The Iron Hallway

Chapter 26

"Now is not a good time to be cryptic, Baird!" Keira shouted, "What do you mean, 'multiply our numbers'?" 

"If we rescue the prisoners, surely at least some of them will be able-bodied persons, capable of assisting our escape with their strength. And even if all in those cells are frail and feeble people, our sheer numbers will make us a mighty force to be reckoned with." 

Khemera frowned. "Surely you didn't think we were here to rescue all the prisoners! Some of them are undoubtably the types of people who deserve to be in a place like this!" 

"Nobody deserves anything, Khemera!" I said, "It's only God's mercy keeping any of us afloat. He gave me a second chance, and who knows? Perhaps we're God's instruments for giving some of these unfortunate souls a second chance in this life."

Hannah nodded. "I agree with Baird. He's gotta good idea here." 

Keira hung her head. "I guess we'll have to do that. Sila and I can't get him out of here on our own." 

I placed a hand on her shoulder. "We're in this together, Keira. Don't forget that." 

The very corners of her lips lifted. "I'll try not to." 

Khemera motioned for Keira to step aside. He shouldered half of Aaron's weight himself, with Sila on the other side. I stepped over to the black-cloaked man's limp form and snatched up his digital data-pad. With that, I led the way out of the room, with Keira and Hannah on either side of me. 

We marched back down the iron-plated hallway with minimal resistance from the barely replenished guard force. I studied the data-pad in my hand and smirked when my eye landed on Chariya's name. I tapped a green button beside her picture, and a few yards down, a wall panel slid aside. 

I peered into the cell and laid eyes on Chariya for the first time. Her facial features themselves were beautiful, but her disheveled hair and tattered clothes proved quite a distraction from that fact. She studied me with puzzled eyes and bit her chapped lip. 

I cleared my throat and held out my hand to help the woman to her feet. "Hello there, your highness. I'm Baird Amergin, and we're here to get you out." 

She raised an eyebrow. "Okay...." 

Ultimately, her trust was irrelevant at this point, as long as she followed us. We instructed her to walk in the middle of our formation for safety's sake, and then we continued on our way, going from cell to cell and emptying it of its prisoners. Most were skinny and haggard, but a few emerged with vitality in their step and meat on their bones. 

Finally, we marched back into the central hub, a massive congregation of former inmates trailing behind us. The guards paled upon sighting us. One shot from Keira or a few seconds under Hannah's beam eliminated them easily. 

Thankfully, I found a map on the data-pad I'd lifted, and so finding a shuttle bay was no difficult task. The walk there was long, and the path, winding, but our resistance could hardly combat our large numbers. Here and there, they picked off an escapee or two, but they soon suffered for such violence. And as we travelled, the inmates who followed us constantly retrieved weapons from the fallen guards, increasing our firepower exponentially with every encounter. 

Finally, I tapped the screen, and the door slid open for us. The massive shuttle bay now lay before us, with hundreds of the high-occupancy submarines filling the chamber in orderly rows. The guard force had apparently been aware of our intended destination, for every shuttle had its own squad of soldiers on standby around it, guns drawn and faces determined.