They sprinted towards the exit. The parts they repaired moments ago were already back to the sorry state they were before, broken and full of holes. Jen heard sounds from below, the screams of children. She looked down to see the children in a frenzied state.
They all rushed to get up, some of them suffering from poor fates of suffocation or being pushed off the stairwell.
Can't they just wait their turn?
She thought it was odd, rather than sounding happy their screams sounded like they were horrified. Jen kept her mind off it, thinking it was just something minor to think about.
Running through the stairs, she was reminded of someone. "Where's Pheo?" She asked the others. "Ah right, that kid." Tom recalled, "Wasn't he supposed to be distracting Don?"
Mark groaned, "Do we have to go back and meet him at Ryu's room?" The group slowed down, but Jim didn't stop with them.
"Does it matter? He's probably ahead of us already?" Jim yelled out, causing them to keep running.
Sorry Pheo, but we don't need any liabilities.
"Over here!" They heard a voice shout out. The group looked over to see that it was Jug waving, already ahead of them. He opened up a hatch to a hidden passageway "This was unexpected, but we can make do!"
Jim smiled, "Looks like we're taking a shortcut." He grabbed Jug's hand, helping him as they both got the group down the path Jug led them towards. They looked around the hidden area. It wasn't a staircase, but a tunnel with an incline upwards.
"It looks really neat, but I can't tell if it's worse than the stairs or not." Tom said as he caught his breath. Mark looked more composed however, "At least we're hidden."
"The chaos outside would definitely hinder us," Jen added. The group took a moment to catch their breath. "You should rest a bit before heading out." Jug suggested.
"When are we this close?" Jim asked, "A few more minutes and we can see the light of day again." Jug got both of his hands and tried to lower Jim's shoulders, "Look at how tired they are."
The group was labored with their breathing, clearly tired from the sudden amount of energy they had to use. "Even if you make it out, it'd take minutes before you end up falling from exhaustion."
Jim's adrenaline was pushing him to go further, but his rationality kept himself from moving further. "Alright, let's take a break before going all out one last time." He sat down with the others.
They all silently rested, thinking of what they'd do once they finally got out. Jug handed Jim his container of water, "My homemade water bottle." Jim took a swig of it, passing it onto the others.
"So what are you guys planning to do once you're finally out?" Jug asked the group. They started talking about their dreams and aspirations, with their hopes and dreams surrounding themselves.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anora turned off her lighter, deeper down dim lanterns were able to light up the area.
"Thank God." She let out a sigh of relief. She didn't like the concept of having to rely on something limited to see. She descended herself as fast as possible, trying to catch up with the others.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Anora could hear a scream echo from below, another one of many that she's been hearing. It made her grip the gun in her holster tighter.
What the hell was going on down there?
"God!" Her foot slipped in one of the many holes on the staircase. They were prominent enough already, but she was sure that the explosion made more of them.
Couldn't they make the stairs out of something else?
She was claustrophobic, it was why she lived so far out from the capital. No crowds to make her cramped, and no forests to obstruct her vision. Anora looked down from the staircase, she could finally see some semblance of the ground.
"Wait a minute." she muttered to herself, there was someone else descending down with her. "Hey!" She shouted out, "You!" They reacted, looking around frantically as if they heard a ghost.
"Ryu?" The figure shouted out.
That's Ikra.
"Stay there!" She shouted out before sprinting down towards him. Ikra's eyes were widened until he saw Anora. "Oh, it's just you." He loosened his guard.
"Just me?" Anora repeated, "You know we're supposed to be helping each other in this case right?"
"Then help me find Ryu." Ikra continued going down.
"Haven't you been hearing the screams down there?" Anora sighed, but continued to follow behind him. "Yeah," he told her. "Something's happened after that explosion."
Anora watched as Ikra would make holes with his feet as he tried to rush downwards, he would put too much force in his steps. "Is it alright if I could take the lead?" Anora asked. Ikra kept going however, further descending down.
"Hey?" She called for his attention, this time grabbing him. "What?" He snapped back, "Oh, yeah sure." Anora got ahead of him, with Ikra following closely behind.
He was usually someone dependable, but right now he's a liability. At least, he's not supposed to be left alone.
Who knows what he would do if I left him?
"So where's Wing?" Anora tried to find out more about the situation below. "Somewhere ahead, he's the first to enter." Ikra said as he followed behind.
"The first?" She said surprised, "I thought he wanted to wait for the perfect time."
"Yeah, guess now's the time," Ikra told her. "Makes you wonder why we argued earlier." Anora held her nose as she smelt something sharp, "What the hell?" She saw that the path onwards was splattered with blood.
"It is what you think it is," Ikra said as he went ahead. He grabbed a piece of children's clothing from the steps, it was ripped apart violently. "Haven't heard any screams lately." He noted. It made Anora freeze at the thought.
"Did they all die by the explosion?" She started making assumptions. "No, then there would be chunks of them here," He told her. "Not the bodies." One person from the files came to mind when Ikra saw claw marks on the wall.
"Warhound?"
Anora began to think of the possibility, "People with transformative abilities that alter their senses are more prone to having manic episodes…"
"Whether by sensory overlord or hyperstimulation."
As they got closer to the ground, they started seeing more corpses of children. They were already dead, looked as if they fell down from the holes above. Others still had some of their limbs dangling down.
"The explosion." Ikra caught on with her thought process.
"If it was big enough and he was close to it, then..." He stopped talking as they almost arrived at the ground. There were piles of corpses, dead children all facing towards the staircase.
They differed with wounds, some of them had extreme burns, while others had large cuts. Anora looked at them with a sad face, "We shouldn't have taken our time." She looked at Ikra, realizing that his face was filled with anger.
"What was Wing doing while this unfolded?"
That's right, Wing.
Anora remembered that he went ahead of Ikra, he had to have passed by this area. "Did Wing walk past this tragedy while this was happening?" She was confused, but also held anger for his actions.
"Lets not assume yet," he told her. "We still have our mission after all."
And Ryu.
Ikra thought to himself. "The path splits from here, let's divide from here."
"It's faster that way." He clarified.
"And we can prevent further casualties." Anora said as she nodded with his idea. They both split from the stairwell, choosing one of many paths that were presented to them.