The Radiants Chronicons : Vol. I & II Of The Radiants Duology Series

Defiant (Vol. II) - Chapter Forty One

Chapter 41

Levi seemed to share my relief and gave me a quick smile, as the truck drove into the facility's parking lot. I could hear the sounds of the trucks door opening, and when it did, we came back face to face with some guards, wearing shocked expression. It didn't take long for us to make our gunshots sending all of them down.

We jumped out of the trucks, fighting anyone that came our way and forced ourselves into the refinement building. Feeling a mixture of fear and awestruck, the building made up of rooms with glass transparent doors.

T. J's eyes wandered between the faces of our captured friends in their cells and said. "They're wearing collars. We need to get rid of it." Collars? Those collars looked like they'd electrocute anyone that tried to escape. The government really was prepared for the worst.

Well, so were we. 

Before we could react to this new information, dozens of guards came piling out, with weapons of their own.

Olu seemed to notice something too, when he walked close to me, as I struggled to fight off the guard attacking me. "I think the guards have chips on their necks too. Kinda like our kidnapped friends."

My gaze swept to him. "Why would they have chips?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, but if I can get to the control center, I can be able to shut down the chips of the guards, thereby shutting them down and remove the collars from the Radiants' neck."

"Are you sure it'll work?"

He didn't look convincing, but I also didn't have a choice. "It's better than us fighting people twice our size."

"Fine." I gestered my hand towards two of Kitan's men, as they huddled closer. "Follow and protect him. He'll tell you what to do."

They nodded, and with that, Olu was gone. Levi looked confused by the interaction and I tried my best to relay the message, while fighting.

Levi said, in between gasps. "That's good. We need all the help we can get."

Levi made another signal, as the some of our people started breaking through the glass, making the captured Radiant people rush out.

I cried out, when a guard almost shot my arm. My senses heightened and attacked back,  knocking him out. I put my walkie talkie to my mouth. "What the hell, Olu. They're killing us here."

Loud gunshots tore through the walkie talkie  from the other side and Olu's voice echoed back to me. "I just did it, but I have good news and bad news."

I groaned. Oh Christ. And then an alarm began to ring, and all the outside doors started to lock. "I'm guessing that's the bad news."

The strain in Olu's tone. "A guard in the control center just set the alarm on. The police are coming, but they're  are gonna take a long time because this place is in the middle of nowhere. But that's not just the bad part,  all of us are shut in. But I'm gonna try—"

"Jesus Christ. What's then the good news?" I yelled.

"This." And with that, almost at once, all the guards came falling down.

Levi swore, then pointed at some people. "Okay. All of you, gather up all the guards and tie them up in one of our vans. We don't know how long that thing Olu did would put them out and we don't want any surprises. The rest of us, let's go set our people free."

I quickly raced to Levi and told him all Olu had informed me.

Levi rubbed his palm nervously. "So that's why the alarms rang. Okay, new plan, what the hell is Olu doing?"

Olu called out. "Trying to disenable the collars. That's the tricky part. On the plus side, look around. I disenable all the fucking glass cells. Our friends can run out without us breaking stuff."

I had to ask. "What about the doors. We're trapped in."

"I'm too busy with this, but this is where you come. You need two things to unlock the doors and you can only do this in the building's motherboard. Find it. You have to get to unlock it by hand on the computer there and someone needs to use the keycard, for a final swish to keep the doors open. Can you handle it?"

Levi looked at me warily, and I gave him a comforting nod, before saying to Olu. "I can."

The doors of the cells began to open one by one, and I realized how much work Olu had put into this. We would be goners without him.

But then my eyes caught something —no, some one—walking towards us and another familiar person huddling next to them. My smile widened, the moment Oge and Koré made them way towards me. They both had matching white cell uniforms and big collars that were blinking lights on their neck.

I was so excited to see them, but the hostile look in their eyes made me realize that the friends I used to know weren't the same anymore.

Oge hissed. "What's she doing here?"

Kóre's response was just as clipped. "You know it's her fault we're in here, right?  The bitch betrayed us."

Kel's eyes flew to the floor and Levi tried his best to calm them down. "We know. That's why we're trying to undo everything she's—"

"You know?" Oge's anger was at its peak. "You guys are unbelievable."

I sighed. "Just follow Mubarak and the others. They'll lead you into the van."

A girl, standing inches from my friends, sobbed in relief. "Thank God it's over. It's so horrible here. Thank you."

The girl's reaction earned a quick silence from us, before I grunted. "Let's just go already. We have some vans waiting outside."

Oge blinked for a second, then pulled me into a hug. "I missed you guys." Her sublime scent still lingered on her, as I fought the urge to break into tears.

Kore took her hand lightly and squeezed it, before Oge pulled away and embraced in his arms. It took a second for me to process seeing them hugging in an intimate way.

Levi quickly said. "We need to get going. We're on a time limit."

Oge wiped the corners of her eyes. "Sorry sorry. Let's go."

Levi looked within the halls and cursed. "There are too many rooms to cover and not enough of us. We need to split up. That way, we'd cover much ground and get out in a flash." He paused, to look at me. "We might have to split up. We're both from the fight club and we can defend ourselves, compared to others. I'll just—"

It was so amusing seeing him rabble. "I can take care of myself. Don't worry. I'll take Kel with me to the main motherboard. She'll have to disenable the gates."

Levi looked hesitant. "You and her? I can't—"

"I can handle it. I'm a computer expert and I can kick her ass too, before she has the chance to screw us over." I said, convincingly. I didn't like the idea of anyone thinking I was defenseless. Heaven knows how well I could handle myself.

Kel stuttered. "I—I wouldn't do that."

A person I couldn't identify roared from the back. "Shut the fuck up.", hushing her up immediately. With the intensity of the person's tone, I couldn't pick out if it was either male or female. But it didn't matter now. My top priority was our safety, above all.

Levi's sigh dragged on a little too long. "Fine. I trust you. Do what you have to do."

A brief peck on the lips was what he gave me, and then he left, after we all spread ourselves in much smaller groups. 

I felt my heart drum against my chest and my anxiety had risen up. I turned my head to glare at Kel, who wore an unreadable expression. "Are you okay?"

She nodded. "I really want to make amends."

My sigh drew out longer than I planned to. I didn't have time for any sentiments. "Let's get the show on the road. It's game time."