A creature entered the suite hall. He had a long, wrinkly snout and skin the color of manure. He grunted as he plodded through the hall.
"If you make me cover one more shift, Eloan, you're dead," he muttered threats.
"Ooh, Anneas is extra grumpy today," Anya remarked.
Hunley crept up to the suite door. His tall neck enabled him a better view. Anneas stopped a few inches in front of the passcode screen. He typed in a combination. Hunley strained to read it.
"He's typing in the passcode," Hunley whispered.
In a fraction of a second, the code appeared on-screen, so a fraction of a second was all Hunley had to interpret meaning.
"N377A," he muttered.
The door to the suite across the hall hissed open.
"Great," Brade said. "So what do we do now?"
Anneas dragged a wailing young with violet skin across the cold hall floor.
"Please let me go!" A squeaky voice begged.
Hunley's hearts thumped in unison. He tapped the door and released a puff of breath.
"We'll have to break the window," he decided.
"And if the alarms go off?" Rhea questioned.
"We'll have to take our chances," he said. "If we stay in here we're doomed. If we leave we're doomed. We have to try freedom."
"If we break the window we don't need the code," Sariah pointed out.
"We do for future doors," Anya said.
Skyla slammed the heel of her hand against the front door window. It splintered. She flicked her wrist and whimpered. Rhea positioned herself at the head of one cot. She managed a slight lift, but moaned under the weight.
"Help," she said.
"Put it down," Skyla said. "Take the pillows and the blanket."
A second later, bedding lay in a pile on the floor. A team lift stood the cot upright. Skyla and Rhea stood side by side behind the metal frame.
"Push," Skyla ordered.
The cot leg met the glass window. Glass shattered. Shards stuck up from the windowpane. Rhea and Skyla propped the cot against the window. There was a moment where all in the suite hall fell under a hushed spell. Rhea and Skyla leapt to freedom.
Alarms screamed around them. Red lights flashed across the hall. Rhea and Skyla split. Their fingers flew across the passcode screens. Two doors hissed open. Hunley and Brade darted past the door, and Rhea joined them.
"Wait for me!" Skyla yelled above the alarms.
Anya and Sariah kept a few paces behind her. It wouldn't be long before guards swarmed in, but for now, they were on the outside.