Mad Dash For Safety

I was running, fast and quietly. I had finally managed to escape my prison of a room. Despite my freedom, I knew I could very well get caught at any moment. I only escaped level one of freedom. I still needed to find a way out of this maze of a hallway without being noticed and somehow get out of this more than likely locked down building. And then… I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know where I was in the outside world. I could be on an island for all I knew, which would make escape impossible. But I had to try. I just had to keep running. It took me six months to escape my freaking bedroom. I couldn’t afford to get caught and potentially take another six months to start my escape again.

I was tired of my blood getting drawn, tired of the questions, tired of the boredom when I was alone, and the pain and fear when I was getting tested on. I still wasn’t even quite sure what they were testing and why I was relevant. I wasn’t even sure how I got here. I just woke up one day in my white walled and cramped room. I cried nonstop for probably two weeks before I finally stopped and realized my tears were getting me nowhere. Escape was my only option. So I observed. I observed for months and tried to be an okay patient. My anger and fear got the best of me sometimes, but I figured that played into my role of acting ‘normal’, and not like I was looking for a way out every chance I got.

I was able to memorize the schedule at which they tested and questioned me and was just waiting for my big break. It finally came in the form of a paper clip. It was somehow dropped during one of my interviews and never recovered. I considered fashioning it into some type of weapon before I remembered that there were screws on the doorknob of my door. Not all doors have such a thing, but these idiots somehow did, and I bent my paperclip into a good resemblance of a screwdriver and painstakingly unscrewed the two screws in my doorknob late one night.

When I tried jiggling the now unscrewed doorknob, the other end of the knob on the outside of the door dropped to the hallway floor. The loud clattering sound had me freezing for a second before I quickly opened the door and pulled the doorknob into my room. I waited inside for another minute, listening out for any footsteps, and looking through the hole where the doorknobs used to be for anyone who may have come in search of the loud noise.

I took a shuddering breath and quickly fastened the paperclip into my original idea of a weapon. I bent the thin metal around my pointer and middle fingers in a resemblance of brass knuckles. The paper clip wasn’t long enough to fit around my entire fist, but I figured two of my fingers would be enough to surprise whoever I tried to fight off with some deadly scratches or stabs.

I took another deep breath, looking around the little room for anything I may have missed. Of course, I didn’t have many items to call my own here, but I made sure to take the two pencils I was afforded for good behavior. They could also be used for a good stabbing time. I left my room in silence, making sure the door looked like it was in its correct place, even putting the outside knob back into the hole, hoping it wouldn’t drop again.

I was still running fast and quietly when I thought I heard a noise coming from ahead. The hallway was ridiculously long and there were many side hallways someone could pop around from any moment. I tried to keep my labored breathing under control, in through my mouth, out through my nose. My heart was beating in overtime, so loudly I wasn’t sure I could hear anything else outside of the rapid pace of my heart.

I was sure though that I heard distant footsteps, so in my panic I searched for the closest door I could find. The first two I tried were locked and my heartbeat somehow sped up even faster in my desperate search for a place to hide. The third door I came across was also locked, but in my fear, I decided to try the keycode for the door. I was afraid all the doors would have a passcode and were locked, and I figured I had at least two chances before the system questioned whether I was an intruder, and an alarm went off.

I tried thinking hard on what the possible code could be. I know I saw other scientists and guards put in codes before me when they took me to the clinic for testing. I wasn’t sure every room had the same code, but I was beyond desperate at this point. Scanning my memory, I was fairly sure it was a five number code, and the first three were without a doubt 849. I felt confident the other two were either 73, 76, 83, or 86. I had two chances, so I had to pick half of my guesses and hope they were correct. I decided to go with 73 first. Praying strongly in my head, I put in the code 84973 and watched as the system beeped quietly and turned red.

Danggit! It was wrong. Only one more chance.

My fingers were shaking, and I had to wipe the sweat off them onto my plain white scrub pants. One more chance, okay. I decided to go with 76 as I was most confident about the 7.

Taking a deep, trembling breath I put in 84976. The system immediately beeped, and my stomach dropped to my feet before I noticed the systems light turned green. Oh, thank the Lord!

I swiftly entered the room, closing the heavy door behind me slowly and silently. I stood there a few seconds to catch my breath before I turned around and noticed what was in the room. Though the overhead lights were off, the room was still fairly illuminated by the multitude of fish tanks on either side of the long room. There were various sizes of tanks and sea animals inside. Though I was curious what lived in the smaller tanks, the large one at the end of the room caught my attention the most. It looked to be embedded into the wall and stretched much farther than the room allowed. The tank must extend far into another room or area. Though the size of the tank was awe-inducing itself, what was inside was without a doubt the attraction.

The large great white shark was the nightmare of every Jaws movie ever created. It was truly huge, and I had no idea if the tank was for display and enjoyment purposes, or they were experimenting on all these creatures as well.

Pulling my eyes from the deadly shark, I noticed the room definitely had a theme. There were shark teeth on the table and on display, posters and diagrams about sharks covered any visible wall space, and there was a huge model of a shark suspended from the ceiling that I somehow didn’t notice initially. And looking closely at the smaller tanks, there looked to be much smaller sharks in their waters, babies perhaps.

So, they were definitely researching sharks in this room for whatever random reason. It seemed so normal for a facility that also housed at least one kidnapped human they were also testing on.

As I admired more of the décor and tanked sharks, I heard someone outside the door of the room putting in the keycode, the numbers beeping lightly through the door.

My terror was near hysterics at this point. I quickly hid behind the door, my paperclipped fist clenched and ready for some damage, and my two pencils heavy in my pocket.

I still didn’t know what the heck they wanted me for, why they kidnapped me, and why they tested and observed me against my will. I might never know. But I wasn’t going to be put back into that room, back into that life of uncertain worry and fear. I wasn’t going back, at least not without a fight. I'd rather die here among the sharks than continue with this life of unease and lack of freedom. I knew without a shadow of doubt they had no intentions of letting me go, so I figured I'd rather go on my own terms than give them whatever it seems they're looking for. Despite my terror, I felt ready for whatever may come.

The door started to crack open, and I steadied myself for a fight to the death, hoping it wouldn’t be my death as the outcome.