The Facility

The next few days passed quickly for Cass, usually beginning with testing, then either playing her violin using her powers or by manipulating the water droplets in the shower. She could tell she was getting better at controlling her abilities and she had not had any more bleeding occur.

It also took less out of her each time she attempted it, not to mention she felt stronger mentally.

Rudi talked to her as much as he could and the two of them making plans that might never happen.

Cassidy did not hide her skepticism, and Rudi kept telling her to be patient, the time will come. She was talking to Rudi one morning when her guard came to escort her to the testing room. “Gotta go,” she told him mentally.

“Wait,” came Rudi’s reply.

The guard punched in the code on his side of the wall and the door opened. He opened his mouth to say something but stopped before he did, cocking his head as if he were listening to something only he could hear.

“You’ll have ten to fifteen seconds of time when you get to Gemma’s door if this works. Use the time wisely,” Rudi told her quickly as the guard shook his head.

“Let’s go,” the guard said gruffly to Cass.

She walked out of her room and down the corridor. When she got to Gemma’s door she doubled over, putting a hand across her stomach.

The guard started to say something but stopped and Cass did not want to waste any time. She ignored him and began to probe the tiny hole, feeling for parts that moved, pushing, and pulling as she twisted slightly.

Something gave at the same time the guard said, “Keep moving.”

“I’m having cramps, don’t be such as ass. Do you see me doing anything other than bending over?”

“Just move it. Quit stalling.”

“I hope they do testing on you and you turn into a girl. Them maybe you won’t be such a dick,” Cass told him as she straightened up, then continued walking as she smiled to herself.

Later that night she told Rudi what happened. “See, I told you things are looking up,” he told her.

Cass didn’t disagree but was not quite as gung-ho as he was. To try to minimize risks, they agreed to attempt to make a run for it the next time that some guard came since Rudi knew his distractions worked on him.

Rudi told Gemma the plan, making sure she would be ready. It was another several days before the same guard came back and after opening Cassidy’s door, the cocked his head before he could say anything.

Cass waited until he came back from wherever he had gone, and moved out into the corridor, walking directly to Gemma’s door, and reaching out immediately to the lock.

The guard who followed her said nothing once again as Cass manipulated the locking mechanism. It clicked as she fully rotated it this time and the door slid up into the ceiling.

Cass looked into the room, seeing it was identical to hers, and did not see Gemma. She swore under her breath. Had they taken her for testing?

“Gemma?” Cass called, not knowing if it would have any effect on the guard. Gemma’s head appeared slowly from around the corner of the wall and Cass jumped back startled.

“What the…” the guard started to say, looking at the now open door and Gemma’s head.

Panicking, Cass flung the guard straight up, ramming his helmeted head into the ceiling.

Both girls heard the crunch of bond as the guard’s body went limp. Cass was tempted to drop him but had a thought.

“It’s now or never,” Cass said to Gemma as she lowered the guard’s body towards the ground until his feet touched down.

Holding him up and walking him like a puppet, she moved him down towards Rudi’s room.

“Come on,” she growled at Gemma, not bothering to look back. Pushing the guard against the wall, she saw Gemma come up behind her.

“I can’t open this one like I opened yours,” she told the other girl.

“I can melt it, but it will take a while. It’s a strong glass,” Gemma replied.

Cass thought about it for a few seconds, looking at the guard as she did. An idea came to her. “You can freeze stuff as well right? Freeze the door as quick as you can.”

Cassidy grabbed the collapsible baton from the guard’s belt and pressed the button on the side. The end shot out with a snick and she turned to see Gemma’s small hands on the glass door, frost rimed around them and spreading outwards in a circle.

Rudi stood on the other side watching.

As the frosty haze came closer to the sides, Cass motioned Rudi to move away from the door. Once he moved to the side, Cass said, “Enough,” to Gemma. “Watch out.”

Gemma moved aside and Cass could feel the cold emanate from both the door and Gemma.

Turning, Cass took hold of the baton with both hands, squared up taking the batting stance her mom had taught her for softball, and swung as hard as she could.

The baton struck the door and it shattered, sending a wave of pain that ran up her arms causing her to drop the baton. Belatedly she realized that she did not need to hold the baton, but it was already done.

With the door now gone, Rudi came out and grabbed the ID card clipped to the guard’s vest. “Let’s go,” he said.

Cass started to move the guard when alarms started going off, complete with flashing red lights.

“Cat’s out of the bag. Time to run,” Rudi yelled over the alarm and the three took off down the corridor.

Gemma ran after Rudi, and Cass followed having simply dropped the guard. A door was dropping from the ceiling not far from Gemma’s door at the end of the corridor. Rudi ran under it, followed by Gemma who had to duck under it as it slid down. Cass was not far behind, but she knew it was going to be close.

As she closed on the door, she dove headfirst, sliding across the floor like she was stealing a base in softball. She barely made it through as the door met the floor with a thud.

Rudi and Gemma both grabbed a hand of hers and pulled her up.

“We gotta find a way out,” Rudi said.

“I’m open to ideas,” Cass replied.

“Follow me,” Gemma told them and took off.

Cass looked at Rudi who shrugged and said, “You have a better idea?”

He did not wait for a reply but took off after Gemma with Cass right behind him.

Cass pushed at each camera she saw in the corridors, but knew it was probably pointless since whoever was watching could track their movement by the camera outages even if they could not see them.

Gemma rounded a corner, followed by Rudi while Cass was only a few paces behind.

As Cass rounded the corner, she saw Rudi stopped just ahead of her and she slid to a stop just short of him. Ahead was Gemma with her hands up, and just beyond her was a guard with a taser pointed at her.

Cass saw the guard’s eyes dart to her, then back to Gemma as he squeezed the trigger. In slow motion, Cass saw the bright yellow cap come off the end of the taser and knew what followed.

Instinctively she reacted, stopping the two barbs inches from Gemma’s body. They hung motionless in midair as the guard looked confused.

Rudi did not hesitate, rushing to the man, grabbing his hand. Cass thought he was foolishly going to try to take the taser from the man but the two of them just stood there.

Pushing down, Cass drove the taser barbs into the floor. “Sleep,” Cass heard Rudi mumble and the guard fell to the floor.

“How –” Gemma started to ask but Rudi cut her off and said, “I know the way out now. Follow me.” He took off at a sprint and the two girls took off after him.

They followed Rudi, turning corridors blindly until doors started shutting all around them. Barely making it past one, the door ahead of them settled onto the floor, closing them in-between the sections.

Continuing forward to the door, they all stopped, breathing hard trying to catch their breath. Rudi pounded on the door and said, “So close.”

A familiar hiss came from the ceiling and all three looked up. “Figure a way through the door, fast!” Cass yelled.

“It’s over,” Rudi said with a sigh. “We’ll be knocked out before we can do anything.”

“You worry about the door, let me worry about the gas,” Cass replied. She had an idea but was not sure it would work, but if it did not, it would not matter.

Turning away from them, Cassidy looked up, raising her hands. Stopping water droplets was one thing, but gas? It was essentially the same, only on a much smaller scale.

She reached out, trying to feel the air, searching for minute changes. Meanwhile Rudi and Gemma tried to figure a way to open the door.

Rudi tried to guard’s keycard first, but that did not work as it had been disabled by the alarm override. He suggested Gemma melt a hole through the door, but she said it would take her too long to make a hole big enough for them. She suggested the access panel instead.

“Maybe it will open the door if it malfunctions,” she said.

Seeing no other options, Rudi agreed, and Gemma put her hands up to the panel.

Cass was having a problem trying to stop so many individual targets at once. It seemed like millions were all around them. Her head was pounding, and she could feel the gaps form in the slowly falling mist.

There must be a better way, she thought.

“I’d suggest you hurry,” she said through clinched teeth as she felt a tickle of blood flow out of her nose.

Changing tactics, Cass did not try to stop each particle, instead she pushed against everything, upwards and outwards using just a little pressure. Not a forceful push like she tried against Hugo Forrester, but just enough force like a fan blowing it gently back.

It was working; she could tell.

Gemma had melted the control panel on their side, but nothing happened, so she kept going. He hands finally pushed through the other side of the wall and she pulled them back, looking through the hole.

She could see a door that was unlike and other she had seen inside the facility. This one looked normal.

“Well that didn’t work,” Gemma said.

“Cassidy,” Rudi said. “Try to move the door up.”

Cass turned her head to look at Rudi. While keeping the gas away was easier, she knew she was too taxed to keep it away and lift the door.

Taking a deep breath to center herself, she put out her hands palms up and tried lifting the door. It did not budge, and she strained, only remotely aware that both Rudi and Gemma started to slowly rise with her efforts. Both started pinwheeling their arms trying to balance themselves with no luck.

Finally, after a lot of strain and a nosebleed, sparks started coming from the hole in the wall where Gemma had melted, the door started to rise.

As the door rose, Cass pushed her two friends, who were still floating, through the open door, setting them down on the other side.

Once they were safe, Cass took two big strides towards the door and dove under the door as it fell with a bang just behind her feet.

“Cassidy?” she heard through what sounded like cotton in her ears. “We have to go,” the voice said.

She thought she recognized the voice, but it was all muzzy.

“Lift her up with me,” she heard a different voice say.

Opening her eyes, she saw Rudi and Gemma struggling to lift her up.

“I’m okay,” she mumbled, getting her feet under herself.

“I think you passed out,” Gemma said. “And you’re bleeding,” she added running her thumb across Cass’s lip and under her nose before wiping it on her thigh.

Cass shook her head to try to clear it as Rudi pulled her towards the next door.

Rudi turned the handle on the door – this one being different since it had a handle – and it clicked open. They all went through and paused in the next room.

It looked like an ordinary small office with a single desk and a filing cabinet filling most of the space. The door that they had just come through looked like it should have been a closet or storage room.

Just in front of the desk was another normal looking door. They moved to it and the handle turned for Rudi, but the door did not open.

“Deadbolt,” he said out loud.

“Allow me,” Gemma said pushing past him and putting a hand on the deadbolt. It quickly glowed red and she turned the door handle and pulled on the door.

It resisted for a moment before giving in with a whine of bending metal and then opened. The deadbolt was still extended but now bent pointing away from them. Gemma had heated it up enough to soften the metal, then pulled the softened deadbolt out of the doorjamb.