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‘What now?’ I snapped, letting him slide the door closed.
‘I have an idea. Shouldn’t we all know what to do? Can the drone project an image on the wall, or in the air? If anything happens to you, we’re finished.’
He had a point, even if I didn’t like hearing it. I pulled the drone out from under my tunic and told it what I wanted. It drew a picture on the wall, apparently using the direction beam. ‘This is the map,’ I said. ‘We go out of here, turn right, to the end of the corridor. Right again. Keep going to the end, and through the door. Simple. Less than 200m.’
I told the drone to change the display and to show us where the communication node was. I was expecting the drone to draw some kind of huge equipment room, but it looked like it had drawn a kitchen. In a corner of the room, near the ceiling, the drone made a box shape flash on the wall, then zoomed in to show an outline of the box itself. On one side, a button was flashing, in time with a legend alongside that said ‘Press once. Wait at least 120 seconds.’
The display changed again, this time to show the four wires entering the bottom of the box. A little animation showed the positions of the inner two cables being swapped over. Another little picture alongside showed how the wires were held in place by a little clip.
‘Can we go now?’ I said as the display faded and I put the drone back inside my shirt. Nobody spoke as I went back to the door and slowly slid it open. The corridor was still clear. I slipped out and tried to make like a shadow along the wall. Everything was going really well. The end of the corridor was a T junction. I crept up to the corner and looked right. Still all clear. I turned the corner and moved on.
From behind me came a scream and a shout. I turned around to glare at both of them, only to see someone I didn’t know trying to drag Alyssa off down the other side of the T junction, and Pitr leaning against the wall. I started to run without thinking, throwing myself on the kidnapper and trying to lock my arms around his neck. He threw Alyssa to the ground, then slammed himself backwards into the wall. I almost let go, and there was a terrible pain along my back. Alyssa had scrambled to her feet, and I expected her to run back to Pitr. Instead, she started trying to scratch at the man’s face, drawing blood. He used one arm to fend Alyssa off, and the other to try to break my grip around his throat. Pitr came from nowhere and kicked at the back of the man’s knee. It took two blows, but he eventually fell and we all rolled apart.
We got to our feet first, with Pitr and me standing slightly in front of Alyssa. The man half rose, looked at us for a second, seeming to linger on Alyssa, then he jumped up and ran off the other way, letting out a strange warbling cry.
‘Run,’ I said to the others, and we set off up the corridor towards the door at the end, tantalisingly close. We hadn’t even got up to speed before the same creepy scream started to come from all around us, getting closer with every second. Then ahead of us, four people stepped out of a side corridor and blocked out way.
‘Faster,’ I called, but I matched my speed with Pitr’s and moved closer to him so that Alyssa was running behind us. I thought that maybe if we could hit them hard enough, Alyssa might be able to get through and then we would be able to fight them off. It didn’t even come close to working.
As Pitr and I tried to rush them, two men in the middle neatly sidestepped our charge and tripped us. Pitr and I both sprawled onto the ground. I heard the other two grab Alyssa, she was screeching and snarling. I tried to get up, but more people came from another tunnel. One pushed her foot against my shoulder and forced me back to the ground. Someone kicked me in the back, then I got two or three more kicks in the backs of my thighs. I cried out with the pain and tried to twist away. A woman kicked me in the gut and I rolled into a ball. Dimly I heard Pitr groaning too, and Alyssa screaming in anger.
But the screaming was getting farther away. At first I thought I was passing out, but Pitr groaned again and I realised they were taking Alyssa away.