Free Minds

Chapter 100.

"Before you think of doing anything dreadfully stupid," Mr. Speck said. "You should consider the countless Yunitides on the other side, ready to pounce if you do manage to make it out of the lab. Now, if you will excuse me, I have someone important I need to meet."

   The lab lapsed into silence after the sounds of his footsteps faded. At this point, I didn't know what to do. And even if I did, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to do it. I made one NeuroSkel and look at what that did. I choose to trust Landon from the beginning and look at what happened to Dorian.

"So how are we getting out of here?" I heard Cami whisper.

   I kept my eyes on the ground, hoping that question wasn't referred to me. For everyone else's sake, I was going to keep my hands, mind, mouth–myself, basically, to myself.

"Beth..." I couldn't help tensing up as I felt Rav's presence beside me.

   When time went by without him saying anything beyond my name, however, it was getting harder to focus on the floor. Giving in eventually, I looked up at him, not knowing whether I was prepared to hear whatever he had to say.

   I knew I wasn't expecting the huge smile on his face though. Or what looked more like him holding back a laugh.

"What?!" I snapped.

   For his sake, whatever it was better b–

   My subsequent words were cut short but Rav placing his hand on my head and giving it a gentle, but firm tilt in the direction of the door/wall Landon and Dorian had exited.

"Look." He insisted, most likely knowing that I was this close to punching that smile off his face.

   So I did.

   Staring at the unmoving, white, tiled door, I didn't notice anything at first.

   But then as my eyes trailed downwards, that door that appeared one with the wall that it had closed into was becoming evident, like a jigsaw puzzle piece fixed in the wrong place. It took only a few glances lower for me to recognise the reason.

   Which also ended up being the reason all air was shocked into eluding every single part of my body.

   I turned to Rav, who was now crouched next to me. Then to the door. Then to Rav. Then to the door again. Then I blinked. Again and again and again.

   I opened my mouth, not even sure why I was trying to talk when there were absolutely no words in my head.

   The only organs that seemed to be functioning were my eyes. And the only reason I could say this with confidence was because even after countless blinks, I could still see, wedged between the bottom of the door and the wall, an almost round shaped metal ball with a thick, plastic string attached to it.

   My invention.

   My yoyo-like, magnetic, weapon-snatching invention served as a door stopper, creating a space between the wall and the door.

"How?!" I all but yelled at Rav.

"Don't tell Dorian," He sounded sheepish. "But when he gave us our suits last night, I put it on right away and in, er, testing out the durability of the pouches, I accidentally created, uh, holes in them? And between your weapons and the last minute items we brought along, the pouches without problems were not enough, so I had to, you know, think outside the box. With this tech in particular. I realised it was still on me when I woke up. The idea just came to me while I was running to Landon and Dorian."

"So where did you put it?" I asked.

"What?"

"This tech. Where was the created hole that you kept it in?"