Delta

Chapter Twenty-One: The Junkyard

Twenty seconds after Adrian disappeared, the yellow light suddenly returned and this time Jason was in the center of it. The light disappeared and he stumbled out.

I held out my arms to help him regain his balance. He looked up at me with a dazed and confused expression.

"What-what just happened?" He asked, looking around the room. "One second I was...there, and now I'm...here?"

I did a quick survey of Jason to make sure he had all of his body parts. Externally, he looked okay.

"How do you feel?" I quickly asked. "Do feel like anything's...missing?"

"Um...no? Why am I here?" 

I suddenly heard Ella's concerned voice in my ears. 

"Reagan! Is Jason there with you? Is he okay?"

I reached up and held down the button on my headset.

"Yeah he's here and he seems fine. Is Adrian there with you? How does he look?"

I heard a sigh of relief from her end. 

"Yeah Adrian's here. He looks okay, just confused. Do you know what's going on?"

"Elsa switched us up. Are you okay? You didn't respond when I tried talking to you last time." I said, suddenly feeling guilty about having forgotten about Ella. When she hadn't responded to me, I assumed that something was wrong but I had quickly forgotten about it.

"I'm fine now. It's a long story that I'll tell later."

I looked over at Jason. He still looked dazed at what had happened.

"Uh, what were you and Adrian doing before...I showed up?" He asked, noticing that I was looking at him. 

"We were, uh, about to go that way," I said, making the sudden decision to go through the hole in the wall. It was the surest way we could leave the test chambers right now, and I didn't want to pass up that opportunity. 

"Is that meant to be there?" Jason asked, looking over to the gaping hole.

"Yeah, I think so. Come on, before Elsa changes her mind." 

I gestured for Jason to follow me as I walked over to the opening. It was weird not to have Adrian here anymore. I hoped he was okay.

 I carefully climbed through the wall, being careful not to snag my clothes on the metal piping that protruded from the inside of the wall. 

I stepped out into a carpeted hallway and turned around as Jason climbed through the hole.

"What's going on right now?" He asked as he clambered through.

"Adrian and I were thrown into the test chambers again. Elsa told us that we could either keep testing, or pass through this way and go through a small challenge that will initially lead us back into the main part of the facility," I explained. "Now, I'm not saying that I believe her completely. This could be a big trap that gets us killed, but it's also our best way of escaping."

I turned around and walked forward around a corner. A steel door was set into a wall at the end of the hallway. It stood out greatly among the dull colors and wooden doors that lined the walls. 

"I wonder what she's playing at," Jason muttered as we walked towards the metal door. He stopped briefly to tug at a door handle of one of the office doors, but it was locked tight. I did the same with a door on the other side, but it was also locked. It was obvious that that the steel door at the end of the hall was where we were meant to go.