We all are animals anyway

45-Ben didn't drown

Robert stood up and ran towards the monitor, he started ripping the post-it notes from the wall and reading through them fast. Zelda crouched down to touch the water and started weeping. The water felt like it would start to freeze over any second. She didn't allow herself to continue crying, that wasn't helpful at all. Link just dived in there, and THAT has to be because he thought they could still be alive. She stood up and ran towards Lee to see if she could be of help in any way.

Lee was typing commands on the old keyboard; he was following the instructions on the post-it notes to safely open the drains without flooding the whole building. Everything was moving fast and according to plan, until the system demanded a code to finally drain out the water, a code he could not find in the notes. He stared pulling at his hair and hitting on the table.

ZELDA POV

"What is wrong? What can I do?" Zelda asks fearing she may be too incompetent to help.

"I need a code, I don't want to start guessing on it, it could take hours or lock itself down due to many failed attempts" Lee says in anger

A code, that is like a password, right?

She looked down to the folder she had and opened it, on the inside of the folder there was a sticker with a serial number on it, she showed it to Lee.

"Try that" she says in a demanding tone.

Lee looked at it and cursed while typing it, then pressed enter. They waited for a few seconds, the image on the monitor appeared to have frozen, Zelda was about to start screaming when they heard a heavy clank, and then the sound of running water. They both looked at each other and ran towards the trap door, the water was actually draining fast, but not fast enough for both of them.

Good, its draining, I have to look for towels or something in case is needed.

Zelda started running around again searching for towels, Lee was slowly breathing to calm himself as he looked at the folder's content, it had photos and information on the kids, the ages were between 5 and 11 years old, and MOST of them were bought from their families, they only kidnaped 5 of them. Lee closed the folder and was about to rip it in anger but stopped himself from doing so.

"I found one, but it's a gym one... its small but better than noting" Zelda announces, but Robert didn't even reacted. Zelda approaches placing a hand on his shoulder. "Are you ok?"

"Most of them were bought, their families sold them, people who bow to protect and care for them... how much were they sold for? I hope those families PAY for this, may their soul eternally bur-"

"STOP IT, LEE. You don't know, maybe they had no other option, maybe the rest of their family was in danger, maybe the weight of this decision will end up making them suicidal, YOU DON'T KNOW" Zelda yells at him.

"Hehe, suicidal... I SURE HOPE SO. I find it stupid to still have hope for humanity, ANY ANIMAL is more capable of empathy than us... So far, I have only seen and experienced the worst of the naked ape" Lee answers

"So... even I AM the worst humanity has to offer?" Zelda asks in a challenging tone

"WHAT? NO, meeting the both of you was..." Robert sighs in defeat "I get it"

"Good, just do yourself a favor and stop generalizing, it's a mistake to assume the worse FROM EVERYONE, ALL THE TIME" Zelda tells him softly

The Princess moves to stare at the trapdoor again, the water was almost drained, the railing stairs to go down were now visible.

"We should go down there, see if we can help" Zelda suggests 

"Let me go first... and be prepared, you may not like what you see, if there is anyone still alive, they can't see you crying, they need to see you strong to feel safe, got it?" Lee warns her