CHAPTER 35 - ESCAPE OF THE BASEMENT

“There you are, dear,” mother responds and walks over to me. She cups my face in her hands, gives me a kiss on the forehead, and pulls me in for a bone crushing hug. Somewhere next to us Britt makes some sort of remark that I don’t bother to listen to.

“Margret, we went over this,” Professor Holt tells her.

“Shut up and let me enjoy this for one minute, Howard,” she calls back at him. I wiggle loose of her grip and look back at the doors. Uncle Howard, Marie, Andy, Criss…

“Your father is upstairs, and Nico is waiting outside by the exit point,” she explains. “He’s keeping time still up there, no one will know we were here until we’re gone again.” That just leaves…

“Sorry, Lizzy,” professor Holt tells me. “He’s not here.”

“He had something better to do?”

“I’m sorry sweetheart,” Mother tells me. He didn’t want to come.

“That’s fine, it’s his choice,” I brush it off and move on to something easier. “What’s the plan? I am assuming the sergeant can’t keep time still forever?”

“Marie?” Mother sets everyone to work in one fell swoop. “Mind wipes. Lizzy, get your friend out of there. Criss, go back upstairs, I think your father needs you more than we do right now. Howard… I don’t know, do something.” I wave my hand and the padlock on Brody’s door breaks and falls to the floor.

“Britt?” he asks.

“Let me out mama’s girl,” she orders me. I send her a look of annoyance but do as she requests.

“Tim?” he asks. Trixie is still screaming, and Tim seems frozen, unable to do anything.

“We wanted to go,” Teresa says.

“Wanted to?” I ask. “Did you change your minds?”

“That’s just how she speaks, get them out,” Brody tells me.

“Hold on,” mother says. “How many were you planning on bringing with you?”

“As many as we can,” I tell her.

“Just getting the 9 of us here was a stretch, I don’t think Nico will be able to carry much more than that.”

“Nico? Nico flew you here?” I ask surprised. The baby’s only 8.

“Don’t worry about it, Lizzy can carry the excess,” Brody tells her. She looks at him with pity in her eyes.

“I get that this is not a place for kids, but we can’t take them all. Lizzy can’t fly dear, not like that.”

“You’d be surprised what your daughter can do,” he informs her, his back turned as he’s making his way down the aisle of cages. I free the triplets and walk with Brody.

“Lizzy?” she asks.

“We’ll figure it out mother, we’re not leaving anyone here who wants to get out.” The words are out of my mouth before I stop dead in my tracks. A little girl with brown hair and scared eyes is looking up at me from the floor of her cage.

“Sara?” I ask softly. She hides her head and covers away in terror. I remember the wolf-like creature, the long gashes on Pam’s arms, the gnarl behind me as I tried to keep her wounds closed.

“It’s okay,” Professor Holt says behind me. “It’s okay Sara, we won’t leave you here. Lizzy,” he orders me. I pause.

“This will make a small noise,” I tell her. “Please don’t be scared, I’m just opening the lock.” She raises her head a little and looks up at me from beneath her unkempt hair. “Ready?” I ask, not wanting to risk frightening her. An almost indistinguishable nod of her head lets me know she at least understands what I’m saying. I break the lock and pull it out. I supposed I could just unlock them, but right now I feel like breaking things, and besides, I’d have to get a feel of the interior of the lock to unlock it, and that would just take longer. I move on with Brody and leave Sara to Uncle Howard.

By the time we’ve made the rounds we’ve gathered 18 kids - Britt and Andy have been going around too, blasting the locks with Andy’s fire, and they’ve collected 13 kids. 31 extra kids. Kids who’ve been locked up for who knows how long. Kids who’ve been starved and tortured in the name of control. Some of them aren’t even kids anymore, though I doubt they’ve been allowed to grow up.

“Mother, please,” Andy pleads. She looks at the skinny bodies, the unwashed hair, the frightened glances, the defensive poses.

“Give ‘em hell,” she tells him. Marie has finished with the scientist-doctors and is making them walk upstairs in a long file. Professor Holt is doing his best to keep the kids calm and lead them upstairs. None of them are much inclined to do anything unless Brody tells them too. It’s funny to see him have more authority than Professor Holt.

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“Let’s clear out,” mother tells us. We fall in behind all the others, leaving Andy alone in the basement. I stop at the door and turn around to watch him. The cages are all melting, the science equipment is exploding in small, controlled bangs, and big, bold letters are forming on the floor: NO MORE. He extinguishes the last fire before he turns around and walks up with me. The school will be safe, but the basement will be useless for a long time.

Upstairs the school looks exactly like it did before my trip down under, except now everything is frozen. In the middle of the hall is the sergeant, hands out, keeping time still. Only the people he selected can feel the time move, can move themselves. The scientists are all gathered together in rows, sitting on the floor like animals in lab coats. Not one of them moves, so I suspect they’ve been added into the time stop.

“Retrieval a success?” the sergeant asks, eyes closed, mind focused on time instead of us.

“We all got out,” I tell him.

“Let’s get out of this wretched place,” he says with an atypical disgust in his voice.

“By the beach,” Criss says suddenly. “Movement, not Nico.” The sergeant makes an adjustment, and Criss seems satisfied.

“Averted,” he tells him. Mother takes his arm and leads out of the school, down towards the access point where the shield is controlled. We make it to the beach in slow motion, all the extra kids being unfamiliar with sunlight and fresh air, and the sergeant still being deep in concentration and walking with his eyes closed, relying solely on mother to lead him. Nico lets out a gasp of horror when he sees us.

“You are kidding me!” he calls to me. “We come all this way to get you out of school, and you decide to bring school with you!”

“Quiet,” Brody orders him.

“Hey, I don’t care who you think you are, you do not talk to my brother like that,” Marie tells him off. He sends her an annoyed look, but I reach out a hand between them, and he backs down.

“Can you do this?” he asks instead. “Carry all that and keep steady?” I take the time to actually consider it this time.

“I think so.” My head is still bubbling with pent-up energy. I’m strong enough, the question is if I’m steady enough.

“You’ll do fine,” Professor Holt tells me.

“Don’t let the triplets touch each other,” Brody tells me. “And keep the transformers steady and isolated as well.”

“I can’t do this Lizzy,” Nico tells me. “I don’t…”

“It’s okay,” I assure him. “I’ll do the hard work, you just have to fly.”

“But I can’t carry that many people.”

“If you just fly, on your own, no extra passengers, I will lift everyone else and just follow you.” The problem with flying over the sea myself was the uncertain ground beneath me - if I can hold everyone steady in relations to Nico instead, that problem is solved. He’s an excellent flyer, he can guide us safely home easily enough. The question is what comes after that.

“It’s a long trip,” Brody informs me. “Do you need me to safeguard?” I don’t follow immediately, so he explains. “Air.” I think it through.

“An actual airbag beneath us?”

“Something like that.”

“But I thought…” mother starts. “Don’t take this the wrong way dear, but I thought you didn’t have control of your ability, it seems risky…”

“He doesn’t,” I bud in. “But he taught himself more than one extra ability, and he’s quite good at the air thing. If either of us lose focus or energy, the other will be there to keep everyone safe. There’s nothing to worry about.” I look around me. There is a parting between the groups, like the red sea. Langdales are standing on my side, Unassigneds on Brody’s side.

“All Transformers raise your hand. Transformers are the ones who can change themselves or things into something else,” he explains naturally. “So if you’ve ever changed into an animal you are a Transformer.” Professor Holt nudges Sara gently and she hesitantly raises her hand to chest height. A few others follow, among others, the one Brody communicated with by stamping his feet. “Has anyone ever turned themselves into something other than an animal?” A single hand more rises.

“That’s right dear, you are a Transformer,” mother assures the five-year-old who smiles as if it’s the greatest thing to have ever been said.

“I need all of you to spread out,” Brody continues.

“Spread out your arms,” uncle Howard says and demonstrates. “And move until you can’t reach any of the others.” That’s great in theory, but what if someone has the ability to turn into a whale? If that happens an arm's length won’t be enough protective space.

“You can stand in the middle,” Brody tells Howard.

“Around me everyone,” Holt continues. He holds out his arms, Sara still clinging to one hand. He moves her carefully out at arm's length.

No one moves, they just look at us with unease and distrust.

“Fall in,” the sergeant calls and sends a shiver through the entire gathering. Sara copies Holt cautiously, but the tips of her fingers never leave his. The boy Brody whispered to moves as far away as he can while still being with the group.

“Mrs. Langdale, if you and your husband could take position there,” Brody directs them to the quiet boy. He maneuvers everyone around until we have an evenly spread group with Howard in the middle, Mother and the sergeant to my right, Nico at the front, with Criss and Marie to my left.

“I’ll continue keeping Britt away from any soundwaves,” Brody addresses me in a whisper. “Keep all Transformers exactly as they are now, and don’t let anyone touch any of the triplets.”

Teresa straightens up and walks over to my side. Her brother is still frozen, carried out by Brody on a pillow of air. I lift him up and fly him over to his sister’s side. Trixie seems to have passed out from all her screaming, so I lift her over too.

“You have my thanks,” Taresa says quietly.

“That wasn’t…” I start, looking from her to Brody. The was present tense.

“She’s making an effort,” Brody explains. I look over our group. 13 Transformers evenly spread out, Britt isolated, the triplets in a line but unable to reach each other or anyone else, and 14 other Unassigneds whose abilities I know nothing about, plus Brody and I and our seven rescuers. Quite a few of the Unassigneds seem to be Transformers without control - though I suppose that’s reasonable enough, losing control when you transform into an instinct-driven animal.

“Those people will destroy the world, Professor Holt,” an odd, high-pitched voice says. I look around to find her. “Don’t let your emotions cloud your judgment.” I can hear her voice coming from the direction of the school, but I can’t see her.

“Ignore her,” uncle Howard says, but his voice is troubled. “Is everyone ready? Let’s get out of here.” We lift off, and Marie orders the shield lifted so we can get out.

“As much time as you can give us sergeant,” Howard requests. The sergeant doesn’t reply or move a muscle. The island is big, and we’ve been here for a while. He hasn’t pulled a stunt like this since his days in the military. “You two better be prepared for this,” he orders Brody and I. Nico sets off and sets the train moving over the sea.

“We are here to teach,” Professor Holt calls back. “Don’t let your fear cloud your purpose.” The shield is lowered again, Marie even tells the guard to never open it again. The mind control won’t last forever, but it was smart thinking, it will buy us some time.

“Get ready for a chase,” Howard warns us.