Riser (Teen Horror/Science Fiction) (Book #1 in The Riser Saga) ((Volume 1)) (35 page)

I could feel the struggle Turner was experiencing trying to make his soldiers move again.

“Maybe you should have researched that a bit more, huh Gramps?”

Turner was fuming. He began chanting loudly.

I could feel my grip on the soldiers lessen. They were starting to twitch with movement.

“I say we jump,” I said to Ryan and the others.

It was the first time I noticed them all staring at me.

I realized they had never really seen me in action aside from a dead plant or small insects. Only Jason was slightly unfazed since he was with me at the Virtual Reality bar, but even he looked a little dumbfounded.

“Guys, seriously, he’s gaining control of them. I don’t know how much longer I can keep them disabled.” I needed them to snap out of it.

“Right.” Ryan grabbed my hand and we jumped to the floor followed by the others.

Ouch.

And oops.

It was just enough of a distraction for Turner to regain control over his boys. They started dropping like super humans to the floor next to us.

Ryan grabbed the vent grating and flung it open. It was another drop, but only about five feet and it looked like a tunnel entrance to the right. “Everyone in!”

Jason didn’t need to be told twice, he was the first to drop down.

Nancy huffed in annoyance at Jason’s lack of chivalry. “Typical.” And she jumped in as well.

One of the soldiers grabbed Bill and put him in a choke hold.

I connected to the soldier’s black hole at about half power. Turner somehow blocked me out of the other half, but it was enough for Bill to fight back. He kicked the soldier back into the others and jumped down the vent.

“You next,” I said to Ryan.

“No way is that
ever
going to happen.” Ryan said with so much conviction I almost dropped down the vent.

“I can actually slow these guys down, Ryan,” I said, my eyes pleading.

Ryan reluctantly nodded and jumped down to join the others.

The soldiers came at me. I had enough power over them to make them move in slow motion. It was surreal seeing hundreds of soldiers running toward me at a snail’s pace like I was watching an instant re-play on the holo-tv.

I looked up at Turner and our eyes met. Though they were solid red I could still see something I had never seen before in them.

Glee.

I jumped down and joined the others.

Ryan slammed the grating shut.

“Come on. Through here.” Ryan wrapped his arm around me for support.

“I’m only half-controlling them. I can’t seem to take them over completely. Turner is too strong and knows
way
more about this stuff than I do,” I said weakly. Connecting to over a hundred bodies was taking its toll on my brain. “He’ll send in live ones soon.”

As if in unison to my statement I felt Turner release all his soldiers from their black holes, letting them die for real this time, and essentially making them useless to me. The stink was already starting to waft through the ventilation shaft’s opening.

That’s when I finally noticed where we were. The shaft we jumped down was huge! I was standing and still had about two feet of headroom. A metal tunnel opened before us… dark and foreboding, but our only way out.

“This leads down four more levels. That’s where the main power generators are. If we get that far, there’s an elevator shaft we can climb up that leads directly to the front gate,” Ryan said as bravely as possible, but I could tell he was as nervous as everyone else.

Nancy pulled out a flashlight from her purse with a shrug. “I was hoping we wouldn’t need this, but…” She let that hang in the air, not needing to finish the thought, not wanting to. We were in big trouble and none of us knew how we were going to get out of it.

“One thing at a time.” I gave Nancy a reassuring look.

“Right,” she said, swallowing her fear, but not masking it completely.

Nancy handed Ryan the flashlight and he took the lead. I had a moment where I felt like Larry the cockroach as we made our way through the giant man-sized shaft. Ryan guided us through the maze of twists and turns with ease. Nancy’s small flashlight was the only source of light to show the way. So far, we couldn’t hear any signs of pursuit, but we knew it was only a matter of time before we did. Jason took up the rear and Nancy, Bill and I were in the middle. I stayed as close as I could to Ryan for his protection and for mine.

“Why didn’t Turner just shoot us?” Bill asked, breaking the intense silence.

I hadn’t thought of that.

“It would be definitive proof that he could bring the dead back.” Jason said as if he
had
been thinking about it the whole time. “If we all came back to our families riddled with bullet holes, but alive and well, there would be questions, investigations, you name it. He can’t take that kind of press or attention.”

“So we can use that to our advantage. Knowing he can’t shoot us, he can only kill us with no marks essentially,” Nancy mused out loud then turned to Jason. “You have family?”

Jason ignored her second question. “Let’s not kid ourselves. If we cause him too much trouble, he will take us down anyway he can and spin it so that we were somehow attacked by terrorists or something. For now, he wants Chelsan.
Dead
or
alive
, but luckily for us
dead
means he’s not using bullets. As for
us
I’m not sure what he’s willing to do.” Concerned, Jason glanced briefly at Nancy, but when Nancy returned the gaze he looked away.

She grunted in annoyance.

“No alarms either,” Bill said as if he were running through a check list of possible snags.

“No. Maybe he doesn’t want any of the tourists to panic or word to get out.” Nancy suggested.

“Or maybe he’s so confident he’ll get us there’s no need for alarms.” Bill was spiraling and I needed to snap him out of it.

“Let’s just get to the main generator room, okay?” I said, turning to look at him.

He nodded once and averted his eyes. I don’t think he wanted me to see him scared.

We moved farther down into the bowels of the Population Control’s headquarters. Though I knew it was only four floors it felt like we had gone miles underground. Still, being that we were already three floors down at the start of our mission, seven floors underground was a bit intimidating.

“Up here,” Ryan informed us.

When we turned left we could see light looming in the distance through another grate about a hundred feet away. Ryan motioned us to stay while he checked it out. I watched him move slowly to the vent opening and peer out. Ryan’s whole body went slack, arms dropped to his side, not moving, as if something had stunned him.

Danger or no, I ran up to him as fast as my legs would carry me. When I approached him he turned to me and his eyes were so full of terror and anger I nearly flinched at the onslaught of emotion glaring at me.

“What is it?” I asked and touched his arm as if that might help him snap out of the nightmare he was obviously in.

Ryan just nodded toward the grate.

I looked through and I understood immediately.

The vent opening was about eight feet above the ground so the entire room was visible. It was the biggest room I had ever seen. Almost as big as the hangers that held the skyscraper-sized hover-trucks from Clean-Up.

It was exactly as Ryan described to me that morning before school.

This was the place he was taken all those years ago by Turner.

An I.Q. Farm.

Hundreds of kids at computer stations, virtual reality mats, holo-games, all focused and ignorant to everyone around them. It was a frightening spectacle watching these hunched hollow-eyed children working on their invisible projects. I pulled Ryan in closer and he hugged me with all of his might. I could feel his emotions pouring into this one embrace. His fear, his sadness, his relief, his anger all jumbled together in a tangled mess. If he hadn’t been as quick witted as he was, he would have been one of those kids below.

Ryan pulled away, his eyes clearer. He looked down at the room again. “The main power generators should be at the other end of this room, through that door there.”

The others had joined us from behind, not sure of how to react because of Ryan.

“Is this really an I.Q. Farm?” Nancy asked tentatively.

“It’s the same one I was taken to. I remember it now,” Ryan explained so everyone would know his personal stake in all this.

“Whoa,” Bill said softly. I could tell the protective side of him wanted to reach out and give Ryan his support, but the
jealous guy side
of him wouldn’t allow it.

Ryan grabbed my hand suddenly.

“What is it?” I asked. His face had gone another shade paler, if that was possible.

“I recognize a few of the kids.” Ryan swallowed hard. “They’re the same age.” Ryan turned to me, eyes wide. “Turner is giving them Age-pro.”

We all stood in stunned silence.

Giving Age-pro to kids was an unspeakable act. And it was a double whammy to think that Ryan could have been eight-years-old
forever.
I guess it wasn’t a surprise that Turner was capable of such perversion, but it rocked us all just the same.

“They look like they’re in comas, it shouldn’t be too hard to get past them,” Jason observed callously.

Nancy punched him in the arm. “Way to be sensitive, jerk.”

“I’m sorry if I don’t want to die, but reminiscing on what could have been isn’t helping our escape here. Just because there’s no alarm doesn’t mean they’re not after us.” Jason rubbed his arm from Nancy’s blow.

“He’s right,” Ryan said, though his eyes were still staring at the children below. “This vent is on hinges and swings outward.” Ryan reached over and popped the vent opening. “If we move it slowly enough, hopefully no one will see.”

I placed both hands on the hinged side of the grate making sure the rate of movement was as slow as possible. Ryan was at the other side and moved the slab of metal as far as he could without falling to the ground below. I clasped my fingers through the metal slats and stopped the grate before it could hit the wall.

None of the kids seemed to notice.

All five of us were now as exposed as could be standing over the entire room like a framed picture.

Jason jumped down first, his patience almost gone. I shouldn’t really be surprised. He
did
cry like a baby at the Virtual Reality bar. Why should being in my grandpa’s lair be any different?

Everyone else followed him down, Ryan was the last. It was my turn to be the
comforter
in this relationship and I found that I felt more helpless than I ever did when I was being attacked by Turner’s lackeys. What could I possibly do to make Ryan feel better? He was in the very room of his nightmares and it was all because of me. If he had never liked me he would have never had to see or think about this place for the rest of his days. I should have seen this coming. I should have known better. Now Ryan has to face his personal demons, not in a healthy-let’s-talk-about-it kind of way, but in an in-your-face-welcome-to-your-own-personal-torture kind of a way.

Yeah. I was a
great
girlfriend.

“The entrance to the generators is on the other side,” Ryan said quietly and I squeezed his hand supportively. No matter what, I didn’t want him to feel alone in all this.

We walked as casually as possible, not wanting any of the children to notice. We didn’t even know what they would do if they did realize we were there. Would they scream? Would they hit an alarm? Or would they do nothing?