Chapter 22 #2
“No,” Rue stated, the same exact moment that Ryker did, causing their voices to overlap.
Which of course, Ellery got a kick out of.
He was still laughing when Bowie took it upon himself to step up to the weird machine in the corner, point to it, and ask bluntly, “What does this do?”
“That powers the creatures,” Ell said, only for Uriel to shake his head.
“Potentially,” his cousin corrected.
“That potentially,” Ellery restated snidely, “powers the creatures.”
“You’re saying we could turn them all off with this thing somehow?” Bowie inspected it more closely.
“By all means,” Ell waved at it, “if you can figure it out, go for it. There’s no instruction manual in this place either.”
“We’re worried hitting the wrong buttons could have dire consequences,” Uriel surmised.
“Like what?” Ryker crossed his arms with a frown.
He tapped the screen and then opened a text file, scrolling through it too fast for any of them to actually read. “This says there are explosives built inside some of them. With a function like that, it seems wiser not to mess around with the controls.”
“Are they controlling them fully?” Rue didn’t think so.
“No,” Uriel confirmed. “The three that were modified have been given some sort of concoction to prevent their bodies from rejecting the mechanical parts. It’s keeping them alive, so to speak, but it also altered their brain chemistry, making them extremely aggressive and all but ridding them of their fear receptors. ”
“That main seems to be more of a main power source, and a beacon of sorts. It’s hooked up to the system,” Ellery patted the computer, “but we can’t find the actual program used to do anything.
Meaning we can’t turn them on or off, and we can’t be sure pressing random buttons on the actual machine won’t lead to detonating them. ”
“Detonating?” Rue did not like the sound of that.
“Explosives,” Uriel clarified. “The modified bears were also fit with explosives.”
“I like my bits where they are,” Ellery drawled, winking when Rue caught his eye.
Ryker glared.
Ell laughed again.
“What I can do,” Uriel continued, ignoring their childish antics, “is turn off the fog machines.”
“You can?” That sounded appealing to Rue. “Once it’s cleared up, we can simply drive down the mountain then, can’t we?”
“I mean, in theory, sure,” Bowie said, “but what about the creatures? Just because the fog is gone, doesn’t mean they’ll go with it. Won’t they just charge us? They’re pretty big. If enough of them attack us at once, they could probably flip the bus over.”
“There are still two modified bears left.” Ryker rested his hands on his hips. “Even if the others leave or return to being docile once the pheromones in the fog clears, that’s still a big risk.”
“He’s right,” Uriel replied. “We considered that possibility.”
“Then what do we do once we clear the fog?” Rue sort of felt like they were saying they’d still be stuck at step one, just with a less debilitated view. “For the record, I don’t need to watch any of you die any more vividly than I’ve already seen everyone else go.”
“None of us are going to die,” Ryker told him firmly.
“You don’t know that.”
“Your cynicism is always a pleasure, Rue.” Ellery rolled his eyes at him, then said to his cousin, “I almost forgot how much of a Debbie downer he can be. You?”
“He’s practical,” Uriel said. “We need that. It balances out your unrealistic expectations.”
“What? Name one unrealistic—”
“Souvi Glass.”
Ellery’s face fell and his mood sourced instantly.
“These,” Rue desperately snatched a box off the single shelving unit, wanting to change the subject before a fight broke out, “are the drug, aren’t they?”
“We didn’t know it before,” Uriel said, “but yes, I assume so.”
“Did you open it?” Ryker asked them, holding out a hand and turning the clear box over when Rue gave it to him. There was a stack of what appeared to be clear stickers within. Nothing that would give away what it really was.
“No,” Ellery replied, though his tone was slightly colder now. “We assumed it was tape or something of the like and left it alone.”
“How do you know it’s a drug?” Bowie frowned at them.
“Found a clue.” Rue shrugged when his friend’s brow furrowed deeper. “Whoever comes into contact with one of those ends up becoming aggressive. We don’t know the exact timeframe the drug needs to enter a person’s system, but our guess is it happens sooner rather than later.”
“Most likely within an hour or two,” Ryker added.
“But that still means someone has to actually place one of them on someone. My dad has been missing since he supposedly left to go fishing with Izan and Vance. Even if he was using these tunnels to sneak around, if he had to come into contact with a person to drug them, wouldn’t we have spotted him at some point? ”
“What about that worker?” Bowie suggested. “I mean, aside from us, he’s the only one left, right? Fran? He ran up to the third floor with the rest of us yesterday, but I haven’t seen him since. Unless that monster got to him?”
“We didn’t stumble on his body while searching,” Ellery said, considering it. “He was with us practically the whole time.”
“Do you really think Hollis and Ishleen were the type to allow the staff to get close enough to them to touch their necks?” Ryker quirked a brow.
“Got a better idea?” Bowie asked.