Chapter 14: Focus

Will POV

I walked through the large swinging doors. I looked around the room, the power surging. The
power. The anger. There were lots of metal beds, a strong smell of antiseptic. On a bed on the left lay
a bemused looking Max. “Will?” she slurred. “Where’s Jeb? How’d you get here?” I ignored her
questions. She was drugged.
“Come on we’ve got to go. We’re getting the others and getting out of here.” I said forcefully,
walking up to her, and tearing the binds holding her arms and legs in place, off the bed. I heaved her
up and stood her on her feet.
“Will, I don’t think I’m up to this at the moment.” She mumbled. I pushed her forward and
out of the room.
“No, it’s now or never. Now let’s move!” I shouted at her, willing her to move. She looked
around the corridor, at the carnage and mess. I tried not to look. Blood and guts thrown strewn
everywhere, streaks of flesh thrown on the ceiling. Their torn and ripped bodies jumbled up against
the cracked wall and on the floor, which was wet with blood.
Max went wide-eyed, and went pale. “Will! What happened did u do this!?” she breathed. I
pushed her onwards wanting to get away from here as quickly as possible. I looked down at my red
hands, disgusted with myself, but pushed onwards.
We left the carnage behind us and went down a long tiled corridor, our shoes leaving red
footprints behind us. “Will, what happened?!” Max asked as we jogged along.
“It doesn’t matter, what is done is done, we can’t change that now.” I said solemnly. “Our best
course of action is to find Fang. Once we’ve done that everything will be ok.”
“What do you mean, what about the others? Angel, Gazzy, Nudge? What about Emily?” she
pressed.
“I know where Emily is going to be! Fang will find the others!” I said and carried on jogging.
There were no alarms, no one following us, but Max in her current state didn’t notice. But if we didn’t
hurry that would all change.
At the end of the tiled corridor there was a door. We ran through, into another corridor, only
this one was grey, and steely. “We’re here.” I said to Max and stopped outside the 3rd door on the
right. The power had faded away while running, so I closed my eyes and concentrated.
“Will, what are you-“ Max began, confused.
“Shut up! I need to concentrate.” I shouted at her. I focused on the memory. Thinking back to
the night I was taken. Remembering Emily crying, my parents shouting. The rage surfaced. The
power flowed through my veins. I opened my eyes, looked at Max and said “You might want to stand
back.” She looked at me, scared, and stepped back a couple of paces. I forced the power down into my
hands. I leaned back and punched the door, leaving a large hole in it. I put my hands round the hole,
and started to pull, tearing the metal like paper. I kept pulling until there was nothing left of the door,
except for a large torn hole.
I walked through and looked around. There were large computers, taller than me up against
the wall on the left. On the right was a chair with a familiar, pale, blacked haired figure in the chair,
with pads stuck all over his body, tubes leading into his arms and mouth. They all joined up in a large
wire and went up and along the wall and through to the next room. There was a door on that wall
saying Tactical Simulation on it. Max hadn’t come in yet, she was too scared.
“Max! Get in here and help with Fang!”

Fang POV

I was getting sick of this. I had beaten it only a handful of times and it never made a
difference except it was harder the next time. I decided to try a new tactic. We were about to pass the
river, but this time I flew down, onto its bank. The flock followed. Fighting in the air had hardly
worked at all. Maybe this would help.
I looked up, and could see nothing. No clouds, no robots. No nothing except the sky. But
something was wrong. There was something out of place. It took me a few seconds to figure it out.
The Sun
 It wasn’t there. It was always there, right above us, but it wasn’t. It was still light, it was the
same time of day but the Sun was gone. What’s more, the robots still weren’t here. I turned round to
the flock, who were standing there, emotionless. Then everything went fuzzy, like television static,
just for a split second, the whole world. The flock disappeared.
It happened again. Some kind of glitch. The River disappeared. In it’s place, nothing. Just a
gaping hole in the world. I stepped up to the edge and looked down. I couldn’t see anything, it was
Pitch black. Blacker than pitch black. It happened again, lasting longer. The mountains and the sky
went. Nothing except the ground remained but even parts of that had gone. Again, and again, three
times all in quick succession. Everything except me went. Just me alone in the dark. Then the dark
went, replaced with the same static.
Then it disappeared, and I woke up. I sat bolt up, breathing hard. “Fang! Fang can you hear
me!? Fang look at me!” I turned my head and saw Will. He looked crazed, his pupils were abnormally
large, taking up most of his eyes. He was holding some wires and tubes, his hands were caked in what
appeared to be blood. “Come on, Fang we’re getting out of here.” He said. He pulled me out of the
chair I was in and stood me up.
“Fang are you OK?” I heard Max ask. I turned my head and saw her, she looked dizzy. I
opened my mouth to say yes, but no sound came out. “Oh God, they had you in a simulation didn’t
you?” I nodded.
“What? What does that mean?” Will asked, sounding confused.
“Gazzy was in a simulation few years ago. For some reason when you come out of it, there
are side effects. He lost his voice, was quite suggestible. The same thing must have happened to
Fang!” She concluded.
“Well we’ll just have to deal with that later, we’re leaving, come on.” Will said stubbornly
He headed to the door and I followed. I stepped through the shredded door after Will, and
looked at it then at Will.
Max stepped through after me and said to me quietly “Will doesn’t seem right. Something is
wrong with him. You should be wary of him.” I nodded curtly and jogged after Will. I wasn’t entirely
certain what was going on. Was this a new simulation? Or was it real? I was finding it hard to tell.
Both Will and Max didn’t seem right. She seemed delirious and distant, while he seemed angry and
determined, more so than usual. He also seemed to know exactly what he was doing.
We caught up with him, and he kept jogging, not hesitating in which corridors or doors to go
through. When we came to a junction I waited till he began to go in one direction and put my hand on
his shoulder, stopping him. He looked at me, his eyes back to their normal hazel. I pointed in the other
direction, moving my head down the corridor trying to tell him we should go that way, but he replied
“No, we go this way.” He said bluntly. I pointed down the corridor again.
“Why?” Max asked. “Why not that way?”
He sighed and replied “This isn’t the first time I’ve gotten out OK? I know which way we’re
going, and we’re going this way.” With that he jogged off. I looked at Max and raised my eyebrow,
before chasing after Will.

***

We had been following him for about 15 minutes now. He had slowed down and was coming
up to another junction. He turned around to us and put his finger to his lips. He pushed his body up
against the wall and poked his head around, instantly snapping his head back. He looked at us and
mouthed the word, “Ari.”
We stood still. Max shrugged her shoulders in a what-should-we-do-type-way. I looked at her
and Will. If he really did know where he was going, he would be able to get her out, maybe even find
the others. I pointed at Will and then Max, and along the corridor we came, and then arched round,
mouthing to them to go back and find a way around, and get out.
Then I pointed at myself and at the corridor ahead where Ari was. Then I walked up to the
junction and stepped out, and saw Ari standing with his back to me, chatting to a couple of
Whitecoats, none of which had noticed me. I looked at Will and gestured for him to go.
“Fang what are you doing?!” Max uttered as quietly as possible.
“He’s right.” Will whispered to her. “I know my way out, I can lead you around, while he
holds them off.”
“No Will we can’t ju-“ Max began
 But I shook my head violently. I pointed back down the corridor. She looked at me, and
nodded reluctantly.
I waited till they were out of sight before I stamped my foot to get Ari’s attention. He turned
around, and looked at me, surprised.
“Now where’d you come from?” he laughed.

Angel POV

Gazzy had been unconscious for a long time. There was no way of telling time in here, but I
think it had been about 5 hours. Maybe more. We were in a room almost identical to the one we had
been in when we met Will. It was probably the same room, the layout was exactly the same, the smell
was the same, and the cages were the same. Yep, I was pretty sure it was the same room.
I wasn’t picking much up from Gazzy. Just the odd word or picture from him. He’d wake up
soon, I was sure he would. “What are we going to do? I’ve got to think of something, I’ve got to be
like Max.” I heard Nudge say.
“It’s OK, you’ll figure something out. And if not, Max will come and get us.” I told her
confidently.
“Err, I didn’t say anything.” She said confused, from across the room.
“Oh, right. Sorry I must have overheard you.” I said, embarrassed.
“Overheard? How can you overhear something that wasn’t...? Oh! Right!” She realized.
“Yeah, sometimes I can’t control it properly, and I just hear what people are thinking, without
trying.” I confessed.
“It’s OK, I understand.” She said sweetly. Suddenly I heard Gazzy stirring. My head shot
round to him, and I saw him sitting up, rubbing his head.
He looked around at the cages. “Oh goddam it.” He groaned. “Are you two OK?” he asked,
acknowledging us.
“Yeah, we’re both fine. You?” Nudge asked, concerned.
“I’ll be fine, just a bump on the head.” He mumbled. “So what have you two been doing all
this time?” He asked.
“All this time?” I asked confused. “We only woke up about 6 or so hours ago.” He frowned.
“What all this time, you were asleep?” I nodded slowly. “I suppose you should know.”
“Know what?” Nudge asked.
“It’s been about a month. You were asleep for around a month.” He said as-a-matter-of-factly.
“A month!?” I gasped.
“How do you know that?” Nudge urged him.
“Me and Iggy got left behind. We tracked you down, and tried to break you guys out. I got
caught apparently. Came at me from behind.” He mused.
“Why did it take you a month to do all that?” I asked confused.
“Because we had to-“ but Gazzy was cut off by a large bang at the door. We all looked at the
door, silently. Another bang and another. I focused my mind, and could feel a presence outside the
door. Someone, or something, was trying to get in.