Octagon Project 3: Zachary McHall

~-29-~

"You guys better be ready. We might have to fight our way through." Zack said as the elevator reached the level before their destination. He began to refill the ammo in both his magazines, placing the guns back at his hip and small of his back afterwards. The others prepped themselves as they grabbed their weapons and made sure they were fully loaded.

"It's a narrow hallway, so be prepared for close combat." Rex notified them. Amber and Vanessa grabbed hands anticipatingly as they awaited the moment they got to see their daughter and brother again. Roy kept his jaw clenched painfully tight as his gaze didn't move from the silver doors ahead of him. Mel watched him for a long moment until Zack stepped to the front of the group in the way of the entrance with his back to everyone else.

"Just as a last heads up," he began, "don't expect the kids down there to be the ones you used to know." Rex and Rocker's gazes soften the slightest as they picked up on the pain in Zack's voice. In the moment the doors were even the slightest bit open, Zack fired three shots and that was all they needed to be safe in the hall.

"I wouldn't expect there to only be three guards in such an important part of the facility." Justin noted as he glanced up at the long, thin, ground level windows that were barely letting in any light from the outside.

"McHall likes to keep this place as secretive as possible. Not even the other branches of the Octagon know about it. Considering the whole facility is on its highest security lock-down, guards are most likely sent to protect other important locations." Zack explained numbly. "This place doesn't even have a system alarm."

"They're that confident in the security?" Vanessa questioned. "I mean, we got here pretty easily."

"If you think about how McHall thought that taking Zack down here would re-program him, do you really think he would set up a security system?" Rocker asked, glancing down at the half-Latina that held her gun with both hands in front of her cautiously. She shrugged in response to his question.

"So what other 'important' locations would they possibly be guarding?" Mel asked as she stared at Zack's back. His shoulders stiffened at that but he tried to play it off as a shrug.

"Their sigma lab probably."

"You mean that stuff that McHall wanted us to steal from B.L.A.K?!" Kaylee nearly shrieked. She did all she could to keep her voice low.

"We've had it the whole time." Zack told her. "Melody and I recovered it years ago."

"Correction, we recovered a single vile. You blew up the rest of them." Mel corrected. She was on edge with Zack calling her by her first name. He rarely ever did that unless he was in a scary bad mood or if something was up.

"What is it exactly?" Rocker pressed curiously.

"You could call it a superhuman serum. More or less its a rapid cell regenerator that makes you practically unkillable since your body would heal at an abnormally fast rate for a given period of time."

"How do you know that? McHall never told us about that." Dean spoke for the first time in a while.

"Because I was the one who started the research for it." Zack answered. "We're here." He then added before anyone could press any further. Jumping into the room, he fired off a shot at the ceiling to announce their arrival. People in white lab coats ducked instinctively and ran to the opposite side of the room. "All adults go into the holding room or its your life on the line!" He bellowed with a deep voice as he opened his blade to its full length with his free hand. "I won't repeat myself!" He growled, brushing off his hood and glaring them down. Many listened and ran for the hall into the white padded room particularly as he began stalking towards them. Those that were too slow he cut down without a blink until every adult in the facility was backed into the stuffy room. Shutting the metal door into that room, Zack locked all of its chains and bolts and shoved one of the metal desks against the door.