READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 3: Manhunt
The reverberating sound waves bounced through and around the empty aisles. The blaster was not a loud weapon, but using it in empty and neat hallways was an exception.
"Is... Is he dead?" One woman asked in fear. Everyone was awfully quiet, everyone's eyes on Rohan and the dead body he was standing over.
Allison slowly got to his feet and walked to Rohan's side before taking a look at the officer. "Oh my..." He glanced at Rohan's face.
Rohan looked sick, his eyes seemed to be lost, and his lips were trembling like he was muttering something. "Come on, we have to get out of here" Allison grabbed Rohan's arm, trying to pull him but he wouldn't budge. "Roe! We don't have time for this! They'll be here any minute, they'll kill us all!" Allison shouted into Rohan's face, trying to bring him back. The other slaves started panicking at the sound of Allison's words.
"Hey, you! Why did you kill him?! Now we're dead, they will kill us, they will kill all of us!" A middle-aged man from the group shouted, he looked, ready to attack Rohan.
"Pipe it down old man" Allison replied on behalf of Rohan, taking the blaster from his hand, "We were all going to die anyway, we were just their lab rats. My friend here just gave us a chance to escape, which is what we should be doing right now!" Allison turned to Rohan, who just started to raise his head. "Hey buddy, I'm sorry alright, he's gone, it wasn't your fault, you did the right thing, but we will be the next dead if we don't start thinking," Allison said in an assuring tone.
Rohan tried to speak when the cry of a woman deafened his ears. The silent echo follows. He only had under a second to witness what happened to her, her body seemed to have dematerialized into thin air. Before he could take into account the situation, a younger girl was phased too and four more people within a few seconds, it was a horrible sight. Allison put a protective arm around him and Rohan, it seemed the attack was coming straight from the end of the hallway, luckily he and Rohan were in the right corner.
"Run!" Allison screamed. Rohan obliged, he and a few other lucky captives dashed toward the right, their heels touching the back of their heads. Only one thought rang in their minds 'Was this the end.'
"Officer down" Another officer arriving at the scene spoke into his communicator. "A dozen or more captives heading straight on Plane six, nine, seven, section one B." He and a few other officers had just successfully cleared half a dozen captives. A voice emerged from the communicator, it was young and juvenile "Umm, do you identify any of these runaways?" The officer replied respectfully as his crew moved on to chasing the indigent. "No Master Caperon, I mean, they're all shaggy nobodies right?"
"Shit. Shit. Damn!" Caperon grumbled. "Now look what this brat has caused! How the hell did he phase down an officer?" He paced around. "What if Uncle finds out?"
"Chill, your uncle won't find out. He's busy with the exhibit, no one will dare disturb him because of runaway indigents." Stefan said, Caperon's best friend, son of the richest trader in the nation.
"Are you as dumb in acting as you are in thinking?" Caperon stood from his rocking chair, "Six, nine, seven section one B is just five hallways from here, so six, nine, seven, section one B is just directly under the event hall." he pointed his index finger to his temple, "Grab your blaster, Stefan, we are going hunting."
A lot was going through Rohan's mind, what the hell did I just do? He thought. Did that woman just die? Are we running? Where are we running to? I killed a man! My back hurts! The elevator! Dad! I killed a man! Who's chasing us? His mind was in a whirl. A younger boy slipped on the smooth tiles, Rohan tried to save him but the boy cried in pain and he slowly started to disintegrate.
"Hurry up people, we are so close?" Allison pointed at an elevator and they all piled in. He pressed an upward button.
"What! Why are we going up?" A young woman demanded from Allison.
"Hold on, you wanted to go down? Are you crazy?"
She struggled for the buttons, "Press a down button, you rascal!" Allison fought her off, "If we go down, that's the peak of security, we'll be caught easily even by those not chasing us, we should stall them out as long as we can". The lady stopped struggling and composed herself, "So which floor did you choose?"
"We'll be taking four floors upwards and six floors each downwards every new threat." The elevator opened, "Come on! We need to keep going."
"Hurry up!" Stefan yelped at Caperon. "I'm running as fast as I can!" Caperon yelled back. "Come on, we need to get to that elevator before they do, then we can cut them off, they'll have nowhere to run." Stefan and Caperon arrived at the elevator door, "Shit! It's already in use, they're in it already".
A voice beeped from the communicator, "The indigents are in the elevator." Caperon was fuming with anger, "Don't you think we know that!" He growled into the communicator. "Inform some men to wait at the doors of the elevator two and five floors above us, they wouldn't dare go too far" Caperon ordered.
"Yes Master" came the reply.
Stefan and Caperon sighed in fatigue, "This is a goddamn mess, how the hell are we gonna clean this up without my Uncle knowing a bit about it." Caperon was agitated at the fact of indigents roaming around in the building freely toppled with him allowing one escape from his grasp earlier. Now he was totally screwed up.
"Without your uncle knowing a bit about what?" came a demanding voice behind which startled them both.