Free Explorer X Alpha by LM. Preston

from Carter. The object looked like a deformed human with a misshapen eye with no pupil. Where another eye would have been, it was flat. Its body was multi-colored and seemed to change colors rapidly as it moved. The specimen blinked and jumped toward the glass, and Carter jumped back again.
    â€œGet up!” Damien said to Carter and pulled him up by his collar.
    â€œHey, guys, come over here! This is some strange stuff,” Scott said. Aadi looked over to see Scott, Eirena, Raiko, and Dakota reading the screen in front of them. Tacitus came over to help Carter up as Damien told Tacitus and Carter to follow him to the other side of the lab. Aadi looked back at Tacitus as Tacitus stared at him and the others. He looked indecisive about which direction to go. Aadi said, “Tacitus, go keep an eye on those two! We don’t want them to give us away, do we?”
    â€œNo, we don’t,” Tacitus replied as he turned to follow Carter and Damien. Aadi had a feeling that he didn’t want Tacitus to see what he was about to see. His mother always told him to follow his gut, and today, he was going to do just that. He turned and went over to where Eirena stood.
    â€œLook! Here are all of our names. It’s part of some experiment. Wait… I don’t see Tacitus’s or Carter’s name,” she said, her sentence cut off by a loud bang.
    â€œOh, my God! Move!” and they all looked around to see Carter, Damien, and Tacitus in a high-speed run toward them.
    â€œLet’s get out of here now!” said Damien. He ran ahead of Carter with Tacitus in the rear.
    â€œWhat is it?” screamed Aadi, then watched as Carter sped up and passed Damien and Tacitus. He was stunned, as he never would have expected Carter to be able to move so fast. Dakota didn’t hesitate. He took off and ran behind Damien.
    â€œNow! Guards are coming!” said Damien as he yelled back. Aadi then spied Eirena, while the others took off behind Tacitus, and saw that she cleared the screen. Scott grabbed Raiko by the top of her shirt. She ran around Eirena and took off behind the boys. Raiko ran so fast that she was on Damien’s heels. She left Scott behind. He slowed down and yelled at Aadi, “Let’s get out of dodge, now, Aadi!”
    â€œEbu, let’s go,” Aadi said, as Ebu shot past him in box form. Eirena grabbed his hand, and they ran through the door where they came in. Carter was waiting just outside the door as the others made it to the entrance near the elevator. Carter closed the door when Aadi came out. They ran down the hall and passed Tacitus, who seemed a bit disoriented. Aadi looked back at Tacitus, but Eirena dropped his hand and picked up speed to follow Carter out the door. They continued to run to the entrance near the elevator.
    â€œTacitus, hurry up!” Aadi called back as he kept running and turned around to make it through the elevator door.
    They all ran out the door, past the elevators, down the corridor, and around the corner. Aadi looked back to see if Tacitus was behind him, but Tacitus had barely made it out of the elevator hall when he was snatched back by a guard dressed in a gray and black uniform.
    Aadi didn’t remember seeing any guards before and wondered where this one came from. He figured he must have come through the labs. Aadi hesitated a moment, thinking he should go back to help Tacitus, but then decided against it and caught up to the others. The girls ran so fast that he lost sight of them completely. He figured they made it to their room undetected.
    Aadi picked up speed and got to the room just as Scott closed the door. For a moment, he thought about using the telenex to see if Eirena and Raiko made it to their room, but his mom had told him to never tell anyone about this device. So, he figured he would just have to wait it out until the morning.
    Hmm… maybe I should just put out a feeler to see what she is doing? Aadi wondered,