Trials

Chapter 12- Noah

         Noah couldn't help but worry about Jenna. Sure, she was capable, but... why did it feel so wrong? Would she come back unscathed, or was she really going on a suicide mission? No. Noah couldn't worry. He'd just met her. Jenna didn't have a choice to fight or not. That he was certain.

         Noah bit his lip. Now, he had other priorities. Murphy has somehow made a convincing argument for his punishment to be to stay and do the same thing he was punished for. That, or maybe the instructors were really that dumb. So they kept the girl, Mack, in the corner away from the cams by the entrance, recovering slowly and unconsciously. When Noah was anxious over whether it would be enough, Murphy rubbed his thumbs along the floor and coated the cams in a thin layer of dust he picked up.

         "That should at least blur the cams. Hopefully." Murphy had said. "You go to training so you're not in trouble. I'll deal with the girl if she wakes up."

          Noah had nodded and accepted the answer, but now, as he shifts between shadows to hide from cams and grows closer to their room, dread took over. Between Jenna and Murphy trying to handle things on their own, Noah's stomach was twisted into a thousand knots.

          Soon Noah was in the same hall his room was in. He stares at the door suddenly wondering how he'd get past the entrance cams. To his dismay however, the cams were down. Lifeless. Unmoving. And the door that should be locked, it was creaked open. What was going on!

          A sudden blaring alarm shocked him back to his worry and then he couldn't help but rushing in. When he walked in, there was a loud "MMPH".

          Noah looks down beside his bed and gasps.

          "MURPHY!"

          Murphy was tied to the bed rail with sheets. He was gagged with what looks like his own pillowcase.

          His eyes went wide and he threw his shoulder forward to gesture something.

         "Mur..." He starts, but is thrown off when something barrels into him and pins his stomach to the ground. The heavy weight above him binds his wrists and ankles, and Noah struggles out of the loose bindings. He turns his head in surprise to see the same curly blond hair.

          "Mack!" He exclaims in surprise.

          She drives his shoulder into the ground.

         "How do you know my name!" She hisses.

         Noah ignores her. "Why are you tying us up!" He shouts.

         Mack tightens the bindings.

        "SHUT UP! You Trial pets!" She spits at him. 

         Noah had to bite his lip from screaming in pain from how tight she held her makeshift restraints.

         "W-what do-do you- you mean? We saved you. From the place you were frozen! He tells her.

         "Is that so...?" She whispers, then glances at Murphy. He nods desperately. She walks toward him and rips off the gag.

          "How long was I in there?" She snaps at Murphy.

         Murphy was shaking. "The file said two years..."

        Noah was surprised. Murphy had done some reading without him. And frozen? For two years?

         Mack didn't believe it either because she suddenly turned serious.

         "You're lying," She hisses dangerously. "You have to be! Now tell me the truth!" She sneers. Mack suddenly whips out a g*n and points it to his head.

        "Th-that's just what the file said. How do you have a g*n?" Murphy says with a frightened glance to the dull metal barrel.

          Mack grins. "I'm a package deal. You free me, you free my little trinket here as well. Now where's this file?"

         Murphy motions to a small stack of papers on the bed and Mack fingers through the papers quickly until she stops at one and her expression gradually angers. She whips out her g*n.

          "You forge this?" Murphy shook his head. "YOU'RE LYING!" She screams. "I'll kill you!"

         "Then you'll have to kill me too!" Noah shouts. "We saved your sorry butt so the least you could do is keep us alive and untie us!"

        "You look familiar..." She pauses. "Alright two years or not, I still have to get you out of here."

         She digs into her pocket, and she turns to horror. She turns around, digging further. "Where the heck did I put it!" She growls in frustration.

          Murphy's lip quivers. "I-I don't know-"

          When she takes out her g*n again, this time Noah's ready to stop her.

          "Remember what I said! If you kill him, I'm dead too. Whether it was by your hand or my own. Plus, I'm guessing you need me since you called me out when you were hallucinating with frostbite or whatever."

          "Hypothermia." She corrects. "And I have a job to do. My father is counting on me. Or... was. So where's your sister? I need both of you."

          He shrugs. "I don't know. Dead. That or on the run. She kind of turned psychotic I've heard. Don't ask why. Now what? You're threatening us for your father? What kind of job are you on?"

          She held her head higher. "My father has requested a mission to retrieve you and your sister. How he found out about you? I don't know. What he wants with you? I still don't know. But what I do know is that his intel was told that this mission was going to be fairly easy. So easy, in fact, that after months of begging he finally let me and another top kid from school come and assist on the mission. Along with a trained operative. I was supposed to get you two and hurry home on a jet they had waiting in a week, but things got.. .complicated.

           Noah and Murphy were both on the edge; eyes round at her story.

          "Then what happened?" Murphy asks eagerly.

          Mack's face turns dull. "There was a miscommunication. Had to be... the mission-the mission that was supposed to be a piece of cake turned deadly, fast. I was told you were twins, so you would both be in the Glacier Trial. So I went, but you weren't there. It was a trap I think. Maybe our intel betrayed us? Anyways, after that they soon found I was a spy and you found me in that ice chamber."

            "Dang..." Noah says.

           "So now that you're about to complete your mission, can you untie us?" Murphy pleads.

           Mack sighs and undoes the bindings; Noah eyes her warily. Something about Mack's demeanor was scaring him.

          He stood up, his eyes hardening, his hand relaxed on the cool metal bed railing. "I'm not going anywhere with you. I don't know what your father wants. And I have others things to worry about. Like taking down the Trials and finding my sister. You never even told me where home is for you-"

           "Thunder Mountain," She interrupts.

              "What?"

              "I live on Thunder Mountain." She says with a sigh. "Deep in the Himalayas. We have a sanctuary dug in the mountain, hidden away. It's our own little community. We have shops, greenhouses, a school, you name it. I have friends there. Like my best friend Xeda." Tears form in her eyes. "There is no going back though, not without that jet. I'm stuck here too... Now it's only a matter of time before both of you get your Transformations and they find me and freeze me again... or worse." She whispers softly.

            Noah pauses. It was a lot to take in, what Mack had said. Somehow some guy in the mountains had known what Natalie had told him. Was he out for power too? And how could one "miscommunication" lead her into a trap? Friend or foe, Mack was right. They were stuck. With little time. Either Dr. Whitman would find them, Jenna's stunt could set blame to him, or someone would discover the broken pod. They may all very well be doomed. Unless...

             Noah dumps the machine he stole from Dr. Whitman out onto the floor.

             "What is that?" Mack asks.

           Murphy's eyes widen and he grabs Noah's arm.

           "Noah do you know what that is!"

            Noah shrugs. "It was what Dr. Whitman was going to implant into me, but now it's going to make a perfect escape device and security deceiver."

            Noah begins to pick at the wiring to ease a miniature wire out of the small object. He begins to pull at the wire to see if it would come loose. Murphy shoves his hand in Noah's way.

          "You can't cut that!" He urges.

          "Why?" Noah asks.

         "Because it's an important piece of technology! It won't work properly if you take the wiring out!"

         "What does it do?"

         Murphy holds his tongue awkwardly and Mack rolls her eyes.

         "Ok, well it probably does something bad. I'm going to cut it."

         Murphy grabs the object with a blistering stare. "I don't know what it is, but I know he's given it to a few other kids and Whitman'd said it was really important so-"

        Murphy winces when Mack takes it snaps a wire, then takes it over to the dusty cams. She's about to connect it to the cam's hidden circuit board when suddenly a horrible wail fills Noah's ears and the room flashes red with alarms. Mack jumps in surprise, grabbing her pistol, and Murphy puts his pillow to his head to block the noise.

         This building is on lockdown until further notice. A low pitched artificial voice repeats over and over.

          "What the hell!" Mack snaps.

          Murphy jiggles the door handle violently and frowns.

         "Locked," He reports.

        Noah fears the worst. It could be that Jenna broke through, but he didn't think so. Oh no. What if it was Natalie? What if she came back  and wanted her brother dead too? Or what if-

         There was a bang on their door. Everyone stays silent until Murphy finally speaks.

         "We can't get the door open!" He shouts.

        "SHUT UP YOU i***t!" Mack screams back at Murphy.

          Murphy glares at her, but the person on the other end continuously beats on the door.

         They sit anxiously when the pounding stops. Murphy goes to the door.

         Mack ducks behind the bed when the door flies open.

         Noah smiles in surprise.

         "Courtney?" He says to the young wide eyed girl in the doorway.

         She gives him a short hug.

         "I thought you were dead," She says into his shoulder. "I thought it was because of me. That they punished me for escaping."

        "What? How did you escape?" Noah asks.

         "W-Well Jordan found me... and-"

         Mack stands up from behind the bed.

         "Jordan?" She says. "Jordan's still here?"

         Courtney nods. "Who are you? You know him?"

         "Oh, right." Noah clears his throat. "Courtney this is Mack and Murphy, and Mack and Murphy this is Courtney Solar, whom I met at the all-Trial memorial I... crashed." He explains.

        "You WHAT!" Mack hisses.

        Noah rubs his neck nervously.

       Mack gives an angered grunt. "We'll talk about that later," She clears her throat and turns to Courtney. "I'd like to hear what she had to say. It's hard to escape a Trial, especially for someone as dumb as Jordan. Continue." She orders.

        Courtney looks around awkwardly. "Well... umm... uh... Jordan went with me to the Rainforest Trial searching for you, Noah. But we found Jay and she had this note and he got really upset at something  so Jay told me to go on to their camp and then I got lost in the jungle, but this girl told me where to go... and she must've been wrong cause that led to a large green colored snake that was difficult to escape, but I had hot rocks from the Solar trial and then used them to burn a hole through the wall cause the Solar Trial barrier has heat-insulated walls and the Rainforest Trial doesn't and then I remembered Jordan talked about where they might take you and then alarms sounded and I went here and..."

        "Wait, slow down." Noah says. "A girl led you into the path of a green anaconda? They're the most venomous snakes in the Trial! When my sister was there she always told me about them. She-"

         Noah pauses and shivers. "Natalie led you to the anaconda..." He whispers.

         Mack's jaw fell slightly open. "Your sister- your sister did that?"

         Noah doesn't respond, his face was too stricken, his thoughts were everywhere.

         "Well- uh- I mean I was near the darker parts of the jungle. I couldn't see well cause there was fog. I could be wrong." Courtney offers respectfully.

         "But that would explain the alarms." Murphy says. "They'd need all hands on deck to get your sister, especially the danger she poses. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a team of Silent piling in right now."

        Murphy's words didn't comfort Noah. Neither did Courtney's. He was sure that the alarms were due to Jenna's charade, but he really didn't want to talk about all of that, though he was still sure that there would be Silent after her. Of course a part of him wanted them to find her, she definitely would be less dangerous if they did. He still couldn't believe Natalie, the sweet girl that had snuck in butterflies once on his birthday, had become such a nutcase. But another part of him worries for what would happen if they did find her. Or more, what they'd do to her if they did.

       Mack looks down and goes for the door.

       "Where are you going?" Murphy asks her quizzically.

       "I'm going to try and get to Natalie before they do." She says in a determined voice.

      "You can't go there! She's dangerous!" Courtney begs, grabbing her arm.

      Mack shook her off and glares at them.

       "I have a mission." She tells them. "I'm going. Come on Noah! Noah-"

      Noah looks from Courtney and Murphy to Mack.

       If he went with Mack he'd get to see his sister again. Of course, he'd see Jay, Liam, Josh, Mya, and everyone else. But a part of him still didn't recognize Mack's true intention. And if he stayed he could find Zach and see if Jenna was okay.

       Noah looks directly at her and shakes his head.

        Mack narrows her eyes.

        "FINE!" She snaps. "I don't need you anyway. You-you'll be more safe here too. I'll just go!"

       Noah felt a hollow feeling creep up on him. The same he felt with Jenna. And Grayson. And the memorial. And then an idea so absurd just flew right into his head. A suspicion so horrible, but it consumed him. When he looks at Mack he sees a face he'd never thought he'd see. And an expression he'd never seen before. Yet the situation was all too familiar...

      "Wait!" He shouts to Mack.

      She turns around, but she doesn't meet his eyes again.

      "I just want to ask one question," He says.

      "What?" Mack growls under her breath.

     "Your lead operative on the mission, what was their name?"

       "Liam," She says.

    Mack turns her back and closes the door behind her.