“Did you doubt me?” She motions me to take a step inside. “And yes, it’s something I’ve been practicing.”
“Well, I did.” I take a step past her and glance inside. “But not anymore.” The room is dark, and it looks almost like our school cafeteria. There are large picnic style tables spread all through the room where at least several hundred inmates could eat at one time. The smell of rotten meat is strong in here. I turn back to face her. “The coast seems clear.”
“Let’s do this.” She enters the room and glances around. She walks further into the room, and heads toward the hallway with light.
“Hey, wait for me.” I rush across the room and catch up to her. “Where are you going?”
She places her finger to her lips. “Be quiet.” Her tone is not even a whisper.
If it weren’t for my super sensitive reaper ears, I wouldn’t have heard it.
After she glances around, she takes a step closer to me. “We have to find the others or we’re going to miss everything.” She spins around in a slow circle. “No one is in here, so I doubt this will be a hot spot for the action.”
Dammit, she’s right. We do need to find them and fast. “Yeah, so let’s go to the cells.”
“You do realize,” she says, as she steps in front of me and places her hand on my shoulders, “that it won’t be that easy. There will be guards on duty that we will have to get around, not to mention our own people.”
I get it, but that’s where the action is going to take place. “True, but that’s where everyone is going to be this late at night. Asleep in their cells.”
“We just need to be careful.” She squeezes my shoulders. “Seriously, I need to trust that you won’t do something crazy.”
Who the hell does she think she is? I don’t just react to things. It’s not like I was chasing after my brother’s car on a bike and crashed into a wagon or anything. Okay. So, maybe she does have a point. I guess I need to swallow my pride and admit to my shortcomings. “All right, I will try to not be impulsive.”
Her blue eyes light up. “Wait…. Did I just hear you right?”
The jerk. I should have known better. “Don’t push it.”
She giggles and shakes her head. “Don’t worry. I honestly love your impulsiveness. Just not tonight.”
And those words right there make me forgive her. That’s the one thing about her. She protects the ones she loves, even if they don’t treat her right. Despite her parents being selfish bastards, she’s one of the most kind-hearted, loyal friends you could ever ask for. That’s why all those threats never could scare me away. “We can bond tomorrow. Let’s go find us a mass reaping to watch.”
“Yes, ma’am.” She turns and makes her way to the hallway. She glances left and right and motions for me to follow.
My heart beats faster. What happens if we do get caught? At this point, there’s no turning back, so I’ll deal with it if it comes to that.
We walk down a long hallway where there is a door about every ten or so feet. We make our footsteps as silent as possible as only reapers can do. I didn’t fail that class. As we reach the end, a set of footsteps that aren’t our own echo against the walls.
Holy shit. What are we going to do? And is it a guard or reaper? I’m assuming guard since reapers are trained to be more of the silent type. When we go to reap our targets, we need them not to hear us coming. However, that’s not going to help us not get spotted. We still have a physical form.
Christina glances around, and then closes her eyes for a moment. When she opens them, she grabs my hand and pulls me back.
Why are we going back? That’s where the footsteps are coming from, so it makes no sense. “We need to go the other way.” I try pulling my hand away.
She holds firm. “Trust me.” She pulls me to the next door and turns the handle.
What the hell is she thinking? I bet all these doors are locked. We’re going to get caught. The footsteps are loud now, and it sounds as if the person is about to turn the corner any second.
To my surprise, the door opens, and she jumps inside, yanking me along with her. The room has a few tables in it with chairs and a large desk at the front. We hide behind the desk so if someone looks through the window of the door, they won’t find us. Just as we get situated, the person walks in front of the door.
It’s a guard dressed in dark blue and he stops, picking up a communication device. He glances in the room and holds the device to his mouth. “Nothing suspicious over here. It must have been something weird tripping our sensors.”
Shit, I bet the other reapers tripped the sensors, too, and not even realize it. Or not. Maybe one of the things Christina’s parents had done was research into the security system, though, how, I didn’t know. I doubt the security plans or whatever are online.
The man continues down the hallway.
After the footsteps recede, I turn to Christina. “I hope they realize they triggered something and have the guards alerted.”
“They’ve probably figured that out by now.” She stands up and stretches, lifting her hands up in the air over her head.
“Come on.” Something has to be going down soon because the other reapers left a long time ago. “We need to hurry.”
“Okay.” She opens the door and points to me. “But we still have to be careful.”
I nod. “Got it.”
Appeased, she turns, and we take off again down the long hallway. We follow the hallway and come to a halt when
