10:25 AM
:You can take the next left, and then two rights: Paul told her.
Cassie yelled back, :Don’t take her that way, there are soldiers down that hall!:
Those two would bicker her whole way there as per normal. It hadn’t always been that way. People handle stress in different ways, not all of them helpful.
:What about ‘left, right, left, right, right?’:
:That’s even worse! Stop and think about where you’re telling her to go.:
:My magic doesn’t work like that! You’re the one who can hear what’s in the way.:
:Which is why I should be the one telling her where to go. Rana, if you go back the way you came and head down the first hallway on your right…:
:Just hurry, she’s losing time,: he sent.
It didn’t matter; the soldiers weren’t a threat. Better to let Paul and Cassie forget about her for now. While Camouflaged, most minds found her existence slippery.
Rana bowed her legs and fired herself like an arrow down the length of the hall. She secreted slime from her skin as a near-perfect lubricant—skating on her belly like the so-called ‘Skeleton’ version of bobsledding.
That’s where she’d gotten the idea. Cassie showed them the Winter Olympics last year. The first few hours were boring until two women careened along a slippery track at ninety miles an hour. Not knowing which team to back, she rooted for every country as they came. Bobsledding became her favorite sport, though Rana was no penguin.
She hated the cold.
At the first ninety-degree turn, Rana’s elastic tongue sprang from her mouth to slap the corner and stick like glue. She swung on this tether around the circumference of an imaginary circle. However, her tongue anchor halfway up the wall lifted her while redirecting her momentum.
She slingshot herself out of the turn and reeled in her tongue. After a weightless fraction of a second, Rana belly-flopped smack onto the floor. She overcorrected in surprise and rolled onto her back, then overcorrected trying to right herself into an end-over-end tumble. Switching the slime from slick to sticky killed her momentum. She lay there after the wipeout, testing her fingers and toes, arms and legs, back and stomach, feeling nothing the matter apart from subsiding pain. Thankfully, the fall hadn’t activated her Toadstones.
Back to sliding down the hall an instant later. Nobody saw that, right? A dumb thought. The others only remembered Rana while Camouflaged if she sent a message first.
At least the janitor hadn’t caught her again. She’d circled the Facility for days waiting on the humans to break quarantine before curling up to get some sleep. It’d been hard to save face with the others.
Messing up a new stunt was realistic, if humiliating, but she wasn’t satisfied. Preparation and planning brooked no excuse for failure.
“When you fail, don’t give up—try twice as hard,” her brother had told her over and over.
She would succeed, and they would leave the Facility.
Rana found herself eager to escape. Captivity didn’t bother her—what with the others to talk to and their secret access to TV—but her legs got jumpy now and then. The previous times she’d breached containment were before they learned they were ‘safe,’ relatively speaking. They’d wanted someone on the outside helping the others break out, but the humans’ security protocols foiled her Camouflage.
With no immediate danger, she’d found her cell peaceful. Unlike some of the others, especially Kenta. Of everyone, though, Wendi had taken these three years worst. She hasn’t said anything today… hopefully, she’s just sleeping.
Today was different. The possibility of seeing the others again invigorated her.
Daniel would succeed. He seemed far more stable and capable than expected for his isolation from the group. Cassie had been right; he was their ally, not Perses’ tool as Kenta feared.
She raced forward, springboarding off walls for gratifying acceleration.
Rana saw her next turn at the ‘T’ ahead. No worries. She flowed through the motions in pursuit of perfection. Rana spat her pink, elastic tongue to hit the corner. Her body shifted slightly towards frog when using this ability; her humanoid form couldn’t store a tongue this long or house the necessary muscles. She reeled herself in, slurped up her tongue fast as a whip-crack, and blasted around the corner while maintaining balance.
There are the guards, running her way. Adjusting the slime lubricant’s composition to give one side of her body more friction allowed her to steer. Rana hugged the wall, under their radar, Camouflaged to concrete.
“Hey, you hear that?” one soldier said.
“Hear what?” another replied.
The first soldier checked his six as she sped away and shrugged, “Nothing important.”
Exactly, Rana thought to herself, I’m nothing important. That wasn’t a pleasant thought, but she knew how to fix it.
Rana sent a private message, :Excited to get on the road again?:
Lea replied quickly, relief in her mind’s voice, :Yes. Practically anything would be better than remaining in this room another day.:
She grinned to herself, :Nobody around to look at you, right?:
:Please, do not even joke about that!:
Rana winced. :Sorry, I wanted you to lighten up.: No response. She thought she’d gotten the hang of ‘joking.’ Lea shouldn’t have been this sensitive about it unless… :It was worse than you told me, wasn’t it?: Nothing. Rana assumed the worst, :Are they alright?:
:I almost Broke them.:
:But you didn’t?:
:I did not.:
:And nobody died?:
:No one died.:
:Then don’t worry. We’ve got your language under control and we can make sure everyone gives you space. Nothing like that is going to happen with us. You’re not a Monster. None of us are, not even Wendi—at least, not yet. This is a tough situation; we’ve had to defend ourselves. Lea, we’re getting out of here, and things will be better.:
:Rana, I believe I am going to need your help. If I am forced to rely on my power, I fear I shall hurt someone in a way that can not be healed. May I count on you?:
:Always.: Rana wondered if Lea told anyone else about how close the girl had come to crossing the line on the day of her capture.
That she’d waited three years to tell the whole story, and that she’d successfully pretended nothing was wrong till now, was typical of her. Lea was more interested in playing games than self-reflection.
Rana could understand that.
Hopefully, the dark cloud over her friend wouldn’t last. She liked that about Lea; that girl wouldn’t stay down. Rana made two more turns, passing several cameras and open security doors.
After a minor prompt to remind Cassie she existed, the girl replied, :There’s a stairwell ahead. The security room is all the way up and to the left.:
First try, Rana told herself, No mistakes. She got off her belly with a pushup and slid into the open area crouched on the balls of her feet. The instant she reached the center of the vertical shaft, she turned and jumped. She leaped three flights and landed on the railing, then dove to land on her belly and zoom through the next hallway.
Success!
A steel door blocked the security room. She skidded to a halt in front of it on sticky slime and stood.
:What now, Lea?: Rana sent. :I can’t break through. There’s no point in me coming here on my own.:
:Oh, I am sorry to hear that.: Lea replied. By her tone, it seemed Lea had indeed returned to playing games. :I would not have troubled you if I had but known the doors were airtight.:
Rana got the message, :Fine.:
She practiced her condescending smirk from memory and squatted low. Sure enough, unlike the heavy-duty sliding containment doors in the halls, this one had a gap at the bottom. Rana put her hand to the breach and generated slime. Not slick or sticky, just green goopy stuff. She heard voices after a couple of seconds, but it took a full minute to get results.
The guards panicked. Not knowing where the rising tide of slime came from—Rana was Camouflaged, and the fluid spread evenly by the time they noticed—the guards went for the door.
She dropped Camouflage and stood there, looking bored. One man spooked at the sight of her and reached for his gun. Rana twitched a finger and the green slime covering the floor lashed at him like a living thing. It covered his back, congealed into its sticky state, and contracted.
The man fell supine into slime that held him like a bug on flypaper as she walked into the room. She slimed each of the other guards before they could hit the conspicuous red button. She sent again to Lea, :Yes, you were right.:
10:25 AM
:You can take the next left, and then two rights: Paul told her.
Cassie yelled back, :Don’t take her that way, there are soldiers down that hall!:
Those two would bicker her whole way there as per normal. It hadn’t always been that way. People handle stress in different ways, not all of them helpful.
:What about ‘left, right, left, right, right?’:
:That’s even worse! Stop and think about where you’re telling her to go.:
:My magic doesn’t work like that! You’re the one who can hear what’s in the way.:
:Which is why I should be the one telling her where to go. Rana, if you go back the way you came and head down the first hallway on your right…:
:Just hurry, she’s losing time,: he sent.
It didn’t matter; the soldiers weren’t a threat. Better to let Paul and Cassie forget about her for now. While Camouflaged, most minds found her existence slippery.
Rana bowed her legs and fired herself like an arrow down the length of the hall. She secreted slime from her skin as a near-perfect lubricant—skating on her belly like the so-called ‘Skeleton’ version of bobsledding.
That’s where she’d gotten the idea. Cassie showed them the Winter Olympics last year. The first few hours were boring until two women careened along a slippery track at ninety miles an hour. Not knowing which team to back, she rooted for every country as they came. Bobsledding became her favorite sport, though Rana was no penguin.
She hated the cold.
At the first ninety-degree turn, Rana’s elastic tongue sprang from her mouth to slap the corner and stick like glue. She swung on this tether around the circumference of an imaginary circle. However, her tongue anchor halfway up the wall lifted her while redirecting her momentum.
She slingshot herself out of the turn and reeled in her tongue. After a weightless fraction of a second, Rana belly-flopped smack onto the floor. She overcorrected in surprise and rolled onto her back, then overcorrected trying to right herself into an end-over-end tumble. Switching the slime from slick to sticky killed her momentum. She lay there after the wipeout, testing her fingers and toes, arms and legs, back and stomach, feeling nothing the matter apart from subsiding pain. Thankfully, the fall hadn’t activated her Toadstones.
Back to sliding down the hall an instant later. Nobody saw that, right? A dumb thought. The others only remembered Rana while Camouflaged if she sent a message first.
At least the janitor hadn’t caught her again. She’d circled the Facility for days waiting on the humans to break quarantine before curling up to get some sleep. It’d been hard to save face with the others.
Messing up a new stunt was realistic, if humiliating, but she wasn’t satisfied. Preparation and planning brooked no excuse for failure.
“When you fail, don’t give up—try twice as hard,” her brother had told her over and over.
She would succeed, and they would leave the Facility.
Rana found herself eager to escape. Captivity didn’t bother her—what with the others to talk to and their secret access to TV—but her legs got jumpy now and then. The previous times she’d breached containment were before they learned they were ‘safe,’ relatively speaking. They’d wanted someone on the outside helping the others break out, but the humans’ security protocols foiled her Camouflage.
With no immediate danger, she’d found her cell peaceful. Unlike some of the others, especially Kenta. Of everyone, though, Wendi had taken these three years worst. She hasn’t said anything today… hopefully, she’s just sleeping.
Today was different. The possibility of seeing the others again invigorated her.
Daniel would succeed. He seemed far more stable and capable than expected for his isolation from the group. Cassie had been right; he was their ally, not Perses’ tool as Kenta feared.
She raced forward, springboarding off walls for gratifying acceleration.
Rana saw her next turn at the ‘T’ ahead. No worries. She flowed through the motions in pursuit of perfection. Rana spat her pink, elastic tongue to hit the corner. Her body shifted slightly towards frog when using this ability; her humanoid form couldn’t store a tongue this long or house the necessary muscles. She reeled herself in, slurped up her tongue fast as a whip-crack, and blasted around the corner while maintaining balance.
There are the guards, running her way. Adjusting the slime lubricant’s composition to give one side of her body more friction allowed her to steer. Rana hugged the wall, under their radar, Camouflaged to concrete.
“Hey, you hear that?” one soldier said.
“Hear what?” another replied.
The first soldier checked his six as she sped away and shrugged, “Nothing important.”
Exactly, Rana thought to herself, I’m nothing important. That wasn’t a pleasant thought, but she knew how to fix it.
Rana sent a private message, :Excited to get on the road again?:
Lea replied quickly, relief in her mind’s voice, :Yes. Practically anything would be better than remaining in this room another day.:
She grinned to herself, :Nobody around to look at you, right?:
:Please, do not even joke about that!:
Rana winced. :Sorry, I wanted you to lighten up.: No response. She thought she’d gotten the hang of ‘joking.’ Lea shouldn’t have been this sensitive about it unless… :It was worse than you told me, wasn’t it?: Nothing. Rana assumed the worst, :Are they alright?:
:I almost Broke them.:
:But you didn’t?:
:I did not.:
:And nobody died?:
:No one died.:
:Then don’t worry. We’ve got your language under control and we can make sure everyone gives you space. Nothing like that is going to happen with us. You’re not a Monster. None of us are, not even Wendi—at least, not yet. This is a tough situation; we’ve had to defend ourselves. Lea, we’re getting out of here, and things will be better.:
:Rana, I believe I am going to need your help. If I am forced to rely on my power, I fear I shall hurt someone in a way that can not be healed. May I count on you?:
:Always.: Rana wondered if Lea told anyone else about how close the girl had come to crossing the line on the day of her capture.
That she’d waited three years to tell the whole story, and that she’d successfully pretended nothing was wrong till now, was typical of her. Lea was more interested in playing games than self-reflection.
Rana could understand that.
Hopefully, the dark cloud over her friend wouldn’t last. She liked that about Lea; that girl wouldn’t stay down. Rana made two more turns, passing several cameras and open security doors.
After a minor prompt to remind Cassie she existed, the girl replied, :There’s a stairwell ahead. The security room is all the way up and to the left.:
First try, Rana told herself, No mistakes. She got off her belly with a pushup and slid into the open area crouched on the balls of her feet. The instant she reached the center of the vertical shaft, she turned and jumped. She leaped three flights and landed on the railing, then dove to land on her belly and zoom through the next hallway.
Success!
A steel door blocked the security room. She skidded to a halt in front of it on sticky slime and stood.
:What now, Lea?: Rana sent. :I can’t break through. There’s no point in me coming here on my own.:
:Oh, I am sorry to hear that.: Lea replied. By her tone, it seemed Lea had indeed returned to playing games. :I would not have troubled you if I had but known the doors were airtight.:
Rana got the message, :Fine.:
She practiced her condescending smirk from memory and squatted low. Sure enough, unlike the heavy-duty sliding containment doors in the halls, this one had a gap at the bottom. Rana put her hand to the breach and generated slime. Not slick or sticky, just green goopy stuff. She heard voices after a couple of seconds, but it took a full minute to get results.
The guards panicked. Not knowing where the rising tide of slime came from—Rana was Camouflaged, and the fluid spread evenly by the time they noticed—the guards went for the door.
She dropped Camouflage and stood there, looking bored. One man spooked at the sight of her and reached for his gun. Rana twitched a finger and the green slime covering the floor lashed at him like a living thing. It covered his back, congealed into its sticky state, and contracted.
The man fell supine into slime that held him like a bug on flypaper as she walked into the room. She slimed each of the other guards before they could hit the conspicuous red button. She sent again to Lea, :Yes, you were right.:
