The hidden panic room

After the man, who had been sent by Harold, had forcibly entered Laila and Noah's house, an already stressful day became even more stressful and hectic. Laila and Maria had ran away as Laila led the them to the hidden panic room that should protect them from the man. But Laila being pregnant and all, her energy levels and mobility decreased as her belly grew. So, she had quite a hard time running towards the panic room. The stress of the situation wasn't helping at all either with her condition. However there was also a sense of feeling happy and relieved. Not at the situation itself but at the moment she was certainly happy that Noah had shown her the location of the panic room a few days ago. Otherwise, without her memories from this life, she would be a sitting duck at the mansion.

With as much calmness and mental clarity as she could muster up, she ran straight into the library. Once she entered the beautifully decorated room, she searched for the one book that was empty and was only used as a handle to open the secret room behind the shelf. It was a book in her favourite colour and it was a bright coloured book among the many softer coloured books, so that it would always be easy to find for her in stressful situations like this. At this moment she couldn't have been more thankful of this decision that Noah had made while thinking of her.

After spotting the book, Laila pulled it back and the room behind the shelf was revealed. She and Maria quickly entered the room and Laila pressed the large button inside the room that would close the door back up. While she and Maria had safely hidden away in the advanced, state of the art, panic room, Laila quickly opened up a panel on the wall and carried out the next step of Noah's four step instruction. Because entering the room is one thing but to be properly protected Laila needed to prevent the other person from coming in as well. So, she typed in the combination that would look the room from the inside, making the book handle no longer work unless she herself typed in the release code. This is when her panic started the settle as worry set in.

Tears began streaming down Laila's face as she began to realize the danger they were in and what Noah and Steve might be facing on their side. She was joining Maria, whose mascara had ran out from the tears she had been crying out of worry for Steve's safety. Both friends had crouched down to the floor of the room as they hugged themselves for a moment, hiding their tear stained faces behind their own hands.

After giving themselves a minute to process their emotions and to calm down, Laila got back up on her feet and said with a look of determination, "Alright. Crying over here won't do us any good. Noah has told me all about this room and it can do a lot more than just keep us safe. So, instead of sitting here and crying as if everything has already been decided, we should try and handle the situation the best we can. We are two smart, strong women. Surely we can do more than wait to be rescued like some damsels in distress."

Maria agreed and was impressed that Laila had been the one to say this. Though she had never been a weak woman, she was the type that had always been protected by others. So, it wouldn't have surprised her that she would expect that to happen in this situation as well and not know how to handle it. But it seems that this Laila was a lot stronger than the Laila that she remembered. Even in this situation and in her current state, she had been able to handle things better than her and was actually the one to be the voice of reason.

As both of them had stood up and looked around the room, they saw many things. With Noah being the owner of a security software and hardware company, they weren't too surprised to see that his panic room was of a different level as well. Though they weren't surprised, they were impressed. Deeply impressed. There was nothing Noah hadn't thought of in designing this room.

He had a cabinet with food and water. There was a bed inside one of the walls. There were screens with the security footage of the house. There was a satellite phone. Laila also knew that Noah had also built in certain booby traps that he could activate from this room. Modelling his favourite movie as a kid, Home alone, but adding his own modern touch to everything. But unfortunately that was all hidden away behind certain key combinations that was too much for her to remember in such a short time. Maybe even ever, as it was all in programming language that she knew very little about. So, for now their main focus would be to monitor and request for help from the local law enforcement.

Laila and Maria walked up to the large keyboard with controller in the room. There were screens everywhere on that wall of the room, showing every corner of the house and allowing them to see the man walking around the house, searching for them. They also saw Jake, crouched and hidden behind the corner of the couch, which Laila pointed out.

"Look, that is Jake, isn't it? What was he thinking hiding in such a obvious place? He should run away instead of just staying there like some sitting duck."

But Maria seemed less worried for his safety, saying, "Pff as if that crazy man would harm him. They are on the same side, remember? He might have been kind to you but at the moment he is still colluding with the enemy."

"You said it yourself, he is crazy. Who knows what he will do. I certainly wouldn't be risking it and neither should he. Colluding with the enemy or not. Harold too seems to have lost his rationality and there is no telling who he will consider a friend or foe in this situation."