I push that thought away. It’s always a dangerous one. Nobody understands me, and nobody ever will. I am a world of one.
“Come on. Ken’s probably heading out. Maybe we can catch him.”
Just like that, he starts heading toward the front doors. There are security stations between us and those doors, but we just walk through them. The people manning them wave to Doctor Ares and he passes through with me walking behind him. There are no questions. There’s not even a wand passed over our bodies. We walk through one set of detectors which do not trigger as I pass through them.
I can’t believe this. I have been trying to escape this place for as long as I have been here and he’s just… walking me out. The people on the scanners don’t know me, apparently. They just wave at the nice doctor and the girl with him. Some small, stupid part of me wants to tell him I’m not allowed outside, but I keep my mouth shut. Jesus. This is a fuck up of incredible proportions. Didn’t they tell him who I am?
There are more guards at the front. They don’t know who I am either. My classification is so top level that only a few people here do. To most of the rank and file, I’m some random female. They don’t even try to stop us as we walk out and into the sunshine.
Oh. My. God. Fresh air. It has been so long since I experienced anything like it.
I tilt my face up to the sky and draw in a deep breath. My feet are planted on the concrete, my lungs are full of fresh air, my skin thrills to the sensation of being warmed by real sunlight. I have had this experience only a handful of times in my life. This is an exquisite pleasure, and I drink it in knowing it will be limited.
Tom
I turn around to see where Electra has gotten to. She’s standing just behind me, beaming with such intense happiness I can’t help but smile in response, even though I’m not sure why she’s smiling, or even why I am.
WEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOWEEOOOOOOOOOWEEOOOOOO
Sirens blast for the second time in a day. All hell breaks loose. The doors we just walked out of fly open. Two columns of furious men come pouring out, full face guards, complete body armor, and riot shields at the ready. Something must have happened on the perimeter. They must be expecting an…
“GET HER!”
It is a shock to realize that they are coming for Electra. She doesn’t move. Not a hair seems to stir on her head as armed guards come pouring out of the interior, guns drawn on her slender blue jumpsuit clad frame. Her arms are extended, palms open and up, sunlight falling on her pale skin for a few precious fractions of a second before they grab her wrists, yank them behind her back, and she is consumed by the wave of men, a scrum of body armor and aggressive cursing. She disappears, her small frame completely enveloped.
It happens so quickly I can’t move fast enough to help her. I take one step and she is gone, rushed back into the building so roughly one slip-on shoe is left in her wake. I pick it up, my teeth gritted in anger. The way they treat her is beyond abusive. It is vicious, cruel, and ruthless. It does not surprise me that she acts like a wild beast when she grasps moments of freedom.
“Stop!” I shout in their wake. “She’s mine! She’s bloody mine!”
They’re not listening to me. They bundle her back into the building, down to god knows where. I grit my teeth and curse. One hand doesn’t know what the other is doing in this place. It is utterly ridiculous.
I have had mixed feelings about working here for a long time. Being able to look after Mary and Ken was a huge draw, but now I wonder precisely what I am acting in service of. I stride after the armed guards, intent on reclaiming her.
There are more inside the door, waiting for me.
“Come with us, doctor.”
I find myself swept up by more jackbooted thugs, men who follow orders at the cost of sense. I could fight them, but there’s no point. This won’t be sorted down here on the floor. It will be made right in an office, with a woman who has a lot of answering to do.
Lecture
“What the HELL was that?”
I’m not yelling, but I am exclaiming rather loudly. I have been escorted up the elevator to the Head’s office and now I am standing in front of the woman herself.
“I could ask you the same question, Doctor Ares.” She looks at me with an icy stare, the lines around her eyes and mouth drawing into expressions of displeasure. She is not old, this woman, but she is hard.