The Seven by Sean Patrick Little

here."
    "What about Posey and Andy?" said Holly. She had never known fear on this level before. She hadn't felt terribly sad about leaving her family. There was a sadness there, yes, but it hadn't been tragically sad. It was almost as if they had been kind strangers raising her while she waited for her real parents to return from a trip. Posey was her sister ; Andy was her big brother. She cared for them on a deeper spiritual level.
    "We'll carry them," said John. He grabbed Andy's hands and tried to lift him into a sitting position. A strange look crossed his face. He braced his feet and tugged again. Andy's torso didn't move. John sank low and grabbed Andy under his arms and pulled. Andy remained on the floor. "Oh geez," John breathed. "His weight increased."
    "I can see that," said Sarah. "How much?"
    "Ten times? Maybe twenty? It took everything I had to just lift his arms." John shot a furtive glance around at the others. Holly could see that he was scared, too.
    "Indigo? Can you lift him?" asked Sarah. "Please?"
    Indigo shook her head. "It was all I could do to pick up that pen and fling it. I don't know if I could manage anything better."
    Holly felt frustration welling up in her. She felt like crying and screaming and hitting something all at once.
    Another low "boom," louder than the last, sounded down the corridors.
    "That's door two," said Indigo. "They'll be at the elevator shaft in a bit. Then, they'll be in here."
    A back door. That was their only hope. Dr. Cormair was so fastidious that he had back-up plans for everything. He had always been one-step ahead of them when they were kids, figuring out plans for mischief before they could even think of it themselves. There had to be an escape hatch.
    Holly gently set Posey's head down and crawled over to Cormair's body. "Doctor?" She eased him off the floor gently and cradled him. He coughed slightly and looked up at her. "Doctor, we need to get out the back door. The military is coming."
    Cormair coughed again. Red flecks of blood colored his lips. He looked up at Holly with a confused look on his face.
    "Doctor," Holly said again. "We need to leave this lab. We need to get out the back door so the military can't take us and make us into weapons."
    Cormair's face lost the confused look, and for a second, the cold, hard face Holly knew so well returned. For a long, terrifying instant, Holly was scared that he might not help them. He reached a hand up, grimacing in pain, and pointed at a dusty, unused monitor in the back corner. It stood on a simple wheeled cart and appeared to be attached to an antique bank of black servers. A new wave of coughs overtook him and he curled into a ball.
    "The back corner somewhere! There's a back door! There's something we can use!"
    Kenny staggered to his feet; blood from his nose had run down his neck and stained a wide spot on the front of his shirt. "I'll get it." He staggered forward clutching his chest. He put his hands on the monitor and his body went rigid. He took his hands off. "There's a security protocol here. We can get out of here."
    "So do it!" should Sarah. A third low explosion rattled the lab.
    "They're coming down the elevator shaft," said Indigo. The pneumatic door to the lab was still open from when Cormair had entered. Indigo closed her eyes and concentrated.
    Holly watched as nothing happened. "Indigo! Close it manually!"
    Indigo's eyes popped open and she flushed red. "Oh yeah!" She jogged across the room and entered the passkey. The door slid shut. She glanced about the room. "That won't hold them for long!"
    Kenny had already returned to his rigid state. His body trembled as he cracked the security protocols. A door, dusty with disuse and poor housekeeping, suddenly popped open with a loud metallic creak. Kenny collapsed.
    Holly looked around the room. Andy was immovable. Posey was light enough for Sarah to carry, or Holly could handle it if she must. John could get Kenny.
    "We have to leave Andy," said John.