Chapter 21: Chapter 21

Thirteen's POV

I carefully remove the arrow from Cody's arm and Devin begins to wrap the wound. "First a gunshot now an arrow, what's next?" He mutters under his breath. "Actually...who's next?"

Shouts sound off from behind us along with various thuds. "Lily?" I whisper as I stare off into the darkness of the hallway.

"Well, originally I was going to warn you we had some bad guys coming down the stairs, but my point of view sort of shifted when one pushed the other down the stairs."

"You make it sound like I did something to him." Chase's smug voice fills our ears. "He tripped. I didn't even touch him."

"That's a load of bullshit." Zack grumbles. Both of them start off down the hallway and I watch their black forms begin to clear under the single light.

Zack rubs at a spot on his lower back and winces as he takes steps towards us. "What is wrong with you people?" He murmurs quietly.

Chase's face creases with worry when he sees Cody's unconscious form sitting up against the wall. "What happened?"

"Lily." Both me and Devin answer in unison.

"Figures." Chase replies as he leans down next to Cody. "He's still alive right?"

"I'm offended you think I'd actually kill one of you." Lily mutters into her earpiece.

"I don't think, I know." Chase replies to her and she lets out an annoyed puff of air.

"The next arrow I fire is going to go through your eye if you keep talking."

"Will you both just shut up." I hiss. "I'd rather be found out later, not right now. Lily get back on watch and be quiet." She grumbles a string of curses under her breath.

I turn my attention back to Cody just as Devin finishes wrapping his arm. "Let me know when he starts waking up."

Devin nods. "Somehow I don't think that's going to happen any time soon."

I shake my head. "Probably not." I agree, turning towards Zack and Chase. "You two come with me, Devin stays here with Cody, and warn us if anyone shows up."

"Where are you going? That direction leads to a dead end." Devin says and I shake my head.

"I highly doubt that."

I move quietly and quickly while Zack and Chase follow behind closely. We move down to the end of the hallway and into the room Cody and Devin had come from. I look up at the open trap door on the ceiling.

"I'm not seeing anything in here." Chase whispers as his eyes roam over every inch of the room.

I do the same before my eyes settle on a section of the wall that doesn't fit with the rest of the room. It looks like another hallway that has been sealed up. I walk up to it and press my hand into different sections of the wall, knocking occasionally against it with my fist.

"You got any grenades on you?" I question as I push back from the wall.

Zack looks at me in confusion. "Should I?"

Chase rolls his eyes before motioning for me to get back from the wall as he pulls a grenade from his belt. I grab Zack's arm and steer him out of the room with me, Chase follows quickly after tossing the grenade. The explosion shakes the floor near us momentarily and sends clouds of dust through the doorway.

"What was that?" Lily's voice sounds in our ears.

"Nothing important." I reply as I wave at the dust in front of my face before motioning for Chase and Zack to start into the room. "But I need you to keep a look out. There's not a chance that explosion wasn't heard."

I follow Zack and Chase back into the room and we move quickly through the dust cloud and into the hallway. Zack takes a moment to stop and look back and the hole.

"You couldn't just figure out how to make the wall push back in and open up without making a lot of noise?" He questions.

"If I wanted to take an extra ten minutes we don't have then yes, I could've gotten it opened eventually."

He scowls at me as we keep moving down the hall. We stop dead in our tracks as red lights start flashing followed closely by a wailing siren.

"I think..." Zack starts as he looks up at the lights. "they know we're in here."

"No shit Sherlock." Chase mutters.

Gunshots sound off, softly down the hall, but loudly through our ear buds. "Lily, talk to me." I say.

"All armed, all in bulletproof vests, and all very pissed off."

"How many?"

"Can't be sure...too many."

"Cody still unconscious?"

"He was shot with one of my arrows...of course he's still unconscious. Devin's helping out, but we're about to get killed over here."

I turn back to Chase. "Go help them. Zack will stay with me. We'll be as quick as possible, just try to buy us some time."

"No problem." Chase responds with a nod of his head before rushing off back the way we came.

"Come on," I say to Zack as I start running off down the hallway with my dagger in my hand. Zack follows quickly with his gun raised in front of him.

The hallway slants down and goes further underground before finally leveling out once again. We take a couple more steps forward before something squishes beneath our shoes. It's too dark to see what it is, but it doesn't sit well with Zack.

He makes a noise in the back of his throat. "Oh no. Nope. I'm out." He pivots on his heels to go back up but I catch him by the collar of his shirt.

"You can't even see what it is." I hiss as I pull him back and push him in front of me.

"I know." He replies, "That's the worst part. we're probably walking on a million bugs right now."

"You watch too many movies." I chide him before pushing him forwards to get him to move.

He flinches under my hand every time he takes a step and the ground either makes a squishing sound, splashing sound, or both. He lets out a half scream when he takes another step and something crunches and cracks under his foot.

"You're unbelievable." I mutter.

"I have not had the years of training you guys have had. It's only natural for a normal person to have a near heart attack while walking through here."

"You grew up with your psychotic brother." I point out. "You're as far from normal as he is."

"It's probably more snakes." I hear him mutter to himself under his breath as he continues walking.

I laugh. "We're not in one of Lily's house of horrors."

"No we're not." He agrees "Those were actually better, because I could actually see what was in the house."

I roll my eyes and run my hand along the wall as we walk, trying to feel for any doorways or other passages. I stop in my tracks as my hand finds what feels like a door handle. I pull on Zack's shirt once again as he continues to walk down the hallway. He stops and turns back towards me as I push the door open slowly and light floods through and into the hall. Zack sticks a fist in his mouth and his eyes practically bug out his head as the light lights up the floor beneath.

What it is that covers the floor, I can't be sure, but it's definitely not a pretty sight. What looks like black, red, and green sludge covers the floor. Thicker in some areas, thinner in others. Mixed into that sludge, are bones.

None of the bones look big enough to be human, but it doesn't matter to Zack who looks as if he's about to blow chunks. His face turns deathly pale and he stumbles back into the wall. I grab his arm and shove him into the room before closing the door to keep him from looking at the hallway.

I turn back around to Zack after closing and locking the door. His back is to me and his entire posture has gone completely rigid.

"Zack?" I question as I walk up to his side and stare at him in question. His face, if it's even possible, seems to have grown even paler than before. I turn my head to see what he's staring at. What's got him so transfixed.

There's a cell on the other end of the room. Long metal bars from floor to ceiling on that side of the room. The door to the cell however is wide open, and blood covers the entire floor of the cell and spills out into the rest of the room. The prisoner that was being kept in there is face down in a pool of their own blood.

That's all it takes for Zack as he turns around and empties his stomach onto the floor behind him. I don't move for a minute. Too fixated on the sight in front of me. I take a cautious step forwards, as if I'm expecting the prisoner's body to just jump up off the floor like a zombie and start attacking Zack and me.

"What are you doing?" Zack hisses and his fingers brush against my arm as if to try and pull me back. I shake his hand off and continue slowly towards the body. Blood beginning to slush under my boots.

"Thirteen!" Zack whisper shouts, trying to keep his voice as quiet as possible. "Thirteen! Thirteen! Leave it alone and let's get out of here!"

I ignore him and continue forwards, stepping into the cell. I hear a strangled noise come from the back of his throat as he tries once again to protest.

"Everly Freaking Kingston! Let's go NOW!"

"Don't call me that." I reply distractedly over my shoulder. I crouch down in front of the body, making sure not to actually kneel in the blood. I reach my hand out slowly towards the mangled and bloody body and I hear Zack let out a cry of protest.

"What are you doing?!" Zack all but shouts now. "Leave the dead where they lay and let's get the hell out of here!"

"Just give me a second."

"To do what?! This isn't a science class or a coroner's office!"

"Both are unsanitary death holes so what's the difference?" Zack shoots me an irritated look at my reply before he pales again and unconsciously takes a step back.

I turn the body over on to its back and stumble back in shock, almost losing my balance and falling into the pool of blood. Zack empties his stomach again.

The face of whoever this was has been completely cut apart beyond recognition. The rest of the body has been torn open, but the chest itself has a large hole right in the center...a hole where the heart was ripped out.

"Body's not smelling yet, and it's still warm." I mutter thoughtfully as my eyes rove over the remains. "Fresh kill."

"I think I'm going to be sick again...or pass out. I'd prefer to pass out. Can we go now? Please?" Zack says in a panicked tone of voice and I just nod.

I get to my feet slowly and start to turn and leave but something catches my eye. I frown and kneel back down next to the body.

Zack lets out a loud groan. "Why? Why can't you just leave it and move on? Is that too much to ask? I mean come-oh no. No. No. No. No. No. What are you doing?!"

My hand reaches out and I grasp at the charm on the end of the chain around the neck of the body...or at least, what's left of it. I wipe away the blood from the silver charm. A black pearl rests between two dolphins, facing each other to form the shape of a heart. I clench my jaw as I yank at the necklace, snapping the chain.

"What is that?" Zack questions as I drape the chain over my hand and wrap it around a few times, blood coating my fingers.

"A necklace." I reply, my voice a mumble as I turn the charm over in my palm a couple times.

"Great, you found and retrieved some bloody jewelry. Good for you. And I will never be able to look at necklaces without reliving this, so thanks. Can we please go now?"

"Yeah let's go." I mutter as I shove the necklace in my pocket.

I push past him and walk back into the hallway, turning to head back up to Lily and the guys. Zack grabs hold of my upper arm, stopping me and turning me to face around to face.

"Aren't we going to go find Lydia?"

I turn and stare back into the room at the body before turning back to look at him. I pull out the necklace and dangle it in front of him. My face blank.

"We just did."