Ascendance

15

I handed the guns to my parents. I keep the knives, taser, and keys.I quickly disable the cameras with the taser. I'm pretty sure that I've pissed off the security guards and that they're probably after me. I kept running and I reached a familiar door. What do I do now? The vents are out, the room is definitely out and everything else is uncertain. I think of the map I memorized and of the place I'm in. I think I recognize it. I see a small hallway where it's leading to the armory. I have to find a way out.

We finally reached the small hallway. I walk in with my parents. We walk down and see a guard. He raises his gun and I shoot him in the face. Black goo fills the air and splatters my clothing. I take his weapons as well. I wonder how my parents feel about their daughter being so casual about murder.I notice the door has a strange language and requires a handprint.

"Help me drag him to the scanner." I say. My dad helped me drag the body and I put the hand in the scanner. The door opens and I find all these weapons. Guns, rifles, knives, bombs, grenades. A war monger's dream. I notice they're all encased in glass which requires scanners. Clever. I don't know what we're doing here. But I remember. There was a secret entrance to the outside sub area. All I need to do is to get through and steal one of them.

I end up dragging the body to the scanner on a wall. I should just cut off his hand but that's too morbid for me.The scanner accepts it and opens the entrance.

"Come on." I say, motioning my parents to follow me in.

I lead in the front, my gun in hand. I leave the body behind. We continue into the tunnel. We don't say anything. My parents look at me. Then I hear footsteps. Heavy ones. My body tenses and I raise my gun. It's people in the black uniforms we were given back in the base.

"Erika." I recognize the voice. A smile forms at the corner of my lips and I can barely get the word out.

"Brendan." I ran to him, putting the gun back in my holster. I hug him tightly and he returns the hug.

"What happened?" I asked him.

"They took us on a ship and were planning on throwing us in the ocean to feed squids." Lexi spoke for Brendan.

"Damn, that's terrible." I look at them, wide eyed. "At least we're all together now."

"Right. We should find your sisters and get the fuck out of here." Kyra responded, looking at her. We went into a room. There was a puddle of blood and I recognized it as the room Karenina had put me in. There's signs someone was here earlier as the dead cephalopod bodies are still here. They're looted and we find an open box of bulletproof vests. I hand one each to my parents and we get out of the room. I wonder if they've realized we escaped. That question is answered when Zander falls to the ground, cursing in a language I've never heard before. Lexi grabs him and we start to duck behind metal crates in the hall, shooting back at them.

Lexi is trying a tourniquet to Zander's leg. Suddenly a cephalopod in its third form throws the crates behind itself and grins at us with teeth that resemble a shark's. One jumps on my face and tries to attach itself but I manage to shoot it dead. My face has small sores on it now, great. My dad shoots it between the eyes and my mom finishes off the last cephalopod. We continue running, except for Zander who is being carried by Lexi and Ruth. We continue, shooting cameras and running down the hall.

Kyra is able to heal Zander a bit.

"It had a clean exit wound. You'll definitely still have to get checked out." She spoke to him. She had first and second degree burns on her face. All of us are wounded to some extent. We reach a two way hall and can't decide which way to go down. We decide on the right and we find an unmarked door.

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He was furious. They were taunting him by blowing out the camera. He didn't have many men left and the Leader was losing his mind. How dare she! How dare they! The Leader tossed his desk at the wall and he could feel his muscle mass growing.

"I will kill you!" He shouted. He then grabbed the microphone on the pieces of desk.

"If you don't die by my men, you will die by my hands, Erika Jimenez!" He shouted. The worst part was the Founder was nowhere in sight. If he had to resort to broadcasting it, he would probably lose it. He walked out of the room, seeing the chaos the woman and her team had left behind. Shattered cameras, dead bodies, blood and goo was everything. He wanted to scream.

He started to run down the hall.

"If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." He muttered to himself. He should have just killed her when he had the chance. Now he was at a clear disadvantage. Erika had many people with her. Granted, he was a one man army himself but he could still die. He noticed the door holding the Jimenez parents was wide open and there was a dead cephalopod on the ground.

"That bitch...." He muttered to himself. He would not be merciful at all. He would make her find out why and how he became the Leader. He continued down the hall, finding discarded crates, blood and more dead cephalopods. She had to be close at this rate. There was also more broken cameras. Like he didn't have enough to deal with.