Chapter 20 #2
“Agreed. Looks like the safe room was accessed, too,” Rance said as he stood just over the visible outline of the door that had been hidden in the floor.
“Steve took us to the cave they used as an extra safe room off premise on the way in, and there is no evidence that it was even located. In fact, I wouldn’t have found it if Steve hadn’t pointed it out and walked me over to it.
This one, though, was obviously found, we just haven’t opened it yet. ”
Frenzy kind of canted his head thoughtfully as he watched Rance access the door and descend beneath the ground.
He walked over and looked down into the space that was once a safe room.
He shook his head as he began to recognize charred skeletons.
“What kind of motherfucker murders women and children like that?”
“How do you know they were women and children?” Menace asked.
“Because males wouldn’t have hidden while the fighting was going on,” Tate said. “This is so fucked up.”
“Looks like the safety door was forced open and the interior was set on fire,” Rance said, his jaw set and voice growly as he came back up. He turned and looked at Steve. “Was this the only safe room on the property?”
“No. There was one upstairs in Alpha Grail’s bedroom, but I know no one knew about it except for a handful of his most trusted.
It was to hide his mate and kids in the event of the house being breeched.
It was destroyed in the fire. They weren’t in there.
Alpha Grail recognized that this wasn’t a usual attack and sent them away.
And there were two more, one at each end of where the family homes were built, for quick access if needed suddenly, whether it was attack or tornadoes. ”
“We found them on our way through that area,” Fierce said. “Also compromised. They’d been minimally occupied.”
“How would they have known where the safe rooms were?” Rance asked.
“They weren’t a secret. We all had to know about them for storms,” Steve said. “This one, too. But the only one that wasn’t easily identified and visible to anyone who looked hard enough, was this one. Even once the house burned down, it shouldn’t have been easy to see under all the destruction.”
Rance looked out across the ruin of the Pride house, his hands on his hips as he considered what he might have been missing. “The only place they searched in the debris was right here. None of the rest of the debris from the house was touched. How did they know where to look for it?”
“You think it was an inside job?” Steve asked.
“I think at least someone from the inside was aware it was going to happen and gave those planning the attack enough information to make eradicating everyone easy,” Rance said.
Steve stood there for a second or two longer then started walking toward the back of the burned out house.
Frenzy and Rance shared a look, then followed him, most of the others falling into step behind them.
Steve kept going until he was standing in the middle of the play area Grail had built for his kids.
He stood near a sandbox that was fully destroyed.
Sand scattered to the wind, the timbers used to contain the sand splintered and tossed aside.
He looked up at Rance. “No one knew about this one, except myself and two others, Grail and Gwen. I’ve never told anyone, so it had to have been someone they told. ”
“Let’s see if anyone’s in it,” Rance said, leaning over and digging his fingertips beneath the edge of the metal door, lying flush with the ground.
Feral, Frenzy, and Grim aimed their weapons down at the door, prepared to shoot if necessary as Rance and Dane lifted the lid and tossed it back out of the way, its hinges creaking, screaming as they were forced to accommodate the lid moving across the charred metal holding them in place.
Menace lay flat, balancing his upper body across the opening, as he peered inside, his hands holding his weapon at the ready, his friends aiming from their stances standing above him. “Empty,” he said, getting to his feet. “Nobody in there, though it does look torched.”
Steve met Rance’s gaze. “Nobody was supposed to know about this one.”
“Someone here aided the invading Pride,” Rance said. “If we can figure out who knew about this safe room, it’ll point us in that direction.”
“And presumably to whether or not they left with them,” Feral added.
“I didn’t know about this safe room,” Dean said, his voice gruff and emotional as he stared down into the darkness of the charred space.
“Same,” Ted said.
“Had to be someone Alpha or Reigna trusted, or it wouldn’t have been torched,” Dillon said.
“Yeah, wouldn’t have been just anybody. Would have to be somebody Alpha trusted more than most,” Hugh said.
“They’re right,” Steve said, knowing that he was trusted more than most by Alpha Grail, and admitting it anyway.
“So, what do we know?” Savage asked.
“They had Variant with them, based on the boot prints we found. If we can locate the Variant who assisted, I’d be willing to bet they can provide information they don’t even know they have,” Hail said.
“Yes, but after how long? They’ll need time to decompress and realize they’re safe, and free,” Feral said.
“How many Variant you count?” Frenzy asked.
“I counted three on the way in,” Storm said.
“Three, by my count,” Hail said.
“I counted four,” Harsh said.
“I counted five,” Grim said.
“Four,” Fierce said.
“Nineteen. That makes no sense. We work in teams of five,” Menace said.
“Even when captive?” Dane asked.
“Yep. It’s how we were trained. Just made sense to keep operating that way.”
“So, three teams of five and one with four? They lost somebody on the way in, or there wasn’t a fifth for the last team to begin with,” Savage said.
“Maybe the last one is being held to guarantee their cooperation,” Valid said. “That’s what they did to us with Sin and Honor.”
“Remember, though, based on the prints we found, from different entry points, we’ve got two teams of three, one of four, and one of five,” Storm said. “It doesn’t seem to follow the norm.”
“Placing a call to Valor later, he’ll go talk to Sin for us after we leave here. Let’s get started burying the dead,” Frenzy said.
Rance looked back at Steve. “You have any idea where Grail would have been last?”
Steven pointed off in the distance halfway between a heavily wooded area and the burned out Pride house.
“Most likely in that area. Gwen said she saw him taking on two males the last time she saw him. She was headed that way, so it would have to be within the line of sight from that area of the woods she was running to.”
“I promised her I’d try to find him and see to it that he was buried properly,” Rance said, then started walking in the direction Steve had pointed.
Steve joined him and together they searched until Steve stood back, shaking his head as he took deep breaths and tried to control his emotions.
There were several Lions lying within a few feet of each other, all dead, festering in the sun.
“That’s him,” he said, pointing to a particularly brutally killed Lion.
Rance laid a hand on his shoulder. “Go on, I got this. Go help with the others.”
“It just wasn’t fucking necessary,” Steve said.
“We’re going to give them the same treatment,” Rance said.
“Gwen is going to…” Steve started.
“Not know a fucking thing about it. She doesn’t need this picture in her head haunting her for the rest of her life.
Yes, they killed him. Yes, we found him and buried him.
He fought valiantly. She doesn’t need to know this,” Rance said, lifting an arm to indicate the headless, eviscerated body before them.
“Jesus!” Frenzy said as he stepped up beside Rance.
“Alpha Grail Gamieyon. He was a good male,” Rance said.
“Where do you want to bury him?” Frenzy asked.
Rance looked around the area they’d found the body in.
“He loved watching his kids play in that sandbox. He’d just built it for them,” Steve said.
“Let’s put him in the safe room beneath it. We can put all his people in there,” Frenzy said.
“Sounds right. I think he’d have wanted to be buried with his people,” Rance said.
“Yep. Share in their honorable deaths as they shared brotherhood in life,” Grim said as he walked up and looked down at Grail’s body.
“Is that what we’re doing?” Frenzy asked.
“I think so. Put his people in first, then him last, keeping sentry over the door,” Rance said.
“Warrior’s burial,” Steve said. “Honorable.”
“You heard them,” Frenzy said. “Bring the bodies back here. Let’s give them honor so they can rest in peace. Do not drop your guard. Move as the teams you arrived with, don’t shoot anybody until we’re sure they’re not Gamieyon Pride.”
Most everyone headed out to retrieve the bodies they’d encountered on the way in.
Except Rance. Rance knelt beside Grail’s body as he took the knife off of his belt loop and held his hand out over Grail’s body.
“I know you can hear me, somewhere, somehow. Know this, Alpha Grail Gamieyon. I will protect her and your boys with my life. I will love them forever. They will never want. Even if she won’t have me, I will never stop standing between them and any danger or hardship that comes their way.
This is my vow to you. Rest easy, Grail.
” He reached out with his other hand and sliced the blade of his knife across his palm, then closed his hand, squeezing the blood running from his hand to land on Grail’s body.
He remained on his knees, letting his blood run onto Grail’s body until he heard movement behind himself.
He looked over his shoulder and found Frenzy, Grim, and Menace standing there, their heads bowed.
He got to his feet and looked them in the eye.
“The bodies won’t bury themselves,” Rance said, as he started past them.
Frenzy reached out an arm, stopping him in his tracks. “Hold your hand out.”
“It’s got to heal on its own,” Rance said.
“Sure thing. But it doesn’t have to leave a trail everywhere you go.”
Frenzy held his hand out in Grim’s direction.
Grim dug in a fanny pack he wore on his hip, then handed Frenzy a tube of super glue.
Frenzy squeezed Rance’s palm together, then applied the super glue to the slice. He held Rance’s hand still for a few seconds, then satisfied that the bleeding was at least stopped temporarily, handed the tube of glue back to Grim, who handed him an ace bandage.
Rance started to pull his hand out of Frenzy’s, but Frenzy held on tight. “You’re going to be handling bodies. Bodies that have been sitting here for days. Seal this shit, you can remove the glue later and let it bleed until you fall over. But let’s not give ourselves sepsis at the moment, huh?”
Rance held his hand still while Frenzy wrapped it.
When he was done, he gave Rance a single nod. “Now. Let’s do this.”
It took hours before they were satisfied that every body on the Gamieyon property had been located and brought to the safe room beneath the play yard. The last body in was Grail’s. Rance placed him, facing the stairs leading down into the room, and put him back together as much as he could.
When he stepped back to take one last look at the scene, Steve softly spoke to him. “Here.”
Rance looked at Steve and smiled sadly.
Steve held a charred, stuffed lion and a small metal race car in one hand, and a blackened silver hair brush with the bristles burned away in another.
“Perfect,” Rance said, laying the toys that belonged to Grail’s kids and the brush that belonged to his wife against his body. “I’ll make sure they never forget you and are always proud of where they came from,” he added to his vow.
Rance heard Steve’s footsteps as he went up the stone steps, then he followed him up.
When he reached the top, he stood at the opening of the safe room, and raised his face to the sky as he lifted his arms and held his hands out to his sides with his palms up.
“You are all free. You are the blowing winds, the warmth of the sun on our faces, the rains that wash us clean, the stars dancing for our eyes at night, the birds singing for our ears, and forever in our hearts. We will carry on in your name. All things left undone, will be finished. All those under your care will remain protected, as you will protect us from the other side. Be at peace now brothers and sisters.”
“You will have your vengeance,” Steve added.
“Indeed you will!” Rance growled.
Many of those standing around agreed heartily.
Rance moved away from the opening of the safe room and started returning it to the way it was when they’d found it.
The others joined in to make it appear as it had when they’d found it, they didn’t want anyone to know they’d found it and buried all the dead inside it.
By the time they finished, you couldn’t tell it had been disturbed.
The broken sandbox was atop it, sand strewn about, toys and play things littering the area.
No one that didn’t know it was there before, would know it was there now.
“We’ll come back and seal it permanently. Nobody will be able to open it,” Frenzy said.
Rance nodded.
“That was some powerful shit you said,” Feral said.
“It’s how we send off all our dead,” Rance said.
“Best way I’ve ever seen,” Hail said. “And believe me when I say I’ve seen far too many.”
“Let’s get out of here. Be as careful going out as you were coming in. Be ready,” Frenzy said.
People went in all directions, teams reuniting as they retraced their steps on the way out.
“Never seen anything like that,” Menace said as his team headed back the way they came.
“I want it said at mine,” Savage said.
“Planning on dying soon?” Menace asked.
“Not particularly. But you never quite know,” Savage answered.