Chained - Jenlisa

Fight or Die

The guards beside my cage are still on the ground, but they're already moving to stand. Quickly, I grab a pant leg and hold tight, trapping one of the guards with me as the other two run off to see the commotion outside. Thankfully they don't realize their friend isn't with them.

With a scowl I drag the guard nearer to my cage, the bars burning the sides of my face, and I snap bones as I go along until I reach his neck. The last creatures left behind in their prisons howl when I kill the guard and they cheer me on as I search his corpse for a blessed key. Another explosion booms just as I find one, and rapid gunfire starts. Quickly, I unlock my cage and spring out.

"Help us!" The others plea as I stand for the first time in almost three days. I run to their cages, a fierce cramp in my left leg, and set them free. They thank me profusely then run out through the back of the building with all their might. Palming the blessed key, I sprint to the front of the building and peek out, only to find a war zone before me. Soldiers I recognize from down below are moving in on the property, trying to combat the crazy humans and the witches they're using. The old man witch I met when I first came here throws his arm out and a portion of the ground cracks and swallows up four soldiers in an instant.

My eyes fall on a large truck with the back wide open, and I hear soft weeping and praying coming from inside. That must be the transport vehicle. I run to it and jump into the back, my new blessed key at the ready. Immediately I start in on unlocking the cages and setting people free. They cry in relief and push past me as soon as they're out, wanting to get as far away from this hell hole as possible. A Were even transitions in her cage as soon as I open the metal door and she runs off in wolf form with a shriek.

"Lisa!" I hear someone scream, and I recognize the voice as Tiffany's. She's in a cage at the back and I rush to her when everyone else is gone. She throws herself into my arms when she's released and sobs into my shoulder.

"Have you found my son?" she asks as she pulls back. Her eyes are wet and wide.

I shake my head and lift her to stand. We need to get out of here and I need to find Jennie. I sense her nearby and my arm still aches with hers. "No," I tell Tiffany, leading her out of the truck. "I'm sorry."

She pulls on my hand when I try to take her away to safety and fights to keep me with her. "Please," she begs. "I saw a house. He could be in there."

I pick her up and move us both so we won't be in the line of fire. We're just in time, as a tree bursts and sends splinters every which way. Tiffany yelps in fear and covers her head.

"Okay," I tell her as I set her down. It's still part of my end of the deal to protect her, and because of that, her son. "We'll go check, but you have to help me, too. How proficient are your magic skills?"

"Why?"

"We're going to need them to make it through this alive."

 

 

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We find the first explosive completely by accident and lose a good soldier to the mistake. The second we find with good teamwork and set it off to scare the cult into coming off the property. It works, and every squad moves in. There's six, including mine, and a 'squad' that's just Jisoo doing her own thing.

Sandara is in a helicopter somewhere above and snapping for this squad to move there and that squad to move here. It's a brilliant system that keeps everything running smoothly.

But then trees begin exploding.

Chunks of wood longer than my legs go flying at soldiers and knock them off of their feet, and splinters catch eyes, causing some to go blind. A particularly sharp projectile slices through my bicep enough to make me bleed, but thankfully the damage isn't serious. I worry about Lisa feeling it but move quickly so that I can get to her.