Our Broken World

Chapter 31

''It's them! It's the Mixed that I just told you about,'' I half-yell at the boss guy.

He responds by snorting and saying: ''That's impossible. I'm sure it's just a few people making a commotion. I practically have an army of men stationed around the city to protect it.''

''Yeah, but these Mixed can take on your army very easily, because they latch themselves onto humans and make them see their worst nightmare. Your men are probably fighting their fears right now, while the Mixed slaughter them! Or even worse, turn them into Mixed!'' By this point I am yelling at him.

It takes him quite some time to figure out that these new Mixed can easily deceive humans and kill them. But his eyes finally widen with the realization that this is not some normal, every-day bustle that we're seeing and hearing below us.

''Seriously, we need to go! We don't stand a chance against them! There's too many!'' I yell. Maybe we do stand a chance, but I'm not sticking around long enough to find out.

''Yes, let's go,'' He says and we both run back into the room, through the door, through the hallway and into the elevator along with a few guards.

During our short elevator ride, the boss guy gives out orders to his men and says to me: ''One of my men will take you to your friends and then to the back exit, so you can go. But after that you're on your own. We have too much of a chaos to deal with. Do you perhaps happen to know of an effective way to kill them?''

''Well a gun or a knife will do. They're just like any other Mixed, they can be hurt and they can die. Just don't let them latch onto you. If they do, you're screwed,'' I say and he nods at me.

''What about the people that you have imprisoned here? What's gonna happen to them?'' I add.

''I don't have time to think about that right now. Let's go!'' He says just as the elevator doors open, and then he disappears into the night.

I and another guard exit one more floor down and he leads me back to the cell where Dylan, Mikey, TJ and Benson are being held. We soon reach the cell, and when he opens the cell door, Mikey yells my name and jumps into my arms. I hug him quickly, but tightly, while Dylan kisses my forehead and says: ''You're okay.''

I nod and tell him: ''Yeah, but we need to go. The show is being attacked by those new Mixed that attacked me. We need to leave, now.''

I want to ask the guard how to get out of here, but he's faster than me, saying: ''Go through the second door on the left in the hallway. You'll get to the garage, and from there you can follow the sign MAIN FLOOR. It'll lead you back to the street. And the garage is completely empty, there's nobody there, so it's the safest way.''

After he finishes explaining to us how to escape this place, he wants to leave, but I stop him, saying: ''What about these people? You're not just gonna leave them here?''

''Look around, girl. Do I look like I'm in a position to save these people? I don't even have the keys. Besides, I don't care about a few Monster Fighters,'' He says to me and turns to leave.

''Wait!'' I yell after him and he stops again. ''There has to be a way to get them out. They could help us. Think about it. They're the Monster Fighters. They've fought the Mixed a thousand times before. If anybody's capable of fighting the Mixed, it's them. At least give them a chance to do that. Give them a chance to escape,'' I say, slowly moving to the door.

''Sorry, no can do,'' He says, turns and runs away before I could stop him again.

I sigh. I want to help these people, but I have to get my friends, Mikey and Dylan out of here. I've already got people to take care of, I've got people to save.

I look back at everybody I care about and, while motioning for them to follow me, say: ''Let's get out of here!''

I grab Mikey's hand and pull him behind me as he asks: ''Taya, are we gonna be alright?''

''Of course we are. Don't worry, Mikey. We'll make it out of here,'' I reassure him.

And then, with his gentle, tender voice, he says: ''What about these people?''

We are already through the door when I turn my head around and look at them, sitting sadly in their cages, waiting for their end, not even knowing about it. I feel heartbroken when I look at them and I feel horrible just leaving them here. So maybe I shouldn't do that. 

Goddamn it, Mikey and his compassion. His righteousness. I'm seriously infected with it and there's no doubt it came from him.

The sympathy and the affection in Mikey's voice and the sad, hopeless, desperate looks on these people's faces are more than enough to make me turn back and say: ''Ah, damn it, what the hell. Come on, we need to help these people. We need to at least give them a fighting chance to get out of here. Nobody else is getting hurt or dying, not if I can help it.''

When I say that, I realize that nobody else will help these people. We're their last hope and if we turn around and leave now, without helping them, we – I – will regret it for the rest of my life. A short while ago, I thought I couldn't help or save Mikey. But what I can do now, is at least try to save these people. This is my chance to do something good for someone else in this poor, broken world of ours. It does, after all, belong to all of us, and we should all have equal right to live in it. I have to do something to give these people back that right or at least to enable them to have a chance at it.

''We can shoot the locks,'' I propose. ''We don't have to worry about attracting attention now, at least not from the guards,'' I say to Dylan and he simply nods, the same thing on his mind. He, Benson and TJ point up their guns, each at one lock, and shot them. While they continue down the hallway, me and Mikey motion for the people to escape and they drowsily and clumsily, but steadily start pouring out of their cells. I am aware of the fact that we don't have enough bullets to shoot all the locks, so I quickly brainstorm and try to think of a way to get other people out of here too.

When we're finished in the first hallway with cells, we run to the next one and there I find a fire extinguisher. A perfect tool to break the locks with, I think, ignoring how strange it is that there are random fire extinguishers still left here. I guess nobody needed these, so nobody stole them.

Soon, all the locks in the second hallway are broken too, all the cells open and empty, and all the people now busily running through the door, trying to get out of the building. I spot a guard running past us and I stop him and yell to him: ''Hey! Where are the other cells?''

He looks at me, confused and agitated, and says: ''Um, there are two more hallways down there.''

He points to a doorway behind us. Then he turns around, looks behind him, turns towards us once again and yells: ''Run! They're coming!''