Chapter 25

Chapter 25

“Ok, does everyone know the plan?”  Cheater asked one week later and there was a chorus of agreements as everyone voiced their answer.  The group was all inside the small hidden room in Alexia’s closet.  The backpacks and supplies were all packed, and each person had a backpack beside them. Each backpack had food, water, clothes, matches, batteries, a flashlight, a little rope, some of the cash that had been set out for them, and a sleeping bag tied to the top.  Cheater’s and Damon’s each contained an extra tent rolled into a bag inside, as well as a knife for hunting if it was needed.  Alexia’s also held all of the maps that they had found in the room.  They had decided that anything else that they needed Jared could try to make for them, or if it was food Trixie could make more if needed.

“How long do we have until time?”  Alexia said softly, looking up from her place on the floor.  She was sitting with her legs sprawled out in front of her with Jada resting between them and leaning back on her.

“About twenty minutes before they come to get you, and then the real fun begins.”  Cheater said with a smirk.  Alexia knew that he was actually worried whether their plan was going to work, but she also knew that he wouldn’t show that to any of the kids.  If they became worried or scared, then the plan would be a failure.  And if the plan failed, things at the school would only become worse than before.  But Alexia didn’t just know what he felt because of her power over emotions, but also because he had confided in her just the night before.  But they both knew that it was their only chance to get out of the school for good, and that there were no second chances.

“Does everyone have everything that they need?  Remember we are not taking any electronics, so if you want to take something personal it can’t be electronics.  We don’t know if they put trackers in our stuff.”  Alexia said softly, everyone nodded their agreements.  She was pretty sure that everyone had taken something personal.  She noticed Jada slip a small doll into her backpack, and she saw Adam carry in a stuffed dinosaur.  Trixie had tried to hide a small book, that looked like a diary, in her backpack but failed when Jared saw her.  He had brought a small blanket that he said his grandmother had made for him years ago.  Damon had carried in a very small pillow that he said he’d had since he was a baby.  Cheater had brought a little knit hat that he said he’d been wearing when they kidnapped him.  He had mentioned that someone in his family had given it to him.

Alexia herself had brought something as well.  She had grabbed some pictures that she had brought with her and put them into one of her favorite novels and slid them into her backpack for safe keeping.  One of the pictures was of her mother and father on their wedding day, and the other was a more recent one of she and her mother.

“Ok guys, about ten minutes left.  Jared, start making them now.”  Cheater said quietly.  Jared nodded and went to the potted plant that the boys had brought in a few days before in preparation.  He stuck his hand deep into the dirt and started concentrating.  His face screwed up and his eyes were held tightly shut.  Everyone watched as his eyes slowly opened as an aluminum baseball bat slowly formed out of the dirt and rose from the pot.  He looked up when he was finished and smiled.

“Ok, so one down and three more to go.”  He said, handing the bat to Adam and sticking his hand back into the dirt.  The next bat went to Jada, the one after that to Cheater, and the last one Jared kept for himself.  He looked very glad that his efforts paid off.

“Damon, are you ready?”  Alexia asked the boy in question, catching his eyes.  He nodded slowly.  “Cheater, what about you?”  He nodded as well.  Alexia asked everyone in the room the same way until she got to Jada and Adam.  “Jada, are you ready to get out of here?”  She asked, getting on the small girls level.  The girl nodded eagerly with a small smile on her face.  “Remember, you’re going to have to hurt some people to get out of here, but just know that they hurt us first alright?  We don’t want to hurt them too much though, we aren’t as mean as they are.”

Jada just smiled and nodded slowly.  “Yes Alexia, I understand.”

“Good.  Now Adam, the same thing goes to you too.  Do you understand what I’m saying, or do I have to repeat myself?”  Alexia asked with a smile.  She wanted the kids to know that she was serious without scaring them.  She hoped that she was doing ok at it.  She must have been since Cheater used that moment to smile at her and give her a thumbs up.

“Yes, I understand too Alexia.  I know what to do.”  Adam said with a nod and a smile back at her.  The kids all knew how important this day was to them.  This day would change everything, no matter how it turned out.  One way or another, everything would change.

“Alexia, you have about two minutes, you need to go out there.  He could come anytime and we can’t have him coming to look for you.”  Cheater said quietly, and every head turned to look at Alexia.  She smiled and stood up, brushing imaginary dust off of her pants.

“It all starts now everyone.  Be ready, because we need to leap into action the minute you get the signal from Cheater.”  Alexia smiled again, looking at each kid in turn, including Cheater and Damon.  “We’re getting out of here you guys, don’t doubt it for a minute.”  She said, and without another thought, walked out the door of the small room and into the apartment.  She left her backpack with the others because she knew that Cheater would bring it to her when it was time.  It was all planned out to the last detail; they could only hope that it would actually work.

She walked all the way into the common room and sat on the couch, turning on the TV as well.  It would look better if Dillenwater thought she came in to watch TV.  They didn’t want him getting suspicious before their plan even took off.  Not a minute after she was settled, the door was thrown open against the wall.  Dillenwater stepped in slowly, motioning for her to come to him.  She stood up and did as he wanted, moving to the door.

“Are you ready for your test?  I’m interested to see the results.”  Dillenwater said with a smirk as she grew nearer; but he wasn’t expecting her to smirk as well, and his smirk quickly dropped.

“Oh, I’m ready.  Just not for the test like you think.”  Alexia said, quickly reaching behind the plant that the kids had placed next to the door.  Dillenwater was too far inside the door to react as she quickly hit him over the head with the aluminum baseball bat.  He swayed for a second with a shocked expression before toppling over onto the floor.  The door began to close slowly, as it did automatically after being open for so long.  Alexia quickly ran forward and through the door, still carrying the bat with her.

When she got into the long hallway, she went a way she hadn’t gone before.  Normally she was taken straight down the hallway before turning a left, but this time she took the first right.  She had memorized the map of the school that Mr. Reedom had left in the secret room, and she was currently on her way to the control room for the whole building.  Once she got there, she had to continue with the plan as quickly as possible.  She sprinted down the hallway, almost missing the doorway she had been looking for.  She ran into the room, wielding her bat.  She knocked two people out right off the bat, since they were sitting directly next to the door.  That left two more that were in the room.  Amazingly, neither had noticed her yet, since she had hit the others without any noise.  She slowly walked behind one of them, and quickly hit him on the head, taking care of him.  The other finally heard the noise and turned around, but by the time he did Alexia had already raised her bat over his head and brought it down after he turned.  That took care of everyone in the room, and none had the time to alert anyone.

If Cheater had been listening in like he had been supposed to, all of the kids should be waiting for her back in the common room.  She quickly scanned the switches and buttons and noticed one button labeled ‘lab/kids door’ and one switch labeled ‘cameras.’  Alexia flicked and pushed both of them off and sprinted back to the door where her friends would be waiting.  When she arrived, the door was open and her friends were gathered around it.  Cheater quickly handed her the backpack she had left with him, and the group went back through the door before it closed again.

“Ok everyone, you all know the plan.  Follow me!” Alexia said as she started through the hallway.  This time no one ran, instead they walked at a fast pace.  Alexia was at the start of the group, with Damon following close behind her.  Cheater was at the end to make sure all of the younger kids kept up.  All of the kids were in between, all with their guards up at their highest. Cheater, Jada, Adam, Alexia and Jared all had their baseball bats; Jada had also turned herself invisible.

They went about a minute before a man turned a corner and saw them.  The kids quickly sprung into action before he had the chance to alert any of his colleagues.  Jared was the first to get to him, and he quickly hit him on the back of the knee to make the man crumble to the ground.  Alexia could tell that Jared didn’t want to hurt anyone bad enough to knock them out, so she stepped in to finish.  She felt bad about doing it to people, but if they didn’t then they would never escape.  With a slight nod from Alexia, Jared moved back into their makeshift line.

“Here come some more.”  Cheater whispered loud enough for everyone to hear and they all stopped for a moment to wait on their next adversaries.

Another hundred feet down the hallway, a group of scientists appeared around a corner.  There were four of them, three men and a woman.  Again the kids ran forward.  Trixie pulled a small pot out of the bag hanging over her shoulder and made the plant grow larger and completely tie up the woman, even going so far to cover her mouth so she couldn’t call for help.  At the same time, Damon changed into a large yellow python.  He twirled himself around the nearest man to him, squeezing hard until the man passed out.  He had already promised to be careful and not actually kill them, just make them loose enough breath to pass out.

Cheater descended upon one of the other men with his baseball bat, quickly delivering a blow to his head that made him hit the floor.  A baseball bat appeared above the other man, quickly followed by a blow to the head and a little girl wearing a smirk.  It seemed to Alexia that Jada had no qualms about hurting the people who had caused her family to be murdered.  That left all of those people out of the game, and the group continued on their way.

“Keep us posted if someone is coming Cheater.”  Alexia said in a whisper, and Cheater whispered his acknowledgment.

After another minute, Alexia recognized her surroundings from the first time she had been brought to the school.  She recognized the cheery hallways that she had been, and she noticed the door to the first lab she had been in.  That meant that they were close to the next phrase of their plan.  If they ever hoped to survive in the wilderness, they had to take care of Alexia’s punishment device in her leg; the only way they could do that would be through Jomen.

Alexia stopped in front of a door near the front door of the building.  Everyone their knew that they were so close to freedom, yet so far from it at the same time.  Before they had a chance at anything, they had to get as much information from Jomen as possible.  To do that, they had to get into her office.  When they first came into the office, the woman acting as the secretary was fast asleep at her desk; it seemed they didn’t get very many people showing up to visit.  To make sure that she wouldn’t bother them, Adam went over to her to make sure that she was out, taking his baseball bat with him.  When he was finished, Damon went over and located a button that said door to office and pushed it.

Alexia and Cheater went through the door, leaving everyone else left to guard it.  They didn’t think anyone had noticed them, but they didn’t need to take any chances.  Alexia needed Cheater to go with her, or she would have left him outside too.  But she knew that she couldn’t face Jomen alone.  Both left their backpacks with the other kids, thinking that they less weighing them down the better.

When they walked inside the room, Jomen was sitting at her desk facing the only window in the lightly colored room; away from the door.  She must have heard them; they surely hadn’t been quiet.  Instead she shown no fear, although she must have know all the people the kids had to get through to get to her.  Any sane person would be scared of them, or at least worried at that point.  The kids could easily kill her; they wouldn’t though.  They were still children and teenagers, albeit special ones.  They couldn’t actually kill someone; it wasn’t very hard for them to hurt the people though.  After all that they had done to them, hurting them was the easy part.

So Alexia couldn’t help but wonder why Jomen seemed so unfazed by the turn of events.  She didn’t dwell on it as long as she would have liked to; she knew that they had to hurry.  She nodded to Cheater before taking a step forward toward the woman in the chair.  “Why?  Why have you done this to us?  Do you have no heart?”  She asked quietly, but she knew that Jomen heard her.  She felt no emotion come from her direction, further emphasizing her own need to know if the woman even had a heart.

Jomen turned around in her chair slowly to face the duo.  She had a smirk on her face that Alexia wanted to grimace at but knew better than to show emotion.  “I like to think that I have a heart, just a malfunctioning one.  As to why I do it; I love science.  I love to explore the things that most people think are only works of science fiction novelists.  I know that they are truths though, and I want to be the one to find their answers.  I do it all in the interest of science.”  Jomen stated as if it were the most normal thing in the world to say.

Alexia felt like she wanted to throw up.  Science?  She wanted to do all of the horrible experiments on them for science?  Forget science, think about real people.  She chose to ignore the obvious answer to her statement, and instead went another direction.  “It’s not like you could actually tell any others about your results.  You would instantly be sent to jail.  You’re breaking so many laws that it’s ridiculous!  You’ve kidnapped kids, killed adults, and experimented on kids!  Do you think that they would just let all of that slip?  No! They wouldn’t!”  Alexia said hotly.  She didn’t raise her voice whatsoever, choosing to remain as indifferent looking and sounding as she could.  She noticed that Cheater was letting her do all of the talking and just staying for moral support and protection.  His eyes were flying around the room in all directions.

Jomen’s eyes suddenly brightened.  “Oh yes they would!  My research would be so indisputable that they wouldn’t care how I got it, just that I did.  They would fund me to do more experiments, find more children.  They would even allow me to do more things like you will be experiencing soon.  We could have our own nursery on site!  It would be glorious!”  Jomen said with her eyes glittering.  Alexia felt sick to her stomach and had to sit down for a moment.  In that time, Cheater took over.

“The disrupter that stops Alexia’s telekinesis, where is it at?”  He asked quickly, going straight to the point.  Jomen sighed and leaned back into her chair.

“I guess I don’t have any choice but to cooperate, do I?  It’s the silver square on that table.  You can’t turn it off though, it doesn’t work that way.”  She said with a smirk.  Cheater just smirked back too.

“Oh, I wasn’t planning to turn it off.”  Cheater said, raising his bat.  A second later, he swung it down on the shiny silver disrupter.  It smashed into pieces instantly.  Jomen let out a gasp as did Alexia, although for completely different reasons.  Jomen was surprised he had actually broken it, and Alexia was surprised at what she was feeling.  She felt the power rushing back into her body.  Where before it felt like there was a brick wall holding her back from her power, the wall was crumbling.  She felt a tingling sensation all over her body, and when it was over she knew that her power was back.

To prove to everyone in the room that her telekinesis was back, and more importantly to herself, Alexia picked up a small paperweight on Jomen’s desk and threw it at her with her mind.  When it hit her square in the face she couldn’t help but laugh at the incredulous look on the woman’s face.  “I guess I didn’t lose my aim after having my power gone for so long.”  Alexia said with a smirk, standing back up.  Just getting her power back made her feel ten times stronger.  Sure, she had received other powers, but they didn’t feel the same as here telekinesis.  It felt like it was more a part of her where the others didn’t.  It felt nice to have it back.

“That machine cost over three hundred thousand dollars!”  Jomen said angrily, standing up from her chair.  Alexia smirked and reached out with her mind, shoving her back down.  Jomen gasped as she landed back on the seat.  Normally, she wasn’t able to harness that much power; it seemed that it being gone so long only made the telekinesis stronger.  “I wouldn’t be smirking if I were you girl, I still have something over you.  Your punisher, the thing in your leg.  Yeah, I can still use it on you with or without your precious power.”  Jomen said, suddenly smirking right back.

“Where is it?”  Cheater said, moving closer to her and wielding his bat threateningly.  She flinched a little but still said nothing.  “I said where is it?  Tell me!”  He said angrily when she didn’t respond.  Alexia moved a step closer to the desk, smirking again.

“Let me handle this one.”  She said softly, suddenly concentrating on something.  A moment later, Jomen rose a few feet in the air, until her head hit the moderately high ceiling.  The woman’s eyes grew wide and panicked, she tried in vain to twist out of her invisible hold.  Nothing worked though, Jomen was still floating in the air.  “If you want down, you will tell us where your main control for it is.  Do you understand?”  She asked angrily, her anger making Jomen move up and inch and hit her head on the ceiling.

“It’s in the cabinet!”  She cried loudly.  Cheater moved toward the said furniture and opened the doors.  “Top shelf, silver object.  Still no way to turn it off.”  She said with another smirk.  Cheater made sure to turn his head and smirk back at her before grabbing the silver machine and sitting it on her desk.  He stared at it for another moment before he grabbed his bat again and bashed the object in.  When he did, Alexia crumpled to the floor in pain, causing Jomen to fall to the floor and hit her head.

“Alexia!”  Cheater cried out, running to her side.

She sat up slowly, looking around the room.  She noticed Jomen laying on the floor out cold and smirked.  When he saw the smirk, Cheater let out a sigh of relief that she was alright.  “I’m ok Cheater, it just sent one last bolt of pain before it stopped for good.”  She said, grabbing his hand for him to pull her up.  “Is she out, or is she faking it?”  Alexia asked calmly, completely ignoring the fact that she herself had just hit the floor not a moment ago.

Cheater walked over to check the woman on the floor before replying.  “I don’t know for sure, but she will be in a second.”  He said, grabbing the bat again and hitting her in the head for good measure.  He smirked and grabbed Alexia’s hand, pulling her back to the door.  When they were out, they grabbed the backpacks that they had left with the other kids.

“Did it work?  Is the stuff gone?”  Damon asked, coming up to them as soon as they stepped into the room.

Alexia smiled before answering.  “Yeah, it’s all gone.”

“Sorry it took so long, that idiot of a woman is tougher than she looks.”  Cheater said with a grin, trying to lighten up the situation like he tended to do.  Alexia smiled gratefully at him.

“Ok guys, does everyone have their packs?”  She asked, eyeing the group around her.  She received smiles and nods from everyone.  “Then is everyone ready?  I think it’s time we leave here before anyone wakes up.”  Again, everyone nodded and started walking through the door.  Alexia and Cheater found themselves at the back of the group and walked together with their hands entwined peacefully.  They dropped them when they walked outside though, for they walked into a group of smiling children looking up at the sun.

“Look Alexia, sunshine!”  Trixie said happily, running up to the older girl.  “And plants!  Look at the plants!  They’re so pretty!”  She said almost dreamily.

Jared and Adam were rolling around in the grass, and Jada was picking some flowers.  Damon was quietly leaning against a tree, watching the kids play in the sunshine.  “Guys, I’m glad you love being out here after being locked inside for so long, but we really need to get going.  Besides, we’re going to be pretty much living outside for the next few weeks probably.  It’s a good thing it’s almost summer, or it’d be pretty cold out here.”  Alexia said with a grin.  The others all grinned back, happy to finally be out of the school.  “But really, we should go, come on.”

Everyone knew she was right, but grumbled their agreement anyway.  They wove through the trees, making their way up the mountain like they had decided beforehand.  According to the maps they had, after they reached the top of the mountain they should be able to see the to the next few towns, and figure out which direction they needed to go in. After about an hour of walking, no stops, they finally reached what they thought was the peak of the small mountain.  Adam, Jared, Trixie, Damon, and Jada all turned one way, the way that the map had said was the direction of the towns.  Alexia and Cheater turned the other way, however, back to the school.  They had to look at it one final time before they left.  Neither knew why they were doing it, they just knew that they had to.

Once the group decided which route to take back down the other side of the mountain, they set off.  It would take them a while, but eventually they would reach the nearest town and be able to plan a little more.  Halfway down the mountain, the recent events finally sank in Alexia’s head.  They had escaped.  But their journey wasn’t over yet.  In fact, it had just began.

THE END?

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Oh my good lord people when I just wrote the end I almost cried! But at the same time I was bouncing in my chair wanting to scream out loud! But just so you know THIS IS GOING TO BE A SERIES!! I'll keep everyone updated as much as I can but before I start on the next book I am going to do an in-depth editing on this one. One day I hope to send this to a publisher, hopefully soon, so I want to edit it.  But I promise I'll keep everyone updated.

***The NEXT BOOK is called Alexia Lambre, Teenage Telekinetic: The Journey and I just posted it!****