Brothers In Arms (Batfamily) - Completed

Chapter 30 ~ Brothers in Arms

Dedication goes to Deadpool_Red because she's the best and she's the one who inspired me to write this story ^^ Thanks twin

When Red Hood and Nightwing reached the place underneath Arkham Asylum where all the children had been locked in, they both felt a shiver running down their spines. Of course they had been expecting to see horrible things, but they hadn't expected to see so many children being chained, starving and locked up inside some tiny cells in which even the iron bars had turned rusty.  Most of them looked like the spark of life which had been shinning so brightly inside their eyes in the past had been stolen from them and there was nothing left of it...

As they stepped further in the facility and began to work on freeing the frightened children, they discovered a lot of corpses lying directly on the ground, not even covered by a sheet. Their faces were paler than what they were supposed to be and their bodies were beyond skinny.

"I don't know how we're going to explain all of this to the GCPD..." Hood said lowly as he helped a young girl to stand up.

"There's no words for this..." Nightwing replied in a whispered.

"Yeah... Alright, I think we're done in this room," Hood clasped his hands together and turned towards the small group composed by a dozen of children next to him, "Listen to me please. I know you are all terrified but I promise you Nightwing and I will get you out of here and you'll be with your families again very soon. I need all of you to stay as calm as possible while we check on the last two rooms to avoid leaving any children behind." Nearly all the children nodded evenly, without any kind of energy. It had been drained away from them and, as he observed them quickly, Hood couldn't help but clenched his fists in anger.

Nightwing approached next to his brother, "The GCPD is on its way. There will be ambulances with them to bring all the kids to the nearby hospital for a complete check-up and to give them medical treatment."

"Good. There are two rooms left, you take one and I take the other?"

The black and blue appareled hero nodded quietly and headed towards the right room while Hood checked on the left one. As he walked in, a strong smell of rotting flesh found its way through his nostrils. It was so unbearable that he had to activate a special filter inside his helmet.

The room wasn't large compared to the others in the facility. In the middle was standing a large surgery table with leather handcuffs lying on it. Dry blood was covering the metallic parts. Next to the table,there was a large steel cart with many bloodied and rusty tools on it. Jason carefully grabbed a small torn box he spotted. "Sarinide..." he read lowly, "Shit, I'll have to take care of this too..."

He laid the box back on the cart and kept on searching everywhere. As he crouched down, he saw two corpses lying inside the tiniest cage of the whole facility. Jason shook his head in front of this absolute atrocity but frowned when he noticed the gross purplish color one of the corpses had on its face. Jason carefully turned the corpse around and gasped loudly when he realized in which state this young boy was. The poor child still had his eyes opened. The latter had lost their soft hazel color to turn into the strangest shade of red.

When he rose back to his feet to escape the horror in front of his eyes, Jason thought he had heard a weak whisper just behind him. He looked all around once again but saw nothing. "This place is making me crazy," he whispered to himself.

The whisper started again and this time, it was clear enough for Jason to hear it. He crouched again and noticed another cage hidden behind a large dirty towel at the back of the room. It was plunged in the dark. Moreover, it was isolated and kept closed by a large padlock. Jason carefully removed the towel and was shocked to see a little girl trapped in the cage, curled into a ball. She was shaking madly and her face was a terrifying shade of white/grey.