by Matt James
Twenty feet away, he unlocked another girl’s ankle and hauled her away. This one cried, sounding extremely young. It spurred Willy into motion. She climbed out from beneath the table and stood in the center of the room.
Raising her gloved gun, Willy gladly pulled the trigger.
4
The bullet ripped into the hooded creep’s back, knocking him to the floor. The girl he was escorting froze in shock before turning around. When she saw Willy, likewise in a hazmat suit, her face went from one of surprise to one of confusion.
“Get his keys!” Willy yelled. “Pass them around and get the hell out of here!”
No one moved. Growling at the inactivity of the captives, Willy tore away her protective covering, revealing herself. Seeing that she wasn’t one of their “masters,” the freed woman dove for the dead man’s keys and did as Willy said. One by one, each of the workers unlocked themselves.
They all looked malnourished and exhausted, and Willy didn’t have time to ask them all why they were there. She just walked forward and held out the elevator’s remote. The young girl, maybe sixteen years of age, took it and nodded to Willy.
“Gracias.”
Willy smiled her reply but got down to business. “Maria Flores?” The girl in front of her shook her head no. Willy asked the question louder. “Maria Flores?”
“There!” Someone near the rear of the room yelled, pointing at the set of doors across the space. The speaker had a finger extended toward the entry the guy had used earlier. “There!”
Biting her lip, Willy contemplated her next move. Knowing someone could come to check on them at any moment, she pointed at the girl standing before her.
“No one gets left behind.”
She nodded quickly and started shouting at the freed women to get moving.
“Oh,” Willy added, “and call the police as soon as you can.”
She nodded again.
Willy rushed forward, stopping just outside the double doors. She spun and found the nearest girl. “Lock the doors behind me.”
The girl was about to argue, but Willy placed a reassuring hand on her. “Don’t worry,” she winked, “I’ll be fine.”
Not buying into Willy’s overconfident demeanor, the young girl still looked worried. But, she did as Willy said and locked the door behind Willy. Deeper into the underground facility, Willy found what she was looking for. The next room was an ultramodern science lab, probably where they developed the drugs in play. The room behind her was a large-scale manufacturing plant.
Now to find Maria.
The room itself was considerably smaller than the last one, about the size of a large meeting room. At thirty-by-thirty, Willy searched the space without having to move an inch. Thankfully, there was no one inside.
A whimpering sound brought her attention to a surgical table at the rear of the room, deeper into the shadows. Gun up, Willy silently stalked forward and almost wept at what she saw. It was Valdez, the girl that had been taken when she had first entered the sweatshop. She had been strapped to a table like a lab rat, waiting to be tested on, from what Willy could tell. The syringes and other instruments next to her were a dead giveaway.
“Lie still,” Willy said, “I’m here to help.”
She quickly set the girl free and helped her back to the main set of double doors. Remembering that she had one of the other women lock it behind her, Willy banged on it hard, relieved to hear someone answer the knocks.
“Open up, it’s me!” Willy shouted, hoping the girl she had talked to before was still around. Luckily, she was, and she threw open the door and happily took the distraught Valdez from Willy. Willy nodded to the other girl who once more locked the doors.
“Good luck,” Willy said to herself, wishing them well.
When the words left her lips, someone entered the room from a door to her left. Gun up, Willy waited for the person to react first, and when he did, going for a blade of some kind, Willy put a bullet in his leg. He wailed in pain and went down, grabbing at the wounded appendage. Charging to him, Willy shoved the gun in his face and demanded to know where her sister was.
“Where is Maria Flores!”
The man’s eyes found hers. It was another of the men who shot up her parents’ house. Seething with rage, she stomped on the wound, causing the bastard to writhe in agony. He screeched through clenched teeth, giving her a look that would intimidate an average person.
Willy was far from average, though.
Proving it, she leaned on his leg even more. He tried to fight against the torture, but couldn’t, pointing back through the door he had just exited.
“Third door…on the left!” he shouted, voice cracking.
Grinning, Willy twisted her heel hard and stepped away. She wanted to make him suffer for what he’d done, but she needed at least one of the people here alive, and she had already killed one of them. Plus, the “I” in CIA stood for “Intelligence” after all and collecting and applying it was an essential part of the job. As much as Willy wanted to stomp through the facility and shoot everyone running it, she knew she couldn’t.
Would be nice, though.
She left the immobile man and shoved open the set of double doors. The hallway she discovered was utilitarian and ordinary, albeit clean and new. Like the lab behind her, this was constructed recently. And by this, Willy saw what resembled doors belonging to holding cells, or maybe those of an insane asylum.
Caged like animals.
She peeked inside the first one, finding it empty. The only thing it held was a toilet and a thin mattress. The latter was laid on the floor with no pillow or blanket. The cell itself was maybe six-by-eight at most.
Running to the third door on the left, Willy selfishly bypassed the others near it. Grabbing ahold of the barred window, she looked in and found a lone figure huddled in the corner, shaking, crying. She was dressed in a set of white pants and a matching white shirt. Only, this one’s shirt was stained brown and yellow from her own vomit.
“Maria?”
A set of wild eyes snapped up to Willy’s but softened upon recognizing the voice’s owner. “Mina?” Maria tried to stand, but caved in on herself, breathing hard. “Mina, is that you?”
She sounded tired and completely out of it.
“Yes, it’s me.” Willy pulled on her sister’s door but found it locked. “I’m here to get you out.” She stepped back and leveled her gun on the door lock. “Stay back and cover your ears!” she called out, knowing the weapon’s report was going to echo badly around the tight confines.
And it did.
Grrr. She thought, flinching at the sound. Her ears rang like crazy, but thankfully, she knew it would subside shortly. The bullet quickly did its job, destroying the lock with ease. For a moment, Willy was worried that the locks were built of something a simple 9mm round wouldn’t penetrate.
Yanking open the door, Willy dove into the cell, kneeling before her disheveled sibling. She looked terrible—like someone going through withdrawals while also starving to death. Her once beautiful face was greasy and sunken in, and her clothes hung loosely off her frail body. Like Willy, Maria had been blessed with prominent femininity at an early age.
Unfortunately for the younger Flores sister, the years of hardcore drug abuse obliterated everything God had given her. Even her skin looked leathery and dusty—horribly unhealthy. Careful not to hurt her worse than she already was, Willy hefted Maria to her feet. Her hand went to Maria’s face, checking the fresh shiner she had around her left eye.
“What happened?” Willy asked.
Maria turned her face away from her older sister, ashamed to answer.
“Look at me.”
Begrudgingly, she did, meeting Willy’s soft face. Maria looked like she wanted to sob, right then and there, but she was unable to. She was too exhausted—dehydrated from her treatment.
“Why are you here?”
Maria coughed hard but answered. “I…was living on the streets for a few weeks
,” Willy led her into the hall, “and some guy asked if I wanted a job—said he was a friend of someone I knew.” Willy continued to listen, turning right and heading back to the smaller lab. “He brought me to the warehouse upstairs and knocked me out. I woke up down here in my room, and I haven’t left this place in a month.”
Willy kicked open the doors and saw something she didn’t like. The wounded man was gone, leaving an easy-to-follow blood trail back into the production facility. The injured man had unlocked them and left.
Staying smooth with her steps, so she didn’t jostle Maria, Willy hurried to the next set of doors and shoved into them. Opening only a few inches, Willy instantly backed away, her skin licked by an intense heat.
“Fire,” she said, dread creeping up her spine.
“Not…good,” Maria whispered. “Highly combustible.” Her eyes opened wide, and she tried to push away from Willy. “The others!”
“They’re fine,” Willy said, keeping a strong grip on her. “I gave them a remote to the warehouse above us after I got them a key to their shackles.”
“How?”
Willy shrug. “I shot the asshole that yelling their names.”
Maria actually smiled. “Good. He was bad.” Her face darkened. “He took advantage of a lot of us at night.”
Since Maria said “us,” Willy knew she was including herself. The barbarian had raped her sister and many others during their time here.
“How do we get out of here?” Willy asked.
“Back through there,” she pointed back toward the cells. “There’s another door that leads to the elevator.”
Right, Willy thought. The door I saw earlier when I entered the main room.
“The other girls, who are they?” Willy asked.
“Same as me,” Maria replied. “Most were users just looking to get high. They were brought here and taken below. Some were homeless or illegals just trying to find work.”
“Speaking of the others,” Willy said, “are there any more in the cells?” They moved to the other set of doors again.
Thankfully, Maria shook her head. “No. I was left here to rot because I refused to work anymore.”
“You know, they came by Mom and Dad’s house and threatened us.” She purposely left out the part about their grandpa being shot. Maria didn’t need to hear that right now.
“They did?” Maria asked appalled. “Why?”
“They said you owed them ten-thousand dollars and wanted your family to pay up or else they’d kill you. It’s why I’m here.”
“But you’re not a killer…” she glanced at Willy, “right?”
Willy smiled. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me—and my job.” Maria was about to push the conversation further, but Willy quickly squelched it before she could get another word in. “Trust me.” She gave her a reassuring squeeze. “I know what I’m doing.”
5
“How many people operate this place?” Willy asked, stopping at the left-hand corner. They had just passed an additional seven rooms before making it there. Gun up, she spun out into the hallway and leveled it at…nobody.
Good.
“Six that I’ve seen—two of them women,” Maria replied, leaning against the wall near her sister, “but there were only the three of them here today.”
Willy nodded her head and gently draped Maria’s right arm over her left shoulder, bearing some of her weight. She had already killed one of the men and maimed another. There was one more she had yet to see. It also matched the number of guys that paid her parents’ house a visit. Seems that they all participated in the delivery of the threat against Maria’s life.
“Good to know.”
“Why is that?” Maria asked.
“Because I killed one of them… Put a bullet in another’s thigh. You saw the second one’s blood back there.” She nodded her head back the way they had come.
Maria tried to laugh but coughed at the effort. She wheezed a deep breath and stopped, getting her latest fit under control. Willy was about to stop and put her down but was told to do otherwise.
“No,” Maria said, “keep going. I’ll be fine. The quicker we get out of here, the better.”
“But you’re sick,” Willy said, concerned.
“I’ll be sick regardless of where we are—might as well be out in the sun.”
Willy couldn’t argue with that. Maria had been below ground for a month from what she said. Not only did she desperately need to go to the ER, but she needed fresh air and the warmth of the sun. Even now, Maria was shivering terribly while Willy was sweating profusely.
She’s in really bad shape.
Willy shrugged out of her jacket and covered Maria’s shoulders with it. Her sister gladly accepted it, nuzzling deeper into the comfortable lining.
There were more rooms down the cookie-cut corridor, causing Willy’s already queasy stomach to drop even further. What she discovered down here was disgusting, and from the looks of it, the cronies running this place weren’t the people really in charge. The three men she met all resembled that of a local gang, not the millionaire owners of a super-secret drug operation. This thing was much bigger than just this one building.
It has to be.
“I’m going to take this entire thing down, Maria. I promise you.”
Maria didn’t answer, becoming deadweight in Willy’s arms.
“Maria?”
She roused. “I…I’m okay.”
No, you’re not…
Willy double-timed it, picking up the pace regardless of how badly her body fought her. She was still recovering from the injuries sustained overseas. The gunshot wound in her thigh was completely healed, but she was still working on regaining the full strength of her leg.
Once they were close to the door, Willy carefully set Maria down to rest and hurried to check it out. She was relieved to see that the deadbolt was a standard one you’d find on anyone’s front door. Reaching out, she flicked the thumbturn to the right. When her fingers made contact with the metal, a feeling of dread washed over Willy.
It was warm.
The fire on the other side had spread the entire length of the room. It also meant that there were noxious, killer fumes in the air. The only reason Willy and Maria weren’t being affected by them now, was that the door had a tight seal around it. Willy sighed. Once she opened it, they’d be in a world of trouble.
“They’re trying to destroy the evidence,” Maria said from behind, reading Willy’s mind. “I’m not sure we can make it to the elevator.” She coughed hard. “We don’t have a remote for it anyway.”
Being reckless was never Willy’s M.O., but she had totally forgotten to find another remote after giving away the only one she had.
“Do all the people running this place have one?”
Maria nodded.
Okay, then… Gotta find the one I winged. He was no doubt the one who set the place ablaze, doing it while heading for the lift. She figured he must’ve been dragging himself along, or something. The round to his leg looked pretty bad—even without Willy stomping on it.
Helping Maria up, Willy led them to the door but stopped.
“Hang on a second.”
She tried the door to the nearest cell and found it unlocked, throwing open the door, and stepping in. She immediately went for the thin mattress, dragging it out into the hallway. Hefting it up, she turned to her sister and sighed. She wouldn’t be able to help her and hold the mattress up as a shield.
Maria pushed away from the wall, shaking as she did. Willy knew her sister was in agony and close to blacking out. The effort it took to do what she was doing was unbelievable. She didn’t want it to go to waste either.
“Let’s go.” Maria nodded and staggered forward, staying close, looping her hand into the crook of Willy’s right elbow. “Oh, and hold your breath.”
As soon as Willy opened the door, they were both hit with a blast of hot air, instantly taking their breath away. With no other options, they mov
ed quickly, shambling along while the heat kissed the left-hand portion of the mattress. Willy grunted, feeling the material becoming too hot to handle.
Just a little further, she thought, seeing the door through blurred, stinging eyes. Not only did the heat hurt them, but she could also feel the bite of the chemicals in the toxic air.
Cringing as her body naturally tried to inhale, Willy tripped, but was caught, and dragged to her right. Five feet later, the mattress bounced off the frame of the door and fell away. Maria was exhausted and swiftly slammed the door shut, falling into Willy as she did. Her eyes were closed as soon as Willy caught her. Thankfully, she was breathing, though, just unconscious.
Smiling, Willy set her down and stroked her cheek. She turned and found what she was looking for… In the dim light of the single lightbulb, Willy spotted the man she had shot in the leg. He was lying face down on the elevator platform, remote in hand, clothes burned to a crisp, blood pooling along the surface of the lift.
He either bled out or was burned to death.
Good riddance, Willy thought, snagging the still intact remote. Pocketing it, she gripped his shoes and pulled him away from the platform, replacing his inert form with that of Maria’s. Standing over her, Willy depressed the button and grinned as the hydraulics softly hissed.
They began their ascent.
Halfway up, the darkness overhead separated, revealing the ceiling to the warehouse high above. What passed for fresh air rushed in to greet them, stirring Maria some. She moaned but didn’t open her eyes. Seeing her react like that, if only in the little way she did, gave Willy hope that she’d be okay.
Staring down at her sister, Willy didn’t notice the people standing around them. A soft click announced their arrival, echoing around them like a bomb dropping within the still air of the hangar-sized space. The girls below were oddly still here, gazing at them in silence. Turning toward the entrance, Willy understood why.
“You’re gonna pay for this, chica.”
The man standing before her wasn’t as physically imposing as she figured. She did recognize him, though, the blood running down his neck confirming his identity. It was Mr. Dumpster 2.0, the guy she pistol-whipped before she descended and discovered what she did. Apparently, he had awakened recently and returned to check on things.