Free Lila Shortcuts by Sarah Alderson

credit card.’
    She hears the answer, even though I try to cover it up with some super-loud la-la-la- in g
    ‘Suki!’ she screams.
    ‘What?’ I shrug. But I can already see the pictures in her head . . . pictures of men in black combats . . .
    Nate bounds over to the doorway where we’re still standing. He’s wearing the fluffy white bathrobe over his clothes clutching a bag of peanuts from the minibar in one hand and the room service menu in the other. ‘What? What’s going on?’ he asks, looking between us.
    ‘When are you going to learn?’ Alicia sighs.
    ‘Learn what?’ Nate asks.
    ‘They know your name,’ Alicia says, ignoring Nate and talking straight to me. Her nostrils are flaring like an angry horse. ‘You can’t use any ID any more with that name on it. The unit will have your name flagged.’
    Oh.
    ‘Come on, we need to get out of here now!’
    And then, just then, we both hear an explosion of voices – commands being yelled – a thousand jumbling ping-ponging thoughts flying like bullets into our brains. It’s as if there’s a game playing and the stadium is my head. Alicia winces and I cover my ears – not that that helps.
    Alicia’s fingers grip my wrist and she yanks me out of the door and into the corridor.
    ‘But—’ I start, my free hand hanging on for dear life to the door post. I’m thinking of my bag and my new shoes and all the little mini bottles of shampoo and conditioner I’m leaving behind.
    ‘Suki – there’s no time!’ Alicia screeches, tugging me until my fingers lose their grip on the door. ‘We need to go. Come on, run!’
    So we do. We run to the end of the hallway, to the elevator, and Nate jabs the button but the metal doors stay peaceful and shut as a dead person’s eyes.
    Alicia pulls us to the emergency stairwell next to the elevator and we fall into an echoey, hollow stairwell. Roaring up from the bottom comes the sound of feet stomping.
    Turn around, Alicia screams silently into my head.
    I twist and push Nate back through the door, tripping on his heels. Alicia shoves us down the hallway. Suddenly a doorway opens and a sleepy-looking man with a pregnant hairy belly and wearing just a towel around his waist is standing there. ‘What the hell is going on?’ he asks in a funny accent, peering out into the corridor. ‘What’s all the noise?’
    I hear Alicia’s thought a second before she follows through with it and dart out the way of her elbow, which comes smashing down against the man’s temple.
    Nate is speechless and blinking as the man goes crashing backwards, letting out a low bellow. Just then the elevator door pings. Alicia’s hands are on my back.
    ‘Inside! Inside!’ she shouts, shoving Nate and I over the groaning man lying on the floor and into his room.
    The man grunts as my foot catches him in the groin and I stumble. I can hear his thoughts tumbling around like pebbles in an empty tin can but they’re in another language I don’t understand.
    Alicia screams, ‘Stay put!’ and her eyes are wild. And then she slams the door in my face.
    What is she doing? I jump to my feet. My hand is on the doorhandle, turning it, when I hear feet pounding towards us, shaking the floor like an earthquake and men’s voices yelling so loud it’s as if they’re on fire.
    I hear the panic in Alicia’s head, scrambling, fleeting, blurry thoughts – run run run . . . she’s trying to run faster, her heart pounding in her chest. I can see the door she’s heading towards, I can see her hand outstretched before her as the footsteps come thundering up behind her, closer and closer. I can feel her fear, can taste the panic. And I can see Demos too, though I know that’s just an image in her head, and in amongst it all I hear her telling me to get Nate and get out and then—
    BAM!
    I’m being stabbed in the head by someone with razor-tipped acrylic nails. They are poking right into my skull, trying to grab handfuls of brain, and now they are