Chapter 34 - Unexpected assistance

Brody has managed to get a message around that people should be aware, be ready, in case something happens. I’m not sure if people believe him or think he’s kidding himself thinking he can get out, but one thing is for certain: he is a different person down here. He seems to have an authority here that I’ve never seen on him before. He’s one of them, not an outsider, not a freak, he’s someone to aspire to, someone who clawed his way out and made it up there in the real world.

He sends message after message down the row. How he does it I’m not entirely sure, but he seems to know just how to get in contact with each and every occupant of the cages. He makes hand signals to one, whispers to someone 7 cages over, and at one time he starts stamping his foot to the ground in a very specific rhythm – I think it might be Morse code, but I can’t be sure. He sets both Britt and me to work too. Britt manages to get the attention of someone in a cage two rows over from her, and I turn to the person a few cages down to my right.

“Can you hear me?” I say softly, not wanting the lab coats to catch on.

“I’d stay away from the triplets if I were you,” Britt buds in. “Not safe.”

“I’d say the same about you,” Brody tells her off. “Go ahead Lizzy, but don’t ever touch them.” I look at him, but he’s turned away to the other side, busy communication by holding up fingers in a specific order. I look back at the young girl in her cage. There’s no way of reaching her, even if the cages didn’t block in whatever ability she has.

“I’m Lizzy,” I tell her. Brody seems to trust them to some extent, even if Britt doesn’t. “What’s your name?”

“I was given the name Teresa upon my birth,” she whispers softly.

“Leave her alone,” a male voice orders from a cage hidden from my sight.

“My brother was born as Tim. He has always been protective of us,” Teresa explains.

“I can understand that I have siblings too.” Her head turns ever so slightly towards me, the first indication of actual interest and not mere politeness or escape from boredom.

“I have seen them,” she tells me, and her head tilts to the side as if reading something crocked. “You were born third.”

“Resa,” the brother warns. “Leave the newbie alone, she’ll just give you a headache.”

“But she has seen it, Tim. She has seen the old building.” But her brother seems to be right about the headache, she turns away and buries her head between her hands. She whispers something I can’t quite catch, but as she repeats it, it sounds something like “So much time. So much time.” I see her fingers dig into her skull, like something in her head is hurting her, and she’s trying to squeeze it out. He brother moves to the other side of his cage, and I can see him now.

“You’ve seen it?” he asks. “The school, you’ve been up there?”

“Yes,” I reply, uncertain of what exactly to do here. “How did she know?” It doesn’t seem like they’ve been paying attention to our conversations here, in fact, I don’t think I’ve seen Teresa move before now.

“Will you show us?” a third voice asks from behind Tim.

“Easy Trixie, don’t get too excited,” Tim warns his other sister.

“But it’s going to be okay Tim, someone’s coming. We’ll get out,” she reassures him in a bright, certain, voice.

“Trix, we’ve talked about this, people change their minds all the time, you can’t know for sure, not with something like this.”

“Will you shut up Tim! Just because you’re at home doesn’t mean you’re any better than the rest of us.” From her tone of voice, I half expect her to stick her tongue out at him. “Just you wait, it’ll only be a few more hours.”

“Look what you did now.” Tim looks back at me. “You’ve gotten her hopes up again. Leave us alone.”

“Yes,” Trixie agrees in a bright voice that somehow doesn’t fit the statement from her brother. I choose to ignore it for now.

“Look, if there is a chance to get out, will you join us?” I ask Tim instead, he seems to be the sane one of the three.

“Don’t be stupid Tim,” Trixie tells him. Tim just looks at his sister, ignoring me. “What?” She demands, but her eyes are not on him, they’re watching something else. “Ohh,” she realizes. “Sorry, I didn’t know.”

“Figured it out on your own this time, did you?” he asks.

“How far?”

“A sentence or so I think,” he tells her.

“Oh.” She tilts her head, just like her sister did. “’Will you join us?’ She asked. I said ‘yes’. You said ‘Let’s wait and see what happens,’ and I told you not to be stupid. Then you told me I was doing it again, and I apologized.”

“She can carry out an entire conversation on her own,” Tim explains.

“She was cursed,” Teresa adds in a whisper. “We were all cursed.”

“Have you figured it out yet?” Brody asks behind me. He’s standing now, leaving everyone else looking like rats cowering on the floor.

“Tereasa sees the past, Trixie sees the future,” I guess.

“Not exactly,” Tim says. “That’s just a side effect of being locked in here for so long.”

“Repressed gifts have a tendency to go nuclear,” Brody says quietly. “Which is what lands most people down here.”

“Where they can’t use their gifts, which only makes the problem worse.” I finish the thought for him.

“Wow, wonder girl gets it. Let’s give her a gold star, shall we?”

“Shut up Britt,” Brody orders. “If you want to come with us you should be prepared, Tim.” Tim gets up off the floor too.

“How do you suggest I do that?” He indicates towards his sister.

“I suggest you make up your mind now, once the dust settles it will be too late to change it.”

“What exactly is the plan?” he demands. Brody just indicates towards the lab coats and sits down on the floor again. The contrast is striking when you think about it. Out there, up in the school, he looked like a beggar basically. His clothes were never the right size, his hair was always wild and showed no sign of any attempt at control, his shoulders hung lower than his chest, and the way he walked, always dragging his feet… Down here his hair, wild as it may be, looks clean and well kept; no tangles, no split ends. His clothes, though brown and exactly like the clothes the rest of us wear, is cleaner and doesn’t hang on him like a bag of potatoes like his own does. He’s the first one I’ve seen actually stand up for no other reason than to stand, and he did it without following someone else’s lead. Down here he looks like a king, even though he looks worse than he did up in the school. It is surreal to see him like this.

A high-pitched scream pierces the silence and pulls me out of my analysis. I look back at the triplets. Trixie is in a ball on the floor, hands digging into her skull, screaming like someone is pouring lava over her. I look back at Brody.

“It is time,” he simply says, as if he had expected the tortured scream all along. The lab coats are all looking at each other as if trying to figure out which one of them started the incessant noise. “Your turn Lizzy,” he tells me. “Stop them.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t let them move.” I close my eyes before he’s even done speaking. He wants me to use my gift. He is allowing me to use my gift. I reach out, and I feel the relief flood through me as I grab hold of every single person in the room not currently locked in a cage. I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders - a weight I hadn’t even realized was there. Now it’s gone, and I am free. I push every single one of them up against the wall, and I hold them there.

“Enough,” his voice tells me from somewhere far away. “Enough Lizzy, don’t ruin it now.” I open my eyes reluctantly. He meets my eyes. “You can let them breathe,” he assures me. I hadn’t even realized how tightly I’d locked them down. I look at the wall by the torture chambers. My doctor is there, a look of dread in his eyes, tears starting to gather up as his chest can’t move and he can’t catch a breath. I release the pressure, just slightly, just enough for air to make its way down his lounges.

“Show off,” Britt says. I don’t intend to do it, but next thing I know she’s on the floor leaned against the cage bars she just crashed into.

“Sorry,” I mumble.

“Keep your focus, Lizzy,” Brody orders. I look at him, standing over me, towering, ordering. He’s unrecognizable. The doors behind me burst open, and I turn to look at the newcomers.

“You bitches ready to get out of here?” The familiar voice asks the confused room who have no idea who she is.

“Marie?” I whisper.

“Watch your language young lady.”

“Mother?” I ask and step out through the bars.