MOTHERS

◙twenty-one◙

The live-feeds were scattered now, jumping from screen to screen, showing different locations of the lab. For five minutes, Elle and the other lab-workers had their sights on the abandoned top corridor, its walls unblemished by the bloodshed Elle had witnessed on the lowest level. Then the feed fizzled to show the middle hallway, where she and the group currently were, but luckily no camera showed them gathered in the security room. They saw an empty hall, opened doors, and flickering violet lights; nothing new.

But then the screens panned to the lower floor itself, alternating between showing Lola—with her tentacles—and Star. They were going through rooms pillaging, destroying, and massacring any remaining humans who'd hidden from the sounds of carnage going on out in the hallway.

As far as Elle was aware, there wasn't a single surviving human on the lower level by the time the cameras displayed Rivo exiting a room, covered in blood, reddish liquid dripping from his fingertips. He'd let loose his true alien persona—like Lola, he was equipped with four viscous, octopus-like tentacles that swirled around him and chopped at anything coming too close. Not that anyone would dare approach him, with his blinding yellow laser-beam eyes. But he had extra protection with extra sharp tentacles, too, just in case.

Everyone in the security room was silent as a new figure appeared on screen. A tall one, wearing a fancy suit and polished shoes, and not quite fitting the atmosphere of dread downstairs. Elle squinted at his back—he was facing away from the camera, entering the scene in complete fixation of Rivo. She thought he looked familiar, but couldn't quite place him. At first she thought Rivo was about to slice through his neck and be done with him. But then the figure turned its head in the camera's direction, as if addressing someone behind him.

Elle's voice caught in her throat as she understood why the person had seemed familiar. The musculature, the stance, the posture—she'd observed this person in minute detail only dozens of minutes prior, when he'd arrived. Cole.

Others in the room with Elle recognized him, too. They issued a collective gasp at the sight of Cole's usually docile green eyes now bright red, brazing through the room like taillights in a haze.

Elle leaned in closer to the screen. "I still can't believe he's back. It's... I mean it can't be possible." She wished she could zoom in, to better see his face, better read his lips, decipher what he was saying to whoever he was speaking to. The machine's volume had stopped working again, but she was grateful for it, not wanting to listen to the screams and final words of the victims of the escaped aliens.

"Yeah, seriously, though. How did he get back in?" Coffee-cup guy shuddered; he'd lowered to Elle's level and was glaring at the screen in disbelief. "Wouldn't we have seen him?"

"Wouldn't he have seen us, you mean," said pajama lady, glancing towards the doorway. "There's no way he didn't detect us in here, when he and the mothers were using the stairwell. We're lucky to still be alive. Shouldn't we close the door? Seal ourselves in and pretend like we're not here?"

"You saw it like we did," said Elle, unable to remove her gaze from Cole as he returned to face his brother and slowly began walking in his direction. "They open doors and search rooms. Closing this door doesn't keep us safe."

"Keeping it open doesn't, either," said pajama lady, insistent. "We need to stop watching the live-feed like it's an epic movie, and start focusing on what we need to do."

Several people had already expressed their concern that there was nothing to do, by that point. The only exit was through Dr. Price's secret door in his office, and no one had access to that. And the only one who'd be able to open said office—Rivo—would definitely not unlock the door to let them out. All other exits were sealed, blocked off, inaccessible; one of the men in the group had checked prior to coming here.