Phoenix

Chapter XIII

"You ready to do this?" Robin asked as we were knelt down waiting on Olivia to take down the security systems. "Yeah," I whispered already getting somewhat used to only having one eye. "You sure?" She asked. "Will you stop asking?" I asked her. "Yeah," She chuckled looking back at the facility, "I'm just making sure. I know you've been working on your control for a few days now, so..." "I'm fine," I said more calmly towards her.

"Good," She said, as we watched the facility. Then she looked back at me, "I love you. I really hope your family is here so we can save them." "Me too, but weren't they north?" "This is north," She said pointing to the stars, "See the north star is there." "Oh yeah. Would you look at that? I just learned which one is the north star," I chuckled looking at her with my one eye. She caressed my cheek that was damaged from the fire. "You know? It's really not that bad," She smiled. "I know, I don't mind that part, it's just hard to see. I did this to myself though, so I guess living with it is my conclusion," I said.

She sighed and leaned in and kissed my cheek, "You look beautiful to me. Always." "Thank you," I smiled. Then I saw the lights in the facility go out. "Alright guys, it's down. You have a two hour window to take over before they kick me out of the system. Be quick and quiet and do your thing," Olivia said in the earpiece. "Go time," I said getting up and sneaking past the border into the perimeter of the building. Robin following right behind me.

I could see the silhouettes of the other teams crowding the area around the building. Not an inch went out of view of one of our teams eyes. We'd decided that it would be better to have everyone in on the job, even if supplies came in short for a couple days. It was worth it to save other lives.

Everyone entered the building with flashlights attached to their helmets. My teams' lights were attached to our guns knowing that it would possibly be used. We tried not to kill anyone hoping to maybe use this building as an offsite prison or another base for others. That's why we'd brought so many. Robin and I trailed the halls. Our own private mission requiring a different location. We walked down the halls with a few members of the other team. I was reading the labels on the doors and heard a screaming coming from down the hall.

"That sounds like Gazzy," Robin frowned. "It does!" I agreed. I waved for the few team members here with us to follow, "Let's go guys!" We ran down the hallway shooting the building guards to get them out of the way. We stopped by the door where we heard the screaming. "Will you fucking stop! I already told you that I don't know anything! Goddammit!" I heard a woman yell. "Mom!" I whispered to Robin. She nodded to the other men, and we moved to let them in. They kicked down the door and yelled, "Nobody move! Nobody!"

Robin and I walked in after them, and I looked around. Mom, Uncle Gazzy, and Uncle Iggy were in here, but where's aunt Nudge. "Not everyone is here," Robin said. "Must be somewhere else," I replied as the men were tying up the facility faculty. "Jeez you look like shit," I joked as I untied uncle Gazzy. He chuckled faintly then looked taken aback for a moment, "So do you." "Shut up," I sighed as I pulled his arm over my shoulder and started walking him out of the room while Robin had mom and uncle Iggy who were in good enough shape to walk.

I walked Uncle Gazzy to one of the medics that came to help. I stopped and Robin had followed with mom and Iggy with her. "Phoenix? Phoenix!" I heard mom yell my name. I stopped and turned to her. I let out a small groan as I walked over to her. She instantly wrapped her arms around, "Oh, baby girl I love you so much," "I love you to mom. Stay here, I have to help the others," "Oh my god! What happened to you?!" She asked pulling away. "Funny story for another time! Stay with the medics, I don't have a lot of time. Okay?" I said walking away. I planted a small kiss on her cheek and let the medic take her away.

I walked back in with Robin to find the others. We went down the stairs to the basement were we learned they were keeping the other prisoners. The smell showing that it was rather unkempt and maybe a few were dead. Our teams were everywhere, and taking down the faculty of the building. I walked through a set of double doors where I saw the men leave with other victims and prisoners.

"Alright, the buildings taken. I'm going to turn the power back on," Olivia said into the earpiece. "Good, I can't see a damn thing," I replied to her, and Robin chuckled. I pinched her arm, "Ow! Fi!" "Not funny," I frowned. Then the light came on, and I got into what my dad used to call, 'Max mode'. He called it that because it's the mode where I start acting like mom and become all bossy and such. Someone's got to bring order. "Alright ladies and Gentlemen!" I said looking around at the chaos in the room. It was full of... cages... with other people in them. I remember mom saying they used to keep them in cages, but I was an idiot to think she wasn't exactly serious.

"Faculty, your buildings been taken! Give up the fight or face severe consequences from a very angry teenage girl!" I yelled with a frown. "Our men, get your handle on these bitches so we can work on getting the victims out! Now!" "Yes ma'am," The men shouted and started to get there handle on them. "Michael, you got a pen? Paper?" I asked walking up to a familiar member of the team. "Yes ma'am," He said holding up his clipboard with a bunch of notebook paper attached in the clip.

"I want to walk down and take down names immediately, and have a couple men behind us trying to get these things open," I ordered. "Yes ma'am," He said walking with me. Robin stopped every now and again to help the men get the victims out of their cages as me and Michael walked down the isles of cages and wrote down as many names as we could. There were only about a hundred or two of them, but it was still being difficult to keep them calm once they were out of the cages.

"Okay, so that's everyone," Michael said. "How many?" I asked. "Uh- 210," He answered, "That's not including the 50 they found upstairs." He frowned. "260 people here. Some have probably been here since the apocalypse," I frowned. "What exactly are we going to do?" He asked. "I think we're going to change this place to a refuge. I don't think anyone here can handle a 4 day walk back to the sanctuary. We'll have to dress wounds here and handle them a few at a time," I answered, then I turned to Robin who was talking to a tall blonde girl with white wings, "Robin! Come here!"

Robin looked at me then pointed at me for the woman. She was a bit older, but maybe only 5 or 6 years. The ragged woman looked at me then back at her and nodded, and they both walked over. "What do you need?" Robin asked. "We're not going to be able to pull these people out of here and shove them on a long 3 to 4 day walk," I shook my head thinking about it as the woman kept staring at me.

"What do you think we should do?" Robin asked. "We may need to reestablish the perimeter and use this place, as much as I don't want to, as a refuge where we can get them aid and such, and start taking them back in smaller groups. We have 260 names, and more are being found at this very moment." "That sounds like a plan. We'll have men come in and clear out the cages and the smell, and the rooms upstairs," She replied. "Then we can have someone sit at the camera desk 24/7. Have Benjie, Sarah, and Ashly do it. They never sleep nor do they miss a single thing," I added. "Alright, they can alternate,"

"Good. Now who's this?" I asked pointing to the blonde. "Really?" The woman asked, and I looked up at her officially, and instantly recognized her. "Aunt Angel?" I smiled and hugged her almost immediately. She laughed and hugged me back. I felt Robin pat my back, when I pulled away Robin looked at me. "They found Nudge. She's outside with everyone else," She said. "Everyone else?" Aunt Angel asked. "Mom, Uncle Iggy, Aunt Nudge, and Uncle Gazzy," I said. "Gazzy is out there?" She asked, and I nodded, "Yeah, but he wasn't in very good condition."

"Jack!" I called to another member of Michael's team. "Yes ma'am," He asked walking over. "Will you please escort Aunt Angel to the rest of my family. You'll find them with my mom. Remember her? If not, then you must remember one of the others," "Yes ma'am. Follow me," He said holding out his arm to Aunt Angel. She gave me a nervous look. "Relax, you'll get some well needed medical attention," I assured. "Okay," She sighed, "Wait. What happened to you?" "I'll explain later," I replied.

"Ma'am! Ma'am!" Michael said running over. "What?" I asked as Jack walked away with Aunt Angel. "We found more refugees."