14 The Information room

"Was this place this empty last night?" Hailie asked when they stepped into the gym area.

"You saw people here last night?" Bryan asked.

"No, but I kinda could feel them? I just knew there were people here last night."

"How?"

Hailie shrugged. "I don’t know. I get this buzzing in my ears like I can hear their

thoughts, but not clearly."

Bryan nodded. "That could be useful."

"Don’t get all happy about it, it just works with crowds."

"Well that explains why you thought I wasn’t here, but I'm still hurt."Hailie heard

Thomas.

"Thomas! I didn’t know you were here!" Hailie exclaimed, hugging him.

Thomas patted her back and laughed. "Yeah, we established that."

"Why don’t I get hugs when you meet me?" Bryan asked thoughtfully.

Hailie showed him the ring Thomas gave her last night. "Make me one of these, then I'll think about it."

Thomas smirked and crossed his arms. "I really like her, you’ve got competition man."

"Okay okay, you people done ganging up on me? We've got stuff to do."

"Yeah, sorry boss."

"And that’s why I call him grumpy," Hailie said with a proud smile.

"Didn’t you have, like a dozen question banshee?" Bryan answered with a smirk.

"Hey! Don’t call me that asshat!" she said glaring at him. She turned toward Thomas, "As much as I hate to admit it, but Mr. grumpy pants over here is right. I do have a lot of questions. For starter, can you tell me where is everyone?"

Thomas looked at them sceptically. "What's going on? Why aren’t you asking him?"

"Oh, nothing. I just want to hear this stuff from you." Hailie answered shrugging.

"So you can add to your collection of voice recordings?" Bryan asked crossing his arms.

"What voice collection?" Thomas asked.

Hailie was panicking, "Nothing! Nothing important."

"Play it," Bryan commanded.

"What? What are you talking about?" Hailie's voice was filled with panic. She really liked Thomas, he was a good friend and she didn’t want to lose him because of a stupid voice recording.

"Play dumb all you want. You're either going to play it, or I'm going to. Consider your situation Hailie."

Hailie understood what he was talking about. She wasn’t in a position of bargaining. She was in the middle of a place no one was aware of, with two other people. She knew she shouldn’t have told Bryan about the voice recording.

She took out her phone and clicked on the recording huffing "Keep a secret next time," and waited.

Nothing. The recording was empty.

"What are we listening to exactly?" Thomas asked.

"It was right here, I swear I recorded-" Hailie stopped herself. She wasn’t going to tell Thomas she recorded him talking about everything. Instead, she looked at Bryan, expecting an answer.

He smirked. "You see Thomas, I forgot to tell my dear strawberry here, that you can't record anything in here. And she has this habit of recording the moments she likes so she can keep them with her always."

Thomas nodded."Weird habit, but who am I to judge."

"About your question, people have jobs and school you know, where you should be right now, and ditched to spend time with your boyfriend," he continued.

"I had a free period thank you very much. Why aren’t you at school or whatever?"

Thomas shrugged. "Someone has to look out for this place when big guy here," he pointed at Bryan and continued, "is out there doing whatever he's doing."

Hailie just nodded, walking around and getting a closer look.

When she got out of earshot, Thomas turned toward Bryan with a raised brow.

"You gonna tell me why she's here today?"

"Are you questioning the place or the time?"

"Both you idiot! We have one of the biggest missions of our lives ahead and you're just fooling around with your girlfriend instead of planning."Thomas glared at him.

"Would you relax? The plan is perfect, I went through it a hundred times, there is no flaw. Just relax and follow the instruction."

"Relax?!"Thomas whisper-shouted, "You want me to fucking relax when they have them? And I have no fucking idea if they’re okay or not?!"

Bryan gripped Thomas's arm and looked into his eyes. "Do you trust me?"

Thomas nodded.

"Then believe me when I give you my word, I'm gonna get them out. Alive and unharmed. Besides, she can help. Now you know she has unique powers. She can help us."

"She doesn’t know anything Bryan, how do you expect her to walk into this blindly?" Thomas asked him, calming down a bit.

Bryan smiled. "Let's change that then."

Thomas rolled his eyes. "And you say you're not the commander."

Bryan hit the back of his head, "Shut up."

They walked toward Hailie, who was holding one of the metal daggers.

"You know that it can cut you right?" Thomas asked her, taking the dagger from her.

Hailie rolled her eyes. "Yes, I know. But I got bored watching you two whisper, like teenage girls."

Thomas raised his brow. "Arent you a teenage girl?"

"Your point?" Hailie asked crossing her arms.

"Okay, stop. Come on, I wanna show you something." Bryan pointed behind his back.

Hailie rolled her eyes and nodded. Bryan started walking toward the big column in the middle of the building.

"If I were you I would follow him, he walks fast and you don’t want to lose him," Thomas said.

"Yeah, cause I'm gonna get lost in the maze of the concrete. There are literally two rooms here." Hailie answered mockingly.

"You'll be surprised," Thomas said smirking.

"Jesus, what's with you people and secrecy?" Hailie said running after Bryan, leaving Thomas behind.

"We're just being extra careful strawberry. And if you stop judging us for a minute, you'll understand why." Bryan said when she reached the column.

"I'm not judging, I'm just tired of not knowing anything." She answered.

Bryan nodded. He put his hand on the same symbol from outside. The symbol glowed and the column opened, revealing a staircase going down.

Hailie was fascinated. She looked at Bryan, only to find him already looking at her. He pointed to the staircase with his head.

"Ladies first."

"Now you try to be a gentleman. No, lead the way." She said taking a step back.

Bryan shrugged and started walking down the stairs. After a little hesitation, Hailie followed him, and the column closed behind them.

"How is it bright in here?" She asked.

"You're not gonna believe it."

"Oh try me."

Bryan turned toward her. "Okay, you ready?" Hailie nodded.

Bryan took a deep breath. "Light bulb."

"You're ridiculous," Hailie said hitting his arm.

"Ah, you love it." Bryan mocked her.

"I highly doubt that." Hailie huffed and they continued walking quietly.

"That’s my room," Bryan told her as they walked past a door.

"You live here?" She asked, surprised.

"A lot of us actually, but they stay out of the garage. I'm the only one in the column." He answered, walking toward the second door they reached.

"You're the first outsider to see this room. Don’t try anything."

Hailie nodded and Bryan opened the door for her.

The room was massive. There were lots of shelves, all of them holding cases with name tags on them. Hailie went further inside. She saw a big conference table in the middle of the room, probably for meetings or something. There was a wooden piece with pictures carved on it, parting the room. She walked past it, touching the pictures on it.

"This is beautiful." She whispered.

"That’s the memorial piece. It has the face and powers of the lost ones carved on it. So we can always remember them." Bryan said from his place by the table.

Hailie watched the faces, they all seemed so young. She shook her head and entered the second part of the room. Bryan followed here, looking closely at her reaction.

There was a map hanging on the wall behind a desk. She walked closer, the facility had all these parts with colours and name tags. She turned toward Bryan, who was leaning on the wall now.

"This is the map of here, isn’t it?" She asked, fascinated.

"No, I like to keep blueprints of other buildings in my information room." Bryan rolled his eyes. "Of course it's for here."

"Haha, funny. What are all these name tags and colours?" Hailie asked turning toward the Blueprint.

Bryan stood next to her. "I've already told you, the colours are for categorizing powers, and the names are, well people who have that power."

Hailie nodded."Why do these ones have a warning sign?"

"I'll tell you, but first I'm gonna tell you about some of the powers, then we get to the basic cause of our group and the warning signs."

Hailie nodded and crossed her arms, waiting for Bryan to start.

Bryan smiled. "You learned patient."

"Start already you're not my dad."

"Okay okay, sit down this could take a while."