Chapter Sixteen
They looked at one another before Nero stepped forward and peered down the steps.
“Be ready,” he said and pulled his gun out. “We don’t engage unless we’re forced.”
Nyx gave a nod and pulled her gun out. In these cramped quarters, she only hoped they were lucky enough not to run into anyone. A firefight in a stairwell wasn’t exactly on the top of her list. She wasn’t all that sore at the moment, but one good blow to her side would bring on agony.
They quietly stepped down the stairs. When they’d reached the first landing, she heard a squeak from behind her. She turned and watched as the door closed behind them. Nyx raced back up, but it was too late. The entrance was closed.
Nero frowned, likely thinking the same thing she was.
“We’re fucked,” she said.
His gaze shot up to where she stood on the steps and shook his head. “We’ll just have to find another way.”
She sighed. It wasn’t ideal, but they could do it. She’d been in worse situations than this and made it out okay. Hell, she’d been in a worse situation with the Azilians recently and made it out, thanks to Nero. Still, she hated going into something blind without having at least one known way out.
They padded down the next flight of concrete stairs. Dull fluorescent light fixtures lay installed in the ceiling of a wide and long room with many pairs of faded white lines. An underground parking garage, perhaps.
She wondered how long this had been there. It didn’t seem all that old.
They arrived at the bottom of the stairs to find a long hallway. It was much wider than the narrow stairs. Ten doors flanked each side of the hallway.
They moved to either side of the first door and peered through a small glass window.
From the window, she could make out some sort of living room with what looked like a brown couch and small table. In addition, she spotted a small corridor that led to two other closed door
Nyx frowned.
“It looks like some sort of apartment,” she said, trying to see further in.
She walked over to the next door and ran a hand over the lettering next to the door. 3A.
It was similarly furnished with exactly the same layout.
“They’re empty,” she said.
Nero nodded and move to the other side of the hallway. “You check the rest of that side. I’ll check this side.”
Their quick inspection revealed each room was the same: an empty apartment with lettering on the side. Odds on the left and evens on the right, all the way up to 20A
“I don’t understand,” she said and looked over to Nero, who seemed to be just as surprised as she was. “Why would they need apartments? Their compound has plenty of room.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said. “There were parts of the compound that I wasn’t able to see, but it was clear that the people there had living quarters.”
They moved to the end of the hall and stopped outside the double doors leading to the next area. She glanced through the small glass windows, but there was no movement.
The whole place was a mystery. Apartments with no people. A facility with no workers. How did a place like this even run without people there to make sure it was in order?
She shot Nero a confused glance. He shrugged and pushed open the door.
At this point, she was starting to wonder if they would ever meet up with anyone. Maybe it was just some secret way into the compound. Nero had said he hadn’t seen all of it. Perhaps the door to this place was hidden, and it was a fallback position.
They stepped into the hall through the doors and found themselves at a crossroads. Nero turned and made a notch on the door they had come from. If they weren’t careful, they wouldn’t be able to navigate out of the maze now confronting them.
Nyx went to the double doors on her left and looked through. She frowned. It was just like the hall they had just left only these were B.
The next set of doors were exactly the same.
“A, B and C,” she said aloud. When she turned to Nero, he was peering through the last doors. “D?”
He shook his head, and she walked until she beside him as he looked inside.
It was darker than the other halls, and she had to lean in to focus her eyes. A soft blue light flickered against the walls halfway down the hall, revealing a room rather than another hallway.
Nero nodded to her. “I take point,” he said quietly.
She nodded and followed as he stepped silently through the door. She gently placed it back against its resting place before moving again.
An odd hum reached her ears. Her pulse quickened. Tension fled her body, slowly being replaced by a sort of odd happiness. She ached to search for the source of the hum.
Nyx stepped forward and stopped when Nero placed his hand across her body. He looked back to her and frowned. She shook her head, trying to clear out whatever it was that called to her. Maybe the compound was just playing tricks on her ears.
He looked around and pulled her with him as they slipped down the middle hall.
The closer they moved, the louder the hum grew. It practically vibrated in her chest it was so loud.
Nyx looked over to Nero who still seemed unaffected. She couldn’t believe he could ignore it so easily.
They stopped just on the other side of a half wall with glass from the ceiling down. Bright blue light illuminated the entire area. They carefully peered over the edge of the glass. The door to the room was just around the corner from them, but it didn’t matter. They could still see perfectly inside.
The ten women from the van sat in comfortable chairs inside the room. Each had an IV in their arm, blue liquid being pumped into a container.
Nyx looked to Nero but didn’t really know what to think. The whole thing was so strange. A grim expression covered his face.
She looked to her right and struggled to take in a breath.
There, near the center of all the women, sat the blue stone they’d seen in the main Azilian compound, pulsing as if it were one heart with them, a stone that could turn men into liquid.