Author's Note:
Thank you for reading and for your feedback!
============================
"What do you mean they won't open!?" Callie exclaimed in panic as she watched Phil and Jake trying their hardest to pull at the asylum's large entrance doors.
"I mean...they're not... opening!" Jake grunted through gritted teeth, his toned arms straining as he pulled on one of the handles with all his might. Suddenly, it broke off in his hand, causing him to topple to the floor, at which point Phil also gave up, shaking his red hands at his sides.
"Either they got stuck somehow or Mr. Nelson locked us in here -- accidentally or otherwise." Phil groaned, sinking to the floor next to Jake.
"But why would he do that!?" Callie cried out, nervously pacing around the lobby while checking her phone. "This just has to be some sort of mistake! Ugh, if only we could get service in here!" She desperately waggled her phone around in the air before clicking her tongue in annoyance and putting it back in her pocket with a heavy sigh. "I'm already on low battery... jeez I thought I had a good amount left."
"What about the windows?" Phil offered. "They're definitely big enough to crawl through."
"They all have bars on them now..." Callie groaned. "I remember Mr. Nelson mentioned during the interview that he had recently gotten bars installed on the first floor windows because local hooligans kept using them to break in."
"Well we could always try from the second floor," Jake suggested. The others looked at him incredulously.
"Yeah, not all of us are immune to fall damage like you apparently are," Phil scoffed. "If you're lucky, you'd just end up with a broken leg or two."
"You don't need legs to call the police," Jake replied gravely. They all fell silent, contemplating what to do, as the severity of the situation began to truly weigh on them. After a painful minute of dreadful silence, Alex suddenly let out a surprised gasp that made everyone flinch.
"Guys! Quick! I found Amy!" She shouted, beckoning the rest of the crew over to her laptop where she had maximized one of the camera feeds. "Look! That's her! But she's wearing some sort of weird outfit." Sure enough, as the group looked over her shoulder at the eerie green night vision recording, Amy could be seen stumbling blindly down a dark cluttered hall. Her curly hair was in disarray and her expression was even spacier than usual, but it was definitely her.
Instead of her cute sundress, however, she was now tightly wrapped up in a white jacket that had unusually long arm sleeves strapped to her back, binding her arms as if hugging herself. She clearly had no sense of where she was going in that pitch black corridor as she bungled into a wayward wheelchair and fell to the floor. Unable to break her fall with her arms, she banged her head on the tile and rolled around for a moment before slowly standing back up on shaky legs and continuing her aimless wandering. As she stood, the camera got a better view of her lower half, revealing that she was completely nude from the waist down, save for a white strap of fabric barely covering her crotch like makeshift panties.
"What the fuck..." Phil breathed in dismay while everyone shared embarrassed and bewildered glances. "She's running around half naked in a straightjacket? That's not something you can get into yourself -- someone obviously did this to her."
"This is too cruel..." Callie began to sob, watching her dazed friend bump into the wall again. "Who would do something like this!?"
"Where is she?" Jake asked Alex, slinging his camera over his back to lean in closer.
"It's the camera in the isolation ward," Alex replied calmly. "You know, the place where they put the most heinous patients."
"W-we need to go save her!" Callie stammered, frantically looking around at the others and tightly grasping the metal pipe that hadn't left her side. Jake looked at his trembling girlfriend and gently grabbed her by the shoulders to calm her.
"We'll get her, Cal. We'll all go together." Jake said with a steady voice while looking into her eyes.
"W-we will?" Phil muttered with a gulp. "I was thinking it would be a good idea for some of us to stay and keep watching the cameras in case we spot the others."
"Good point. Callie, Phil, you guys stay here." Jake replied. Phil didn't look like needed convincing, but Callie seemed unsure. "Alex, I'll need you to come with me, if you are willing. You know the layout and camera placements better than anyone. I was mostly filming B-roll on our first pass, so I have no idea where that is." He clenched his fists while admitting his own cluelessness.
"Sure, I'll come with," Alex readily agreed. "I know exactly where that is -- and I can grab some of my more expensive equipment on the way."
"A-are you sure...?" Callie asked in surprise. "I feel like we shouldn't split up anymore..."
"It'll be fine," Phil reassured her. "You and I can be the eyes in the sky and radio in if we spot anything suspicious, especially if we keep watching through Jake's camera. I don't think the isolation ward is too far, right?"
"Yeah, it's just on the East side of the second floor," Alex confirmed, already on her feet and grabbing an empty equipment bag.
"Okay, um, will you at least take this, then?" Callie asked Jake, holding out the pipe. He nodded grimly and took it, bouncing it in his palms to test the weight.
"Don't forget -- I played baseball in college. So this old thing might as well be a deadly weapon in my hands."
"Especially if they haven't had their tetanus shots," Alex chuckled. The others shared surprised looks.
"This isn't really the time for jokes, Lex..." Callie murmured, crossing her arms.
"Yeesh, sorry. Just trying to lighten the mood a little. Tough crowd." Alex sighed and rolled her eyes while slinging her bag over her shoulder. "We going or what? She'll be out of the camera's range in a bit, assuming she doesn't keep tripping like that, and who knows where she'll go after we lose sight of her,"
"Right, let's go quickly," Jake agreed, swiftly walking over to the stairs with Alex. "Keep your radios ready everyone."
"Yeah, I was just going to say that," Phil chimed in, now sitting in Alex's chair and looking over the video feeds. "She's still there, but we'll let you know if anything changes."
"Be safe, guys," Callie said, running over to Jake and giving him a quick kiss on the lips. "Don't do anything stupid. Promise?"
"We'll be right back," Jake assured her with a tight hug that lasted for several long, comforting seconds before he pulled away and kissed her on the forehead. He nodded at Alex then turned his camera back on as they hurriedly jogged up the stairs to once again delve into the darkness outside the range of the lobby's lights.
Callie sank down into the chair next to Phil with a heavy sigh, staring vacantly at the laptop screen where she could see Jake's feed bobbing along as he and Alex carefully but quickly navigated towards the isolation ward. Callie frowned at the low picture quality. It seemed like whenever Alex was in the frame, pixelated artifacts and smudgy, stuttery movement overtook the feed.
"I feel freaking useless," Callie groaned, glancing at the display that still showed Amy blindly stumbling down the hall, though she was almost past the point where the camera was standing. As she approached it, she looked into the lens with a dull expression, the night vision lens giving her eyes an unnerving green glow. Callie had to look away from the sorrowful sight to distract herself, and her gaze fell on a grimy glass case on the wall that displayed a yellowed map of the building. Suddenly, she had an idea.
"Wait, that's it!" Callie excitedly exclaimed, jumping to her feet and running to the map.
"What? What is it!?" Phil asked, startled by her sudden outburst and frantically looking around.
"We can't get cell service in here, but maybe we will if we can get the phones outside!"
"We already tried sticking our arms out the windows while you guys were away," Phil sighed, returning his attention to the laptop. "We kept barely getting a bar but it would just drop any call we tried to make."
"I'm not thinking windows," Callie declared as she opened the case and took the faded map out from within, bringing it over to the table next to Phil to inspect it closer. "If the problem is a weak signal, maybe we just need to get higher." She tapped her finger on the part of the map where the blueprint of the rooftop was shown. "We can find our way there with this map!"
"Sure, but we don't even know if the way is passable... it could be locked, or blocked by junk. I think it'd be a better idea to just stay put and not keep wandering off. You know, to monitor the situation." Phil shrugged, doing his best to not make it too obvious that he was stealing occasional glances at Amy's risqué attire. Callie rolled her eyes. She'd always had a hunch that Phil had a crush on all the girls on the team, though it was clear that none of them were particularly interested in him.
"I'll go alone if I have to!" She huffed, crossing her arms.
"You will?"
"Uhh...well I'd kinda rather not..." Callie unfolded her arms and fiddled with her ponytail, a sheepish look on her face. "But we should probably go when everyone's back. It might be our only chance to call for help!"
