by Charles Rye
"We're here, sir," the soldier handling Caliphar grunted.
They had arrived at a metal door with a small barred window centered at eye level.
The commanding officer shoved his way past his men and pushed the door open, stepping through it before gesturing for his men to bring the captives inside.
Koriphus and the others all looked around the room, staring in horror at the sight before them.
The room appeared to be a laboratory, with people wearing long white coats and strangely designed gas masks bustling around with clipboards or folders stuffed with papers.
The sight that made them sick to their stomachs were several Destroyers locked up in cages and wired up to three different monitors.
From what Aurelia could tell, at least one of the three monitors were recording the creatures' heart rates and other vitals.
Aurelia looked around and noticed a cat girl like herself chained up in the corner of the room, tears staining the fur on her face.
She was wearing a black tank top, a blue flannel top unbuttoned at the top with the cuffs rolled to her elbows and brown boots that seemed to have been torn up by Destroyers that no doubt had been allowed to have a go at her before some soldiers brought her to this place.
"You really are a bunch of sick fucks," Aurelia hissed, her head bowed as she stared at the concrete floor, the fur on the back of her neck bristling in anger.
She glanced sideways toward Soraf and nodded to her, unexpectedly cutting the rope used to keep her arms tied together with her claws and swiftly ducked down, sweeping her leg behind her knocking the soldier responsible for her flat on his back.
"Let them go!" Aurelia demanded, dragging the soldier she knocked out to his feet suddenly holding a knife against his throat.
"If I were, I would definitely listen to her," Soraf complied, tightening the rope around the other soldier's throat.
The commanding officer waved his hand, signaling to his men to release the others.
Obeying the order, the soldiers released their captives.
Caliphar, Koriphus, Royena and the others looked at Aurelia and Soraf, who were holding the soldiers hostage.
"Go free Zxeron and that girl over there, now!" Aurelia hissed at Caliphar and Koriphus.
The commanding officer took a threatening step forward.
"Don't try it," Aurelia threatened, pressing the blade against the soldier's throat.
"Do you really want more blood on your hands, lose more men?" She growled at the commanding officer.
Caliphar had quickly rushed to the cat girl chained to the wall.
"Hey, what's your name?" He asked her as he used his claw as a lock pick on her handcuffs.
"Norenia‚" She sobbed in-between breathes, looking up at Caliphar.
"I'm Caliphar, me and my friends will save you. Okay?"
She slowly nodded to him, trying her best to smile at him.
"Your friends are certainly brave fighting those guys. When they captured me they had some of those weird creatures attack me,"
"Don't worry; soon as we get out here we'll patch you up. How does that sound?" Caliphar smiled at her, helping her to her feet.
Koriphus easily picked the lock on Zxeron's cage, but before he could open the door, Zxeron burst through it and charged the commanding officer, tackling him to the floor his jaws at the man's throat.
Everyone else in the room all turned to watch in horror as Zxeron tore the commanding officer's throat out, his blood spilling out around him as Zxeron looked up from his fresh kill before running over to Koriphus.
A way out
Aurelia slit the soldier's throat before letting him fall to the floor, blood spilling from the wound.
She glanced around at her friends and noticed Caliphar helping the cat girl toward them.
"Is she okay?" Zandrem asked with concern, stepping up beside Aurelia.
"She just has a few scratches and scrapes. She told me these bastards set a couple of Destroyers on her before bringing her here," Caliphar answered, keeping his left arm around Norenia's waist to help keep her upright.
"We'll help her as soon as we find a way out of here," Aurelia said reassuringly.
"I'm Aurelia, this is Zandrem, Soraf, Royena, Sif, Roy and that's Koriphus and Zxeron. You've met Caliphar; what's your name?" Aurelia said, motioning toward each of her friends as she named them.
Norenia glanced at Caliphar, and he nodded to her.
"I'm Norenia. I'm really grateful you rescued me. I want to get out of here and far away as possible," She said.
"Guys, is it just me or do we have eyes on us?" Royena interrupted, causing everyone to look up and realize the oddly dressed medical staff was observing them.
"I'm not too worried, we've got a hostage still," Aurelia replied. She nodded toward Soraf, who still had the rope around the neck of the soldier that had earlier held her captive.
"If any of these demented freaks try anything, we'll kill the soldier; and them too if we must," Soraf spoke, tugging the rope even tighter, causing the soldier to make strangled noises.
"I'll admit the lab coats and gas masks freak me the fuck out but something tells me they can't exactly do anything without someone barking orders at them," Aurelia said glancing at her friends.
"We have a chance of getting out of here but we can't just leave these people here to wait for another commander to come along and take over again," Royena pointed out.
"She's right, we have to do something with this place," Sif agreed looking at Aurelia.
"What do you suggest we do?" Aurelia questioned looking at her friends.
"We interrogate this dick eater," Soraf suggested, nodding to Aurelia.
"Where?" Aurelia asked looking at Soraf.
"The room these bastards had us locked up in, we can chain him up," Soraf replied with a grin.
"Sounds like a plan to me,"
"Nobody follows us!" Aurelia commanded as she and the others walked backwards to the door.
Soraf dragged the soldier along with her by the rope around his neck, the heels of his boots scraping across the floor as he tried to resist but she was stronger than he was.
Koriphus opened the door while Zxeron kept watch on the workers, growling at anyone that moved.
Caliphar helped Norenia through the door first, followed by Zandrem and Roy who were quickly followed by Sif and Royena.
"If anyone follows us, we'll kill you. Got it?" Aurelia hissed as she and Soraf made their way out into the hallway.
Once they were all out, Koriphus slammed the door shut and used the emergency lock pad by the door to keep it shut.
"Okay, that should hold them off for awhile, at least until some kind of alarm goes off," Koriphus said looking at everyone.
"That's comforting‚" Royena remarked sarcastically.
"We probably don't have much time then, let's get this asshole to that room," Aurelia commanded, walking in front of everyone.
They cautiously made their way down the hallway, stepping over the bodies of the soldiers and Destroyers they had killed earlier, not feeling an ounce of guilt.
"You are no better than me, killing people with your bare hands," the soldier grumbled, struggling against the rope.
"We kill the wicked, you kill the innocent. We're nothing like you!" Soraf growled angrily into his ear.
"You justify it by saying you kill the wicked," He muttered.
"Perhaps they deserve it," Soraf growled.
They had reached the end of the hallway and stood before the door they knew led into the room they had been locked in.
Aurelia shoved the door open, letting it slam against the concrete wall as Soraf dragged the soldier into the middle of the room where the chains hung from the ceiling.
"You know I'll never talk!" the soldier exclaimed as Soraf and Aurelia locked him into the chains, hanging him up by his feet.
"Then we'll just have to make you talk," Aurelia said as she chained his arms behind his back.
&n
bsp; "Of course, it really doesn't matter whether you talk or not. Either way we're still going to kill you," She added.
"We could just kill you now and not waste or time," Soraf said with a smirk as Aurelia cut the rope off her wrists.
"And spill more blood?"
"That's the best part; we've already strung you up like a deer. Might as well bleed you like one," Aurelia grinned at him.
"See? You are no better than me, threatening to bleed me like an animal. You'd be more kind just leaving me here to starve to death, that would be more mercifully,"
"That's not our style, when someone tries to hurt one of us we kill them without mercy or guilt," Soraf grinned.
"Now I'm only going to ask this once, how do we get out of here?" Aurelia said, holding her knife against the soldier's throat.
"Believe me when I say you better answer me or this blade goes straight to your spinal cord," She said pressing the knife into his throat, droplets of blood trickling onto the blade.
"I've already told you I ain't telling you anything!" He spat angrily.
"Then we'll find our way and anything else you might be hiding, aside from the lab your fellow soldiers took us to,"
The soldier laughed harshly at her.
"What the fuck are you laughing at?" Aurelia growled, pressing the tip of her knife against the man's temple.
"This place is not safe for you and your kind, this whole place is filled with booby traps and alarms. There ain't a chance in Hell you lot will make it out alive, you might crawl out with a bullet in your leg if you're lucky," the soldier muttered.
"I like those odds," Aurelia grinned unexpectedly jabbing the knife up to the hilt into his throat, blood pouring down his chin dripping onto the floor.
"Let's get out of here," She said looking around at everyone.
"I second that," Norenia spoke up.
Aurelia pulled the door open, only to find doZandrems of soldiers filling the hallway.
"Well, at least we don't have to worry about booby traps‚" Aurelia muttered sarcastically.
Every soldier had an AK-47 trained on them.
"This should be fun," Koriphus smirked, glancing at Caliphar.
"We're seriously out-gunned by about two or three doZandrem soldiers and our only weapons is a couple of knives,"
Before any of the others could say anything.
A soldier wearing a gas mask that only covered the lower half of their face and a bandanna over their head in a full military uniform, which clearly showed they out-ranked everyone else in the hall stepped to the front of the group.
Aurelia could only see their eyes, which seemed to be gold in color.
The fact the rest of their facial features were hidden unnerved her for some odd reason.
"Stand down," they barked the command to the soldiers standing in the hall.
All the soldiers unexpectedly lowered their guns and straightened, which made them look like statues.
"You will follow me, you will not ask questions and above all you will not speak unless spoken to. Got it?" the soldier said to Aurelia, in a rather low voice.
Aurelia merely nodded.
"Good, come now,"
The soldier turned around and began to walk through the hall, Aurelia and the others hesitantly followed them, trying not to look at the row of soldiers lined up on either side of them.
"Where do you think they're taking us?" Soraf whispered as quietly as possible to Aurelia.
Aurelia shook her head, afraid the soldier would look back at her.
Eventually they reached the very end of the hall and turned right, which led down an even narrower hall.
Soraf, Norenia, Zandrem, Sif and Royena kept close to Aurelia as Roy, Koriphus, Caliphar and Zxeron followed them along the hall.
"We're almost there, just stay quiet and wait for my signal,"
They soon came to the end of the narrow hall and Aurelia spotted a ladder that seemed to be welded to the wall that led upward to some sort of hatch set in the ceiling.
Aurelia signaled to Soraf and they both suddenly tackled the soldier to the ground, both pinning them to the floor.
"All right, we're done playing follow the psychotic leader. Tell us who the fuck you are or we'll slit your throat," Aurelia growled, staring into the soldier's eyes.
"Shut the fuck up before you dumb-fucks blow my fucking cover!" the soldier hissed, trying to shrug Aurelia and Soraf off.
Aurelia and Soraf glanced at each other with confused expressions before looking down at the soldier they had pinned to the floor.
"What the heck are you talking about?"
"Once we get top-side, I'll explain everything. Deal?"
Soraf looked at Aurelia with a weary expression.
"Deal, but if I don't like it I'll leave you for dead," Aurelia hissed as she and Soraf got up off the soldier.
The soldier got to their feet, straightened their uniform before turning to the ladder, and climbed it, unlocking the hatch and pushing it open as they climbed through the opening signaling the others to follow.
Aurelia was the first to follow, and then Soraf and the others quickly climbed through.
Once everyone was topside, the soldier slammed the hatch shut and locked it.
Aurelia stepped up to the soldier and glared at her.
"Okay, we had a deal. Tell us everything or else," She growled, flicking her tail aggressively.
"I'm not a soldier first of all so you can stop with the not so intimidating death threats, sugar. Second of all, name's Vorenzar and I just saved your ass so try showing some sort of gratitude,"
"Thirdly and finally, we need to get to your base camp or whatever, it's still dark and we aren't exactly safe out in the middle of nowhere," Vorenzar explained matter-of-factly, gesturing towards the night sky.
"We have a camp but it's far from here and those jackasses ambushed us and we don't know what the fuck they did with our vehicle or our damn weapons, so unless you know how to get that back I'm all ears to hear your brilliant escape plan," Aurelia retorted, crossing her arms over her chest defensively.
"There's this junkyard sort'a place close by where they stash vehicles to be trashed or re-used, your's might be there. As for your weapons‚ I can't guarantee you'll get those back‚"
"Just show us where they might have taken our vehicle, we'll worry about the weapons after we have a mode of transportation," Caliphar interrupted, stepping in between Aurelia and Vorenzar in an attempt to defuse a fight.
"Follow me and watch your backs and your step, don't exactly need one of you accidentally stepping on a land mine," Vorenzar muttered as she started to walk towards the East.
Aurelia and the others followed close behind her, all watching where they stepped cautiously.
Into the night
"Exactly who are you?" Aurelia asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence as they neared a chain link fence that surrounded a junkyard.
Vorenzar let out a weary sigh as she leaned her back against the fence, looking up at Aurelia.
"For a while I was a prisoner much like yourself, but I figured if I went along with what I was ordered to do I would eventually gain enough trust and find out what those people were up to,"
"It wasn't exactly easy, especially since I had to hide what I was‚ I was lucky I was wearing a bandanna over my face and head to keep sand out of my mouth and nose, and dull the sounds of those awful creatures' calls from my sensitive ears,"
"When I was caught by some soldiers one day," She explained, tucking her gloved hands into the pockets of her pants.
"Did you learn anything?" Aurelia asked leaning against the fence beside her.
"Not really, just that they were doing experiments on those weird creatures and that place was just one of their many sub-bases‚" Vorenzar replied looking down at the ground.
"Hey Aurelia, we found it!" Caliphar called, getting Aurelia's attention.
She and Vorenzar ran into the junkyard to find the others standing around the p
rison bus.
Aurelia stepped up to it and walked around it.
"Those bastards‚ they dented it when they rammed us. Fuckers are definitely gonna pay for damaging my baby," She growled angrily, patting the side of the bus.
"Is it still drivable?" Soraf asked moving to stand beside Roy.