Chương 25: Looking for Lucas
It was approaching the zero hour of night. Stella drowsily peeled her eyes open. A lamp on the other side of the room was on. She thought Lucas would've turned it off by now and gone to bed.
Jonas was also asleep. His head was resting on a pillow on the end of the couch.
Stella went to turn it off, but she hesitated. She went to Lucas' door and knocked. One, two, three knocks. No response. Not even a single sound.
Stella opened the door. It was dark in the room. She turned on the light. She saw a towel on the floor and the closet was open. The covers on the bed were messy. He didn't make his bed when he got up, but she couldn't chew him out for it because he wasn't in the room. She didn't know where he was.
Stella went back into the living room and stood there for a moment. She fell asleep before him again, and he was gone. Where did he go?
Suddenly, there was a knock. It was a singular knock on the front door. It must've been Lucas, and she went to go let him in. She thought back to the last time he knocked on the door. He let himself in that last time, but before that, he had a special rhythm he liked to do with his knock. He didn't do that this time. Stella decided not to let him in herself. She stood away from the door, waiting to see if he'd do it himself.
Stella became concerned. She ran to Jonas and carried him to her room, putting him in his crib and locking the door. She went back to the entrance, grabbing her crossbow that was slung on a coat rack.
She turned the safety off and pointed it at the door. She knew that it wasn't Lucas behind that door. She could sense it. There was another knock at the door. It sounded rough and coarse, seeming to taper with a descending scratch at the door.
It was Lucas behind that door. Sweat began to run down Stella's face. It couldn't be Janice behind that door. She wouldn't be scratching at a door she could simply open, plus, she hardly ever leaves her lab.
Stella was scared to approach the door. Not for herself, but for the child down the hall. Stella took a couple of deep breaths and gathered herself. She took one step at a time toward the front door. With one hand she pointed the crossbow, and with the other, she reached for the knob.
She approached so slowly that it must've been thirty second for her to travel the five feet between herself and the door. She grabbed ahold of the knob and twisted it. There hadn't been another knock for a while. She hoped that whatever was behind the door was gone.
She slowly opened the door, peeking outside timorously. She then swung the door open and ran outside, looked up and down the surrounding corridor. There was nothing there. She looked down the other way and she saw the door to the corridor was open. Wide open.
Something had been there just moment prior. She looked down at her feet. Stella stepped in something. A liquid of some kind. She lifted her foot and saw a yellow liquid. Her eyes widened at the sight.
She closed the door and ventured out into the halls. She was met with a peculiar sight. She saw large holes placed in the walls. They weren't there before, she could've sworn.
She walked past the holes and continued down the halls back toward the lab. She finally found the door to it, but she couldn't get in. She tried prying it open, but it was no use. She needed a card to get in.
Stella knocked on the door. She had no idea if Janice was in there. She simply prayed she was, and just like that, her prayers were answered. Janice opened the door and stuck her head out.
(Janice: "What do you want? But that crossbow down.")
(Stella: "I know it's late, but Lucas left the room a while ago and he hasn't gotten back. Do you know where he is?")
(Janice: "No clue.")
Janice tried shutting it but Stella stuck her shoe in between the door.
(Stella: "Just humor me for a bit. Help me find him and I'll leave you alone.")
Janice frowned.
(Janice: "Fine.")
She let Stella in and she went right back to her desk.
(Stella: "Aren't you going to look for him?")
(Janice: "I'll get to it. Just shut up and let me do what I need to do.")
Stella huffed angrily. She decided to start exploring the lab again.
Janice scrolled through notes she had written down on her computer, when there was an alert that popped up on the screen. Janice raised and eyebrow as she inspected it. "Unknown Entity Detected."
Janice clicked it, and a window opened. It was loading for a moment, but then a camera feed appeared. It was the room she had Lucas in. She looked up at Stella, who was too busy inspecting science equipment to notice what was on the monitor.
Janice looked at the camera. All she saw was Lucas. He was moving slightly. He was awake. Although he was conscious, he was probably delirious. That tranquilizer she put in him had a couple of side effects, such as hallucinations. He's still in no condition to be interrogated.
Janice closed the window and got up. She knew what she had to do. She left the room, taking her card with her.
Stella stared as she left the lab. As soon as the door shut, she jumped into action. She went to all of the desks and started looking through drawers and cabinets one by one.
She had a feeling Lucas was somewhere behind that door on the platform. She knew it. Stella needed to get in there, so she looked for spare cards in the desks. There had to be at least one card somewhere.
She opened one drawer and found a card with a blue stripe. She took it up the platform and put it to the terminal. "Denied," a screen on the terminal read.
(Stella: "Ugh!")
She ran back to the drawer and threw it back in. She moved on to other desks, looking through them frantically. She then found a card with a purple stripe. She tried that on the terminal. "Denied."
Stella went back to the desks and looked harder. She wasn't finding anything. She realized she was doing this all wrong. She was looking through every desk except for Janice's.
She ran to her desk and looked through the first drawer. There was a bunch of papers. A notepad as well as documents, all with the H.S.A. logo on them. She sifted through the papers, but there were no cards. She looked through the second drawer. There were a lot of writing utensils. She pushed the pens and markers out of the way, searching for anything remotely shaped like a card. Still nothing.
She then looked through the cabinet. There was another notepad, but on top of it was something strange. It was a card, but it had no particular colored stripe on it. It was all just white, but it was dusty. It was clearly ancient, made a long time ago and out of use. She flipped it over and it had a piece of tape on it with words written on it with permanent marker. "Admin Card," it read.
Stella ran up the stairs to the platform with it, and she put it on the terminal. It took a moment, but the screen on the terminal turned a yellow color. "Lock Removed," the text said on the terminal.
Stella's eyes lit up. She opened the door and ran inside, but she was disappointed by what she saw. It was just another lab, but more expansive. It had giant vault doors, as well as more equipment. Stella walked around looking at everything. She didn't know where Lucas was, but he was somewhere around here.
Looking at there was a table in the middle of the room. It had a couple knives and scissors on it. It made sense. This was where Janice would conduct experiments on apostles after all, but then why was Lucas here somewhere?
There was a click behind Stella. The sound of a gun being cocked.
(Janice: "Drop the crossbow, Stella. I don't want to hurt you.")
Janice had an M9 pointed right at Stella. Janice knew how to use it, and she wasn't afraid to.
(Stella: "Where is Lucas?")
(Janice: "I'll show you. But I must warn you, you're not going to like what you see.")
(Stella: "Take me to him.")
(Janice: "Drop the crossbow.")
Stella sighed before raising her palms slowly. She wrapped her hands around the sling and removed it from her shoulders, dropping it onto the floor.
Stella turned toward Janice. She put her gun down and exhaled.
(Janice: "Follow me.")
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