“Run!” Bear cried, his voice garbled by the lashing rain. He grabbed both Alex and D.C.’s arms and yanked them along. Not that they needed the motivation, since they were just as desperate to escape the unnatural weather phenomenon.
“No, Bear, stop! Alex! Dix! Stop! Stop!”
It took a few shouts before Alex was able to hear Johnny’s yelling over the sound of the deluge, but she came to a sudden halt as soon as his words processed. It was only then that she began to feel the rain vaporise around her and a glow of artificial sunlight kiss her skin. She looked up and marvelled at the sight high above them.
Glancing backward, Alex could still see the rain bucketing down from miserable-looking clouds by the entrance. But looking around her now…
“Is this some kind of weather room?” she asked.
The large chamber appeared to be sectioned into different climate categories. Where Alex and her friends currently stood was a clear blue sky, fluffy white cumulus clouds and, perhaps strangest of all, a synthetic sun. Looking further across the room, she could see all kinds of weather scenarios playing out within bordered segments of the room. Clearly the ChemTech R&D department was earning their keep.
“Yes, Alex, and don’t move another step!” Johnny ordered, his features pinched and his tone laced with anxiety. “I thought I could deactivate the room remotely but the coding is more complex than I anticipated. I can do it, but it will take a few minutes and you don’t have the time to spare. You’ll have to make a run for it.”
“Then why’d you tell us to stop?” Bear sounded belligerent as he squeezed water from his shirt.
D.C. gave a frowning nod of agreement as she too wrung out her sodden clothes and twisted her soaked hair, leaving a puddle of water on the marble tiles.
With a troubling feeling that they weren’t out of the worst of it yet, Alex didn’t bother attempting to dry off.
“Because I need to warn you,” Johnny said, “that some of the weather is… reactive.”
D.C. stopped wringing out her hair. “Reactive?”
Johnny chose not to explain. Instead he gave them an impishly apologetic look and said, “Keep moving and you should be fine. The last section will be the most dangerous, but I’ll have your exit door open by the time you get there, so just sprint straight through. Okay?”
“No, not okay!” D.C. cried. “Do you want to give us some more details?”
Johnny turned his attention to his second Device and muttered, “I have a door to unlock. You’d better start running.”
Before D.C. could open her mouth to protest, Alex grabbed her arm and pulled her along. “Come on, Dix. The sooner we get moving, the sooner we’ll be out of here.”
Two
Leading the way at a fast pace, Alex felt the air turn clammy as the sunshine dissolved behind them. Visibility was near to nothing as they entered the next weather zone and a fog-like mist arose from beneath their feet, swiftly obscuring everything in sight. It was disorienting, but Alex pressed on, running forward until she crossed into the next climate. Almost immediately her feet slipped out from underneath her and she fell onto the hard, ice-covered floor.
Dazed from the fall, she managed to yell, “Watch your step!”
But it was too late for D.C., who hit the slippery ground and slid along until she came to a jarring stop in a tangle of limbs at Alex’s feet.
Bringing up the rear, Bear at least heard the warning in time, and was able to get away with a slight skating of his feet without losing his footing.
“Eugh,” D.C. grunted, pushing up to stand. She made a whimpering sound, causing Alex to glance at her with alarm.
“Are you hurt?”
Holding her left hand tenderly, D.C. bit her lip. “I landed pretty hard on my wrist.”
“Here, let me look,” Bear said as Alex stood and slid her way over to them.
He gently rolled D.C.’s wrist back and forth, pressing carefully against the bones.
“Your movement is good,” Bear said. “I think it’s just sprained.”
D.C.’s face was tight with pain. “I’ll be fine. Let’s keep moving.”
“Dix—”
“Alex, I’m fine. Really. Let’s go.”
Taking in the determined look on her friend’s face, Alex slowly nodded. But before she led the way onwards, she unwound the scarf from her neck and used it to tie her ComTCD to D.C.’s wrist as an improvised splint.
“Try to keep it as still as possible,” Alex said. “The more you move it, the worse you’ll make it.”
“You’ve spent way too much time in the Med Ward,” D.C. observed, studying Alex’s rudimentary attempt at first aid. “But thanks. It already feels a bit better.”
“Thank Fletcher,” Alex said. “He’s patched me up so many times, I was bound to learn a thing or two.”
On that wry note, Alex edged her way forward again, carefully this time. Her feet slid along the icy floor, and more than once she had to catch herself before taking another header onto the ground. Their slow progress was made more frustrating when greenish clouds rolled in and began to spit small hailstones at them. They weren’t large enough to cause worrying injuries, but Alex certainly obtained her fair share of stinging bruises. It was a relief, therefore, when they crossed into the next weather section, even if it sent them directly into a blustery snowstorm.
“This place is mental!” Alex cried over the howling wind as they trudged their way through the knee-deep snow. A mass of flurries blew straight into her mouth just from emitting those few words, so she refrained from yelling anything else to her friends until they reached the next section.
Soaked and shivering from the piercing chill of the blizzard, they were grateful to cross the boundary into a section that was both silent and still. But just when Alex thought they were in the clear, the back of her neck began to prickle with warning and a peculiar tingly feeling overcame her.
“Run!” came Johnny’s urgent voice from Bear’s ComTCD. “Run, run, run!”
Alex didn’t need to be told twice. She remembered what he’d said about the last section being the most dangerous, and when a ferocious rumble was followed closely by a blinding light and an ear-splitting CRACK, she understood exactly why he hadn’t given them more details.
They were right in the middle of an electrical storm. And judging by the amount of static charge Alex felt and the strong smell of ozone in the air, it was a nasty one, at that.
With Bear and D.C. right behind her, Alex took off at a sprint through the low-hanging dark clouds, heading for the open door that was still an alarming distance away. Another thunderous roar had Alex slapping her hands over her ears, and she couldn’t suppress a shriek when a spike of lightning struck the floor so close that she felt the power of the bolt surge along her skin.
Alex picked up her speed, but as they reached the halfway mark of the storm-section, the lightning and thunder increased to the point that the three of them had to zigzag their way in short, sharp lunges to avoid being struck. It was only then that Alex remembered Johnny saying that some of the weather was reactive—the storm was actively tracking them, targeting their movements as they hurried through the room.