Intruder

/inˈtro͞odər/

noun

a person who intrudes, especially into a building with criminal intent

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I thought that the fear coursing through my body before was terrifying. The amount doubled when I realized what was happening.

Janice had told me to stay here, but she surely didn't know there would be intruders. Right?

Out of pure instinct my body followed the other Brains, heading to my quarters to take cover. We did these drills often, but this time it was different. This was real. It was comparable to those intruder drills they used to do at schools. Get to a classroom, or living quarters in our case, barricade yourself, arm yourself in case the intruder gets in, escape if possible, and wait it out.

The red lights in the halls were in full effect, illuminating every corner of the hall as Brains packed together and huddled into rooms until they were filled and they moved to the next. Tiny children were trampled and helped up by older initiates that passed by, or carried by an older sibling. Most girls were letting out shrill screams of fear that gave the alarms something to compete with.

Even though they told us to stay calm, it was if something changed when they said this was not a drill. Something clicked inside everyone. There are rebels among us. And that was something that absolutely terrified us to the core. They knew the outside of this labratory, we don't. If they wanted to kill us they could; technically, we were just computer nerds running our twins. Not that hard to kill, to be honest.

I looked back to find many initiates banging against the screen doors of facilities, trying to reach a safe haven, but trapped in what can be compared to as a clear cube. People able to see the inside, and nothing big enough to cover their bodies inside of there. They were a sitting duck, ready to be picked off and killed one by one.

All hallways not leading to rooms were empty and abandoned. I ran past them, not stopping for a second to glance down them for stranded initiates. Running to the front with many twenty year olds, I started ushering men, women, and children into rooms. My blonde hair began to stick to my head as the heat from outside started to fill the air and the air conditioner was shut off as a safety procaution.

"There's a room down here completely free!" I screamed at the crowd forming around the doors further down from mine. People halfway down the two lines filed towards me huddled together. Each room could fit eighteen initiates to live, so in times of desperation we could fit fifty per room comfortably.

Men came running with children held in their arms, only to run back for more when the two or three they carried went into the room. Girls with loose pigtails were crying into women's, who could have been their mothers, arms. Boys tried to keep it together, but it was easy to tell they were scared to death.

When all three of the open rooms were filled their were only a few left to fit in the last room of the hall. The kids were ushered in first, next the women, and lastly the men. By the time they all got in, there was plenty of room for even more. But someone had to lock the door from the outside and take the keys to hide them.

"I'll take the keys," a guy my age said, reaching out his hand for the keys. I snatched my pale hand away from his tanned one, recieving a confused look from him. His dark eyes were full of confusedness and curiosity.

"I'll take it. Don't worry about me, get in there." I shoved him slightly when he just stands there, staring at me. I closed the dark, grey, metal door when he finally complies, locking it before walking away. The alarms had stopped a few minutes ago and the screams had stopped when the women and children were placed into a room. All the lights had been dimmed in an effort to make the intruder slow down on his conquest.

I walk down the eerily lit hallway, scared to hear the sound of my own feet hitting the ground. The crackle of a walky talky made me stop in my tracks and hide in one of the empty hallways leading to a stairwell on the room filled floor. I knew that I should probably find a room to hide in, or at least find a bathroom, but I was intrigued by the voices comunicating over the walky talkies.

"No Michael, I haven't found the twin," a rugged, accented  voice said annoyed. "Are you sure she is on this floor?" A muffled responce was given and received a groan in response. "Is she possibly in a room?" The voice seemed young, in between a teens' and person in their twenties.

My knees were quivering in fear as I decided to lean against the wall. "I'm not getting caught for this girl," he mumbled into the line. The next person to talk gives away my cover as I gasp when I heard her voice.

"What was that?" a cracking voice asked, reminding me of the boys' voices that are changing.

"I'm going to check," the somewhat deep voice replied before I heard the clip of a belt and slinging over of a strap.

He had a gun.

I didn't hear anything other than light footsteps coming closer. My hand came up to my mouth, silencing my breaths, but my heart was beating so loud that anyone could find my position. A body pressed itself against the other side of the wall, clanging their items against the dry wall.

Taking a shallow breath, I allowed my instincts to kick in. Before my head could register what my legs were doing I ran for the staircase to get away from the intruder.

"Found her," is all I heard from my pursuer as I climbed up two flights of stairs. His boots were moving twice as fast as I could, catching up to me quickly.

I threw the level door open, running down the hallway and making a sharp right at the end. He was catching up as I continued to make left and right turns. When I thought I had lost him, I trid to open a room so I could hide, only to discover it was locked and turned to see him rounding the past corner.

My feet took off, the black combat boots touching the floor with a slight squish sound. When my lungs began to feel like they would collapse any second, I tried another door, only to find it is locked as well. Taking a deep breath, I got ready to take off again but was pulled against a solid chest from the grip my chaser had on my wrist.

"Not so fast," he whispered into my ear, pushing me against the brick portion of the wall. I let out a hiss of pain when my head made contact with the brick from his forcful pull back. "Who knew you were a runner." He smirked down at me, his blue eyes piercing my bluish gray ones.

"Please let me go," I muttered, to scared to speak above that.

"If I had to chase you up two flights of stairs, I'm not letting you go that easy," he chuckled. My shortness of breathe was noticeable as my body finally registered that I am no longer running. "I have to give you credit though. You are a pretty good runner."

I regarded him with cold eyes, not responding to any of his words. "Flattery isn't getting me anywhere?" he asked snarkily.

"Was it supposed to get you into my good graces?" I inquired of him through gritted teeth. His arms grabbed mine and held them on either side of my head, his face coming uncomfortably close to mine.

"Yes. Yes, it was." His blonde hair was illuminated by the flickering lights in the hallway as he looked at me closely. The thing that scared me was his height. He looked to be over six foot, which wasn't that much taller than me, but still scared me. His eyes were cold, lacking emotion, just like his voice most of the time. It was as if he was trained to professionally scare girls into obeying him.

"Than I'm sorry......." I drug out the last half of my sentence, waiting for him to tell me his name.

"I'm not that stupid sweetheart," he whispered into my ear, his face coming even closer to mine. "There can be anyone coming around that corner. So you'll have to wait on my name."

"Can't you just let me go?" I pleaded, not wanting to be taken away from here.

"And let you get killed? Yea, no way." he said sarcatically, backing away and begining to drag me to the exit.

"They wouldn't kill me," I fought back.

"You know what happened to your sister. That's enough for them to want to kill you," he spats over his shoulder, moving straight toward the exit.

"Well where are you taking me, and there's no escaping them. They are everywhere," I whisper-yelled at him, venom overtaking my voice.

He glared at me, stopping and backing me into the wall. My back hit with a painful force again, and a graon escaped my lips from the impact. "There's a way out," the blonde boy's gravely spoke into my ear.

"How?" I asked him, growing more scared of him by the second as the lights kept flickering on and off in the hallway.

"It's a code. It's the formula for their agenda. How only twins are formed, who becomes what, who mates with who. It's all in there," he whispered, keeping his voice hushed so no one can hear him.

"What do you need me for?" The idea of finding this lingered in my mind, but making my brain to jumble like a puzzle. These Raiders obviously knew what they are doing. They found what they needed to 'take down' the government. Their plan was full proof.

"It's a cryptic message." I gave him a questioning look, still not sure why I was needed. "We need you to decipher the code," he spoke before grabbing my arm and continuing down the hall.

Edited 30 September 2016