Page 57 of Heart’s Prisoner

"You really think so?" Dahlia asked.

"What?"

"That we are safe?"

Ben glanced at Lana as if looking for reassurance. Lana tried to give them a hopeful smile despite the panic beginning to fester inside. "I'm sure we are."

As everyone began to settle in and blankets and food were distributed. Lana made a place for herself beside her coworkers on the wall. As Ben tended to Dahlia and Sarah lay sleeping in a curled position nearby, Lana watched in silence, trying to choke back the terror that was building in her.

With the specimens out of their cells, there was no telling how long they might be stuck inside the room. Along with the fear of one of them somehow getting in disturbing her thoughts, her mind also turned to even more depressing matters. With the facility bombed it meant everything would have been destroyed. Even what was left of Xerus' body. It shouldn't have bothered her, but it did.

Hours seemed to pass. The officers and guards had grouped together and had been talking for some time. They had managed to bring in a Scibot into the saferoom with them and so were able to use its computer interface to gain access to each level's status. They brought over an engineer from level five to deactivate certain security parameters in hopes that they could also gain access to live video feed. Something he had been working on for a couple of hours now.

With no clocks in the room, most relied on their watches and phones. Around 1 AM the officers dimmed the lights just enough so that some could hopefully sleep while still being able to see everything. Many laid out on the sleeping mats on the floor while those who knew they would get no kind of sleep stuck to the wall.

Lana was one of these and so she watched the others around her instead. Her eyes fell several times on the men at the door and those working on the Scibot then around to the ceiling and the walls. She noticed one vent by the wall. Though blocked by one of the crates, it still gave her anxiety.

When her gaze happened to shift over to check on Dahlia, she noticed Ben staring at her. He looked pale still and had been oddly silent for the past couple hours. She tried to smile at him and he looked away. She thought nothing of it until a few moments later she caught him eyeing her again.

"Everything okay?" she asked in a low voice.

Ben frowned, shifting uncomfortably. "There's something...I don't know."

"What?"

Ben let out a deep, shaky, breath and combed fingers through his hair. "There's something I need to show you. I didn't say anything at first because I didn't want you to freak out. Or any of the others for that matter. But especially you."

Lana's brows furrowed. "What is it?"

Ben rubbed his forehead as if thinking. "Fuck it," he whispered, and from a bag next to him, he took out a small pocket laptop and turned it on. "Officer Torrence wanted to keep this under wraps but there doesn't seem much point now." He tapped his fingers along the keyboard, bringing up a single file.

"Before everything basically hit the shitter I was just about to get off shift when...this happened." Ben brought up a video recording of the lab. Before he hit the play button he looked at her seriously. "Please try not to scream."

He hit the button and Lana watched closely. There was no sound, just an image of the lab from above. Torrence wasn't at his desk and only a few guards were at the door. Dr. Yanlin and two other techs were working in the lab along with Ben as the lone engineer who she could see working on his computer in the far right corner. This was no surprise as the night shift was usually pretty scarce of people, and even the great Officer Torrence had to sleep sometime.

Dr. Yanlin moved away from his desk and gestured for the techs to follow him. They moved over to the station of medical equipment where Xerus' body was still resting on the table. They had removed the sheet and, with gloved hands, they carefully prodded him and moved his head. One of the techs picked up a metal rod and placed it under Xerus' tail. Dr. Yanlin and the third tech moved to each side of the table getting ready to move it.

Lana knew what they were doing. They were getting ready to place his body in a cleansing chamber, to wash down his body before the autopsy. Then, if she remembered correctly, he would have then been placed in an isolation pod to keep him staying fresh until the surgery. She stared down at Xerus' lifeless body and a hard lump grew in her throat. She wished it wasn't so hard to look at him.

The team moved the rolling table around and started to make their way to the cleansing chamber. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until they stopped in front of the chamber and were about to drop him in.

They seemed to hesitate dropping him in. As Dr. Yanlin bent forward to examine his body again they all simultaneously leaped back as if struck by a bolt of lightning. One tech slammed into a cart of equipment knocking it over and the other fell to the ground and crawled away. Dr. Yanlin was waving his arms frantically for the guards.

Their panic was justified. Because Xerus had moved.

Lana grew as still as a shadow as she watched Xerus rise from the table. His movements were slow at first as if he were just waking up, but as soon as the guards had their guns drawn and pointed at him, he leaped from the table and bolted away. Brilliant white light burst over the screen as shots fired in his direction. But, from what could be seen, it was already too late. Xerus had slipped into the ventilation system.

Ben started to say something but Lana didn't hear it. She didn't scream. Just like he asked. Instead, she felt herself falling forward and her vision going black.

Chapter Nineteen

"Stand back and let me see her," came a muffled voice in the darkness. A hand cupped Lana's jaw, tilting her head back. She groaned as something was pressed into her left nostril and a puff of air followed by a strong bitter scent stung her nose. Lana opened her eyes and the fuzzy, black vision began to clear. She felt hands on her shoulders as she was laid out on her side with her knees to her chest. "She'll be fine, just a little faint. Keep watch and give her some water." Lana saw the nurse step around her and leave to check on others. She blinked several times and swallowed, her throat dry. A heavier hand gently landed on her arm and her eyes rolled upward to see Ben looking down at her.

"Lana, fuck, I'm sorry, I honestly didn't realize it would mess you up that bad."

Lana licked her lips and tried to lift her head. There was a brief instance of lightheadedness but nothing more severe. Slowly she lifted the rest of her body until she was sitting hunched over. A water bottle came into her field of vision and she took it gladly, taking large gulps until the bottle was half empty. She exhaled and gave the bottle back to Ben who placed it on the ground. "Thank you," she mumbled.

"Hey, no problem. You okay?"

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