“Let her stay that way!” Liz yelled. “She would have left us here to die! Just get the doorway open!”

Laura looked at the girls underneath the door, all pushing their faces to see what she would do. She looked at Ashley’s pale face, lolling on her shoulders, creased with pain.

Laura reared back, folding her hand into a fist. Dear God, she prayed, with the strength You gave David to fight Goliath, give me strength now.

With a bloodcurdling scream, she summoned every ounce of power she had and smashed her hand into the glass, shattering both panes. She reached through the jagged shards and grabbed the lever positioned between the two gears, pulling it as hard as she could. Glass tore at her fingers and wrists, but she would not succumb to the pain. She gave a mighty heave and felt the lever pull toward her. Blood ran freely down her hands.

With a loud hum, the gears in Ashley’s box parted, releasing her hand from the deadly grip. Sparks flew from both boxes, and a small acrid smoke rose from within the inner core. A few wires and small metal connections melted and fell to the floor from both boxes. The doorway lifted up steadily, and the girls inside scrambled out.

Tracy coughed thickly but was smiling. “You got us out! You saved us! Well, those boxes won’t be doing anything anymore, but at least they got us out of that horrible lab room.” She gagged and spit. “That virus stuff from the Spanish flu—did we get very much of it?” Kim began to weep silently. Laura knelt down and looked at Ashley’s hand.

“Laura, I don’t want to die,” Liz said. “I want to see my folks again. I want to get things right with God. Is it too late?”

“Only time it’s too late is when you’re dead.” Laura stood up. “Kim, get some gauze from the front lobby area and wind it around her hand, but gently.” She looked at the doorway. “Liz, calm down. If I’m not mistaken, you’re not too late. You need to get alone with God and start sorting this out, and I’d help you, but we need to move fast. I have to get something.” She walked back toward the test tube room.

“What are you, stupid or something?” Tracy asked. “There’s flu all over the floor. Get your hand fixed up first. Let’s get that first aid kit in the front lobby. Don’t go back in there!”

Safety
“Aw, let her go. She won’t listen to you, “ Liz said. “She’s got something on her mind. It’s like watching the pieces of her brain fit back together again. I’ve been watching, and it seems like her memory is slowly coming back. About every few minutes, she gets a small block of memory put back in its proper place.”

Kim walked over to the doorway that Laura had entered. Kim wouldn’t go in.

“Oh, come on in,” Laura called, gripping her injured hand. “It’s safe. Come take a look. I thought I noticed it whenever we were locked in. I remember something that my dad taught me a few years ago, about looking at something with more than your eyes.”

When Kim entered, Laura nodded toward the smashed equipment on the floor. “Look carefully. What don’t you see?”

Kim leaned over and peered at the glass. “I don’t know what you’re getting at. The tubes are there, the virus liquid is all over the floor.”

“No,” Laura corrected. “There is liquid, but it’s not anywhere near the tubes. Come on, Kim. Use more than your eyes. Where is the liquid coming from?”

Kim stood up straight and blinked. “It’s not anywhere near the tubes all right. It leaked out of that bottle labeled ‘distilled water.’ ” Kim grinned. “The tubes are all dry!”

Laura nodded. “Which means none of the virus leaked out. There was no virus in those tubes.”

“No problems!” Kim yelled. “We’re free!”

“Hang on, don’t celebrate yet, though. There is one thing we need to figure out,” Laura said, pointing at the grating. “Now look over there. What was so odd about the grating?”

Kim scratched her head and shrugged.

Laura pointed at the holes that surrounded the grating on the wall. “None of the screws were placed in the wall. That grating pulled off with no effort. It was like the desk was trying to hide that. Did you notice the rope tied to one of the desk legs? Don’t you think that’s odd with a room that is supposed to be so secure?”

Kim nodded. “That ductwork should lead to a filtering system of some sort, if this was indeed a room that handles this virus. Why would anyone jeopardize the safety of that air passage by leaving it like that?”

Liz leaned against the doorframe. “And why would a person shove the desk and papers in front of it in order to hide it?”

“Well, I figure that someone exited through this grate and pulled that rope through the grating in order to pull the desk in front of the vent. They let the rope fall to the ground behind the desk. Why? I don’t know, but that leads to another question,” Laura said, pointing to the tables and chairs. “Look at them. For over 30 years they haven’t been touched. See that fine layer of dust?” The girls nodded their heads. “Now look at the desk and the table nearest you. No dust at all. Look at the pencils and papers that we didn’t use. Dusty, right? Now look at the papers and pencils over here at this table next to where Liz was sitting. No dust.”

Tracy stood in the doorway. “Someone has been in here recently. They knew about this place.” She gulped.

Forgiveness
Laura walked through the doorway toward Ashley, who had her eyes closed. “If someone was messing around in here . . . ”

Ashley opened her eyes. “Wasn’t me, I swear. This place gives me the creeps. And obviously I don’t know how to run the machinery.”

“That’s true,” Kim said, rubbing her chin and thinking. “And this bothers me as well. This box?” She held up a small wooden container. “It says ‘Spanish flu’ on it, and there are test tube spaces for 12 tubes to be inserted for storage.” She pointed to the floor. “I count only three tubes on that floor.”

“They could have been empty, too,” Liz argued.

“True enough,” Kim admitted. “But where are they? Did they leave with someone—possibly through that grating system?”

“We need to take a look. Then we can just get out of here and get Ashley back to camp and then to a hospital,” Laura said, turning to head down the hallway.

“No, that’s not going to happen,” Kim said as she walked back into the hallway. “Here’s the gauze. Would you help me put it on her?”

Ashley groaned but looked up at Laura. “You knew what I planned to do to you, but you still helped me anyway. You cut your hand to ribbons in order to save mine. Why did you do that? You can’t even figure out who you are.”

“I may not have all the details about my life put together, “ Laura said, wrapping the gauze carefully around Ashley’s hand, “but I know who I ought to be.” She took some of the gauze and wrapped her own bleeding hand. “I saw some pretty disgusting portraits of the mean kind of person I was before I lost my memory. Listen, I’m not sure the kind of person I was before all this started, but I know that I need to escape the trap I had built around myself in my . . . er, my ‘old’ life.”

She tied the wrapping tightly. “I was in denial about the important things in life. You know,” she looked up at Ashley, “I had worse brain damage then than I do now. Huh. At least I have an idea of the kind of person I’m supposed to be. That’s more important than trying to remember a name, isn’t it? I’m on a mission to get my character in order. The other details can come later.”

“You got that right,” Liz said. “What good is it to remember your name but reject your character? Nah. I like the way you came around.”

“You know,” Laura said, “I’m almost glad I have amnesia. It’s pushed away a lot of clutter.”

She turned to Kim. “A minute ago, you said something isn’t going to happen. What were you talking about?”

Kim had an ashen look to her face. “The mechanism that opened the door for us must have a second use.” She jabbed a thumb in the direction of the front lobby. “It must’ve also lowered a door as well. There’s a giant steel door that’s closed over the front entrance. We’ve been slammed. No key. No handle.” She looked around. “We’re locked in, and those two boxes are both ruined.”