Chapter 2
Aiden glanced around, everywhere looked so neat and exquisite. He had never seen a building like this in his life. Aiden took a few steps forward into an aisle, the facility was covered in fine metal and bright lights were hanging from the ceiling. Aiden was lost in awe of the grandness of the building he found himself in.
As he walked into the hallway, he heard voices and ducked into hiding, he knew his father had something to do with this facility, but where would he start searching? He was finally in here, now what?
"If you are going to escape, I advise you to do it cleverly." Aiden jumped to the voice of a female behind him. He turned to meet Gwendolyn Phifer, niece of General Danielle Phifer. She seemed to be younger than him but looked mature in well-endowed items of clothing and aura. They stared at each other for a while before she spun around to leave.
"You won't seize me?" Aiden managed to ask her. Gwendolyn turned and gave Aiden an don't know look. "Who am I to stop a slave from escaping? Try not to follow the front doors," she said.
"I don't want to escape, I found my way here," Aiden said, as he noticed she had a blaster with her, a device used for self-defense. "Look, all I'll tell you is, whether you want to be here or not, here is not safe for non-elites." She replied, walking away into the hallway.
"Find him, search everywhere!" Aiden looked terrified as he heard Sven's voice echoing through the empty halls.
He looked desperately at Gwendolyn, "I'm a little bit confused, can you please tell me which place is which?"
"Wait, were you the one who paid for a ticket, but you weren't let in?" She asked him. Aiden nodded in confirmation. "Alright, follow me." She led Aiden through the incredibly built facility. He could see large spacious rooms with special uniformed people pacing around. The building was connected like a maze and every hallway looked the same to Aiden. He noticed Gwendolyn was avoiding contact with any personnel and she was taking empty hallways.
"So where exactly do you want to go? The Firing Range? Armory? The Portal? You know you paid to be here?" She took a side glance at Aiden. He noticed her green eyes dazzling under her silk-brown hair. "I, um, is there anywhere I could learn about the history of Project X?" Aiden asked.
"History?" Gwendolyn turned, "Who exactly are you? Some kind of spy?" She asked him, squinting her eyes.
"Spy? No- No, I'm not a spy" Aiden said defensively as he noticed her hand move close to the blaster.
"Don't play games with me, what's your name and clan?" Gwendolyn asked him.
"I'm Aiden, from the Noah's, please I'm not a spy, I came here for answers, please." Aiden pleaded. Gwendolyn stared at him in the same stunning way President Malgrim had earlier.
"Here take this" She quickly handed him her blaster, "Take the closest right turn, there's an elevator, 19th floor, two adjoining rooms at the close, I say, you be quick as you can." She walked quickly back from where they came from, "Go!"
Aiden didn't understand what just happened, it all went too fast, he looked at the weapon that had been dropped in his hand, "And how do I handle this?!" Aiden yelled in a query, but the brown-haired had disappeared.
"Oh great! Just great!" He muttered. Now I'm scared and also nervous, Aiden thought. And what the hell was she so troubled about? "Right turn, the nineteenth floor" he recited as he started towards a turn he could see.
He walked slowly before he quickened up, concealing the blaster underneath his shirt. Where the hell's the goddamn elevator! He thought. He felt sweat trickling down his spine, he was hot though the whole place was air-conditioned. Aiden spotted an elevator from afar, he felt himself run, thirty feet away from the elevator, and he heard it ding. Aiden felt his heart skip, he was going to be caught for sure, he thought. At the last second, he dove into a corner scraping his elbow.
The elevator emptied itself revealing a group of individuals, Aiden could identify some familiar faces, really, really familiar faces. They were all dressed roughly and unkept, with a taming collar on their necks, grouped in lines, ordered by one formally dressed officer. Aiden realized they were all non-elites, denizens of the same class as him. They all came as volunteers into the X Portal hoping to be granted a pardon by the President to uplift their status and state of living.
Aiden recognized a familiar face, one he had known since childhood. In the group was Aiden's best friend, Dustin Ham. Dustin had told Aiden he was thinking of volunteering, but Aiden never thought he was serious.
"Psst... Dustin." Aiden whispered.
Dustin turned, "Aiden? What the hell are you doing here?" Dustin asked quietly as the group walked past Aiden. "Get the hell out, they're gonna kill you, Aiden!"
"How many times will I say be quiet!?" The officer roared and with a swing, he hit Dustin hard on the head. Dustin dropped to the floor and cried in pain, the officer swung a few more hits to his back with a chained baton. Girls and women in the group were bawling and weeping, agitating the officer even more, and he started to beat other slaves. One of the women knelt to Aiden, "Please, save us, they don't want to help, they'll kill us all, please." With a swift move of his eyes, the officer spotted Aiden crouched in the corner.
"Who the hell are you?" He reached for his baton. It all flashed before Aiden's eyes, it was just like every other day in the common streets of the nation. The privileged take advantage of the weakness of the poor. They always felt they could do anything to them, castigating them, extorting money from them, killing them, enslaving them. The only way you could survive as an indigent in the Prime nation was if you were skilled, a priced female, or you were living so far away in hardly inhabitable areas. Right now, this officer felt on top of the world, he knew he could do anything to them and get away with it, but Aiden would not let that happen, never.
Aiden has always loved to help people, he took the Under Streets as his home and he never wanted anything to do with the flawless privileged citizens. But since his mother's captivity, his hatred for them increased ten times.
"Are you deaf or something?" The officer shouted, "Get up! Where's your collar?"
Aiden got to his feet his eyes settled on his friend who was weeping in pain. He felt a rush of anger move through him. The officer charged forward and grabbed Aiden by the neck,
"The cat got your tongue?" He mocked as he tried to strangle Aiden. It was too late for him to notice as Aiden pulled out the yellow and black weapon from underneath and with a scream, the officer dropped to the floor with a hole in his stomach.