Drowning Lessons

It’s midnight. Time to put the plan into action. I had spent all yesterday trying to let everyone know the plan. I was still making it up as I went along and am at the stage where I just hope no one makes any serious mistakes. I dragged Vic through the passages and he sent the plan telekinetically to everyone but Gee and Alex.
We sit at the edge of the infirmary beds waiting for the signal.
Bob is on the roof and slows down time for everyone he can as much as he can. Ryan, Vic and I spring from the infirmary beds as soon as we notice the slowing down. It feels so fucking weird. I open the fire place and lead them along the small paths.
I get Ray, Kellin and Ashley out and bring them down to the dinghies. They slip on the sludgy tunnel floor. Ray falls into the boat while the other two climb in with dignity looking like women... Kellin is disguised as Taylor Swift. Again, I don’t ask. His image flickers a bit from the draining but not too badly that it will catch more eyes than is expected. Ashley is his normal female self, stroking his own hair. Ray is going to hide when they reach land. He is supposed to wait for any white coats to appear and question Ash and Kellin and then confuse the fuck out of them with endorphins. They’re to get anyone of any use and bring them back as quick as possible. They row out at a good speed but the island is pretty far and the waters are about to get a lot more dangerous.
Just as they get out a bit I see that Brendon has made it to the roof with Bob as a lightning storm kicks up. He has to be careful that he doesn’t make one that’ll be so fierce as to capsize the boats.
Vic, Ryan and I run back up along tunnel. I send Ryan down the other darker path to free Andy. I have no idea how he’s going to do it but I know he’ll manage.
Vic and I scale the ladder and by the noises in the halls the Captain has noticed everyone’s disappearance. Time is precious now as Bob loses his grip on the time slightly.
I get Mikey from his room and send him and Vic to get Jaime. They’ll meet Ryan and Andy at the dining room. That’s as much as we have fully planned. We’re hoping the rest will just happen. I’m not sure what Vic is going to do because he’s not exactly built for combat.
I run along the passages to get Gee. I have a double take at a path junction. There’s a scary drop I hadn’t noticed before an a ladder leading up to a vent. Not the way to go, I move on.
My footsteps echo and the wall scrapes my hands as I feel my way through the dark. I can feel my heartbeat go almost back to normal. Well that’s without thinking about my exertion. Poor Bob. I burst into the passage where I last found Gerard. I’ve never been athletic. At all. But I suddenly feel a burst of energy that allows me to run the length of the passage at a speed I thought was reserved for athletes and cars and cheetahs and stuff.
I skid to a stop and feel around for the thing that lets me into Gerard’s room.
I clamber in on top of the bed as the passage closes. Gerard is standing by the door in horror with a white coat behind him, holding him in place. He points a gun to Gerard’s head.
“You can’t kill him!” I blurt. “The Captain needs his powers!”
“That’s true,” the white coat says slowly. Bob is still on the job but not slow enough that Gee will be able to dodge a bullet.
The white coat turns and points the gun at me.
It happens way faster than I could have believed possible. I dive left, Gerard shoves the white coat the opposite way and the gun is fired.
The world goes white and again I think this is the end. They better play the misfits at my funeral. It really is over this time, isn’t it?
But it’s not. Orange sparks and shattered glass fall to the floor. Andy’s broken the circuits.
I’m lying on Gerard’s bed, my arm rife with a pain you can’t imagine. It’s like giving birth, or having your balls chopped off. I have a very bad pain tolerance… The bullet is buried somewhere in my left arm and it hurts more than anything I’ve ever experienced. Another shot goes off and a body thumps on the floor.
“Gerard?” I wail, half in physical and half in emotional agony.
“Yea?” the familiar voice calls back. The door opens and I see Gerard’s outline against the dim glow of the hall. “Shit man your arm. Let me wrap it up then we should really get out of here before more of them come,” he says sliding the gun out of the white coat’s hand. He sticks it in his belt.
“I won’t let you die, okay Frank?” he walks over to me and wraps my arm up in a strip of black cloth. His eyes are glassy and his pupils wide. He’s high on Ray’s power but not too much because he seems to be functioning like a normal human.
The hall is empty and the “back up” lights are glowing orange along the walls. The window at the end of the hall shows the lightning outside flashing wildly.
“What’re we doing?” Gee slurs.
I don’t answer just run to the next door. I throw it open, no Alex. He’s not in the next one either. I pull on the one after that. Locked.
“Gerard, search that white coat for keys.”
Gee staggers back to me after a few too many seconds with keys. Of course it’s the last on the loop. Alex is huddled in the corner, knees tucked up. “Frank?”
“Hey Alex, what the fuck do you think you are doing giving in?” I demand pulling him up.
“I… I wanted to go back to Jack. I’m almost cured…” he mumbles as he stumbles after me out the door.
“Don’t say cured! You wouldn’t be going home anyway. Now we need to get you out of the way.” I pull Gerard and Alex after me into the passages and slide run around a bit, crawl a bit and the slide down to the ground level. Being taller than me Alex and Gerard are bent over all the way.

The dining room is now on fire. Fucking Jaime. He and Andy aren’t there. There’s bodies on the ground but all dressed in white. I open the windows to let storm rain enter to try douse the flames. Gerard looks a little more sane now but incredibly sombre.
Alex throws a chair out into the rain and it slowly goes out. I know I should continue after the others. They’re making their way up to the Captain’s biggest and safest room, the only treatment room in this building, where no doubt he will be. I have no idea what Vic’s doing. Probably trying to pinpoint the Captain’s whereabouts or fuck with people’s minds with Ryan. Bob must be exhausted now. He has all but brought us back to normal timing. I turn toward the massive oak table that’s in flames.
“We need to get this out or the building will go up,” I state and start pushing it with a chair in the direction of the open double doors. “I can’t move it on my own!”
Gerard and Alex grab pieces of not on fire furniture and start shoving the table toward the open double doors. It’s such a fucking slow process. By the time the table is half out the door the door frame is badly blackened but not on fire and our pieces of furniture are scorched to fuck.
We slide them out the door along the table and go in search of more. Alex shoves using the fire grate, Gerard with a different chair and me with a long lamp I found in the hall. The table is so engulfed in flames that I honestly worry for Alex’s eyebrows.
When it’s finally out in the rain we get to work on patting out the door frame and flinging chairs and sideboards out into the grounds too. Just as the last chair is out the backup power goes. My arm is throbbing and stinging all at once. It hurts like a bitch but the adrenaline keeps me going.
“Fuck it Andy!” I spit and run out side into the rain. I grab a chair leg that’s still on fire at the top and bring it inside. The room is lit with flickering orange light once again.
Gee does the same. Alex is hesitant. “I don’t know how brilliantly that’ll work…” he says.
“It’ll get us to the others,” I say, “And that’s important now.”
Alex nods slowly. “Okay but what’ll I do?”
I look at Gerard and Alex in the flickering gloom. “Gerard’s powers may be of use. Alex yours won’t, you’ll need to either do something helpful or get your ass up to the roof.”
“Let me help. I’ve seriously fucked things up so let me help,” he looks pleadingly, “I’ll put out any fires in the halls?”
“Yea okay…” I agree. “Get that big rug from the lobby and smother them.”
He nods and runs into the lobby. When he’s back, struggling under the weight of a large antique rug, I lead us off in search of the others.

In the stairway that leads off from the dining room we find bodies littering the floor. The most disturbing bit is a lot aren’t dead. They’re rocking back and forth staring at something the centre of the small floor before the stairs. The couch along the wall is in flames.
“Ryan can do the scariest fucking shit for such a cute little guy,” Gerard whispers from my left. I nod vacantly, entranced by the staring faces.
Alex runs over and smothers the couch fire. We walk gingerly around the entranced bodies. We then run up the stairs and find the path blocked by burning bodies. The smell is grotesque. Alex wretches and Gerard shudders.
Alex throws the rug over a patch in front of us. The rug is at an unsafe temperature and the fear that it will catch fire is always there. The ground feels unsteady but there’s stone passageways beneath so I know we won’t die from a serious drop.
Alex pulls up the carpet after a few minutes and burns his hands badly. We’re currently all burnt to hell. He throws it forward and it lands on another patch if bodies and flaming rug. We take a few steps forward, dodging blackened corpses.
“I’m going to be sick,” Gerard says stepping up behind Alex as he attempts to put out another patch of burning miscellaneous.
“Yea me too,” I mumble
I hope this will all be over soon. Bob has probably passed out with the effort of what feels like an hour but was probably only twenty minutes. Brendon in sending torrential rain in the direction of the building while keeping the seas calm. I hope they’ve reached “Chick Island” as Ashley put it so eloquently.
We walk out of the fire and see a door open to the right. I push it slightly and a scene of fire and electricity is flying around. Ryan is lying on the floor bleeding but alive. He’s concentrating very hard, probably on keeping disturbing images in the view of the white coats we’d seen. He must have an iron stomach. Jaime is sending fire at the Captain who is standing on a table on the opposite side. Andy has bad burns on his bare arms and he is sending electric bolts at the captain and pulling away from Jaime the ones the Captain throws back. Mikey is pulling a body away from the fight.

Notes

Okay so yea this happened... I'll update as soon as I can I promise :) let me know what you think!