Human Pets

Chapter Eleven

I lifted myself out from the small hole and slowly crawl along the moonlit grass over beside some of the other recruits. I keep dead silent like the others and glance up and around at the sleeping households. I ponder on how far the breeding center might be and end up with an aching pit in my stomach. I shouldn't have thought to hard about the tasks ahead.  

My anxiousness is cut off by the surfacing of Charlie and Cindy, both crawling silently along the yard approaching us and directing us under a weeping willow. The slouching branches of the tree hide us the dark and gives off temporarily feelings of safety. Once everyone has piled up under the tree Charlie does a people count then signals us to follow him.  

I stare down at my black laced boots as I walk trying to keep low and invisible. I follow someone in front of me and let my mind ponder on where Dominic is I could have sworn he was going to tag along. I sigh and look up as I bump into the back of the person ahead of me. We topple over and everyone else halts abruptly for us. I see everyone peering at me and I feel my cheeks flush.  

"I'm sorry, I tripped over something." I whisper as I slowly push myself off of the victim of my lack of attention. The person turned around and I had felt dumb for not even noticing who it was the whole time. "Dominic."  

"It's okay Elsie, just keep focused and this will be over sooner than you think." Dominic reassures me quietly with his accent more dominant in his whisper than I would have thought. Dominic turns away after nodding to me and we keep in our line heading along the side of the road.  

The road is so dark besides the small glares from the bright moon overhead. I peer over to the breeding center and feel a knot grow in my gut. The building appears a few blocks away but it is hard to miss. The building protrudes from the various little homes snuggly bunching together. I feel slightly intimidated by such the large building and try to swallow down the dryness in my throat. Luckily before I could worry too much about the intimidating building Charlie managed to call over, with good timing I much add, that all the captives are held on the bottom floor below the entrance. Everyone seems to relax after that announcement.  

The rows of houses seem dead and empty, but I knew from being a pet that every house is filled with various creatures, sleeping soundly and content. We had nothing to worry about as long as we kept silent and stealthy. We all follow Charlie slowly as he crosses the road quickly to the other side and then tuck and roll into a plump bush. I squeak as a branch stabs me in my lower back but it didn't seem to do any harm so I sigh and rub my back slowly.  

Once everyone has made it to the bush Charlie uses his finger to point down the road to the . . . breeding center. I am baffled at how quickly we got here I am so bad at paying attention. I take in a heavy breath of air the exhale loudly this is our time to turn the tables around. Charlie knits his brows together as he looks over all of us then exits the bush and we watch him sprint to the building he doesn't seem to want to waste any time.  

Everyone quickly fumbles out of the bush and sprint after him all of us running beside each other on our way to the building. As I approach the building it becomes bigger and increases in its intimidation factor. I do not falter in my sprint though, I keep running until I meet up with Charlie and watch as others join quickly. We are all panting heavily and a few are resting their hands on their knees trying to catch their breath.  

As everyone is watching and catching their breath Charlie pulls out a thin rod, looks exactly like a pen and clicks it on causing one end to flash red.  

"Thanks to Victoria we have the latest technology that will help this rescue be a smooth one, in then out." Cindy explains behind us all as Charlie begins using the red side to cut open the vent encasing. A laser that is what it must be. If that is on my belt I could definitely find various other uses for that laser, maybe a defense weapon even! I grin at the thought then snap back to attention as the encasing is placed quietly onto the grass.  

Charlie turns to look at us all slowly turning his head to make eye contact. I can feel the extreme seriousness in the air and think that something bad will happen even though we planned and trained for this. I shake my head lightly and shake the bad thought as well. We planned and trained for this that is exactly why this will be a success.  

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Charlie led us all through the vent and we ended up making it to the first floor. I didn't mind though, because instead of having to scale through the billions of stories and evade various traps to get to the top all we have to do is get to one floor down. I glance around the pitch dark room and barely spot my comrades who are wandering around slowly searching for traps, openings and various other things. I glance at the glass door to the entrance of the building and let my eyes wander along the moonlight that managed to leak through onto the small simple matt on the floor greeting people who enter.  

I shiver from the eerie feeling I get at the thought that people are so welcoming here for such a crazy thing but I guess they must think the same thing when we would do that with them. The things I think of, I shake my head as I scan the room with everyone else. I slide out my little flashlight attached to my hip and click it on to shine on the tiled floor. I swivel the beam of light along the room scanning the huge lounging room. 

I spot little chairs that congregate around a small table and also a huge front desk that is neatly placed between to doors that have security sliding doors that require a pass to open. I flash my light around some more and spot a few other doors behind my along the wall that look easier to get in than the other two, I guess my question is, which one leads to the lower floor? 

I glance around and realize everyone has huddled together over near one of the doors behind me. I tread over to them slowly and click off my flashlights letting their lights guide me to them. Everyone is hunched over and Charlie is in the center holding a blueprint. I sigh in relief as he points out which door we need to take which is the one they have all gathered to. I'm glad we didn't have to go through trial and error to find the right door that would have taken us all night.  

Charlie folds up the blueprint and tucks in into the back of his belt for now before he points to a young man. The guy is about as tall as Dereck but thinner and has scruff along his narrow jaw. In the light of the flashlights his eyes look grey underneath his dark brows and he grins knowingly, he is up. The young man weaves through the few people in front of the door and crouches down smoothly.  

I watch as he looks so at ease and comfortable with his task. He pulls a case from his belt and opens it on the floor displaying numerous little gadgets. They look like thin little metal toothpicks to me. He grabs the smallest one and taps lightly along the wall beside the door. He then takes the tool and drags it along the wall in a neat rounded square.  

Everyone seems to be watching intently besides Cindy and Charlie, who I am sure know exactly what he is doing and has seen it done before. The guy then pries off the piece of the wall he formed and exposes circuitry inside the wall. He nudges the guy beside him to flash the light closer and I notice a small button looking thing amidst the circuits. The guy takes a bigger toll from his case and then seems to take apart that button in one second. Right as he finishes the door automatically slides open. 

Gaping mouths and wide eyes is what he sees as he turns around with a cocky grin.  

"I knew this is how they would all react." He exclaims matter-of-factly as he stands up and attaches the case back to his belt. "You owe me ten bucks Charlie." I hear Charlie murmur 'damn' and then everyone seems to relax.  

"Well thanks to Pheno we have cut down hours to our rescue but don't take it lightly, time goes by fast. Let's head on down now and keep alert." Charlie pats Pheno's back as he heads down the stairs slowly. I nod, and then quickly follow behind keeping to the walls along the steps.