Dan's POV

Alex quickly sat up on the table and attempted to pry Nate's hand off her mouth. She didn't have enough strength to do anything about it and seemed to be wincing in pain.

"Calm down, we're going to get you out of here," I whispered.

Her eyes frantically roamed around the room before stopping on Nate. Nate loosened his grip around her mouth and Alex took in a shaking breath. "Who–"

"Would you please stop freaking out so we can help you?" Nate asked.

Alex nodded her head slowly. She glanced at the pool of blood beneath her, then looked back up to Nate and me. "Are you two here to kill me?"

"What–" I paused. "Look, we aren't going to hurt you. We want to get you out of here, along with another friend of Nate's."

"And we really need you to work with us on this," Nate added.

"Okay, what's the plan?" she asked as she slowly moved her legs over the side of the table.

I exchanged glances with Nate before I commented, "You seem really excited for someone who didn't trust us ten seconds ago."

"I don't exactly have much of a choice, do I?"

Before I could respond, Nate instructed, "Dan, we need to help her down. If anyone asks what we're doing, tell them that Alex needs exercise. Don't use her name, though. Call her by her table number, thirty-eight. We need to go find Jason and Phil."

I nodded my head uneasily as we unhooked Alex from a machine and helped her down from the table. Once she was on the ground, we noticed that she couldn't stand straight. "Wait, can you walk?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I'm not sure. I haven't tried since I was brought here."

I thought for a moment. "We'll just have to work around it. Nate, put her arm around your shoulders and help her walk. If we get into a situation where we have to run, I'll carry her."

Nate nodded and carefully placed Alex's left arm over his shoulders. She winced as he lifted her arm, but was back to a straight face a few seconds after. I peered around the laboratory for table forty-two, searching for Phil and Jason.

I saw them a few tables further into the laboratory. Jason had his hand over his mouth while Phil was doing something to his patient.

I pointed them out to Nate, and he and Alex began walking toward them. I followed behind, pretending to take notes on Alex.

As we walked, I noticed a few scientists staring at us and whispering. However, for some reason, I didn't think they were talking about me and Nate. I got the feeling they were talking about Alex, which only made me more curious as to what had been happening to her. She simply didn't seem to be in her right state of mind.

I pushed away the thought. It was possible that she had been tortured, so it made sense that she wasn't in the right frame of mind. I couldn't shake the thought that the other scientists were whispering about her, though. It might've been because she was walking around, but it felt like there was something else going on.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when Nate whispered, "Dan, you okay? We're almost to Phil and Jason."

I nodded my head. "I'm fine. How's Alex holding up?"

Nate looked at her for a second. "She seems to be doing okay. She isn't leaning on me much, so I guess she must be feeling a little bit better."

Alex coughed, causing Nate to jump a bit. "You alright?" I asked Alex.

She giggled half-heartedly, "Yeah, I've been coughing non-stop the past couple of days, so this is nothing new."

I looked at Alex's back and commented, "You've got quite a bit of blood seeping through your clothes. Are you sure you're going to be okay?"

"If there's one thing you can count on right now, it's that I'm not going to die when I'm this close to getting out," she replied.

I took a deep breath. "Alright."

Nate smiled as we reached Phil and Jason, but his expression changed quickly. "What are you two doing?"

"We're just doing what the file said!" Jason defended. "Or, rather, Phil is."

"What did your file say to do?" I asked.

"We're trying to inject our patient with whatever this is, but he keeps moving in his sleep," Phil mumbled.

"So every time we try to get the liquid out of this tube and into his veins, he squirms around and makes us pull the shot away," Jason finished.

"Forget the shot," Nate instructed.

"This is what our file says to do. What happens if we don't do it and he dies?" Phil asked. "Also, I thought we agreed to help Alex after we found Percy."

"One," I began, "if it's that important, I have no doubt that this machine will sound an alarm, alerting other scientists about the problem. Two, we changed the plan. Once we get Percy, we need to get out of here as quickly as possible. It would be hard to do that if we had to swing by the table and unhook her. Plus, I'm willing to bet that someone would have captured us by that point."

"So the next step in the plan is finding Percy?" Jason asked, excitedly.

"Yes, but I'm not sure where he'd be," Nate mumbled. "I haven't seen him yet, have any of you?"

I exchanged glances with Phil before stating, "Don't worry, he has to be here somewhere. Let's just keep looking."

"To add," Phil started, "I don't think Percy would just be out here with the other orphans. We saw the same monster twice, which we figured out was Percy, so I don't think any of these other kids can completely transform into a monster yet."

"Are you saying that Percy isn't being held here with the other orphans?" Nate questioned.

"I think he's here, I just don't think that he's laying out on one of these tables like all the other kids."

"You think he's hidden somewhere," I muttered.

"Exactly. I think that Percy is locked up down here in a room by himself."

"Then how are we supposed to find him?" Jason asked.

"There are a couple doors down that way," Alex commented, pointing behind Phil.

"How do you know? I assumed you were unconscious the whole time before we got here," I murmured.

"I remember seeing them when I was first brought here a couple days ago."

The feeling of uneasiness crept back in, but was thrown off by Phil replying, "I do see a door against the wall. It wouldn't be a bad idea to check there."

I sighed, "Alright, let's go."

I walked beside Phil, behind Alex, Nate, and Jason. I had stopped taking notes, figuring that if someone thought we were suspicious, they would have reported us by now. "You seem worried about Alex," Phil mumbled.

"I don't think worried is the right term. More like anxious," I whispered back.

"Why are you anxious about her? She seems like a normal kid to me."

"That's why I'm so anxious. I mean, look at the situation all of us are in, and look at her. She sided with us extraordinarily quickly, not to mention she knew about the door–"

Phil chuckled, "Dan, I think you're beginning to lose your mind. You're being too skeptical. She was probably just relieved that someone's saving her."

"Still, she accepted our help way too fast. You'd think that someone in her situation would have some major trust issues at this point."

Phil thought for a moment. "Do you think the voice did something to her?"

"I'm not sure, but I seriously don't trust her. Not yet, anyway."

We walked in silence for a few minutes before we reached the door. Nate and Jason helped Alex lean against the wall, then walked to me and Phil. "Are we going in there with a plan, or just winging it?" Nate asked.

Phil shrugged. "We've been winging it the whole time, haven't we? We haven't died yet."

"Yeah, what's one more 'charge into an unknown room with no plan'? We've got this!" Jason cheered.

"Just in case, remember that all we're here to do it rescue Percy," I explained.

"Also, maybe whoop some ass. I mean, if someone's guarding him," Nate decided.

I chuckled, "Of course."

Nate grinned and grabbed the doorknob. He paused for a moment and took a deep breath before swinging the door open.

Inside the dark room, I could just barely see the shadow of a child, sitting against a wall.

A/N

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