SC: Chapter Sixty Four

Chapter Sixty-Four: In Which Rescue Missions Take Place And Rose Gets Ignored

    “You- you figured something out?  What?  What did you find?” Jack asked eagerly.

    Have you noticed that these pages have markings and underlines and notes on the margins?  Rose wrote.

    “Um… yeah.”

    Have you actually read them?

    “Well… not all…”

    Have you read the section on Portals?

    “No…”

Jack, as crazy as this may sound, I think John is trying to create a portal.  I don’t know what kind, but with the ingredients he’s using, it seems like that.

Jack processed the new information.  “And that is helpful because…”

“Well, at least we have some idea of what he’s trying to do, and that’s good, right?” Snow reasoned.  “By the way, if we are going to do something, we better do it soon, I’m starting to get a little tired.  It’s getting really late, around midnight, and I feel like something is going to happen to Flake soon if we don’t hurry up.”

“Is it midnight already?” Jack had completely lost track of time.  “I suppose it would be… just try to not fall asleep, okay?”

“Asleep,” Flint murmured, lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling.  “With dreams and wishes and stars and thoughts.”

“Okay.  So.  A plan.”  He paced around the room.  “We’re going to lock Flint in here and go out.  I’ll go first and have the invisibility cloak on, you two can follow me from behind.  I’ll unlock the lab door and go in first, to see what’s happening.  If there isn’t any immediate danger, I’ll give you a signal and then you guys can come in the room and help me free Flake.  If the room is empty, I’ll just come back out and we can decide what to do from there.  Got it?”

“That’s just two scenarios.  What about if there is danger?  Then what?”  Snow asked.

“Well then… I’ll come back out and we can decide what to do from there.”

“What if you get caught?  What if we all get caught?”

“Then… well… let’s try to think positive!  That probably won’t happen,” Jack said, trying to be reassuring but failing.

“What is it, Rose?” Snow said to Rose, who, tired of being ignored, was waving a piece of paper in her face.

I’ve figured something out besides the portal thing too.  On a passage that talked about side effects, there was something written about people who get taken over by abstract forms that can hear the voices of people who have had their voice taken away and tell the future or something like that, she wrote.

“Abstract forms?  Like… what?” Jack said.  “And this is important because?”

Well, don’t you think there is something… off about Flake?  How he can hear me and everything?  It isn’t normal, and I kind of just went with it, but now I want to know why, and this might be the answer.

“So you think that he was taken over by an abstract form based on what you’ve read in some crazy book that is probably all fake,” he said disbelievingly.

“Um… maybe we can start rescuing Flake now instead of arguing?  Because I’m getting this feeling something bad is going to happen…” Snow said nervously.

“Fine.  Let’s go.”  Jack threw the invisibility cloak over him and disappeared.  Then the door creaked open, seemingly on it’s own accord.  Snow slowly crept out.

I have something else I discovered.  Apparently when a portal is made, then some parts from the other side of the portal leaks to the side that you-  Rose was about to finish writing when she saw Snow go out.  Wait!  she thought as she rushed after her pushing the door behind her.  But not hard enough.

Instead of locking, the door slid out again.  And Flint peeked out the door, looking both ways first (as you were always supposed to do when crossing a road) and slowly stepped out.

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    “Follow me,” Jack whispered, creeping down the hallway.

    “How can we do that if we can’t even see you?” Snow whispered back, tentatively stepping forward.

    He lifted a bit of his cloak to show a part of his hand.  “Follow the hand, then.”

    The three of them went through the maze of hallways.  Oddly, seeing some of the rooms brought back warm memories for Snow, of playing around and examining weird objects.  Then again, she hoped she’d never have to come back.

    “This is it.”  Jack stopped by the metal door in the hall and pressed in the key code.  The door slid open and he went inside.  It took all of Snow’s control not to peek in.  She had never really seen the lab before, and from what she had heard, it was interesting.

    “So… now we just wait?” Snow asked.  Rose shushed her.

    Then the door slid open.  Snow jumped up and immediately went inside.

    She looked around, trying to take in everything.  The room was packed with things, but there was only one thing of importance: the figure in the chair off to the side of the room.

    “Flake!” she exclaimed, running to him.  “We tried to come as fast as we could, I’m glad you’re okay, and we can-”

    “Snow!  Be quiet!” Flake hissed.  “Jack, why did you open the door?  He’s in the basement, he might come any second and I think he can hear you-”

    What basement? Rose asked Flake.

    “Hey, how come Windy is here?”  Jack asked.  He was off to the side, looking at the person in the chair behind Flake’s.  Sure enough, Windy was strapped in there, but she was unconscious.

    Then somehow, in all the commotion, Rose heard a thumping sound coming from below.  Footsteps?

    Someone’s coming!  she said, but no one hear her.