Page 95 of Desecrated Saints
“What’s your name?” I ask urgently.
The young girl peers up at me with trepidation. “I’m… I… I don’t know. I want to go home. It’s s-s-so loud…”
“Jesus,” Kade curses. “She’s out of it.”
“Let’s get you up, okay?” With a lump in my throat, I help her to stand. “I know you’re scared. All you want is your home.”
She nods rapidly, like a timid bunny rabbit. “They’re f-fighting.”
Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, I point to the darkened reception where we came from. “See that old building there? You’re going to run inside and find a quiet corner to hide in, okay? Can you do that for me?”
Giving her a shove, I watch her slender limbs scamper into the night. She doesn’t look back, hugging herself tight while holding back the tears. Unable to shake the emotion raging through me, I force myself to leave her behind.
“Head around the side.” Hudson points ahead. “That was the rendezvous point.”
Bearing left, we leave the chaos of the quad and fall into quieter, swaying juniper trees. The abandoned dorms are oddly quiet, lit by faint lights but seemingly deserted. When we reach the entrance doors leading inside, we all stop dead.
“Oh my God,” I say under my breath.
Lifeless limbs splayed out before the wide entry steps, one of the agents that accompanied the team lies dead. Wilson. His throat has been brutally slashed open, dripping bright red on to the ground. Kade picks his way around the corpse, looking nauseous.
“They must be inside. Watch each other’s backs.”
Bancroft’s voice cuts through the air from the distance, punctuated by the sounds of patients being battered and subjugated. He’s taming the crowd. We’re running out of time.
“Hurry,” I urge, climbing the stairs. “We need to leave.”
Inside the dorms, bare overhead bulbs light the state of disuse. This wing is clearly used for nothing but shady dealings. Old signs point towards the different floors, with one denoting the basement ahead. Taking several sharp turns, we almost trip over another huge body on the ground.
“Enzo!” I screech.
His giant frame is sprawled out, breath hissing between his clenched teeth. He’s barely conscious, one hand clamped over a bleeding wound in his leg. Kade drops to his knees, setting to work analysing him.
“Go! I got this!” he urges.
“We can’t split up now.” Hudson searches around us with his gun raised.
Eli removes his belt before crouching next to Kade. Together, they get Enzo sitting up with his back meeting the wall. The belt wraps around his leg as a tourniquet, hoping to stem the heavy flow of blood.
“D-Downstairs,” Enzo grits out. “Ambush.”
“Dammit.” Hudson glances at the stairs leading down, then back at Kade. “Get him back to Theo. He’s lost too much blood. We’ll go ahead and find the others.”
“Not alone,” Kade rebuts.
“We don’t have a choice. Take Eli, get Enzo out. We’ll find our boy.”
Hudson steals my hand, dragging me onwards as Kade protests. I cast them a final, desperate look before we begin our descent, uncertain if we’ll ever see the world beyond this basement again. The last time we were somewhere like this, it took everything to leave with our lives.
Loud voices and shouting reverberate around the thick concrete that leaches all heat from our bodies. As we emerge in the subterranean paradise beneath the dorms, the distinct sound of crying fills our ears. It sounds like a grief-stricken animal, mourning a lost cub. Hudson moves in front of me.
“No… p-please… No...”
Someone’s pleading guides us into the commotion. Amidst a long corridor of locked cells and bare bulbs, a red-stained crime scene unfolds. I don’t know where to begin, there’s so much blood. Kneeling in a rapidly spreading puddle, Hunter’s face is shielded by his curtain of long hair.
I’m stunned to realise the frenzied begging and soft sound of crying is coming from him. He’s knelt over, cradling someone close to his chest. To his right, Seven stands still as stone, staring down at something. Blood is steadily leaking across the parquet floor.
“Nix,” I whimper aloud.