It was the middle of Saturday night, or possibly Sunday morning.

Seymour had woken up, afraid and sweaty.

There had been blood on the snow. This time his father, not the other cops, came through the woods and found him kneeling in red snow, melting form the heat of the blood and the blast. His father reached for him and Seymour screamed… he was only a child.

Why?

Seymour sat up on the bed and shook the drowsiness from his head. He had managed to wake up against the drugs they had given him to keep him calm. Good. He had very little time left.

He took off his socks and rolled up his pants. He had to keep as quiet as possible, for now. He reached under the bed and pulled out a large rock he’d smuggled out of the garden in his sweatshirt.

He slowly tested the doorknob. Usually the doors were all locked during the night, however…

The door quietly swung open, and Seymour was met with a cold gust of air from the dark hallway.

Seymour pulled the wad of toilet tissue from the bolt. The only thing worse than having a plan foiled was people knowing how you went about it.

He wandered into the hallway and the door closed and locked behind him. Seymour didn’t care. All he needed was his rock. His rock and a chance.

The hallway went in both directions from the stairs. The whole thing was shaped like a P. One continuous square of hallway, with an extension that led towards an alarmed door leading to the offices of the doctors and supplies for nurses.

Seymour headed to the extension, casting a quick glance first. The hallway was empty of either security guards or the janitor. Seymour stopped and listened.

Someone with a harsh, cigarette-burned voice was whistling a tune to one of the songs of Evita. The janitor had not left his shift yet after all. He did indeed have a chance.

It was the middle of the night after lock-down. The security guards would be resting now, on standby. There was no one but the janitor to see him, and Seymour was determined that he wouldn’t.

Seymour threw the rock across the hallway and watched it disappear into blackness. He backed away a few paces, and smiled at the resounding crash. It had been a big window in the door, and it had been a big rock. Seymour was glad he had such good aim.

Seymour heard a crash of a broom handle hitting the floor and a few seconds later the janitor ran down the corner and towards the mess Seymour had created, not noticing the culprit in the dark. After the janitor had passed him and it was obvious enough he hadn’t noticed Seymour had escaped his room, Seymour turned the corner to the janitor’s cart.

Seymour grabbed the broom and the large set of keys that had been abandoned with the rest of the cleaning supplies.

The alarm on the door with the broken window went off. The security guards would be up now, and rushing to see who had done what. Seymour quickly went down the stairs to the cafeteria.

His time for keeping quiet was almost up.

* * * * *

The security guards were indeed awakened when the janitor had tripped the alarm on the door.

The doors were open wide, they couldn’t see the keys still in the lock, or the chair Seymour had dragged behind them. All they noticed was Seymour banging a broom loudly on the linoleum tiles in the dark and empty cafeteria.

"Seymour!" Lulu yelled as she and Wakka entered the room.

Seymour looked up at them from his broom.

"What the hell ya doin’ in here?" Wakka asked, taking a step closer.

Seymour immediately raised the broom as if to defend himself with it from Wakka. He jabbed at the air in from to Wakka as a warning.

"Come on, put the broom down—" Lulu said, only to earn a jab aimed at her.

"Okay, don’t put the broom down," Wakka said, raising his hands to show he wasn’t there for any violence. "Here, you keep the broom for a while and let’s get you out of here."

Seymour turned in a half circle and started backing toward the door. His gaze kept going back and forth from each of the security guards.

"Wakka?" Lulu asked. "What are you thinking?"

"He ain’t hurt no one," Wakka said. "Didn’t break much either, let’s leave him alone and see if we can’t just coax him back to bed."

Seymour continued to tentatively back towards the open double doors, his broom still raised and ready to strike.

Lulu took a step forward and Seymour stopped in his tracks and growled.

"Hey, you wanna make someone clean teeth offa tile tonight?" Wakka asked. "Back off, he’s got a court date in two days. Leave him alone. ‘Sides, he’s acting better than normal when he does these things."

Lulu backed away and Seymour stopped growling.

"Go on," Lulu said. "I’m staying here."

Seymour started to back away again. Once he was in the doorway he immediately dropped the broom behind him and slammed the doors closed. He put his back to the doors and grabbed the broom from the floor and jammed it in between the bars of the double doors, bolting it closed.

He tore the keys from the door, which was made more difficult by Wakka and Lulu slamming against he doors, trying to open them.

He pocketed the keys and grabbed the chair he had hidden behind the doors and started towards the Isolation Chambers.

 

* * * * *

Dealing with the security guards had been far less difficult than he had expected. He thought he’d have to wrestle his broom away at least once and only manage to lock one f them away. He hadn’t wished to hurt them, but they’d be in the way of his plan.

He was damn determined not to be taken to court. And not to tell.

He had been smart to take the keys with him even after closing the cafeteria doors. There had been two locked doors between him and the isolation chambers.

He didn’t care who he woke up as he dragged the chair behind him. He’d be making even more noise soon.

It was dark and all the people were sleeping. There were no names to the tiny, blank rooms they were locked in. Finding Auron would take more time than he thought.

 

* * * * *

"Damnit!" Lulu swore, still shoving against the double doors, which refused to budge more than half-an inch.

"Hey," Wakka said, picking up a chair in an act of irony he wasn’t yet aware of. "Stan’ back, this’ll make a big mess."

Lulu backed away, not quite sure what he was about to try.

Wakka walked over to one of the doors and swung the chair at the window, breaking it instantly. "Bit of a bigger hole than I wanted," Wakka said, setting the chair down and reaching through the hole and pulling the broom out of the handle.

"Okay, so where is he?" Lulu asked, stepping over the glass.

"Hey, I got us out, gimme some credit."

"God knows where he could be now," Lulu said, her tone bordering on anger.

"Hey, no one’s screamin’ an’ no alarms ‘ave gone off," Wakka said, his accent getting thicker as he was getting more and more tense, despite what he was saying. "He’s here somewhere, ‘kay?"

"What’s that?" Lulu asked at a sudden banging noise coming from the lower floor.

"Found ‘im."

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