Wrong Place (The Wrong Series) (23 page)

“Well
, thank you for giving me a chance.”

“Don’t thank me just yet. None of us may get out of this alive,” Zane said as he parked the car in the airport parking lot.

Chapter 23

Jason and Lee arrived at the facility in Tampa and were attempting to find the best way to approach it.

“What do we do? It’s not like
we can just walk up and knock on the door,” Lee said.

“Honestly
, I have no idea. Let’s just go up to the place and see if we can find a way in,” Jason said.

Inside
the facility, a man was looking at the parking lot on a monitor when he saw two men walking up to the front door with guns in their hands. The man grabbed a hand radio.

“It
looks like we have company, boys. They’re at the front door. Take care of them, if you will,” he said.

Four large men em
erged from the back of the building and came up behind Jason and Lee.

“Freeze! Drop your
weapons,” one of the men said.

Great, this is just great,
Jason thought to himself. Jason and Lee slowly laid their weapons down on the ground.

“I
thought we would at least make it into the facility before we got caught,” Lee said.

The four men grabbed them and escor
ted them to the elevator inside the building. Once they were inside, they hit the B1 button. As the doors opened, what Jason and Lee saw was exactly what they expected to see. The underbelly of this unsuccessful business was a totally different environment. It looked like a fortress with tons of military-type people hustling and bustling about, even at this late hour. They were escorted to the front of what looked like many different cells.

“We’re
running a little short on cells these days, so one of you will have to share a cell with someone,” the guard said.

The guards split up
. Two escorted Lee to a cell, while the other two escorted Jason to a cell. Not only had Jason and Lee failed, but they had failed miserably. It seemed as if there was truly no hope at this point.

Inside of Lee’s new cell
, he saw a familiar face. It was Michael.

“Boy
, am I glad to see you. Have you seen any of the others?” Michael asked.

“No
, I just got here,” Lee said.

“What do y
ou mean you just got here?”

Lee
explained the whole situation to Michael.

“I guess
that we’re screwed right now, but at least they don’t have the flash drive. Where is it, by the way?” Michael asked.

“
It’s probably best if you don’t know where it is just in case they question you about it, and I don’t really want to say right now because you never know who could be listening.”

“I understand. I might have a crude escape plan if you want in on it,” Michael whispered.

“Yeah, I’ll listen to any plan at this point. What is it?”

Michael then pulled the large s
hard of glass out from under his covers.

“The next time they come in here
, I say that we take back the power in our situation. Are you with me?”

“No
, I’m not with you. They have guns, and they outnumber us by several dozen people, possibly even several
hundred
people. All that shard of glass is going to do is get us killed.”

“So what
exactly do you want to do then? Do you want to just sit here and wait for them to kill us, which you know they will eventually do? I’m sorry, but I am
not
going to sit here and wait to be tortured to death, or worse, rot away in this prison. If I’m going to die, then it will be on my own terms, but make no mistake about it, I do
not
plan on dying here,” Michael said confidently.

Lee was surprised. He had not heard such determination in Michael’s voice in years. Against his own better judgment
, Lee was actually considering Michael’s plan.

“You
’re right. I don’t have a better plan, but if we’re going to do this, then let’s do it right. What if we do get out of this cell? What are we supposed to do then?” Lee asked.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen anything outside of this ce
ll.”

“That won’t be a problem. I saw everything on th
e way here. Outside of this cell, there is a large hallway filled with prison doors. I assume that the others are being held in those cells. Outside of that hallway, is a large area where there are tons of enemy soldiers, and in the middle of that area is an elevator. That elevator is where we need to go.”

“Okay
then, how about this. We could dispose of however many guards enter here and take their uniforms and the key that one of them will obviously be carrying. We can let the others out and then decide which of us should wear the uniforms that we have just acquired. Then
they
can go to get help for everyone else.”

“
All right, it’s worth a try, but Michael, if this doesn’t work out, it’s been nice knowing you,” Lee said.

“You too
, Lee,” Michael responded.

* * * * *

Early the next morning, Jeffery arrived at the facility and went downstairs. After only a few steps, he was stopped in his tracks by one of his guards.

“We caught two intruders last night,” the man said.

Jeffery was very surprised. His facility had never actually had an intruder before. Sometimes a homeless person would wonder up to the facility, and they would have to chase him away, but that’s about as exciting as it ever got.

“Do you have a
ny idea who they are?” Jeffery asked.

“No
, but we have footage of them approaching the facility if you want to see if you recognize either one of them.”

“Yes, I would like to
see the video.”

The guard
escorted Jeffery to the monitor room. Upon seeing the video, Jeffery was overjoyed.

“
I cannot believe this,” Jeffery exclaimed.

“What is it?”

“I do know one of these men. We’ve been spending so much of our energy trying to finding Lee Higgins, and apparently, he just decided to come to us. How lucky could we possibly get?”

“That’s
great, sir.”

“Get me Trisha Morris. I t
hink we need to start her interrogation a little early today,” Jeffery said with a devious grin.

A startling knock at her door woke Trish from a sound sleep.

“Come in,” she said as she
sat up in the bed.

“
I’m sorry to wake you, Ms. Morris, but Mr. Sandusky wants to speak with you,” a guard said.

“
All right. Tell him that I’ll be right there,” she said while getting up out of the bed.

It looks like I’ve
finally run out of time. What am I supposed to do now, she wondered. Trish made her way to Jeffery, and when she arrived, she was greeted by a man who was obviously ecstatic about something.

“We have found Lee Higgins
, and your little fun has just turned into an actual interrogation. I want you to find out exactly where he’s hidden the device and then report back to me,” Jeffery said.

“Yes sir. I’ll
get it done.”

Trish wa
s then ushered by four guards to the prisoner’s cells. They entered one of the cells and two of the men grabbed Lee, while the other two stood watch over Michael. Michael grasped the shard of broken glass tightly and then jumped from his bed. In one smooth motion, he planted the sliver of glass in the closest guard’s neck. Shocked by this, one of the guards loosened his grip on Lee’s arm. Lee immediately pulled his arm away and swung his fist firmly into the jaw of the guard on his left side. Trish began hitting the guard that was facing Michael in the back of the head. Michael and Trish, as a team, were able to quickly subdue the man and take the weapon from his side. Trish pointed the newly found gun at the men that surrounded Lee.

“Drop your
weapons, both of you,” Trish commanded. They quickly complied.

“Now
, Lee, I need you to pick up the guns they just dropped. Give one to Michael, and keep one for yourself.”

“What’s
with all the noise in here?” Jeffery asked from out in the hallway.

Trish turned and walked out of the cell and pointed her gun straight at him. He was surrounded by eight guards.
Upon seeing her, they all raised their guns. Michael grabbed the keys from one of the guards, and then they quickly made their way outside of the cell to join Trish.

“You’re
outnumbered, Ms. Morris. I suggest that you drop your weapons or else you will all perish right here,” Jeffery said.

“The way I look at it
, you stand as good a chance of dying as we all do,” Michael said while inching his way to his left. He firmly planted his back against the cell that had been next to his own.

In his right
hand he held a gun, but in his left hand he held a set of keys. Behind his back, he was trying to find the key that would fit into the lock behind him.

“Come now
, do you really believe that the three of you have any chance against the nine of us?”

Just then Michael felt it. He had found the key that fit into the lock behind him. He droppe
d his gun at the same time as he unlocked the door. The noise from the gun hitting the ground effectively cancelled out the noise made from the newly opened door. Michael slowly slipped the keys into his back pocket.

“What are you doing
, Michael?” Lee asked in a shocked voice.

“We can’t get out of this alive. You two should drop your weapons
, too,” Michael said.

“What happ
ened to controlling how you die?”

“Lee
, just trust me on this one and drop your gun.”

Lee laid the gun down
, and shortly after, Trish dropped her gun, too.

“You made the
right decision, Michael. Find Ms. Morris a cell and get the dead body out of Michael’s cell. Then put him back in it. As for you, Mr. Higgins, we have some business to attend to,” Jeffery said.

With a wave of his hand
, two men grabbed Lee and whisked him away. Trish was quickly escorted to a cell. Two of the guards dragged the dead body from Michael’s cell, and then two more escorted him back into the cell.

“My keys,” one of the earlier guard
s said to Michael.

Michael handed them over
to him. As the door slammed, Michael still felt a ray of hope. My escape plan may not have worked, but at least it set someone else up to get out of here alive, he thought.

* * * * *

Nathan and Sam were lying on the bed when they heard a very loud commotion from the cell next to theirs.

“What in the world do you think is going on over there?” Nathan asked.

“I don’t know. I hope they aren’t torturing anyone,” Sam said.

“I already gave them all
the information they wanted. Why would they be torturing someone?”

“You seem to be under the impression that all people only torture to get information. The truth is
that unless something changes really quickly, we’ll all probably be tortured and then killed,” she said in a grim voice.

At that moment
, the loud sounds seemed to move into the hallway.

“That’s
strange. You don’t suppose that someone is actually making a break for it, do you?” she asked.

Then they
heard the sound of something bump up against their door. After a few seconds, to both Nathan and Sam’s surprise, the sound of the door unlocking could be heard.

“Wow
, I think we need to take this opportunity to try to get out of here,” Nathan said while jumping to his feet and heading towards the door.

“Wait a minute. It sounds pretty bad out there
. Just wait.”

“Are you sure? We may not get another opportunity
like this one.”

“Just trust me on this.”

The noise outside subsided after a couple of minutes.

“We’re
going to wait a few more minutes, and then we’re making a run for it,” Sam said.

After some time
, Sam walked over to Nathan by the door. 

“
All right, let’s go,” Sam said.

Nathan opened the door very slowly
, and they stepped out of their cell.

“Thank God no one is here
, but what do we do now?” Nathan asked in a low voice.

“We wait.”

“For what
exactly?”

“If we want to get out of here
, then we’ll have to look like we belong here, so we should wait for someone to come and then we can get their uniforms,” Sam said.