A week passed without us being able to leave our dorm, and none of us getting any external communication. On the first day, we mostly hung around and relaxed. This continued into the second day, with minimal complaints.

  By the third day we were pacing our room.

  On day four, we walked the dorm building in its entirety.

  On the fifth day, the urge to leave was almost excruciating.

  At about midday, all of us were around the main room sprawled about: Mel, Les, and Seph on the couch. Vivian and Naomi at the desks, and me on the floor. Mindlessly, Seph flicked through channels. Vivian was scrolling on some sort of website with a text font far too small for me to read. Naomi was typing something up, and I wasn’t nosy enough to try and look at it.

  And then there was me: lying on the floor, endlessly staring at my phone.

  Even though I was very nearly still, I felt the opposite of calm and content. A growing ball of energy was in my chest. It was a pressing weight: telling me to get up and do something. Run around, explore, anything but stay here.

  And I was feeling about ready to succumb to that urge. There was little-to-no chance of being able to walk out in the open without being caught by Whiteford. But, there was an easy way to get around here without being spotted.

  The difficult part was actually getting out.

  There was no way in hell I could just waltz out of the room without anyone questioning me. That meant I either had to get a good enough excuse, or get everyone else on my ‘explore-underground-tunnels’ plan. There was no rational decision making behind it. It was just… something. Something good.

  Suddenly feeling like I needed to be discreet, my gaze flew upon the room.

  Les was smirking at Seph, and remarked. “I thought we were watching TV, not a slideshow.” Seph just, with eyes half-closed, stared forward. Mel said nothing.

  Vivian and Naomi were both focused on their screens. I bet that if I had stood up right now, I could have quietly walked to the door. I would have been able to slip out too, if not for how goddamn squeaky the hinges were.

  I stood up with a sigh.

  As expected, Les immediately turned to me. He said nothing, and turned back a second later.

  “I’ll be going now,” I announced awkwardly.

  This caused Les to turn and face me once more. “To do what?”

  “Just walking around,” I responded. “Alone.”

  Suspicion glinted in his gaze, but he ignored me, and went back to staring at Seph’s rapid channel-flicking. For all I knew, Seph could be unconsciously pressing that button by now.

  I briskly walked out of that stuffy room and into the cool hallway. Air conditioning seemed to hit this area well. The feeling was refreshing, and filled me with a strange sort of energy. But I moved carefully. Even though I had every right to be moving around right now, being caught vanishing behind the counter would surely alert the CIA of my knowledge pertaining to the underground passageways.

  I tried to keep to the path that Seph had outlined for the two of us several nights prior, avoiding all cameras. The path was a bit blurry in my memory, but I managed to recreate it to a decent degree of success. There was no one at the front desk, thank god.

  I slid myself under the first table, the same kind of bright excitement fluttering in my chest as the first time I had done it. This time, however, it was duller. It was… missing something. I shrugged that away, cursing myself for not being able to experience basic joy without Seph at my side to experience it with me.

  The floor was cool to the touch, but still slightly burned when I slid upon it. I made quick work of darting from table to table. Eventually, I reached the counter. I crept down the creaky staircase, emerging into the pitch-black room.

  Now where was that light switch?

  I groped around, feeling relieved and fulfilled at the feeling of rock, the softness of moss, and the sound of… water?

  No longer reaching around for the light switch, I rushed forward. I felt along the wall, hearing a crashing sound of cascading water in the distance.

  Soon, I was running, rushing toward this new opportunity.

  The sound was no longer in the distance, it got louder, more prominent. And then it was just beyond a bend. No longer was the ground crunchy, but soft. Sand, I realized, I found sand.

  I stepped out into a whole different world.

  Gone were the small tunnels and stuffy atmosphere. In its place was a large, open cavern with a mystical air. A glittering lake stretched from one shore to another, its clear blue waters an open invitation to cleanse yourself. Vegetation grew on all cave walls, encompassing the edges of my view. To top it all off; a roaring wall of falling water came from someplace about twenty feet above and splashed into a point about a quarter of the way from the shore to the center of the cave.

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  Tunnels jutted off in four other places than the one I stood at, each with their own fluorescent light bulbs. Then I noticed a crack about ten feet to my right, just small enough to fit a human.

  I crept over, then slipped through. A lush environment greeted me on the other side. Trickles of water flowed through a dirt-covered floor, giving life to greenery everywhere. The tunnel was only three, maybe four feet wide, but it felt as if I was standing in a sweeping rainforest. I walked forward, slowly and cautiously. The moss was a soft carpet of comfort under me.

  After maybe fifteen feet of walking, I found it.

  A small cavern, about seven feet across. On one wall, A group of leafy stems in a tree-bush hybrid sprouted. It grew, a strange mixture of vines and tall foliage. But the truly brilliant part was the flowers. Everywhere, in every different shade of color, they created a painting. There were no leaves, only petals, petals everywhere. This vibrant rainbow grew over the back wall in its entirety. It became a coating of moss, with more colorful mini-flowers sprouting everywhere.

  Above, the cavern stretched out, becoming a hole in the earth. A small bit of sunlight came down from above, lighting the cavern. It was impossible to discern how deep I was - but I could be sure that the passage here from the staircase had to have sloped down eventually.

  Through a hole in the wall, the stream started, flowing perfectly through a canal of rocks. There was no way that had come into place naturally. This whole place was man made. But empty, I thought. There wasn’t a single soul still walking around in here.

  So far, of course.

  I still hadn’t managed to explore the other four tunnels yet.

  And I wasn’t sure if I wanted to. Right now, I am comfortable staying here for the rest of my days. I lowered myself down onto the floor, revelling at the feel of being around plants again. Hell, I hadn’t been in an environment like this for almost a whole month now. The ground was slightly damp, which was strange, considering that the stream supplying the plants with water was a good four feet away.

  I slowly leaned back, letting my head fall upon the floor. A sort of cool calmness overcame me, enveloping my senses and laying me to rest.

  The next thing I knew, my eyes were fluttering open to the feel of ice cold water.

  My instant first thought was that I had been found. I bolted up, a jolt of adrenaline starting in my stomach, then creating energy throughout my body. There was a BEEP and water started pouring.

  Shit!

  I stumbled through the narrow passage, streams of water coating my skin. A sprinkler system, I realized.

  I emerged into the main cavern, covered in water. Without a second to think, I heard voices and took off running. My footsteps threw up sand, blood roaring in my ears.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!

  As I ran down the tunnel, no clue if I had been spotted or was being chased or was going to be shot, scenarios began to play in my mind. Anything from awkward conversations with Whiteford to being expelled from Xarnon and shot to make sure I wouldn’t share any big information.

  It was only when I stopped to catch my breath that my panic faded. There weren’t any footsteps behind me, and the voices I had heard had long since faded into the distance, creating an eerie silence. I cursed myself for making the bright decision to not take the time to flick a switch. But then again, I wouldn’t be able to emerge through the Xarnon dorm secret passageway.

  I made my way through the dark, feeling along the wall as I went. Then suddenly there was something under my foot only halfway through the step. I swayed on my feet for a little bit, before regaining control and beginning up the staircase.

  I emerged behind the counter, and began my way back.

  After coming out into the lobby, my jaw dropped. It was not sunlight coming in through the large windows, but small streams of moonlight. Weaker, but far more beautiful in every way. Seph was right.

  This was the best time of night.

  Shaking that thought away, a small bit of panic set in on me. I had to walk back into the dorm without anyone getting suspicious as to where I was for about six or seven hours. Who knew how tired sitting around and doing nothing could make you? I thought.

  And on top of that - I had nothing to show for my efforts except a fancy cave and a fuck ton more questions.

  If Whiteford wasn’t lying, Xarnon was, above all, a military operation. So why build it upon an underground network? I would understand if this was built originally for other purposes, which that underground would fulfill, but why use it again for this operation? Because, if the voices I heard down there were any indication, the area served some sort of use.

  In addition, why had Vivian said they were ‘her’ tunnels?

  And most importantly, who was she?

  Vivian. It seemed she was more than just another one of us. If one indicator was her showing up bloody and bruised not so long ago, another was how she almost always seemed to know something that no one else did.

  I slowly retraced my steps in reverse, crossing the lobby and entering the hall. There I was able to walk freely, allowing myself to slowly wander the halls.

  Something struck me, a cold panic.

  It was to do with the general emptiness of this place. Only at mealtimes were there ever people in the lobby or restaurant. So how could this be a full-blown dormitory building?

  I stopped by a few doors on my way back. The first door in sight ws about labelled ‘006.’ My memory could not dredge up which number we were to save my life. Quickly, efficiently, I tapped on the door.

  Tap, tap, tappity-tap.

  No answer.

  I tried again.

  And again.

  Maybe there’s just some vacant space…?

  I moved onto the next door, and knocked. The same tap, tap, tappity-tap as before. Nothing.

  Move down.

  Tap, tap, tappity-tap.

  Nothing.

  I tried again, again, again, again. Down the entire side of the hallway opposite to ours. There wasn’t a single person who answered.

  “Well, shit,” I muttered.

  It was then that a patch of darkness on the wall caught my eye. It was a stairwell; plain and simple, built hastily out of white wood. They looked so weak that one step could cause the wood to crumble beneath my feet.

  As if drawn to the weak wood, I walked toward it steadily.

  Cautiously and slowly, I raised my foot and balanced on the top of the wood, not putting any weight on it. I switched my weight, feeling a bit more pressure building below my feet every second. Soon, I was fully supported by the wood. Supported. Thank god that it did not fall through.

  I started up the staircase, unnerved by the darkness above. I reached the top, where there was a turn. I took another step, and faced what seemed to be an impenetrable shadow - pure darkness.

  I reached out with my hand, stepping forward to feel for a wall-

  -and I touched a smooth black stone.

  My eyes widened.

  It was a fake.

  Everything was fake - this hotel - the ‘guests.’

  We were alone here. Which just made me wonder…

  If the CIA was hiding this, what else were they withholding from us?