Imaginary - Chapter 18 - Torn Asunder

“Define something,” I replied blankly.

“Come on, you know what I mean,” Olivia whispered. “I can feel the instability in the area, and it’s increasing fast… there’s a rift coming.”

I hopped off my bike, and shoved it into the bike racks before helping Oliva off her own. Her face was pale, and her hands cold and clammy, and the way she doubled over after she slipped off her bike made me afraid she might be seriously ill.

“Are you okay? Should I take you to the infirmary, or a safe room or…” I asked, gently.

“No, they won’t be able to do anything for me in the infirmary, and the safe-rooms won’t open until it’s too late,” Oliva muttered. “We can try to warn everyone, but people rarely believe me…”

“It never hurts to try,” I declared, glancing around. There were a couple other people in the area, but they seemed to be giving us a wide berth. They probably thought it was better to avoid an issue, then check what was wrong. Typical. “Is there anyone that knows about your ability? Someone that might be able to convince people?” 

“I talked to the head of testing, Dr. Micheals, when I arrived. She should be able to vouch for me, or maybe someone else in the lab?” Olivia suggested.

A metallic, rattling growl echoed through the parking area, which caused me to look up in concern. Angelica was floating around the area, waving her tentacles agitatedly, and Hairy seemed to be sniffing the air and huffing, but they weren’t the ones I was concerned with. Tyberius’s metallic plates were literally vibrating, and he was rapidly darting back and forth like an animal during a thunderstorm. When he caught me looking over he paused for a moment, looking me directly in the eyes. “You need to get inside, now!” 

I slowly took Olivia’s arm and gently encouraged her to put it around my neck. Supporting her as much as I could I half led, half carried my friend across the access road and towards the main entrance of the administration building. Hairy hit the door before I did, barging through and frantically searching the area. For what, I didn’t know. I had more important things to deal with first.

We made it halfway across the lobby before the receptionist even looked up, and I managed to drag Olivia all the way to her desk before she could even jump to her feet.

“Gracious me,” the middle aged, curly haired woman gasped. There was a nameplate in front of her desk with the name Pamula Hughes on it, helpful. “Are you alright young lady? Give me a moment, I’ll call the clinic and ask them to send someone down to help you.”

As soon as she picked up the old school handset I slammed my hand down on the keypad, preventing her from dialing. “Look, we appreciate your help, but we don’t have time for that. My friend here can detect instability, and she believes someone in the building is about to pop. You need to call a lockdown, or evacuation, or something.” 

“Young lady, I’ve worked here a long time…” Pam started, until I slammed my fist down on the desk to interrupt her. A lot of people were looking at us now, including a security guard who was slowly approaching from the other side of the room.

“This isn’t some joke. If you want to confirm, you should call…” I paused and looked at Olivia. She’d gone from pale to ashen, and she was breathing heavily now. 

“Dr. Erica Michaels,” Olivia gasped out. 

Pam’s expression immediately changed, going from flustered to stony. She reached under her desk, pulled out something that looked like a supermarket scanner and pointed it at Olivia’s bracelet. As soon as it beeped she snapped up the phone and punched in an extension from memory.

“Are you alright?” I whispered to Olivia. “You look even worse than you did outside. Maybe coming inside was a mistake.”

She shook her head. “It wouldn’t have helped. We would have had to get several hundred meters away before this feeling would begin to fade. We never would have made it that far without a vehicle. Not while I’m in this state,” Olivia wheezed.

As she leaned against the desk, double over, I took a moment to look her over. I was no doctor, but it didn’t look like her life was in danger… she was obviously in pain, but she wasn’t clutching her chest or breathing too heavily. Besides, the BEI probably wouldn’t have forced her to stay in a place with so many Awakened people if her powers put her life in danger. Probably.

Olivia glanced towards me, eyebrow raised, when she noticed me looking her over. “What?” 

“Your power kind of sucks,” I replied as lightly as I could.

She snickered. “I’m aware.”

While Olivia chuckled, Pam’s call connected. 

“Ma’am this is Agent Hughes at the front desk. There’s a pair of students here claiming there’s a rift forming in the administration building and that you’d vouch for them. The student’s name is…” she paused and looked at the scanner. “Olivia Taylor. Yes Ma’am, I understand, I’ll take care of it.”

She slammed the receiver back into the cradle and immediately bent down to grab something from behind her desk. When she popped back up she was carrying a combat shotgun.

I would have taken a couple steps back if I wasn’t supporting Olivia. 

“Agent Hughes?” I asked cautiously.

“That’s right. The Bureau likes to keep a few extra agents on campus, but since they can’t afford to have us just sitting around we need to help fill in occasionally,” the woman replied. 

“And how long have you been filling in for?” Olivia asked.

“Five years,” Pam chuckled before nodding towards a hallway at the end of the lobby. “Come on you two, my orders are to escort you to the nearest safe room before all hell breaks loose.”

As she stepped away from the desk the security guard who was coming up stopped, and gave her a nervous look. “Pam?”

“There’s a code black coming Mikey, I need you to lock down the building then get all the lobby staff and visitors into the bunker,” Pam ordered.

“What do you mean there’s a code black coming? You can’t predict a code black,” the rent-a-cop scoffed.

“Yeah well, Dr. Adams disagrees, and you know her word is law around here, so get to it!” Pam snapped.

Mikey jumped at her tone, and immediately jogged back towards his little security station. 

“The bunker? They’re not going to the same safe room that we are?” I asked suspiciously.

“Only the staff, and select students use the safe rooms. There’s always a chance of getting locked in the same room as an unstable Awakened person, and having a rift manifest right on top of us. No matter how unlikely. That’s okay though, we signed up for this and know the risks. The civilians haven’t, so we go that little extra distance to try and keep them safe,” Pam explained.

“Makes sense…ish…” I mumbled.

We quickly made our way down a corridor that wouldn’t have been out of place at my old school. There were old wooden doors with glazed windows, and names stenciled on the glass. The faculty offices.

We had just about made it to the end when a young kid, not more than seven or eight staggered out of the bathrooms at the end of the hall. She was trembling so badly that she could barely walk, sweating profusely, and was on the edge of tears.

“Hey kid, are you okay?” Pam asked. As she stepped forward both Olivia and I grabbed her.

“No! No, no, no, no…” Olivia whimpered madly. “Too close! Too late!”

Pam turned to look at her, confused for a second, but I didn’t take my eyes off the girl. Her condition was far too familiar. 

As the girl fell to the floor, crying in distress, I felt a pressure start building in my head. She wailed and the space at the end of the hall twisted unnaturally, compressing in on itself before bulging outwards, ballooning slightly before reality couldn’t take anymore and it burst open. Dozens of long metallic centipedes spilled through the gap in the world.

“Time to go!” Angelica cried, her tentacles wrapped around Olivia, Pam and myself and yanked us backwards. As she pulled us Hairy burst past rushing down the hallway so he could start stomping on the otherworldly invaders. They turned to bite him, but these weren’t like the Scarabs back at Coopers, these weren’t much larger than my hand, and went down easily under his hooves. 

While we were dragged backwards the girl collapsed, and laid still, only a couple meters away from the rift.

“Stop!” I cried, struggling against my protector. “The girl!”

“I’ve got her,” Tyberius growled as sprinted across the roof, stopping only long enough to reach down and scoop up the girl. Instead of carrying her back, he immediately half threw, half slid her back towards us. I tried to move to grab her but Angelica beat me to her, scooping up the girl before pulling us all back towards the lobby.

The last thing I saw as we left the hallway was Tyberius letting out a terrifying screeching roar which appeared to both disorient and terrify the tiny metallic invaders.

Angelica quickly deposited us in the now empty lobby before floating back to the hallway to stand guard. 

Letting out a long low breath, I turned to check on Olivia, who to my surprise seemed to be almost completely recovered. She studied me for several seconds through narrowed eyes. “So, what was that?”

I winced under her glare, and did my best to not shy away. I couldn’t quite bring myself to look her in the eyes. “So, about that…”