I put the car in park while looking into the thick, green veil of vines covering the woods all the way down. The uphill embankment makes it improbable for a car to go through without leaving some sort of trail, and the trees are so closely placed it would be impossible for a full size vehicle to maneuver through them anyhow.
Where’s that help now, stalker boy?
The other cars pull up behind me, and they silently unload while waiting for my direction. I lean over to see this vine structure is hand woven. Someone put it here. Vines don’t braid themselves this perfectly.
I pick up the tightly woven veil, and I smirk when I see a speck of steel hiding behind the embankment. The dirt has been glued in place, but this hidden entrance has been used so much that bits of its natural camouflage have started falling off.
I point to the steel speck showing, and General Marks nods before motioning for his men to come over. One guy hands me a decoding machine, and I fuse the wires with the ones on the door while it runs through a series of passwords.
Everyone arms themselves as they wait for the passage to open. My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I make some of the rocks rattle beneath my feet to hide the sound from the other ears.
Great timing, masked boy.
The door unlocks, and then we hear a very light rapping as it draws up and pushes into the embankment, allowing us passage.
“Flagstaff follow behind me, Gretels take the rear,” the general whispers, and everyone falls into their place as we start into the tunnel.
I take my place beside him to walk through the wide space. I can’t check my damn phone right now. Obviously Mr. Stalker hadn’t expected me to find this place so quickly.
The light from the entrance disappears when the door drops back into place. All we’re left with are the sounds of scurrying rats, crawling insects, and dripping trails of water from above.
I bend down when the tunnel splits, and I feel the moist dirt for the impressions that I’m not supposed to be able to see in the pitch black room. I discreetly use my secret night vision to see the trail extends to the right.
I point to the left tunnel. If they’re going right, the prisoners are locked up this way. They would be using this as a base, and the hybrids would be locked up somewhere they didn’t have to hear their screams, considering prisoners of war are tortured for information almost hourly.
The general nods, and then he motions to the others. The full bloods use their night vision to see his direction and guide the hybrid and human soldiers.
After a very long, silent hour of walking stealthily through the creepy tunnel, I start to hear distant grumbles and wheezed breaths. The faint smell of expelled blood finds me as well. I grip the general’s arm to let him know we’re getting closer, and he nods in response, even though he doesn’t think I can see him.
He pulls his rifle up, and I pull free my pistols while we step closer to a faint glow of light. I can hear more pronounced sounds of pain coming around a tight corner, and then I push my hand against the general’s rifle when I peer around and count three hybrid soldiers, two full bloods, and one human guarding a door I can only assume holds the prisoners.
He tilts his head, and I smirk while stepping over to the far wall that hides me from the reach of the kerosene lantern’s light.
The men who are guarding our soldiers are laughing as they puff on their cigarettes, blowing smoke rings from their mouths as they compete to see who can form the best one.
I push my guns back into their holsters, and I wait on a hybrid guard to get too close to me while chuckling at the two fools arguing over a winner.
His neck snaps almost silently between my hands, making sure I detach his brainstem to ensure he doesn't have the chance to heal, and I drag him back around the corner to join our group.
The general understands my plan of stealth, and then he motions for a group of full bloods to aide me in my silent attack.
“Where did Riles go?” one of the guards grumbles.
“Hell if I know. He probably had to take a leak,” another answers.
The guy rolls his eyes and then he walks over to inspect his friend’s disappearance. He tries to gasp as he meets my grip, but I’m too fast and too strong. He falls to the ground, neck snapped, brainstem detached, and then one of our men drags him away.
Suddenly, I rush into the room, my body moving faster than I should allow them to see, and I dig into the wall with my foot before flipping back and snapping the neck of another.
He falls before my legs grab the neck of a full blood, and I throw my uranium tipped knives to take out two more before crushing the skull of the man between my legs - all of it over within a blink.
The only one left is the human guard, and he drops to his knees while throwing his hands behind his head. I let a small laugh out, and then the general steps up to cuff our one surviving prisoner.
Then I see the scorpion tattoo on his arm, and I instantly regret letting him live.
Fuck. He can’t go with us. He knows about my kind - about me.
Sick knots twist in my stomach, and my lips tighten as my mind goes crazy with strategies. I want to interrogate him, find out what the hell is going on, but I won’t be able to steal him. He probably only knows they’re tracking emergents. He wouldn’t be on guard detail if he knew much more.
