little.

  “What?”

  “I’m just… Nothing.”

  “No, what is it?”

  Jayne shimmied like a knotted earthworm so that she could take the knife out of her boot. She started opening the grate. “I was just thinking if I have to do this, I’m glad it’s with a fellow spy. It’s a nice change of pace.”

  Burrett beamed through the mask. “Alright, it looks clear. Get down there, then help me. My old bones rotted a little in that cell, you know.”

  Jayne looked for the best place to land. It wasn’t nearly as soft as the laundry storage, but the shelves to the right of the grate looked like they could hold her. She tested the theory by putting one of her feet on the middle shelf. It creaked, but it seemed stable enough.

  “Everything okay?” Burrett asked.

  Jayne nodded and put her other foot on the wall, then maneuvered both feet on the wall like a spider. She repositioned her hands, so she was facing the wall with both feet planted firmly on it. Jayne was able to jump down easily. She made a mental note to thank her parents for the gymnastics lessons when she was a kid.

  She looked around for boxes or anything else she could fashion into a makeshift stepladder for Burrett. Jayne was able to stack boxes of jumpsuits against the wall like stairs. She shook her improvised staircase. A little wobbly, but she could hold it steady. “Alright. It’ll work if you climb quickly.”

  Burrett looked momentarily apprehensive but managed to position his feet on the middle step. Jayne caught him as he started to falter backwards, shifting the boxes. The footsteps outside faded away from Jayne and Burrett.

  Jayne cracked the door open and looked around. “It looks clear,” she whispered.

  Jayne and Burrett slunk past the lobby hiding behind any object they could and listened for footsteps. Burrett stopped suddenly. “Someone’s coming.”

  Burrett pushed them both into the closest empty room. Jayne listened for any footsteps or nearby conversations. They waited for all noises to get farther down the hall. Burrett opened the door slightly and nodded back at Jayne, and headed out.

  They made it about ten feet before they heard static from a radio behind them.

  “Hey!” a male voice called.

  “Fuck…” Jayne muttered under her breath. She turned around, motioning for Burrett to keep going. A large guard with stripes on his shoulders ran towards her. ‘What are you doing here?”

  Jayne heard Burrett run about 20 feet then stop. She faced the officer. “It’s not what you think, officer.”

  He continued to advance towards her. “Then what is it?”

  “I…”

  He leveled his gaze at her. “You what, dear? What are you doing in this facility with an inmate?”

  Jayne inhaled, deeply. She felt the oxygen enter her body, filling her up. Her mind became clear, she felt a calmness in her heart. Her entire body entered a slow-motion calm, even though Jayne knew she was suddenly moving almost too fast for the guard to perceive. She hooked one hand around his elbow and pulled his arm behind his back. She spun him around, his back to her front. Jayne popped a quick punch into his carotid artery. The guard fell like a sack of potatoes.

  Then she turned and ran.

  Jayne caught up with Burrett. “Hurry. He’s only going to be out for a few minutes.”

  “What did you do to him?”

  Jayne kept running. “You’d be amazed what they’re teaching at the Academy these days. But I saw that trick in Kill Them All #47.”

  “They’re on 47 now? I have a lot of catching up to do.”

  They were both moving in a dead sprint down the hallway when Burrett slowed down to speak. “Maybe you should call your friend again. She couldn’t have gotten far by now.”

  Jayne was about to open a channel to Merry to test Burrett’s theory but a pain stabbed through her eyes. She couldn’t breathe. She saw Burrett bend over and cough through her blurring vision.

  “Nerve gas!” Burrett coughed.

  Sharp pains shot through Jayne’s legs and the sides of her torso. She felt herself bend over, clutching the wall for support. Jayne looked for Burrett, whom she saw as a retching, orange blur. She looked for a doorway or any opening. “Burrett… follow… me…”

  Jayne and Burrett made their way through a doorway, hunched over and clutching the wall the whole time. The air on the other side was cleaner, cooler, less oppressive. Jayne gulped it to capacity and let the tears drain from her eyes.

  Burrett smiled wryly. “I… I think… they saw us.”

  Jayne hit her comm. “Merry. Merry. Come in.”

  There was no response.

  “Nothing?”

  Jayne looked at Burrett. “Any idea where we are?”

  Burrett glanced around, the tears and mucus draining from his face made him look like a dragon coming out of hibernation, but the nano-mask remained perfectly affixed and morphed to his face. “Could be a meeting room. It’s too far away from the cells to be Interrogation.”

  Jayne looked around for a vent system, desperately praying to herself that Merry would answer. She could hear several pairs of boots running towards them. Jayne started climbing up a shelving unit to get to the grate. “Up here.”

  Burrett stayed near the doorway, in a corner. “I’ll cover you.”

  Jayne turned around, trying to figure out what Burrett meant. Four guards appeared in the doorway, one of which was one of the guards who initially arrested Jayne.

  “Hey! That’s the girl from the holding cell!”

  Burrett hid further in the corner, finding a large stack of boxes to obscure himself. Jayne felt for the small gun on her hip. She looked at the guards’ weapons. Tech Nine Thousands, old school destruction with a twist. She turned back towards the grate.

  “Freeze!” a voice commanded.<
br />
  Jayne took two small steps towards the guards with her hands in surrender position.

  “That’s it,” he said slowly. “No one has to get hurt.”

  Jayne pivoted quickly and started up the shelving unit. A shot rang out, the bullet grazed the unit. Jayne kept climbing, but another shot dislodged the shelving unit from the wall. Jayne fell with the unit.

  “We don’t want to hurt you…”

  Jayne started to maneuver herself from under the fallen shelving unit. Two guards advanced further into the room, taking aim. Burrett let out a feral cry and shoved the stack of heavy boxes at the two advancing officers, knocking them to the floor. The back two guards advanced, each taking aim at Jayne and Burrett.

  “You’re both under arrest!” the first one shouted.

  Jayne inhaled deeply, accessing the source energy in her abdomen. The slow-motion zen state took over again. She leapt onto the back of one of the fallen guards and let her boots and gravity do the rest of the work. Burrett let out another savage cry and tackled one of the guards.

  Jayne stole the guns of the two sleeping guards and kicked the knees of the guard who was taking aim at her. The guard fired two shots on his way down, one hissing by Jayne’s temple. At the same time, Burrett wrestled a losing fight with the second guard.

  Jayne ran at the guard, training her stolen gun on him. “Burrett!”

  Burrett attempted to roll out of the guard’s grasp, punching him in the abdomen as often as he could. The guard did not release his hold on Burrett. This reignited the tussle, knocking them both to the ground. Jayne crawled towards the tussle, stolen gun in hand.

  “Freeze, little lady!”

  Jayne looked up to see the guard she had kicked kneeling above her, gun pointed straight at her head. Jayne inhaled. After the last guard, she was nice and warmed up. Jayne rolled on to her back, hoisting her legs up into the air and right into the guard’s chest. In the same motion she leapt up onto her feet. She pistol whipped the guard once in the jaw. He spun a 180 and fell flat on his face.

  “Jayne!” Burrett called.

  The guard was on top of Burrett, using his gun to keep Burrett on the floor while his other hand frantically reached for the handcuffs on his belt. Jayne used the butt of her gun to knock the guard off Burrett, giving Burrett a chance to straddle the guard and repeatedly punch him in the face. “A punch for each year, asshole!”