Shift

21- Around the Bend

It was all of a sudden. Adrenalin racing through my veins, surging each nerve in my body. We were running down the hall, Klisa and Lavilla to my right. We were running to the controls like we were running a party that was a million kilometers away and we had ten minutes to make it there. It was feeling like we were running forever. Heads were turning and voices were shouting. Everyone was in a panic.

Alarms sounded throughout the halls, echoey and extremely loud. I kept my head straight, staring at the next curve of the hallway.

"We're almost there!" Klisa called out, just barely audible over the alarm.

We ran around the bend and stopped in our tracks. Guards were everywhere. The large open centre was crowded. Balconies overhead were filled with short purple-haired men with guns. They had silvery armor and long plasma loaded rifles, all aimed directly at us.

I looked over at Klisa for the first time since the alarms sounded. She had just stumbled a few feet in front of me. I had half expected her to just stare up at the guns and smile, saying "Oh, those look cool. Can I see one?" Instead her face had gone from dramatically excited to dramatically terrified. I started to think. Maybe, we could just keep running. I thought it might be the best option in the situation. We could just push our way through. I couldn't imagine Klisa pushing through people.

By myself I ran and guns started to go off. I was scared. Pure fright filled me with every step forward, with every breath I would take. I looked back, hoping Lavilla and Klisa were close behind. Lavilla started to run a moment later but Klisa just stood there, frozen in fear. "Klisa, come on!" I yelled. The guns weren't firing at her at least. They were just firing at me and soon after, Lavilla.

I looked back again. "Klisa, you have to keep going!"

The guards ran up behind her and linked their arms with her and dragged her to a room to the left. I wanted so badly to turn around. Afterall, the mission required our group leader. Klisa was of course ours. She was taken away. It made me even more determined to get to the control room though.

I remembered what the leaders would do. The punishment for crime of Shifts was a fresh start on a new planet with erased memory and a new name. I couldn't let that happen.

I managed to get to the wall of guards in front of the door to the control room and they seized fire. They wouldn't risk shooting their own. Lavilla was right behind me. She slide quickly and efficiently under the guards' legs. I have never been skilled enough for that so I just ran straight into them. I got a grasp of two rifles in front of me and twisted them out of the guards hands. They looked at me, seemingly just as scared. I pushed through.

Lavilla waved me along by the door. We rushed in and closed the door behind us. Lavilla pushed a few chairs up against the door as I ran towards the nearest computer. The Shift at the desk next to me looked over Lavilla then at me with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.

"Hey," I said and looked back at the computer, ignoring the reactions from the people around me. I needed to figure it out.

After Lavilla was satisfied with her barrier, she joined me at the computer. All I knew how to do was use sensors. I had no idea what they did to monitor the OP signals.

"Let me see," Lavilla chimed. She hopped on my lap and opened up the keyboard. "It can't be a whole lot different from monitoring the systems on the ship!" She said, scanning through programs, pulling open folders and trying to learn how to use the machine. She looked so confident. It made me surprised that she never used one before.

A notification popped up with a line underneath it. The alien symbols and figures were nonsense to me. I had no idea what she was doing. "You understand this?"

"Yes, if you follow the patterns, you can figure out what everything means. This notification says that the monitoring systems are password protected."

"Oh please..."

"Please?"

"Please, does this have to happen?"

"I thought you would expect a password. With the letter set used in these computers, it might make it harder but I should be able to figure it out."

"Well you're smarter than me."

"I'm sure you could do it."

I silenced her. I heard a noise and a moment later, the door exploded along with the barrier. Guards rushed in and we ran. I looked around. I saw a vent and I got Lavilla's attention. "Up there!" We climbed onto a desk and pulled ourselves up. We squeezed in as the guards started to fire.

We crawled along the vents quickly and jumped into a room a little ways down. We had to hide. The OP station must be shut down and we must find Klisa before she's gone.