Page 56 of Heart’s Prisoner

Ben dropped back to the wall with athunkand mumbled something Lana didn't catch.

"Ben," Lana tried to get his attention. "Why would they do that?"

Ben finally looked her in the eye. "They got out," he said softly. "They all got out."

Lana went cold. "The specimens?"

Ben shut his eyes and nodded.

"How?"

"It was him," came a shrill voice next to her. Lana looked over and saw Sarah's tear-stained face twisted with fear. "It was him, I saw it."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Ben said with a detached voice.

"Like hell I don't," Sarah cried. "Just look at the feed for yourself." Sarah tugged away from the other tech who was trying to comfort her. She slid closer to Lana, her mouth trembling. "I saw Dr. Kingsley go into the computer. I watched him deactivate the security system. I–I would have said something b-but..."

"It wasn't him, it's not possible," Ben said.

Sarah slammed her fist on the ground. "How else could the units have been unlocked?" she shrieked at him through clenched teeth. "No one else has authorization to do that! And you know no one can hack the system!"

Ben shook his head again, refusing to believe. "Officer Torrence has access as well."

"Officer Torrence was the one who tried to stop him!" she nearly screamed.

"Miss, calm down," the standing officer ordered.

Sarah clamped her mouth shut and hot tears spilled down her face. She looked to Lana with tight desperation, grabbing her sleeve. "You have to believe me. I know it seems impossible that he would do such a thing, but I know what I saw. He let them out...he let them out!"

Calmly, Lana grasped the girl's hand, releasing it from her arm then holding it gently. As hard as it might be for others to believe, Lana knew the girl might be telling the truth. There had been something wrong with Cole for a while.

"Did you see his face?" Lana asked.

Sarah nodded her head.

"Was he bleeding? Like from his nose?"

Sarah nodded again. "And from his mouth. His eyes were messed up too. He looked..."

"Sick?"

Sarah bowed her head and let her hand slip from Lana's. Lana gazed back at Ben. "It was like what happened to Jeff, you remember?"

"That gangly guy who worked in the bacteria lab? Jesus, yea. But what does it mean?"

Lana shook her head. " I don't know. But whatever it is, it's compromised the facility."

Dahlia stirred and moaned and Lana placed a hand on her arm. When she opened her eye, she looked around and frowned. "What happened?"

Ben explained everything while Lana watched as the officers finally ordered the guards to shut the door to the saferoom for good.

"Did they at least hit any of them?" Dahlia asked as Ben told her Galger and his men had bombed the facility.

"Everything happened too quickly..." Sarah replied. " I think the giant ones didn't make it for sure but the others," she tried to wipe her tears away but it was futile, "they got out through the vents."

Dahlia closed her eyes.

"But it's okay, we are safe," Ben said. "We are in the saferoom now and they just closed the doors."

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