Get Out of Here

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“Wow, that looks painful,”

“That’s not just from us, is it?”

“I don’t think so... That big one on his arm was you, Kell. And the one on his chest is me and Holly, but what about the others?”

“He looks like he got mugged.”

“Mugged? He looks like he’s already been through SensoDep two.”

Nervous laughter followed this last, and Gus finally opened his painfully bruised eyes to see his three friends standing over him. Or rather, the girls were standing over him, and Keller propped up the wall, too stiff to laugh, or even smile. Gus could relate. SensoDep was where all of them were headed, just as soon as they could be forced to sign the safety waivers. Making fun of it was how the girls dealt with the constant fear, but Keller’s brother had died in there.

“It was definitely you guys. No one else hits like a bunch of girls.”

“Hey!”

“Ow, that’s going to bruise!”

“Good, it’ll match the rest of you.” Six feet of muscled blond leered at him. “Nice pyjamas, by the way.”

Gus ignored her for the sake of his own dignity, and concealed his Pac-Man boxers beneath the sheets. He scratched his head in mock confusion.

“Holly, please explain to me why the three of you are here.”

“Two words: road trip. Any bells going off in that empty belfry of yours?” Holly was rooting through his closet. “You didn’t pack at all, did you? What, did you think clothes would just magically appear whenever you needed them?”

“Some clothes now would be nice. Why are you all in my room?”

He caught the pair of jeans and the shirt that was tossed to him. Keller rolled his eyes. “Eighteenth birthday, freak. Can we stop kidding around? I want to get out of here.”

“I knew there had to be a reason for all those people giving me birthday beats,” Gus pulled on the shirt, covering most of his bruises. Now that he was more awake, he could see that the others were all carrying bags. “Dammit, couldn’t the blind spot have come at noon or something?”

Holly checked her watch. “There is one at five pm, but it only lasts a minute. We need to get on this, people. Blind spot starts in six minutes, which puts us at t minus two hundred and seventy-six seconds.”
Gus hopped out of bed, ready to go. “Okay, then. Let’s skedaddle.” The four of them moved towards the door. Holly slipped out first, to set up her end.

“Keller, how’s that distraction coming?”

Keller grinned dangerously. “At t minus thirty-two seconds, Gus. Kitchen staff gets up early, and bang goes their main equipment.”

Gus nodded. “Cass, your turn. t minus one hundred thirty-four.”

“Later, guys.” Cass left for the auto shop, taking everyone’s bags with her, in a pink gym duffle.

“Here, man.” Keller passed Gus his earpiece. Clicking in, he checked on the girls. Holly was in her dorm advisor’s office, giving a particularly tearful account of certain indiscretions the night before. “Holly, you’re brilliant. Remember, you have a hangover. Cass, how’s the car looking?”

“Great. You have that gate frequency?”

“Sure thing. Turn the radio to eighty-six seven at t plus 4 seconds.” Gus turned to Keller, who was holding out an empty beer bottle. The rest had been scattered over the floor. He took it. “t minus ninety-five. Let the drunken revels begin.”

“Hey, duuuude. Were those lights always so, you know, light?”

“I dunno. Turn them off, man, my head is killing me.”

“Why did Holly leave? I mean, we—”

The door opened, and in strode Mrs. Gyr, the dorm advisor. Needless to say, Holly had gotten her there precisely on time, at t minus seventy-six seconds. Gus and Keller looked exactly like two lushes who had no idea what had happened the night before. Mrs. Gyr had never looked quite so shocked. Of course she had to take the three of them downstairs to the headmaster’s office, right next to the front doors.

As they approached, the fire alarm went off. Students, woken up about a minute before with their recently-set alarms, flooded the hall, all of them heading out the front doors. Keller, Holly and Gus simply went with them, listening to the uproar.

“Is this another test?”

“My iPod is back there!”

“What about the kids in Sensodep 1?"

“Who cares about them? They were lost a long time ago.”

Gus grinned at his friends. “t minus 19 seconds.” And they were swept out the door. Milling about with everyone else, they waited for it. Students from the upper dorms were still pouring out the front doors. If Gus and co. had been in their rooms, they would be among the last to leave.

“That’s time, guys.” They detached from the mob, heading towards the garage. “Cass, you ready for us?” Nothing strange, just a group of teens heading over to their non-evacuated friend’s morning auto class.

“Doors opening now, Gus. Radio ready.”

The car was inching out of the garage, and Gus called out time as they all climbed in."Blind spot starts... now."

Five feet before the gates: “t plus seventeen seconds.”

As they pulled up to the security box, the wireless gates responded to their radio frequency. The steel contraption bore a closer resemblance to a prison gate than a school, and the barbed-wire fences completed the picture.

“Anyone else feel like skipping first period?” Cass was beaming as she nearly shredded the tires getting away. They all cracked up at that.

“Not just first period. We have officially graduated high school, people.” Gus felt strangely loose, and he was about ready to float off into the sky.

Keller managed to ruin the holiday atmosphere. “Now we just have to hide.”

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Sooo.... this is the starting point for a story that has yet to write itself. the timing's still a little muddy...