Jenny Plague-Bringer(142)

Mariella predicted that two guards had been stationed in the lab corridor, dressed in biohazard armor but armed only with TASER guns, unlike the response team coming up behind them, who were armed with machine guns. They’d been ordered to stand in front of the door to Jenny’s lab.

“I’ll go first,” Seth said when they reached the door. The small guard station by the lab corridor was unmanned. Ward was clearly relying on digital surveillance to replace some of the roaming guard patrols and numerous small guard stations of the Nazi days. This also meant that someone was watching, telling the armed response team exactly where to find them.

Seth closed his eyes for a moment, and his skin slowly took on an unearthly white glow, making him look almost angelic. Even his hair gleamed like gold. He must have been summoning up his power, turning it up the way Tommy could turn up the fear if he really wanted to blast someone’s mind apart.

“Tommy, you have to help me,” Seth whispered. “Whatever they do to you, I’ll fix. Ready?”

Tommy nodded, and Seth charged through the door, shouting at the top of his lungs, Tommy running alongside him. Tommy was ready to lash out, breathe out fear as he’d done in Charleston, but he held it in for now. It wouldn’t do much good against the two guards’ biohazard armor, he thought.

As Seth and Tommy approached, the guards shouted at them to freeze and raised their yellow stun guns. Seth pulled ahead, guarding Tommy, and he took an electrified barb in the chest. It trailed wire back to the guard’s stun gun, like a sharp little harpoon.

Seth crashed to his knees, his spine snapping back and forth like a whip, foam spilling from his mouth. He flopped over onto the tiled floor and lay there like a fish choking on the air.

Tommy zigged and zagged toward the guards, making it more difficult for the second guard to get a good shot at him. While he did, the first guard pulled a long, steel flashlight from his belt, ready to bash Tommy.

Neither guard expected Seth to leap up from the floor, ripping the stun gun from the first guard’s hands. Seth threw himself directly at the second guard, not bothering to weave and duck like Tommy, and he caught the second TASER barb in his stomach. He tumbled again to the floor.

Tommy dodged behind Seth and attacked the first guard, grabbing for the blunt flashlight in his hand. He held it up while the guard tried to force it down on Tommy’s head. With his other hand, Tommy grabbed for the straps of the guard’s masked helmet, but the guard’s other arm rose to block him.

While Seth writhed on the floor, the second guard came after Tommy, cracking his steel flashlight down on Tommy’s head and back. Tommy held onto the first guard with the fixation of a rabid dog.

The blows stopped coming, and he heard the sound of girls screaming. Through the blood leaking down into one eye, he saw that Mariella and Esmeralda had attacked the second guard, Esmeralda trying to wrestle the steel flashlight from his hand, Mariella ripping at his mask. When she pulled it off his head, Tommy grabbed the man’s face and filled him with fear.

The guard crawled away, sobbing and screaming about “Mr. O’Grady’s dog.” The girls turned their attention to the first guard, still wrestling with Tommy. Mariella stripped his helmet off, while Esmeralda pulled his steel flashlight free and cracked him across the head. The guard sank to the floor, unconscious.

The girls helped Seth to his feet. His blue eyes were dazed, and he smelled like burnt hair.

“We have to keep moving,” Mariella said. “The real guards are coming.”

Tommy swiped his stolen access card through the slot next to the steel door to Jenny’s lab, but the little indicator light stayed red.

“This card doesn’t access her lab,” he told the others.

“Tommy, look at you!” Esmeralda touched his face. “You’re bleeding.”

“Maybe this guy can open it.” Seth took the ID card from the unconscious guard and swiped it through the notch in the reader. The light flicked from red to green, and he hauled open the heavy door and ran inside.

Jenny was locked inside a clear-walled cell with its own ventilation system. The lights were dim for the night, and the only sound was Jenny’s heart monitor. Seth ran to the clear cube and saw her asleep on a hospital bed inside. He pounded on the wall beside her.

She awoke slowly, and Seth wondered whether she was heavily medicated. She blinked at him while he spoke.

“Jenny, we’re getting out of here,” Seth said. “But we have to hurry.”

“Why’s Tommy here?” Jenny asked.

“He’s helping me escape,” Esmeralda said. “All of us, together.”