"Before you think of doing anything dreadfully stupid," Mr. Speck said. "You should consider the countless Yunitides on the other side, ready to pounce if you do manage to make it out of the lab. Now, if you will excuse me, I have someone important I need to meet."

   The lab lapsed into silence after the sounds of his footsteps faded. At this point, I didn't know what to do. And even if I did, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to do it. I made one NeuroSkel and look at what that did. I choose to trust Landon from the beginning and look at what happened to Dorian.

"So how are we getting out of here?" I heard Cami whisper.

   I kept my eyes on the ground, hoping that question wasn't referred to me. For everyone else's sake, I was going to keep my hands, mind, mouth–myself, basically, to myself.

"Beth..." I couldn't help tensing up as I felt Rav's presence beside me.

   When time went by without him saying anything beyond my name, however, it was getting harder to focus on the floor. Giving in eventually, I looked up at him, not knowing whether I was prepared to hear whatever he had to say.

   I knew I wasn't expecting the huge smile on his face though. Or what looked more like him holding back a laugh.

"What?!" I snapped.

   For his sake, whatever it was better b–

   My subsequent words were cut short but Rav placing his hand on my head and giving it a gentle, but firm tilt in the direction of the door/wall Landon and Dorian had exited.

"Look." He insisted, most likely knowing that I was this close to punching that smile off his face.

   So I did.

   Staring at the unmoving, white, tiled door, I didn't notice anything at first.

   But then as my eyes trailed downwards, that door that appeared one with the wall that it had closed into was becoming evident, like a jigsaw puzzle piece fixed in the wrong place. It took only a few glances lower for me to recognise the reason.

   Which also ended up being the reason all air was shocked into eluding every single part of my body.

   I turned to Rav, who was now crouched next to me. Then to the door. Then to Rav. Then to the door again. Then I blinked. Again and again and again.

   I opened my mouth, not even sure why I was trying to talk when there were absolutely no words in my head.

   The only organs that seemed to be functioning were my eyes. And the only reason I could say this with confidence was because even after countless blinks, I could still see, wedged between the bottom of the door and the wall, an almost round shaped metal ball with a thick, plastic string attached to it.

   My invention.

   My yoyo-like, magnetic, weapon-snatching invention served as a door stopper, creating a space between the wall and the door.

"How?!" I all but yelled at Rav.

"Don't tell Dorian," He sounded sheepish. "But when he gave us our suits last night, I put it on right away and in, er, testing out the durability of the pouches, I accidentally created, uh, holes in them? And between your weapons and the last minute items we brought along, the pouches without problems were not enough, so I had to, you know, think outside the box. With this tech in particular. I realised it was still on me when I woke up. The idea just came to me while I was running to Landon and Dorian."

"So where did you put it?" I asked.

"What?"

"This tech. Where was the created hole that you kept it in?"

   My brow couldn't resist raising when he pointed to his crotch area.

   I guess it wasn't so surprising how the Yunies–or whoever cleaned us–didn't notice that weapon.

"Come on, guys," Camila said. "Like you heard, Mr Speck's on his way to do God knows what to Dorian. We need to get to them before that happens."

   She was already near the door, on her knees. Her hands in the space between the door and wall, exerting force on the latter.

"Wait!" I rushed to her side. "Have you forgotten what Speck said? We need a plan on how we'll handle the Yunies on the other side of the door."

"Unless the Yunies have become invisible, quiet-breathing aliens, I don't think we have to worry about them."

"What do you mean?" Rav frowned.

   Cami didn't answer the question right away. Getting on her feet, she walked up to me and Rav, using her hands to guide and push us down to her previous spot.

"What do you see?" She asked.

   I looked through the door's crack, seeing nothing but a white wall. There was not a Yunie in sight.

"Fine," Rav huffed after he had a look. "But our angle is limited. For all we know, they could be hiding in one of our blindspots."

"Then at least we'd hear them, won't we?" She replied. "But we don't because there's no alien there! Don't you want to save your brother?"

"How dare you ask me that?" Rav's rhetorical question was venomous. He stood up to glare down at her. "No one in this room wants to save him more than I do. That is why I refuse to walk out blind, risk getting caught and destroy the one chance he has."

   Both of them were right in a way. I didn't see any aliens when I looked through the crack, but that didn't mean they weren't there. We needed a way to settle this once and for all.

   And I think I know how.

   Ignoring the puzzled looks I received when my hands dug into my hair, I fished through for the beads on the front twists I'd done earlier in the morning.

   I held them up while addressing Rav and Camila, "Rav, you said in the van that with the right lighting, the Yunies have impeccable eyesight and their hearing is pretty good right?"

"Yes..?"

"Okay, great." I shifted a little further from the door while arranging the beads in my palm. "Then they won't miss this."

   One by one, the beads slipped through the space as I threw them each in quick succession. In an instant, the other side of the door was filled with constant taps, loud enough to create echoes all over.

   I brought my eye to the space between the door and wall for some seconds. Still nothing in sight. Then my ear. The only sounds that were getting back to me emanated from the beads.

   Satisfied with the outcome of my experiment, I turned to Cami and Rav. "If the Yunies were there, they would not have ignored that. Even if they may have later known that it was a trick, it would not have been without them looking into it first, something we would've seen or at least heard them doing."

   Camila rolled her eyes and mouthed a 'thank you', but I didn't respond. I looked at Rav.

"Fine." He eventually grunted.

   Cami and Rav joined me on the floor. We gave room to each other's fingers in the space before resting our cupped hands on the door and pulling hard.

   By the time the door caved to our combined efforts and opened up, I was positive I would never be able to feel my fingers ever again.

   But since that was an indication of our freedom, it was fine by me. I barely got my foot out to the other side when Rav came brushing past me. Glad to see his paranoia was no longer existent.

"Come on Beth," he gave me an impatient look over his shoulder. "We need to save Dorian."

   Really?

   Holding back an eye roll, I stepped into the empty hallway. It was no different than the one Dorian, Rav and I had been in. The one where I'd seen Talise... who served as a distraction for us to get knocked out and put in the lab.

"Just because the Yunies aren't here right now doesn't mean surprises can't happen. Let's all remain vigilant," I warned.

"Where do you think Speck's keeping him?" Rav asked no one in particular in a not-so-firm voice.

   His question hung in the air unanswered. I didn't want to be quick to respond since I couldn't think of anything at the moment. The only places we'd seen so far were the lab and the previous and current hallway. Dorian could be anywhere.

   Although, I wouldn't be surprised if it was close to where Mr. Speck was speaking to us from, which I'm pretty sure is hidden somewhere near.

   Considering the nature of the door we'd just opened, there's a high chance that that was how all the doors down here were. Meaning that we could be walking past the doors of rooms etched into the walls without even knowing it.

   And just like that, my eyes began scanning the walls I passed by, looking for any distinctiveness in their whiteness that could give them away.

"Guys," I let them know what I was thinking so that they could do the same. "We need to be checking the–"

"Sshh!" Cami put a finger to her mouth. "I heard something."

   I joined her and Rav in silence to confirm if she was right.

   Unlike the last time, I didn't make the mistake of using just my ears. I glanced at both sides of the hallway, making sure to take my time with each look. Nothing. Or rather one.

   I was about to let Cami know this when the sudden sounds that reached my ears halted my actions.

   Tap, tap, tap.

   These same noises my beads released when I threw them into the hallway.

   We'd been walking for a while and were quite a distance from the lab now, but that didn't do much to convince me of where the taps were coming from.

"Beth," I felt Rav touch my shoulder.

   Shrugging it off, I continued to stare down the hallway, not sure what to do. If it was a Yunie, we would really have to put in our strengths now that the only weapon we had was the one Rav used as a door stopper.

"Beth."

   And if it was Talise again... we couldn't hold back. Not if we didn't want what happened last time to happen again

   Now I wasn't sure who I'd prefer instead.

   Rather than call my name for the third time, Rav, with a sturdy grip, whirled me to face the opposite direction, away from whoever was definitely onto us.

"What is your pro–?!"

   Those last letters got caught up in my throat, replacing that word with a low, choking sound once I met eyes on the other side of the hallway.

A/N: Who could that be now🤔?

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