Zèro

Chapter 9

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"But perhaps the monsters needed to look out for each other every now and then."
― Sarah J. Maas,

It was the first time that so many Specials were together in the same room. Out of the ten Specials held captive in the XEED Specials' Unit, eight of them were currently together in the same room. No. 5 and No. 10- the only Specials were not present and were not known to Azura herself. They were rarely brought up by her Uncle and she had never seen them or heard any of the caretakers talk about them. Naturally, the other Specials also did not know them. The group sat in the room, silent. Not one, had any clear idea on what to do now neither they didn't have any idea what was to come next. But they knew that the room they were currently taking refuge in would soon be compromised. They had to escape this place and each knew that they would not go down without a fight.

"Well, we can't just sit around here waiting for them to burst in, you know." Zenon spoke up, unable to bear the silence any longer. "We know. But all of us are equally clueless." Caylus replied as he shifted his gaze to Azura. "Azura, you got any idea?"
Azura exhaled slowly as she got up. "My Uncle and his Secretary often went in and out of our unit. So, I am sure there is something that connects us to the outside. I assumed it was the elevator, but I guess not. Uncle would not be so dumb as to let us access anything that could lead us outside. It has got to be a hidden pathway of some sort. But I don't know what or where it is." She explained as she paced back and forth.
"So you mean there is something out there right? An opening?" Bladex said as she got up. "Let's be on the move then and stop sitting here like a bunch of prisoners. Let us find out. At least, we will make some progress." She continued as she walked up to the door.

"A-are you sure?" Akiko asked, her lips quivering. "We step out, we might meet find the path...but we might also meet our death." She muttered as she drew circles on the floor with her index finger, clearly unsure about the whole idea of going outside. The guys were still quiet. Even though they did not speak, Bladex noticed how they seemed to be having conflicting opinions themselves. She clenched her fists. Why was it so hard to come to a decision? Why did she have to even care about them? She wished she could just walk out and escape on her own. But she knew she had to stick by Azura. It was her duty.

Azura managed a soft smile at Akiko as she knelt in front of her. She held her small hands and said. "I know. We all are scared. Everything is so confusing. I, myself, am not completely confident if we will be able to find our escape route. There is always a chance that we might face dangers, but something is better than nothing. We need to move and get out of here. You want to live right?" Although Azura was looking at Azura, her worlds resonated inside the head of every Special in the room. 'to be alive' - something that every special wanted somewhere inside them. One by one, everyone rose. Matias grabbed a bag and started stuffing it with food, water, and medical supplies.
"Well then, let's go." Devon finally spoke as he joined Bladex near the door.

Quietly and cautiously, the group headed outside their hiding spot. Eyes and body alert, they quietly walked around the floor in search of something; anything.

After walking around for about half an hour, Zenon's eye caught a peculiar-looking wall. It was a slightly darker shade of grey compared to the other walls and although one would not notice it, she felt it was a bit off. "Hold up a second." She told others as she walked up to it and started and tracing her hands against the wall. Taking a deep breath, she placed her hands on one side of the wall and pushed.
"Zenon what are y-" Caylus stopped midway as they saw the wall slowly move and turn, as Zenon walked inside the gap created. "What are you doing, let's go," Devon told the remaining group as he followed No.4 who had already started walking not too behind Zenon.

Everyone found themselves at the foot of a staircase. "This couldn't possibly be...." Matias muttered as an unsettling feeling sank over him. It was weak but the place had a strange smell. It made him shiver a bit and he was unable to think properly. Unknown to him, the other Specials felt a similar way, although no one said a word as they convinced themselves that it was probably the fatigue from the past few days getting to them.

"I guess we have no choice but to find out where this leads to," Caylus said as he grabbed Zenon's hand and walked towards it. "Babe, I'm scared...please hold my hand," Caylus whispered earning another smack from Zenon as the group slowly headed up the staircase.
The higher they climbed, the more the smell increased. The chills were frequent and it was getting harder to focus along with deafening silence. They all eventually reached the top of the staircase and found themselves in front of a huge metal gate. They looked around but there was no sign of guards or people at all. The silence gave off an eerie vibe and there seemed to be nowhere else to go.

With furrowed eyebrows, Bladex walked up to the gates and immediately stepped back as she was hit with an overflowing amount of the same scent she had been sensing since her time in the lab. It was the same scent but this was much more in quantity and that brief sniff was already making her dizzy.
"Something feels off..." She breathed as she continued to stare at the gates.
"How will we get in?" Matias asked with a worried expression as he along with everyone else had also noticed the smell coming from behind the doors.

"WELCOME, MY FRIENDS!" a loud chilly voice filled the air as the group was taken aback. There was no way of telling where the voice was coming from. "Be careful everyone." Azura instructed while frantically looking around for the source of the voice. Right at that moment, the giant gates opened slowly as fumes of purple smoke leaked into the atmosphere surrounding all the Specials.
"What in the world-" Zenon said while gritting her teeth and lashing her hands around to avoid the smoke from clouding her eyes. "NO TIME TO THINK!" the voice boomed again. Everyone was confused and the smell of the purple smoke was too strong rendering them helpless. Just then, the walls beside the metal gates slid open releasing large metal balls that rolled towards the group at high speed. "RUN!" Caylus screamed as he grabbed how many ever hands he could and rushed inside.

The moment the group crossed through the gates it slammed shut and the members found themselves in a dark room still enveloped by the strong smell. Every person was finding it hard to breathe or even stand.
"Show yourself!" Zenon managed to speak as she staggered ahead- confused, scared, and furious. "LET IT BEGIN" The voice boomed yet again followed by a chuckle as the floor underneath the Specials gave away where they found themselves falling, each enclosed in a capsule-like structure. Their headaches continued to hammer down on them as each of them closed their eyes not knowing what awaited them at the end of their fall.

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And that was the 9th chapter. We hope you guys enjoyed it.

Pssss...we updated ZenonXCaylus art done by our Chaos author-nim. Its in Chapter 7~ ^w^.

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