Capítulo 78: Chapter 79
They walk down the steps, their swords drawn. Maggie's leading and keeps her eyes trained in front of her, making sure there's nothing lurking in the shadows. She gets to the bottom and there's a door, a heavy black metal door. She pushes it open with the side of her body and her heart launches into her throat when she sees what's behind the door.
Maggie swallows, steeling her emotions, and holds the door open for the others to walk in. It works well, because she uses that time to compose herself. She knows Alex notices her behavior but just gives her sad eyes when she pauses and places a hand on Maggie's shoulder. She can see their reactions, all of them horrified by what they're seeing.
There are people in cages. Everywhere. Stacked on top of each other like beasts. All of them with hollow expressions, not even looking up when they come in. They look thin, so thin that Maggie wonders if Cadmus is just doing the bare minimum to keep them alive. She moves closer carefully, not wanting to scare anyone. They don't even flinch, just watch her with the most dead expression she's seen on anyone that's still alive.
As Maggie steps closer, avoiding getting too close. Both so she doesn't scare them and so that if they think she's one of their tormentors, she'll be safe from their grasping hands. She notices something and does a double take. Some of these are humans, some of them are aliens, and some... The worst off ones are something in the middle. Humans with something extra. One has horns, one has blue tinged skin, one Maggie swears has fangs and whiskers.
They've... Cadmus has been experimenting with humans and aliens. It makes Maggie sick to her stomach. They people they claim to want to protect, locked up in cages built to temporarily hold large dogs... It's not just inhumane, it's... It's nauseating to Maggie, knowing they haven't heard of this before now. That Cadmus has been able to get away with this until now.
Maggie resists the urge to run around and break everyone out. They're all weak at best, and violent and delirious at the worst. Plus, they don't want to alert the scientists that they're down here. Setting free their victims would definitely not be subtle or quiet.
Maggie gives Alex a conflicted look and Alex nods back. Maggie sighs, knowing Alex feels the same as her, hating the human (and alien) rights violations here. At least they can fight the bastards that did this to them.
Alex gestures for the team to come close. "Do not release them," she signs. "It may be tempting, but they will be noisy, perhaps even violent. We need to take out the scientists and guards down here first. Then we can free them. But we have to be careful when we do, they'll be scared and confused and may lash out."
"Where to first?" Maggie signs back.
"Let's continue. I don't think any scientist would work at their desk in here, the stink enough is enough to drive most away. There will most likely be another door at the opposite end. We have to be ready for opposition. Okay?"
They all nod. "Let's move. I can lead." Maggie signs.
They all follow her lead, their weapons still drawn. There's another metal door, just like Alex predicted. It's black and sleek, and makes Maggie wonder if that's another mind game for the captivates. The door leading to them, the one they came in, is rusted and worn and creaked as it opened. This one will lead to the scientists, to the guards, and it's perfectly painted with no rust at all. As though Cadmus is saying "see? We're better than you. You don't even deserve a good door. We do."
Maggie adjusts her grip on her sword, swallowing down her rising anger. Fighting while angry can be dangerous. It can make her sloppy if she lets it take over. So she swallows it down, to use later. She pushes open the door with her back and it moves on it's hinges silently. Maggie holds it open for the others to come through.
The next room is much more brightly lit and it just makes Maggie despise these horrible people even more. Forcing people and aliens into cages, in darkness, barely giving them enough food to keep them alive...
Maggie keeps her free hand on the door as it closes behind her to make certain that it doesn't slam shit. She steps forward and rejoins her small group.
"Can anyone see anything?" Maggie signs.
"I've seen two guards so far, and it seems like the room ahead of this hall goes both to the right and left. Vasquez, Maggie, you're with me. You four, head the left. We'll go right." Alex signs.
Everyone nods their assent and move silently across the pristine white tiles that make up the floor. Alex leads this time, with Maggie to her left and Vasquez to her right.
When they reach the turn, Alex presses her back to the wall and peeks over while making herself as invisible to others in the room as possible. She gives them the gestures for six guards, two scientists. Two tied up? Maggie cocks her head at that. Oh, Gods. She's going to have to see them doing their twisted experiments.
Alex gives Vasquez and Maggie a serious look so Maggie knows it's not going to be a pretty sight. Alex points and they move in sync, stalking forward with their weapons drawn.
Alex takes down two guards in quick succession by throwing some of her smaller, dispensable knives into their throats. They gag as blood pours from their throats. Alex disregards them, knowing they're pretty much dead where they stand. She focuses on the other guards and winces internally when she sees one of the guards stupidly pull out the knife in his neck. Two spurts of blood comes out, arterial spurts so yeah, he's dead. Alex sees him fall to the ground and knows he's definitely dead now.
Alex swings her sword at the one guard coming at her. Maggie's taking care of two and Vasquez is up against one. They need to finish this up so they can make sure the scientists don't get away. Alex twirls her entire body around, leaping into the air as she does. She catches the guard with her sword slicing into his lower neck and her leg kicking his torso. She's certainly sliced open his carotid, and he's falling backwards.
Alex runs for the scientists, knowing Vasquez and Maggie have the guards handled. The first scientist freezes in her tracks when she sees Alex running after them. Alex doesn't stop, hitting her in the side of the head with an efficient, brutal hit with the hilt of her sword. Alex hits exactly where she intended to and the scientist crumples to the floor, unconscious.
Alex picks up speed as she runs toward the other scientist, who's probably never had to run a day in his life. He's huffing and puffing by the time Alex (easily) catches up to him. He's running like he's stuck in slow motion. As in, Alex could walk and catch up to him. She taps him on the shoulder and he whirls around. His face is red with exertion, his beady eyes bugging with terror and fear.
He wheezes and takes a step back but before he can try (and fail) to flee again, Alex punches him in the nose. He goes down, unconscious. Alex shits on him.
"Piece of human garbage." She grumbles. She signs to the others, who have all either killed or tied up their scientists and guards. "Come on, tie these two up. Make it as uncomfortable as possible. They deserve much worse."
They nod and while they do that, Maggie and Alex work on uncovering the two bodies covered up by blue sheets. Maggie swallows down the bile rising in her throat when they uncover the first. The alien is dead, thank the Gods, because they're completely dissected, like someone just went rooting around in their abdomen to peek at their internal organs. If Maggie didn't have a strong stomach, she would have lost her dinner.
The next is a human, who stares at Alex with creepy, unblinking eyes. Alex murmurs what she hopes are soothing words and uncuffs the human. They don't move, staying still. Alex doesn't want to touch them, knowing that they're probably (definitely) traumatized. Maggie gives Alex a look and Alex nods. She knows Maggie's better with dealing with people and emotions.
Alex takes the ring of keys from one of the dead guards' pockets and orders the others to do the same. She would normally urge them to move on, but she can hear the sound of a fight going on on the other side of some of the doors. She assumes that the DEO has it handled, and any stragglers that wander in here will be dealt with. She heads back to the cage room and begins unlocking them, recruiting some of the stronger ones to assist her and help get people out of their cages, convince them that they're actually free.
Well, this got heavy... And the next couple of chapters will be Supercorp until they rejoin Maggie and Alex! :) Prepare for more angst, but nothing as morally horrifying as what happened in this chapter... Maybe. There will be manipulation and emotional/verbal abuse from Lillian, so if that's something you're not okay reading, that's perfectly fine! I'll try to warn you guys at the beginning of the chapter! You can skip it and message me here or on Twitter or Tumblr (on both I'm wolf3223) or whatever you're comfortable with if you want to know what happened without reading it! Thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!
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