“Get a room, Tatum!” a guy laughed.
“On my way,” Tatum stopped kissing me long enough to smirk at the guy passing by. He didn"t kiss me anymore, but he stayed leaning against the wall, his body pressed against mine, until the other guy had disappeared around a corner. Then he looked at me, his eyes both earnest and hungry. “You know, my room is just around the corner-” I scoffed and pushed him off me. When I"dput my hands on his chest to push him, I was surprised how fast his heart was beating. Even though he had only been helpful since I met him, he was so cocky that I didn"t really think of him as really feeling anything.
“Sorry. Let"s go,” Tatum said and walked quickly ahead of me, so I had to jog to keep up.
At the end of the hall, another set of doors with a keypad blocked the stairwell. Tatum punched in the numbers, looking back over his shoulder to make sure we were alone. The keypad flashed green, and the door made a clicking sound. He opened it, glancing around once more.
“Your friend better be waiting up there for you,” Tatum said. “Because there"s a keypad to that door, and I don"t know the code.” I went through the door, and he hesitated. “Do you want me to go with you?”
“No, I got it from here,” I smiled wanly at him. “Thanks, though. For everything.”
“No problem.”
I dashed up the stairs, taking two at a time. There were no windows in the stairwell or the door, so I didn"t really know what to do. Blue might be waiting for me, but I couldn"t see him.
Timidly, I knocked at the door, and then waited. Three of the longest seconds of my life later, the keypad flashed green, and the door slowly pushed open.
“Hey,” Blue poked his head around the open door, and his brow furrowed. “What the hell are you wearing?”
“Never mind,” I shook my head, feeling even more self-conscious.
“You"re right. Hurry,” he waved me into the second floor.
It looked exactly like the first floor, except there were big, stainless steel Craftsman toolboxes randomly placed throughout the hall. A few people in scrubs stood at the other end of the hall, talking.
Blue immediately pushed me through the door right next to the stairwell, which happened to be a men"s bathroom. He shoved a pair of blue scrubs at me and told me to get dressed.
“Does everybody have to wear scrubs all the time?” I asked. He had his back to me, and he stood at the door, holding it open a little to keep watch for anyone coming.
“Kind of. They"re big into uniforms here,” Blue replied absently. “It helps them keep track of everyone.”
I changed quickly and pulled my hair up. Blue waited a beat, making sure the coast was clear, and we went into the hall as casually and as fast we could. We took another left, going towards where the other people were talking. They complained about how loud the soldiers were on the floor below them, and Blue and I politely smiled when we walked by and rounded the corner.
The stairs to the third floor were at the end of the next hall, and we almost jogged towards them. Blue punched in the key code, opened the door, and we raced up the steps.
“Third floor is gonna be trickier,” Blue said as we reached the next door. “We can"t be seen. If we are, people will ask why we"re there, and we don"t have clearance. Obviously. The only good thing is that very few people have clearance, so there won"t be many people up here to see us.”
When the door opened, I was surprised by how much dimmer it was. Half the lights must"ve been off. Everything felt narrower and darker, but I"m not sure if that was true.
The hall was completely empty, no metal carts, no people, nothing. We crept down the corridor, literally tiptoeing like they did in cartoons when they were being sneaky.
The sound of a door opening echoed down the hall. Blue grabbed me and pushed me around a corner. We stood with our backs pressed up against the wall, neither of us breathing, and waited. Footsteps came closer. Then another door opened, and they disappeared.
After Blue let out a shaky breath, we went back out into the main hall and walked down a few doors. We stopped in front of a plain white door, but this one had a slot for a keycard, like they had in hotels.
“I think this is where your brother"s at.” Blue nodded and pulled a plastic keycard out of his pocket.
“Wait.” I stopped him before he slid it in. “You go. I can do this. I don"t want you to get in trouble over me.”
“Are you sure?” Blue asked.
“Yeah. You"ve helped me enough.”
Almost reluctantly, he handed me the card. I waited until he had taken a few steps down the hall, then I slid the card in. The light flashed green on the slot, and I pushed down the handle to the door. My stomach twisted with nerves, and slowly, I opened the door.