The Narrow Escape - 10

     The hallways were dark and we could see the ghostly light that shone from way down the hall. We inched back towards the astronomy building cautiously, but soon realized that the entrance door was still open, and we could still hear echoes of voices of people who were still leaving. I grabbed the edge of the cold corner of the wall listening carefully.

      “Are they gone, yet?” I could feel Hayden's warm breath against my ear as he inched closer, stretching out to look over my head.

      “Not yet!” I snapped quietly. I drew a deep breath in and waited until I heard the final door shut. The light grew dimmer and dimmer until it was completely dark.

      “What are we going to do?” whispered Sam. “We can't just dart back and go out the way we came.” Her voice was quiet, but there was a shake in her words. She was right. She was right. We couldn't go straight back to where we came from too quickly, and we didn't know of any other exit. All that I could think of was to go back to where we came from and wait a while until we knew everyone was gone. We went back to the empty room, this time with a very different attitude. We walked back blindly and feeling with our hands for the big, heavy door. It felt much different to enter the room, now familiar, for the second time. I felt trapped and scared as my feet dragged me back through the door. Hayden found the light switch and the big mess reminded me that people would probably be here sometime tomorrow to clean up, and that we needed to be gone as soon as possible. I began to panic at the thought of getting caught, but I didn't give into it. Instead I looked around at the walls with meticulous care to see if there were any clues of some kind of emergency exit. I could hear Sam's quick feet scurrying around, and then turned around the see her at the roogah cabinet, again.

      “Sam!” My voice was sharp, but I was surprised to see her grabbing for it after what happened last time. “This is not the time for that.” She whipped her slender torso straight around looking direct and strong. This was the first time I'd ever seen Sam serious, and it was a good sign.

      “What!” I think I heard someone say something about a map being hidden somewhere,.” she said, and then continued looking. I left Sam alone and continued to look at the white, cold walls. I could see nothing that would help us escape until we could get through the maze that we had followed to get here.

      “I found it,” Hayden announced in a sharp, quick voice. Sam and I both darted around to face him, the addrennalin jump starting our hearts as we turned.

      “This is strange,” he muttered to himself as he examined the map and gadgets previously placed on top. I quickly ran over looking over his arm to see what he was holding. Sam was on the other side of him doing the exact same thing, while holding one sylphlike finger to the little round gadget in his other hand. There were three gadgets all together, only one of which we could identify.

      “Is that a little light?” Sam enquired.

      “Yeah. Where did this come from?” I leaned closer towards Hayden who stood like a rock between the two of us.

      “I don't know,” Hayden muttered quietly as he fingered the flashlight, turning it off and on, then playing with the head. He took off the top and opened it up. Inside was a little note that was folded up really small. Hayden unraveled it with his fingers in attempt to read it, but there was only a small drawing.

      “What is that?” I asked confused.

      “It looks like some kind of symbol.” Sam cocked her head toward Hayden's shoulder and then looked up at him. “What does that mean?” He stood motionless while looking at the dismantled flashlight, the note, and then the other objects as if trying to draw a conclusion.

      “Do you know what it means?” I asked. Hayden didn't answer me right away, but instead continued looking at what he was holding. He quickly put the flashlight back together and then turned it on.

      “C'mon.” Hayden started out the door and we followed. He didn't look back to make sure we were behind him like he usually does. He just began his long strides out the door. I flipped off the light switch behind us and the door slowly fell shut without making much noise. Hayden lead us through the first hallway. He looked to the left, where we had previously seen the light behind the door dim upon closing shut. We couldn't afford the possibility of getting caught on the way back, so Hayden came up with a plan.

      “Hey y'all. Ready to follow me?” He turned on the light gadget, placed the other items in his left pocket, and lead us forward. He took wide strides until we turned right down another hallway.

      “What are we doing?” asked Sam as we raced to keep up with him. She grabbed Hayden's hand, and then I grabbed hers. Sam and I were almost out of breath when he finally stopped and took a look at the map. We both looked at him with anticipation, but before we could say anything, he was guiding us down another path.

      “Wait! Hayden!” I was gasping and almost out of breath. He slowed down letting us catch up. Finally, he stopped dead center in one of the long stretching hallways.

      “I'm sorry, guys. I didn't mean to leave you behind.” He was still looking around at the walls when he was apologizing to us. “I think there's a way out here somewhere.” We were all pretty worn out from everything and wound up leaning up against the wall next to each other. Hayden was in between us just looking at the ground in gloom.

      “Hey.” I used a quiet voice as I rubbed his arm.       “Are you okay?”

      “I can't believe he betrayed us.” Hayden's voice was laced with disdain and melancholy. He was fingering the flashlight, and the map was safe under his left arm, while Sam was cradling his right arm and resting her head against his shoulder.

      “I know.” Her voice was soft, possibly from being tired, or just sympathetic. It was strange to see her so calm.

      “I...” Hayden's spoke in a wispy voice, and stared ahead in alpha state. He came to and continued. “I thought he might be able to get us out of here.” Hayden looked down seriously at me for a moment.

Hopelessness was in his voice, and I began to feel a deep resentment towards Dr. Alexis and the others. The lack of loyalty seemed so self-defeating, not to mention an absolute waste of time. I couldn't understand the logic.

      “Where could Lachlan be? I mean....poor kid. Huh.” Sam kept her head on Hayden's shoulder and cradled his arm even tighter. He didn't look at her, but instead just kept his eyes on the wall in front of him.

      “So, why do you think Dr. Alexis distracted UNJ from looking for the star football player. Why would he want Timerantz to win?” I asked inquisitively, the logical side of this starting to probe me.

      “Well...” Hayden shrugged. “Maybe Timerantz offered him a better opportunity with better tenure. He reopened the map and twisted it every which way. “There should be a way of the underground from around here.” He paused for a moment, and reached inside his pocket for another one of the gadgets that were left on the table. He pulled it out and pressed a tiny button on the metal surface. An ultraviolet light turned on while the object made a low, constant murmur. Hayden scanned the map with the object and a part of the hallway was accented in a different color. There was some writing that I could not make out, but Hayden did. He folded up the map and turned on the object. He jumped off the wall and took about ten of his long strides down the hall. We followed him curiously until he reached his point. Oddly, he turned to lean on the wall again proping one foot up behind him.

      “Hayden! What are you doing?” Sam and I laughed in confusion and ran over to him. He grabbed both of us and pulled us back into the position next to him. His strong arms were secure and tight, and he said nothing. He just stared seriously ahead. With one swift kick he knocked the wall behind him several times. Sam and I looked around strangely until, before we knew it, the wall gave out behind us. We both let out yelping screams from the blow of being hoisted, but were relieved to be sitting out on the plush grass under, yet another dark night's sky.

We looked around perplexed by our new surroundings. We were not living at UNJ for very long before we were pulled through time, and did not know our way around campus very well. The field we were sitting on went far and wide. There were some trees, but not much else until it got to the bushes, which contained it. Across the field we could see a row of big houses and hear a lot of activity. Kids were walking along the road talking and laughing as they stumbled along the sidewalks. I slowly rose to my feet, the other two following me.

“Where are we?” Sam asked in a disoriented, vague voice.

      “I have no idea.” Hayden stared up at the stars as if processing.

      “Hayden!” I jumped in a whispered pitch.

      “Don't worry, darlin'.” He continued to stare at the stars as if pondering a thought. He then pulled out one of the other gadgets in his pocket and started examining it. It was small pen-like object, but I couldn't see much more. He examined the object with his fingers, and then glanced back up. It was then that he noticed the noise coming from across the field. He slipped the object back into his pocket, and rejoined Sam and I.

      “What is that?” Sam queried.

      “Don't worry 'bout it, yet.” He dismissed the question, and was now focused on where the three of us were standing. Sam didn't mind. She continued to stare at the bright lights of the houses on the opposite side of the field.

      “Hey! Let's go that way!” Sam was easily distracted from the drama and began to lead us across the field. Hayden came out of his concentration and followed Sam and I through the dark plain. As we approached the street we could see the party lights coming from a couple of the big houses. We walked at a medium pace, going slower as we reached the overwhelming sight. We stood by the busy street and watched as spectators, completely unnoticed by anyone around us. The street was full of rowdy college students staggering arm in arm, running, laughing, and playing. One guy ran behind a group of what looked like freshman girls and scared them, which made them scream and startled me. Another group were walking arm and arm singing some kind of pop song. Behind the display of craziness were big houses emanating dance muted music, which would get louder as people entered and exited.

      “Hey! Sam?” A voice called us from across the road. All three of us turned our heads responsively to see one of the guys run over to us. He freely ran across the road without any regard for traffic, and jumped right in front of us.

      “Reidy!” Sam tried to act matter-of-fact, but she stuttered, and her voice was slightly shaky.

      “Where are we?” I choked out. Everyone looked at me nervously, except Reidy, who was inebriated.

      “Are you kidding! You're on Egyptian row!” Reidy yelled holding out his arms in a wide hug. “C'mon! Let's go to a party!” he yelled over the noise. We could do nothing more than follow.

Author's Note

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