I wandered the halls for about five minutes before I got an answer. David’s voice was weak in my mind, but at least that meant he was here. “Which way do I need to go to get to you?”
“I don’t know. Keep walking and I’ll see if I can tell if you are moving toward me or away.”
I shrugged and kept going. A minute or so later, he said, “You are getting closer. I think you are almost to me and I think there is someone in the room with me, too. I can hear breathing from the far corner to the left of the door.”
I knew he couldn’t see me, but I nodded. I was sure he could tell. “Stop! The door to your right is mine.”
“Okay. I’m coming in.”
I threw open the door and froze the being in the corner. A dark shape jumped at me from behind the door. I froze them, too. I shook my head as I went to David and froze the invisible bonds holding him to the table.
“I don’t know what to do with them now. I froze them, but they will unfreeze eventually.”
He got up off the table and glanced at the frozen figures. “When we leave, freeze the whole room. It will take a while for them to thaw.
I laughed a little. “I don’t think there is enough moisture in the air for that, but I can certainly make the ice around them thicker.”
After I had built it up as much as I could, I left, with David following shortly after.
I gave him a quizzical look as I whispered to him, “What took you so long?” He shrugged, but my mind was already on the next step, so it didn’t occur to me that he didn’t answer. “Can you feel Kait or Travis?”
He nodded, so I let him take the lead. We walked quietly through the hallways, checking every turn for enemies. It was starting to freak me out that we hadn’t seen anybody yet, when I heard voices coming from a hallway that intersected ours behind us.
“David! Behind us!” He was already moving toward the next doorway, which we ducked into, and closed the door mostly behind ourselves. While David watched for them to pass, I checked out the room. It was just like the ones David and I had been in. A metal table in the middle of the room, with no other furniture.
“What do you think they do with all these rooms like this, David? They have to be performing some sort of evil experiments.”
He shrugged, his attention on the hallway. I bit my tongue to keep from saying more. My hand found my braid and started spinning it. The voices in the hallway got louder, then started to fade as they moved away. About five minutes later, David signaled it was time to go. I ran over and took his hand before we stepped back into the hallway. It was just a few more minutes before we stopped in front of another door.
Without warning me, David threw open the door and launched himself into the room. As I shook my head and followed. There was the sound of a scuffle, a body flew toward me and when I ducked, it landed in the hallway. I watched it for a second, but it never moved. It wasn’t a good idea to leave it laying there, so as David freed Travis, I pulled it back into the room.
Travis moved off the table, rubbing his wrists. He rushed over to pull me into a hug. He kissed my hair, then stepped away.
I looked around quickly, before saying, “We need to do something about this being, too. This room is a lot dryer than the other ones. There’s not enough moisture in here for me to freeze it solid. We need to look for something to tie it with.”
The guys lifted it onto the table while I looked for rope. There was nothing in the room to use. David pulled something out of his pocket and sprinkled it around the being. He studied the table intently for a minute before plants started sprouting. Vines wrapped around the table and around the being until I could no longer see it, and the table looked like a pile of plants.
David sounded bored when he said, “There, it’s secure now. Let’s go get Kait.”
Travis and I left the room, hand in hand, with David bringing up the rear. Right before he closed the door behind us, I heard an odd crunch come from the room. I stopped.
“What was that? Was it getting free?”
David took my arm, pulling me to get me moving. “No, it was just the plants settling.” I dug my feet in as I studied his eyes, which seemed darker than normal.
“You’re sure?”
He sighed. “Yes, I’m sure. Come on, we need to get moving!”
I allowed myself to be pulled along. Something about that noise bothered me, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
We silently trotted down the hall, with David leading the way. It was eerily quiet. Most of the doors we passed were closed, and there was no sound from the rooms within. I couldn’t tell if they were empty, or if the occupants were unable to
