United (The Guardians Book 2) (26 page)

A small smile crept up onto his face.

This was it.

Ward had actually seemed relieved at the arrival of the leech – a definite first. Even Cadby, Nicky and Queenie appeared to relax just a little, almost glad to be rid of their funky powers for a short while. It certainly renewed their concentration, which made defeating the newest batch of guards all that much easier.

But the second they'd finished fighting and knocked the leech out, their brief respite was over.

“On second thought,” Ward said with a wince. “perhaps we should've left the damn leech awake.”

“No time to be dragging around prisoners,” Zay replied tersely. “Will you be okay?”

“I don't know, I-” Thick roots began to shoot out of the ground around their feet, and from the trees, a hoard of ugly squirrel like creatures with red eyes and wings surged right at them. The team ducked, swatting at the horrid things as they tried to bite and scratch their hair.

“Make them stop!” Gable screeched at Ward as one of them took a bite at her ear. She felt a searing pain and warm blood trickled down her chin.

“I can't!”

She huffed and pulled out her gun. Lifting her arm straight up in the air, she shot.

It did the trick. The creepy squirrel bat things squawked in offense and took off back to the safety of the blood sucking trees.

With stony faces, the team picked themselves back up and brushed themselves down, shooting dark glares Ward's way.

He shrugged apologetically. “At least it wasn't an earthquake,” he pointed out.

That was annoyingly true.

But the earth
was
still moving, if only a little. It was more like a gentle, almost unnoticeable vibration, like he just couldn't turn it off.
 

Cadby suddenly cocked his head to one side. “Do you hear that?”

They all grew silent as they listened. Somewhere in the distance, alarms were blaring, and then there was the spine tingling sound of-

“Screaming,” Queenie uttered, her face white. “Why is there screaming?”

Hue looked grim. “Or more importantly,
who
is screaming?”
 

Without waiting for them to debate over it any longer, Gable span on her heel and sprinted in the direction of the noise as fast as she could. It took her less than a minute to finally break the tree line. She halted as she came to the edge of a huge clearing. The first thing she noticed were the two large, gray buildings that sat facing each other, surrounded by trodden on grass and dusty dirt. They were low key buildings, only two stories high, but ridiculously long. Attached to one of the buildings was a gigantic pen, like the kind animals were caged in at the zoo. It was surrounded by another towering electric fence.

A second later she heard the others pull up behind her, panting.

“What in the goddamned hell?” Hue breathed as he surveyed the scene.

The two buildings were crumbling in on themselves dangerously, completely falling apart. Alarms were still screeching. Inside one of the buildings came the unmistakable sound of gunshots, and then there was the screaming. Tortured screams, furious screams, terrified screams.

“I'm assuming it's not always like this,” Gable guessed breathlessly. “This is Pablo's creation. He insisted on control above all else.”

“But he's not running the show now,” Ward said.

“Even so, it's been almost a month since he. . .since he died. It couldn't have been like this the entire time.”

“My earthquakes. . .”

“You guys, the ground has stopped vibrating,” Zay spoke up. “Does this mean-”

“There are leeches nearby,” Cadby confirmed. “Multiple.”

Ward nodded. “That's probably a good thing for now, as far as I'm concerned.”

“Yeah, this place is crazy enough as it is.”

His face fell guiltily. “I think this is down to me.”

Queenie shook her head to deter his thoughts. “I'm pretty sure that in there is the sound of the Outcasts freeing themselves. Your earthquakes probably helped them do that.”

“I guess that's the building we're going for then,” Zay said, back to business. He checked the ammo in his gun and stood up straighter. “But we should check the other-”

“Done,” Nicky panted, jogging over. They'd been so busy listening to the horrifying noises that they hadn't even realized he'd left. Or he was just that sneaky. “It's just living quarters – bunks, showers and a kitchen. Probably where the guards sleep when they're not holding people captive like stupid, sick fuckers. It's empty right now.”

“Then let's go!” Gable insisted, moving towards the other building. The building with the screaming. The building that Sacha must be inside. He just must be. Because the idea of coming all this way only to find he wasn't here was. . .unthinkable.

Zay caught a hold of her arm. “Wait, we need a plan.”

“But-”
He interrupted her before she could get out another word. Now that they were so close to their goal he had no problem forcing his authority. “Nicky, Hue and Cadby will get the prisoners out here safely, make sure none are left in the building. Gable, Queenie, Ward and I are going to look for the key. It goes without saying that we take down as many guards as we can, though I have a feeling the Outcasts are already on that.”

Gable wanted to argue, wanted to tell him that she should be in the team helping the prisoners, but there was little time and they were wasting enough of it as it was. By the noises coming from inside the building, things were escalating fast.

“Fine,” she growled. When he finally let her go, she immediately ran towards the building, the others right behind her.

They reached a large, metal door with no handle – a lot like the sliding doors at Guardian Headquarters. To the right sat a small keypad.

“No wonder the Outcasts haven't gotten outside yet,” Queenie burst out, holding her chest – she wasn't used to all the running.

“Not a problem.” Hue pointed his gun at the keypad, ready to shoot.

Zay yanked his arm down. “Bloody hell, no need to be so trigger happy! There are Outcasts in there, we can't just shoot the door in. Bleedin' Trackers,” he added under his breath.

Hue raised a bemused eyebrow. “What's
your
plan then, boss?”
 

Pulling out a knife, Zay used it to pry the metal casing off the keypad. He fiddled inside with the wires, and less than thirty seconds later it beeped. “See that? Child's play. Could've done that in my sleep. They should've bought my security system, the cheap bastards.”

Gable stared at him in surprise. “Impressive.”

“Don't let this pretty face fool you – there's a brain underneath all this perfect hair.”

“He's a computer nerd,” Queenie filled in dryly.

He winked. “A sexy computer nerd.”

“Rich, too,” she added, rolling her eyes. Clearly it was an inside joke.

The metal door made a hissing sound of release as it rose. Outcasts immediately began to spill out, beaten and bruised and coated in blood. They shoved past Gable and the others insistently, crying out as they tasted their first breath of freedom.

Gable's eyes darted desperately from face to face, but she couldn't find the only one she truly wanted. Tensing, she pushed her way inside, constantly looking, constantly searching.

Inside, it was pure and utter mayhem. Guards and Outcasts were brawling everywhere, guns being fired from both parties. Outcasts that had clearly taken their guns from the fallen guards held them with shaking hands, obviously unused to the feel of a weapon. It didn't stop them though. Blood splattered the walls on all sides in a sick spray.

The room they were in was large, windowless and dusty. It was empty of furniture or anything at all, but there were three other doors leading elsewhere. On one side of the big, gray room an open door showed a stairwell that led down – Gable guessed that was where the underground prison was.

On the other side of the room there had been a set of glass doors, but they'd been smashed – with bare hands, by the looks of the bloody fingerprints smeared over the remains. Beyond the glass she could see what looked to be a lab – a thoroughly destroyed lab. The Outcasts had gotten a hold of that too, not that Gable blamed them. Men and women in white lab coats lay on the floor, unconscious or dead or cowering in corners if they were lucky. A whole section of the lab had caved in completely, leaving a giant gaping hole in the floor.

There was one more door with a heavy looking padlock which had to lead to the level above.

Roaring in fury when they finally noticed the Guardians had arrived, several of the guards turned to charge them. One rushed Gable, and she distractedly shot her elbow in his face, too busy looking for Sacha to pay him much attention. He bounced off and landed on the floor, and was immediately pounced on by an Outcast in an almost feral attack.

There were so many Outcasts – more than she'd ever realized had been taken. For a brief second she worried that one of them would recognize her, but of course they would – she'd helped put some of them in there. And even if it had been unwittingly, it wasn't like they knew that. She would deserve everything they could throw at her, and so much more.

But still, even that fell to the back of her mind as she made her way through the fighting and chaos. Sacha was always so much taller than everyone around him; he was never hard to spot in a crowd.

He wasn't there.

Panic choked her, and breathing became something she really had to work at. This wasn't it. This couldn't be it. This couldn't be the end of their story.

Not even thinking clearly, she sped towards the steps that led down towards the prison. It was Zay once again who caught her arm to stop her.

“Let's go look for the key upstairs,” he said pointedly. “Nicky, Hue and Cadby will check for more Outcasts downstairs and make sure they all get out.”

She knew exactly what Zay was doing – Sacha was Gable's weakness, her distraction, and Zay was giving her the key finding task to keep her focused. With the state she was in, someone would get hurt if she didn't start paying attention. Most likely her.

Still, it didn't stop her from wanting to punch his stupid face in.

But she knew he was right. If they didn't get that key, then all of it, everything they'd done and everything they'd gone through, would be for nothing. And Gable would be no help if she stayed down there with the escaping Outcasts. She needed to separate herself from the situation if she wanted to be any help at all, so she forced herself to become numb in the same way she had when she'd worked for Pablo. She welcomed the lack of feeling like an old friend.

Shoving her way through the fighting, she didn't go easy on any guard who tried to stand in her
way. A punch on the side of her head snapped her neck back, but she was so void of everything that she barely felt it. The guard screamed as she casually buried her dagger in his shoulder and carried on by him. Behind her, she could hear Nicky and Hue taking out more guards, and Cadby encouraging the Outcasts to get outside.
 

Another guard came for her, but this time it was Ward who attacked him. As he punched the guy, Gable couldn't help but suspect that he was enjoying the fight a little too much – probably because he was finally in control of himself for the first time since their mission had begun.

Suddenly an Outcast girl darted before Gable and grasped her by the arms. She was raggedy and horribly thin; the blue rings under her eyes stood out on her sickly pale complexion. Gable flinched; her first instinct was to fight, but she couldn't bring herself to hurt the girl.

“I know you,” the girl said. “You're Pablo's Crazy Bi- I mean, you're the one who worked for Pablo.”

Gable opened her mouth to speak, but she was unable to form words. What could she possibly say?

“You were the one who took me to see Pablo,” the Outcast girl continued, and Gable died a little inside. She didn't even remember her. What kind of a sick, heartless monster did that make her?

The girl gripped her tighter. “I just wanted to say. . .thank you.”

Well Gable hadn't been expecting that. “What?”

“You killed him,” she explained breathlessly. “You killed Pablo, right? We all heard it.”

“Yeah, but I-”

“So I forgive you,” she carried on, without giving Gable a chance to speak. “I just wanted to tell you that.” And then she leaned up and kissed Gable on the cheek before darting away.

Gable was flabbergasted. She deserved a lot of things, sure, but forgiveness sure as hell wasn't one of them.

She felt Zay place a comforting hand on her shoulder but she shrugged him off – she didn't want comfort. She didn't want to see the look in his eyes; she didn't want to see the look in
anyone's
eyes. Not when she knew it would be a mixture of pity and pride and. . .goddammit, forgiveness. No, she didn't deserve it, and she was tired of people acting like she did.
 

Marching on, they finally reached the other door.

Queenie eyed the padlock wearily. “Anyone know how to pick a lock?”

“Yeah,” Gable replied. Before Zay could protest, she pointed her gun and shot.

“That'll do it,” Queenie said, nodding at the shattered lock.

Gable yanked open the door and they raced upstairs, entering a long hallway full of wooden doors. It was nicer up there – carpeted and wallpapered, at least.

“Offices?” Ward guessed.

He was right, they discovered, when they opened up one of the doors. Only, they weren't alone. Hearing them, more guards appeared out of the doorways, ready to fight.

There would only be one reason why these guards were not downstairs with the others – they were protecting something. Or someone.

She disarmed one as he came at her, but then slipped by the others and left them in Ward and Zay's very capable hands. Stalking down the hallway, she ignored all doors but the one at the very end. Knowing Pablo as well as she had, she knew that was the office he would have chosen. His psychotic, sociopath of a successor would have taken it over after his death.