Stepping onto the rickety staircase we all look over the railing.
"There's hundreds of them!" Tate says, peering down. The entire place was abandoned, just children and teenagers, five or six to each cell. Looking out it was the size of a football field in length and width. Cells matching what is upstairs, only with bunk beds to accommodate the amount of people in each one. All their eyes peering up at us in worry, their hands covering their ears from the deafening noise coming from the speakers.
"Get them out! Find a way to unlock the cells!" I turn to the men behind me who start running down the stairs. The music suddenly cuts off, as we step on the floor below. Looking at all the glass cells, hundreds of eyes peering back at us curiously, as they look out through the glass. When a voice comes over the PA system making us all look up for the voice. A voice I never thought I would hear again.
"Surprise! Miss me, mate?" Danika's voice suddenly echoes around the facility, making me spin around searching for where the voice came from. She can't be alive! I killed her myself! Tim even said she was dead, yet how was her voice coming from the speakers if that were true?
"I see you found yourself a new bitch," Her voice taunts, enticing angry growls from my men.
"Get the kids out now!" I yelled to the men who were looking for the threat that was watching us. Suddenly sprinklers start turning on inside the cells.
"Had these fitted myself. 500 liters per minute. Times ticking Ryker, you can't save them all'' Her voices carries through the room,
"Get every man down here! Now!" I boom through the link. Tate and Drake screaming through theirs before, I hear footsteps running toward us and down the stairs. Their eyes peered around at the cells and yet we still didn't have enough men to work on each.
"Tik tok," She taunts, when the kids all suddenly start screaming, their skin burning. And I realized they were being doused in Wolfsbane as they climbed their bunks, trying to get away from the ground.
"There has to be a way to get these cells open automatically." I tell Tate as we try to smash through the glass of the cell. A teenage girl with long blonde hair jumps from the top of the bunk before collapsing in the water. She grabs another child in the cell with her, tossing her on the bunk as she finds her feet, before walking over to the glass and tapping her finger on it.
"What's she trying to say?" Tate says, trying to read her lips.
I open my link and she jumps when I force it to connect with her. She shakes her head staring at me. "Behind you. The wall. The steel case holds the keys." she says pointing behind me and tapping the glass with her finger. I race over, going to where she is pointing before ripping the cover off.
"You've gotta be joking!" hundreds of keys were in there. Each cell having its own.
Tate grabs a handful when I notice each cell has a division number on it. Looking at each cell above each door had a number as well.
"The numbers! Grab the keys and find the numbers!" I yell over to everyone.
"Here, I got this one!" Tate says before jamming the key in the door. The door swung open and wolfsbane water flooded out and burned my legs.
The girl in the cell starts grabbing the kids out and running them to the stairs and placing them on it. "Run! Follow the stairs!" I hear her tell them before rushing back and grabbing some keys.
"Run them up," I tell her and she shakes her head. "I'm not leaving my sister," she says. Unlocking another cell, the teenagers start grabbing keys, helping free more while my men start grabbing kids and dropping them on the stairs leading up. The room filling with water when the sprinklers in the main area start turning on, raining wolfsbane down on us. My men are screaming as they become drenched, yet they still don't stop.
"What's your name?" I ask the girl, "15. But my real name is Melena," she says rushing to undo the next cell while I undo another. I growl as water seeps into my boots and up my legs burning through my flesh.
"Get out. I will find your sister," I tell her, snatching the keys from her. Tate grabs her as she thrashes, not wanting to leave.
Tate passes her off to another one of our men who drags her up the stairs. "Do you know a girl called Lucy?" I call up to her as she is being dragged away. She shakes her head before shoving Tate's third in command off and stalking up the steps.
"We are never going to get them all out," Tate says as we make our way up the long line of cells and I could see Elias and Drake through the glass on the other side doing the same. Drake grabs Elias's arm and pulls him upright as he screams, the wolfsbane burning him. Tate was also breathing through the pain, though now we were having trouble pulling the doors open against the water.. Men having to bail out or drown as they collapse in the water.
"Elias, get out of here." I command when I see him drop again only just being caught by Drake's hand before he plunges face first into the water.
"Find a way to cut the water off! Tell Aamon to get in here!," I yell for Tyson through the link.
"Only 130 cells to go! Don't think you're gonna make it!" Danika's voice rang loudly through the PA.
Brax growling menacingly. How the fuck was she alive when I killed her myself? Aamon rushes in, taking in the scene, unable to mist to something he hasn't seen before.
"Fuck! On it!" I hear him call as he starts misting into cells and grabbing kids. They jump away from him, their senses running rampant that a demon was in the cell with them. Aamon ignores them as he starts grabbing them one by one and misting them out. When he suddenly drops in one of the cells, smoke comes in through the vents trapping him.
"Oh, I prepared for you! Demon!" Danika taunts over the PA.
"Aamon!" I scream rushing over and banging on the glass. "Devil's bane," he gasps, choking on the air steaming up the room. The children coughing on it and Aamon slips below the water.
Tate rushes over with keys trying to find the right one, dropping some in his haste, and I scramble trying to retrieve them under the water. My hands burning, the flesh bubbling and melting off.
"Got it!" Tate calls, and we both yank on the door, pulling it open. Tate squeezed through the gap, grabbed him, and pulled him above the surface. I rush in, grabbing the three girls on the bunk and rushing to the stairs.
"Where out of time! We are dropping like flies!" I hear Drake sing out, as he too had kids tossed over his shoulder dumping them on the steps. His entire body blistered and burned, as I see all our men forced to retreat with the rising water.
"Unlock the cells Danika! They are fucking children!" I scream over the water running into the room from the pipes above us.
"Now where would be the fun in that?" She retorts. Brax growls so loud it was more of a roar, as it echoed off the glass and filled the room.