The Yellow Pill (14 page)

Calls
of distress and worry floated towards them in the shady darkness as the people
were at the verge of panic. Again, Frey could hear that the sound spoke of
humans not used to dramatic situations.

Well….
Things are goanna be much worse, very soon.

She dug her
fingers into the opening with both hands, locking the wrist and fingers like
iron as they supported all her weight, her feet slipping on the glass. Gritting
her teeth with strain, she carefully replaced her foot to the side, knowing
that if she misstep a second time, her arms wouldn’t have the power to hold on.

Falling
from here would be a one-way ticket to the gates of hell.

It was
harder than she had thought… a
lot
harder. Sweat trickled down her brow
and she thanked the stars for the climbing shoes. Even barefoot, she wouldn’t
have been able to grip the surface as she could now.

She
couldn’t see or hear Tina and the others anymore. She knew they would handle
things down there.
Her
job was to get up to the fifth floor… preferably
alive.

Frey
flexed her arms as she reached for the next horizontal edge.
Just
a little more.
She avoiding looking down to be reminded of
how much of a lie that was.

As her hand
closed around the balcony edge she could feel her whole body shake from
fatigue. She gulped air and wondered what the hell they would have done if she
hadn’t been able to climb the bloody building.
Stormed it, since the guards
are all elsewhere…
It wasn’t as good a plan as sneaking in, but there
weren't too many choices.
Lucky I didn’t fall down and break my neck, then.

Frey
took one last swallow of air before she heaved herself up, waiting to listen if
she could pick out any noise. Her arms and legs were shaking so bad that she
doubted she would bee able to have done much if there had been. She pulled off
her chalk bag and dropped it to the ground.

Her
group had left all electrical devices well away from Dome since it could be
hacked, and that included any ways of digital communication. Her gear coming
down meant she was up.

Me
failing would’ve meant I didn’t make it…
Frey actually
chuckled and had to remind
herself
to focus,
practically hearing Jin sigh, telling her it wasn’t funny. Frey pulled her
bandana up to cover her mouth and nose instinctively. She and Jin always
covered their faces when hanging around a bad neighborhood.

The
glass door was open. The electricity might have been cut off, but Tina had
warned her that the lower some ran on emergency power.

Frey
got her fingers between the thin
glass
, prying it open
just enough to slip through. The corridor was dark.

Frey
moved down the corridor,
then
turned towards the
stairs. She stepped light-footed down the stairs. Her hand was on the wall the
whole time while she listened for any sound of movement.

At
level two, she stopped by an open door. The second floor was lit with a green
emergency light, making everything look sick and hazy. She looked left and
right and snuck out, making her way towards the balcony.

Frey
found the door easy enough, but had to push her back against the wall as two
people came running down the hallway. Her blood pumped into her arms as she
felt her fists clench.

If they
hadn’t they been paying so much attention their own discussion, she would have
been seen. She reached out to her left, sliding open the door to a bathroom.

Time
to stop pushing my luck and change…

The lobby was
almost empty, and the green light was all that lightened the massive space,
making peoples features shadowy and dark.

Good
news for me.

The
outside was pitch black, and Frey knew Tina and the others were waiting out
there.

She
pushed the coffee cup towards the man at the
counter,
again thanking the stars it was a man standing there. Frey put on a big smile
as she cocked her head to the side. “I’ve heard a lot about you,” she said in a
low voice.

She
didn’t let leave time for questions as she touched him the way Joy had touched
Jon. She laughed and talked silly, doing her best to imitate her, and almost
lost her smile when he responded with eagerness.

She
moved closer to the wall. Between words, she slid her eyes invitingly towards
the back door and smiled a crooked grin. His face lit up.

Not
one word had passed the man’s lips as she led him behind the frosted glass.

They made their
way up towards level fifth again. Tina led, having memorized the map and knew
where the control room aught to be. The six others walked behind them, the guns
tucked away inside the big robes, smaller knifes within easy reach at their
wrists.

They
walked through the corridors, meting only a few who hurried their own way, not
doing more than give the group a glance. Although, Frey knew that sooner or
later someone would really look at them and see they weren’t from Dome at all.
Already, someone must’ve found the unconscious man Frey had left in the storage
room, but because the power was out, no alarm could be rung.

Tina
led them with such confidence that you could have thought she had been here
before. They had to stop as they reached the desired level, a black colored
door closed before them. It didn’t budge as Tina tried to push it to the side.

“Power’s
still on from this floor and up, so the doors require fingerprint key cards
again…” Tina muttered as she looked around.

Frey pulled her
robe off and tossed it into a corner. “I’ll go back down a level. There must be
another balcony somewhere. At this height, I don’t think they would bother to
have a locked door on the balcony.”

Tina
nodded at the door in front of them. “I’m convinced there’s a alarm connected
to this one,” she said. “So be ready.”

Frey
stepped a little closer. “If I’m not on the other side within-“

“You
just make sure to be there,” Tina said, gripping Frey’s shoulder, hard. “I’m
counting on you.”

Frey
nodded. She raced down the stairs again, pulling her bandana up.

There was indeed
a balcony, and she could even see the doors. Problem was, from where she was
standing, it was a big gap between that balcony and hers. The glass was smooth
with no handholds at all, probably a piece of some giant artful decoration that
just
had
to be positioned where she needed edges…

She
held her breath as she tried to think. The jump wouldn’t have been as hard if
what she was aiming for wasn’t so far above her. Gravity was goanna make this
tricky.

She
knew she could go back… this was a big jump, and from were she was balancing on
the edge of the railing, there would only be pouncing power to rely on.

She
flexed her legs, knowing her mind had already decided to jump. She could hear
and see the city in panic. There were gunfire and screaming, distant and
echoing alarms and
smoke
billowing up in great black
clouds.
Not often
Alya
reminds me of home…

Jon
and the others needed backup and counted on her and Tina to deliver it to them…
Frey reminded
herself
of what she used to say before a
jump… “Don’t think so much, just bloody jump,” she hissed as she let her legs
uncoil. She thrust her right arm up, shoving her shoulder forward and spreading
her fingers wide as she gritted her teeth.

If she
had slipped the least on the rail, she wouldn’t have made it…

Her
fingers just managed to reached the edge, her thumb and index finger clenching
together automatically in the blink of an eye. She pressed her feet against the
balcony wall and heaved herself up.

When
she was over, she moved to the door on slightly wobbly legs. She reached out
and pushed at the glass door. It gave way silently under her touch and she
grinned to herself. Frey still didn’t see anyone, but knew it was just a matter
of time, since the cameras were functional up here.

The sound wasn’t
loud. She had been expecting an earsplitting noise which made you clutch your
head in pain, but it was faint and distant, starting a soon as the black door
opened.

“It’s
registered to go off
whoever
opens it!” The man cried as he shielded his
face from Frey, fearing she might hit him again. “No one is allowed to leave or
enter this floor since that Hole person got out! I promise, I didn’t set it
off!” He was on the verge of tears, huddling on the floor.

Frey
ignored the man, dismissing the alarm as well. Tina motioned two from their
team to go behind them, three to scout ahead and one to stay with them. The man
lifted his gun and shot the whimpering Dome personnel through the head, blood
and brains splattering up the wall behind him.

Frey
swallowed, gripped her weapon as she followed Tina. Two more scientists saw
them and the woman screamed, dropping her glass screen. It smashed into a
thousand pieces, scattering over the floor. The man turned and ran. One of the
men in front of Frey shot him in the back.

Up
here, people knew what Hole was and exactly what was going on inside. But she still
turned her head away when the second one shot the screaming woman. She heard
the splatter over the alarm and wondered why she wasn’t enjoying it… these
people
knew
what was done to the people in Hole. Hell, they were there
doing it together with the government! Frey hoped the resistance people working
in Dome had gotten the message in time and run for cover.

Three
more people crossed their path and were killed before they could utter one
word. Tina turned left in the glass corridors, four people just disappearing
into the control room, locking the door behind them with some kind of code. The
door was thick, and she suspected bullets wouldn’t break it.

Two
from their team pulled out some equipment while the rest scouted for danger.
But Frey suspected that whoever had been alive on this floor was now in there.
The sound of shooting and screaming must have warned every single one, and they
clearly thought the control room would protect them.

Frey
was watching the room. There was a big window running along the entire front of
the room, overlooking Hole. The digital dome was faintly grey and a bit hazy,
but otherwise you could see right down into her city…

Frey
hadn’t realized how high up they were, or how incredibly
vast
Dome
actually was… Her mouth had gone dry, and she had a hard time forcing a swallow
down her throat.

The
blast went off and glass shattered. People screamed and the group went inside,
silencing them. Frey looked away as they dragged the bodies outside. She tried
not to see the blood as a crime. How much blood hadn’t these people spilled together?
How big an ocean hadn’t they gathered from
all the
killing?

Frey
looked at the familiar view of her city. Far from all of it was visible from
this point of view, but the screens made up for that. They showed every single
camera placed down there. As one from their group touched an image, it came up
in the middle, enlarged. He muttered under his breath and someone else shook
his head. Tina snapped her fingers and motioned four of them to keep lookout,
the other two to help them find the main server.

“You
know it can be done?” Frey asked her. “Lower the walls, I mean? I’ve walked
around the whole length of The Wall, and there’s no door, no gate…”

Tina looked
at Frey and cocked her head a bit. “Didn’t I tell you?” She asked. Frey just
frowned. “The gates were built to raise straight up from the ground. A magnetic
force was used to press the walls upwards,” she said as she jammed her thumb
up. “So when everyone was hoarded into the middle, no one saw the walls, and no
one suspected what was going to happen… When everyone was in place, the walls
came up, closing everyone inside.” Frey didn’t know what to say to that. Tina
gave Frey a slight push. “No time to waste.”

She
didn’t have to be told twice, and scanned the glowing keyboards for any sign of
interacting with the bloody dome. The vast keyboard rested under all the tiny
camera recordings, and she tried not to look at the live images as she focused
on her task.

The
glowing buttons seemed increasingly alien instead of getting more familiar and
she felt the stress build. Jin was down there somewhere, maybe lying in a
gutter, yellow froth bubbling out from his mouth and nose, the Yellow Pill
eating him alive… She was ready to try about anything when she spotted a
miniature projection of the digital dome. It was about as large as a basketball
and glowing blue. She reached over and touched it. The globe rotated with her
fingers, and her eyes snapped towards the real
dome covering
Hole.

It
started to glow. She realized she had turned it towards daylight.

Frey
jerked her hand back as if burned. She looked at the city below, clenching and
unclenching her hand. Shivers of fear ran up her spine at the whole situation.
Here she was, at the very place where a push of a button adjusted the world she
had lived in her whole life…