I thought I’d feel some kind of remorse for what I’ve done, but I don’t. In fact, I feel nothing at this moment except rage. Pure blinding rage.
Eli comes to step to the side of me and we keep our guns aimed as we move throughout the auction room and into the mill where a sour, pungent smell hits me like a ton of bricks. The smell resembles a men’s toilet that hasn’t been cleaned in years, the acidic scent of urine is rife here.
The belly of the mill is empty and quiet, almost too fucking quiet for my liking, like it’s waiting to for us so it can eat us whole and the silence is deafening, until it isn’t. Gun fire rains above us as we quickly move to hide behind wooden crates that are no doubt packed with cocaine. Splinters of wood fly all around us and the moment there’s a break in the bullets I take my shot. Pushing my finger down on the trigger, I fire a single bullet straight into a guard standing on the upper level of the mill, then into another one standing just off to my right as Eli clears the left side. Each of them groan and land with a heavy thud to the floor.
Silence quickly floods the room again and I pause a moment, waiting for any sign of life.
“I think we cleared those ones.” Eli’s voice rings through the earpiece and I reply, flexing my hands around the gun. “I’d say so. Let’s move, there’s gonna be more of them.”
We both step out from behind the wooden crates and follow the trail of bodies left behind, retracing their steps until we come across a long hallway with a staircase that leads down underground, and I waste no time in striding down the hallway and into the darkness. The pungent smell from before hits even harder down here and I have to refrain from heaving the contents of my stomach up the further we head underground.
Taking careful steps down, we land in an underground bunker of sorts, filled with cages.
Holy fucking shit.
Several women and girls are packed into the cages, all of themtrembling with fear.
“What the fuck is this?” Eli whispers in disbelief as he enters the room behind me. I don’t even have the answer for him, all I know is that it looks like hell. Small cries fill the space and I take a slow, deliberate step into the room which has all the women shuffling further back in unison.
“We’re not here to hurt you. We’re here to get you out, but you need to keep quiet.” I say with a soft tone. I know my words aren’t enough to convince them but I can only hope that they can trust me enough to find out that I’m speaking the truth.
A small voice speaks from one of the cages. “Who.. who are you?” Right in the corner of one of the cages sits a woman with short blonde hair, her fingers wrapped tightly around the iron bars. Taking another step closer, I raise my hands, aiming my gun away from them and crouch in front of the woman.
“I’m Dean.” I tell her, immediately her eyes widen. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Ana,” she starts. “Ana has spoken about you before.”
My voice catches in my throat at her words. I was scared to death that she’d forgotten about me, or that maybe she was too far gone.
“She never stopped, you know.” The woman says softly.
“Stopped what?”
“Fighting.” She simply says. “Not once did she stop, everyday she fought these bastards, even when there was nothing left to fight with.” The pride that shimmers in this woman’s eyes almost knocks me on my ass, everything she’s said is Ana to her core. She’s been fighting her whole life and she’s still doing it now.
“What’s your name?” I ask.
She turns her head to the others in the cage for a moment, probably apprehensive of disclosing her name. “It’s Lacy.”
“Lacy, I’m gonna need you to trust us.” I say, turning back to face Eli who’s guarding the door. “There’s other people I need to get rid of before I can get you out of here.”
“We’ve been caged up for months, what’s waiting a little longer.” She says with a small laugh. Even in this absolute shit hole of a place, these women are fucking fighting to survive and I’ll be damned if I don’t get them out of here.
Rising to my full height, heavy footsteps begin to ascend towards us through another corridor.
“Everyone get down, now!” I yell as three guards burst through a door on the opposite side of the room, guns blazing. Immediately the women huddle together for protection, keeping their heads in their hands as Eli and I work together to end these fuckers. Bullets whizz past our heads and we quickly scramble into a corner, keeping low until we have the perfect aim.
“Fuck. How many are there?” Eli shouts over the continuous shots. “No idea! I can’t see shit.” I reply, trying to tuck my head around a corner to get a better visual. The bullets continue to rain, firing off the walls until they come to a stop and that’s when I make my move, trained to kill people within seconds. Aiming the gun, I fire one singular shot into the guard standing in the middle, it sinks straight into the meaty flesh between his eyes and the force sends him dropping to the floor, then Eli fires his gun, sending a bullet into the guard’s neck on the left. Blood sprays like a leaky pipe, covering the guards face in thick liquid.
I lift my gun again to take out the last guard but he’s quicker than me this time, firing his rifle, his bullet grazes my bicep and I huff through gritted teeth at the stinging pain. Burning metal slices straight through my jacket, leaving a spray of blood behindin its wake but I refuse to let it stop me, instead lifting my gun again I press down on the trigger, watching the bullet split the air before landing straight in the middle of the guards forehead. His eyes widen in shock and I watch the life drain out of him.
“Are you hit?!” Eli says, pulling my jacket off.
“I’m fine, it just grazed my arm. I’ll be alright.” I say, assessing the wound on my bicep. There’s a lot of free flowing blood, it’s not enough to kill me but I’ll definitely need stitches on it.
I grab the knife out of the jacket and grip the gun in the other then rise to my feet, my eyes gazing over the room.
“Everyone alright?” I ask, making my way over to the cages. I get a few mumbled ‘yes’s’ in response along with some fearful whimpers.
