“Ava, what are you doing?” Charlie asked. The red light flashed across his face as the sirens around us sang.
“I’m letting everyone out of Cellblock 9,” I said. “The good, the bad, all of them. Everyone deserves a chance to get out of here.”
Charlie nodded shortly. “Then you gave them their chance. We can’t offer them anything else.”
“Are youcrazy?! Now the Warden’s gonna know we’re coming!” Chancey yelled.
“Who gives a fuck?” Marcus snarled. “He’s not stopping us now.”
I completely agreed. The inferichite had been the only thing containing us inside the Institute, and with the four of us together, we’d learned how to break it easily. There wasn’t a prison on this planet that could hold us anymore. Go ahead and let the Warden try.
We left the control room, and the others began sprinting up the stairs. Even from here, I could hear shouts, screams, and the sounds of battle as the inmates were set free within Cellblock 9. Guards fired their pistols to stop them, but soon, the inmates weren’t the only ones screaming as the room dissolved into pandemonium.
Oberi transformed into a Fire unicorn, and the illusion saddle instantly appeared on her back.Time to leave.
“Up you go, pidge,” Charlie said, and he boosted me onto Oberi, attaching my legs to the straps quickly. “You’ve gotta be able to move fast.”
Marcus subconjured my wheelchair, and Oberi carried me briskly up the stairs. I expected everything to be dark and quiet as we burst through the doors that made the entrance to Cellblock 9, but instead of silence, I received chaos.
Students and guards flooded the hallways, heading in every direction. There was a lot of noise and shouting, spells flying overhead while the sounds of bullets ricocheted off the walls. The hallway was crowded with hundreds of students, and an equal amount of guards. It was absolute madness.
“The other kids locked up by The Mission must’ve escaped!” I yelled over the noise. I yanked Charlie out of the way as a battle orb went sailing by, and Kallie pressed herself against the wall before a stunning spell knocked her off her feet.
The crowd became a stampede as inmates pressed together, attempting to escape the rampaging guards. Oberi pushed people out of the way, shoving them aside from Charlie and me, but in the chaos of the crowd, we began to get separated. Ivy was dragged in one direction, while Marcus and Kallie were pulled in another. They began shooting off spells, and were more or less able to stay in one place, but Ivy panicked. I heard the pistol go off twice as Ivy shot it, and several people in the hall screamed, but it didn’t do any good as the crowd began to carry Ivy away like a wave.
“Help!” Ivy cried. Panic erupted inside of me as I watched Ivy’s head vanish underneath a crowd of inmates as they were carried to the other side of the room by the velocity of the mob, which was beyond anyone’s control.
“Ives!” Chancey didn’t think twice. He went after Ivy, pushing people over to get back to his love. Eventually, he too dissolved into the crowd.
“Guys, wait!” I screamed.
I was on Oberi’s back, so I had a good vantage point over the mob. I was able to keep an eye on them, until the sound of shattering stone arose from the Institute’s ceiling. Stones began falling one by one, creating a barricade as Nivita guards caused them to tumble overhead. It sliced the crowd in two so half of the inmates had nowhere to go. The stones piled up, blocking our way to Ivy and Chancey as the guards cornered us against a huge pile of rubble. I reached out my arm for Charlie, and he took it, swinging himself onto Oberi’s back behind me as the guards advanced inward. Kallie and Marcus fell beside us as dozens of students attempted to climb the rock wall to get away.
The crackling sound of the intercom broke out over the noise. The guards stopped marching, and the screams halted. Nobody dared to utter a syllable as the Warden’s smooth voice echoed through the Institute halls.
“Good evening, students. And welcome to our cleansing,” the Warden began. “You all had your chance to seek my guidance into the new world, but failed to take my hand. Now you will pay the price. By my command, only the strongest will survive this test by faith. I’ve ordered the guards to kill all of you. Those of you who are capable enough to defeat them shall perish in the flames of my judgment. If, by some miracle, you outlast my trial by fire, I will consider you worthy of joining The Mission. You’re all participating in the Games, now. Stay vigilant. Stay alive.”
The sick motto of the Darke Games blared through the loudspeakers, before the Warden gave an unhinged laugh and the announcement was sharply cut off. The screams started up again, louder than before, and the guards began shooting. People fell to the ground at Oberi’s hooves, and that was the moment Marcus completely snapped.
“You wanna throw us back in the Games!?” Marcus erupted, facing the guards. “The Warden wants to act like this is some twisted joke? Well, he doesn’t know who thefuckhe’s playing with!”
The guards turned their rifles on Marcus, but he maneuvered his hands in a circle before thrusting them outward. The souls of the guards he was facing erupted out of their bodies, and their corpses collapsed to the ground as Marcus took control of the ghosts he’d just created. The wayward souls had no chance to understand what had happened to them as Marcus used his death magic to take control. The room filled with Marcus’ demented laughter as he forced the ghosts to turn on the other guards. The ghosts gave unearthly howls, ones that matched the cries of terror their victims gave as they were torn open.
Kallie growled, and she changed into a wolf. She used her illusion magic to duplicate herself a dozen times, then attacked a full battalion of guards all on her own. The guards shot at her duplicates, and when a bullet landed, the duplicate went down, but all it did was simply vanish. They had to hit the real Kallie in order to kill her and stop the duplicates from attacking, but they didn’t know which one to aim for, because each wolf looked the same. The wolves ran throughout the hallway, slaughtering guards and taking them down beside the ghosts Marcus had created.
“Charlie, I need your help. Let’s make a storm!” I shouted.
I grabbed his hand, and my Water magic combined with his Air power as a rumble broke out overhead amongst the collapsed ceiling. Lightning flashed, and rain poured down from the sky in buckets as the wind strengthened. Charlie created a miniature tornado in the middle of the room, and I fueled it with my Fire, guiding it along until it was a spinning vortex of death and flame that completely enveloped each guard it met. The guards were pinned down by our wind and unable to see through our rain, held in place as the Fire tornado incinerated their pathetic forms.
As we were fighting off the guards, I realized the inmates behind werecheeringfor us. Rebellion grew inside me and exploded at their praise. These guards had mistreated us, humiliated us, and abused us for years. Let’s see howtheyliked it.
For a brief moment, I felt like a hero. I think we all did. But really, we weren’t heroes. We weren’t doing this to protect people. We just wanted to give these guards a taste of their own medicine, but if revenge was our motive, and it defended the people who’d been mistreated by these monsters… well, that was just a bonus.
When the area was cleared of guards, Charlie and I withdrew our storm. Kallie faded away her duplicates, and Marcus lifted his control of the ghosts, who hovered in the room for a moment before vanishing entirely. Wherever their souls were going, it was probably to hell, because they worked for the Warden. They could continue their service to him in the afterlife. I hoped each of them remembered it was us who’d sent them there.
Inmates began running in every direction, crying out thanks as they left. At least we gave them a chance to get away. Charlie used his Earth magic to tear apart the stones that had fallen from the ceiling, but once we got a clear way through to the other side, my heart dropped. The hall was already empty. The mob had left, carrying Chancey and Ivy to a place we didn’t know.
“They’re not here,” I informed Charlie, dropping my head.
