Chapter 33
Indie
The entire reception area of the facility looks like we’ve just discovered hell. The red emergency lights bleed over every corner of the interior, and it’s fitting. Seeing as we’ll be painting the walls with blood soon enough.
I certainly will.
A deep voice I don’t recognise sounds from up ahead. “Think the storm took out the power. I’m gonna go check the gen—”
The guard’s words abruptly end, followed by a thump as his body hits the floor. “Give me a hand,” Malcolm murmurs in my earpiece, and Rex moves to help him drag the body behind the desk, dumping it there to hide from anyone that’s crawling around in here.
The guys working their way up the peak have taken out anyone they can outside; we need to deal with the rest.
When Malcolm reaches back up to his full height, his face is cast in shadow, and his mannerisms mirror his son’s. “Dawson take the second floor; Rex takes the top. We’ll get more bodies in once the rest make their way up and block the roads.”
I look over at Regina, not able to see her face properly, but she gives me a nod, following Dawson down the hall. My heart tightens.
He better look after her, or else he’ll be added to my list.
“What are you gonna do?” Rex asks Malcolm, who’s swapped his handgun out for something a lot bigger, letting it rest on the desk.
“I’m going to break into their system and disarm it. If he’s held in a cell, I should be able to unlock it. Then we rig the place.” He says it without an ounce of fear, like sitting here alone doesn’t send a chill down his spine like the thought does mine.
Rex takes my arm, guiding me in the opposite direction Regina and Dawson went.
We reach a set of doors, the green fire exit sign above indicating it’s a stairwell.
A pair of hands fall on my shoulder as Rex twists me to face him.
“I might not be Saint, but please, for the love of God, Indie. Listen to what I tell you.”
I bite down on my cheek as he opens the door, aiming his gun for me to go through. “Do I have a reputation for not listening or something?”
Saint said the exact same words to me entering the manor. It pissed me off then; it feels even worse now.
He huffs a laugh, angling his head to urge me forward. “Well, I told you not to tell him I gave you a hand during training, and he in return handed my ass to me. Who the fuck knows what he’ll do if you get shot under my care. So please, help me, help you.”
I roll my eyes as we make our way up the stairway. Each step has my heart thumping in my chest. My ears prick back as gunfire cracks in the distance. Rex’s hand flies against my chest, slamming me backwards into the wall as we hide in the shadows.
My breathing grows rapid as I listen to it, multiple bullets cracking through the air as the two of us stand there.
“The fuck is going on, Dawson?” Rex grits through his teeth, and my heart pounds with each shot, waiting on their response.
My mind instantly goes to a worst-case scenario, but it’s Regina who answers.
“There’s a bunch of them here. Oh shit! Fucking asshole nearly shot me!”
“Stand behind that fucking wall, and don’t close your eyes when you shoot!” Dawson bites back.
Christ.
Rex lets out a sigh, pinching his nose between his fingers whilst they bicker, guns crackling through the static. “I’m never doing this with amateurs again.”
I jab my elbow into his side. “Give her a break, Rambo. She’s never shot at someone before.”
“Thank you, Indie,” Regina answers through the bullets, and I huff the most baffled laugh as she hears me through the connection.
The brief moment of what we’d class as our new normality shatters; the door above us flies open and someone comes rushing down the stairs.
Rex swiftly sends a bullet right into the guard’s head, his body dropping with a sickening thump as he drops like a bag of sand down the rest of the stairs. “We better move,” he says to me, and I follow him as I step over the dead body, gripping my gun and holding it out in front of me.
Just as Rex reaches out for the door, another guard flies through that ends up with two shots in him from me.
“I got the better end of the deal it seems,” Rex jokes as he peeks through the corridor.
I don’t laugh this time. The brief shade of lighter feelings in me have vanished, that buzz coming alive under my skin when the first kill of the day spikes the heat in my body.
And I’m hungry for more.
We move through the corridors of the top floor, and my pulse roars to life. He’s on this level, I just know he is. It’s like my heart is being tugged towards him.
The white tiles on the walls are bleached red with the light’s glow. The doors that stretch at either side of us are like cages. Metal with the centre replaced by mesh, it looks like a prison rather than a research facility.
Rex’s head swings at either side of the long corridors. “We should really split up, but—”
“Good with me,” I answer, ready to charge down until he grips my hoodie and tugs me backwards.
“I said fucking but, Indie!”
My teeth grind together, and I open my mouth to give him a snide response, but the sound that pierces the atmosphere has my hands flying to my ears as it deafens me. An alarm screeches through the entire building, the red lights now beating to match its pulse.
Malcolm’s voice barely comes through my ear. “I’m working on it!”
Rex’s lips mutter a curse, and he pulls me towards him to yell in my ear, “You head that way, I’ll go this way.
Meet me in the middle and kill anyone you come in contact with, and for the love of God.
Do not fucking die.” He taps my shoulder, nodding at me before raising his gun and disappearing into the darkness.
Fuck, it’s so damn loud in here, my ears feel like they’re bleeding. Either that or my eardrum has burst. I’ll never be able to hear anyone coming towards me.
I turn and stare down the corridor that’s being swallowed by a beating red blub, my sweaty hands gripping the gun as I stick to the walls.
This is not a research facility; it’s an asylum, one that practices unorthodox methods.
Each of the cell doors are unlocked as I test them, revealing rooms with no windows, a cot, and bare tiled walls.
Like Conrad’s basement.
A shudder rattles my body, and I flatten myself against the wall to steady my heart rate. I got out of there; I’ll fucking get out of here too, with him.
I make my way down, every cell vacant so far. I know Saint’s here; he has to be in one of them.
When I reach the edge of the octagon, I slap my back against the wall, holding my breath when something catches my eye in my peripheral vision. And when the alarm finally cuts, I’m left with a ringing in my ears that muffles my hearing, but I can tell open fire from anywhere.
It’s Rex.
I whip back to look down the direction he headed, and flickers of light flash against the walls as the guards open fire.
A bullet hits right above my head and severs the thought, causing me to duck down as the tiles crack and crumble all over me, but I don’t even get to slacken my knees when someone wraps their arm around my throat from behind.
“I’ve got one!” the man roars in my ear, and it ignites the once feared bloodlust in me.
My boot slams into his shin, forcing him to break his hold on me whilst screaming in my already sensitive ear. That just pisses me off even more, and now I’m really mad.
Pivoting my body around to face him, I keep shooting at him until he collapses on the floor, and another barges through the cell next to me, grabbing my hair and tossing me down the corridor.
It’s at that exact moment Malcolm says something in my ear, and the guards step beneath the red light that’s not still.
I’m met with a gruff laugh that feels like razor blades along my skin, rubbing his hands together. “Fucking jackpot.” I stare up at him wide eyed as my breaths shallow, watching his gaze trail over me.
“You’re worth a whole five million dollars alive, sweetheart. Drop the gun and stand up.”
My mouth clamps shut, body deathly still as I stare up at him. Impatience wrinkles his skin when I don’t move or answer him. “You fucking deaf? I said—”
“I heard what you said,” I purr, watching the rise and fall of his shoulders increase, eyes narrowing on me.
“Then why the fuck aren’t you moving?” he bites back as spit flies from his mouth, swinging his strapped rifle behind his back as he goes to reach for me, but the devil-like smile on my face has him thinking twice.
A shot cracks through the air as I fire one at his leg with the gun from my holster. He was so focused on my other hand, he didn’t even notice me reaching for the other gun.
To be honest, that was a gamble. I’ve never shot with my left hand before.
I’ll take it.
His groan is like music to my ears as he drops to his knees, blood already pooling on the concrete floor as he clutches his shin. I pop the safety on my spare gun and grab the other as I rise to my feet, slowly walking towards him as the realisation washes over his features.
I’m certain I look as terrifying as I feel, like some demonic creature stalking towards him.
His increasing cries for me to stop end abruptly when I kick him so hard in the face, I hear the clack of his teeth snapping together, forcing him to slam backwards at an awkward angle.
If this was any other scenario, I’d stick my claws into his mind, play on his fear, and enjoy watching the tears well in his eyes when he realised this was it.
But I don’t have time, and I have no idea how many more there are. The odd gunshots coming from around the corner, along with Rex barking through to Dawson in my ear, knowing that all my friends are fine, awards me with a tiny bit of time to be an asshole.
“You didn’t say please.”
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
My hand drops to my side, and I wipe my forehead with the other to get rid of the light sheen of sweat I’ve gathered from my performance.