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I couldn’t quite place the smell, but it was off somehow Like antiseptic, but not

I shook ht now This placehereSiut said we shouldn’t be here None of us They did things herereally, really bad things, I just knew it

If this here they’d brought Tylerin a place no Returned should ever be

I spun in a circle, because another thought was crashing down on me "Where is he?" I needed one of thee ent Truht pushed my fears to the surface "You said he’d be here You said we’d get hi hi ere back at cae my mind about the outcome of the standoff between Tho face after all Maybe then, instead of ending up here, in theto convince , and telling myself to buck up, soldier, we could’ve just stayed back in Silent Creek, where we’d all have been safe Safe

Safe!

"Kyra" Simon’s voice was slippery "We haven’t looked everywhere--"

"I’ll check the coher on her shoulder "Meet me in the research cha me to wonder hoere supposed to knohere these places were, but also filling rip aroundand the research chamber--there were still places we could search for Tyler

Maybe, at long last, I’d get the chance to tell him I was sorry

Silass huh I was desperate to find Tyler, my curiosity compelled me to follow him That and the fact that I had no idea where the research cha above our heads, and we threaded our way in and around and under the tubing that stuck out from them

I nearly crashed into Simon’s back when he stopped directly in front of the last one--the only one that was covered by some sort of shiny, silver sheet Beneath the wrap, there was a static-y hu with life

"What are you doing?" I whisper-accused when he reached for the thin casing, but already ht be hidden there

Just then, there was an abrupt hush The alarms went suddenly and totally silent Simon’s face, still frozen in shock or horror orrevulsion, stayed that way as we looked around us like stupid, startled rabbits

The absence of sound was a s had been And when the red lights switched off too, and there was that brief moment when there was total blackness--just the blackness and the silence--I kneere done for

It took a second, but then one at a tih, high, high overhead began switching on The lights were blazing, so bright I flinched as if I’d just accidentally looked directly into the sun And while I waited forthe floor and I realized that the glass tiles weren’t red at all, but were actually an eerie shade of blue

We heard shouts--a juled with footsteps that were heavy and hollow--that could have been coht in front of us, for all I could tell It was like being in a twisted version of a carnival funhouse One where the end result was being strapped to adismembered

Beside me, I jerked Simon away fro we needed to get the hell outta Dodge at the same tier cared that just seconds ago I’d wished he’d been punched in the face I was like that, I guess--fickle

Blood rushed past lanced behind my shoulder, and then up to the observation roooing to be caught Willoas already gone, and er seemed like viable options--we had no idea which direction they’d be coh, there were several vents of so to find out if Sio of him and rushed to one of the and aard The voices grew clearer, loudersounding like they were right on top of us

"Here," Siainst ers surer than rate deftly "It’s okay Trust me"

I hated the way he said it, like he was my hero, but I didn’t have ti behind the wall, with Siht behind ed to secure it back in place Just as the central lab arh the vent openings, froer back here than I’d expected, more like a hallway than a space behind the walls I leanedto slowto see if we’d been discovered We stayed like that for an eternity I was terrified that the slightest sound, the barest scrape of ive us away And the entire ti a hole in my chest