Asylum - On the Run Sequel

Chapter 18

"Someone's here." Grian looked up at Xisuma. The Warden was standing the living room doorframe looking at the front door of the small three-bedroom flat they had rented. Mumbo did community work around the village for small fees and Grian had gotten a job at an obviously fake freak show that operated near the beach. It was the perfect job for him. He got to stretch his wings all day and was a perfect cover-up.

The show was renowned for being fake so the customers would go to marvel at the guy with fake bird wings trying to sell his story. Little did they know he was a genuine avian and they didn't die out, not yet anyway.

"What?" The flat was laid out as a corridor as soon as you opened the door. Three doors on the left wall and three doors on the right wall. The back left two and the back right one was the bedrooms. The middle on the right was the bathroom, the closest to the door was the kitchen on the left and the living room on the right.

Grian took a few steps backwards and leaned back to see the door.
"Are you su-"

"He's trying to convince himself to open the door."
Grian shut his mouth and tightened his lips to a line. Sure enough, he could hear the tiniest noise coming from the other side of the door. He sighed and took off the oven mitts he was wearing. Xisuma followed his movements to the door and waited to hear a voice to find out who it was.

Instead, he heard Grian gasp and a chuckle from the other person. From this, he assumed it was the others. He breathed a sigh of relief knowing they all got out safe. Until he picked up on a drop of a liquid hitting the floor. Sure it could've been water, but it was much more likely to be blood after where they'd just been. And it was so small, he could've easily misheard it.

"Ren! you got out safe! Come in, come in, what happened?" Ren shook his head in dismissal before looking over Grian's shoulder and waving at Xisuma. Grian tittered at the action.

"Sorry I can't come in. We need- we need something from you."

Grian tilted his head and asked what they needed. Ren struggled to stutter out what they needed to do and what happened to everyone. Grian didn't understand a single word of it.

"GRIAN COME DOWNSTAIRS NOW. YOU'LL UNDERSTAND IF YOU SEE IT." Cleo hollered from the bottom of the stairwell and Ren bit the inside of his cheek. Grian raised an eyebrow before slipping past Ren and descending to the ground floor of the building. They were only on the second floor so there weren't too many stairs.

Xisuma heard a hum of discomfort coming from Ren that Grian clearly didn't and started to put pieces together on his own. He heard Ren leading him to the front door and outside. His suspicions were confirmed when a horrifying shriek came from the avian. Xisuma felt his way into the kitchen and around for the window to open it and get a better listen in. He had sensitive hearing but he wasn't a superhero.

The whole group was there, avoiding looking at the man hanging in the air. Doc still lay limp over Wels' shoulders, Cleo was still holding her arm and remembering what happened in the lift and Tango was still paler than he should be.

Grian felt tears spike his eyes and instinctively lifted his hand to his mouth.
"We need you to find a hospital for" Grian cut Stress off.
"Yeah, yeah." He didn't interrupt to be impatient, only because he wasn't sure how much more he could look at Iskall without being overcome with emotion.

"There's not much room inside but you can go in if you want to, first on the second floor. Xisuma is in and Mumbo will be home in about an hour."

Xisuma closed the window over and focused on the noise of six pairs of feet coming up the stairs. From what he could remember there was Ren, Cleo, Stress and someone who needed to go to the hospital. So therefore there were two other people. That was unless the person needed help so much they couldn't walk. In which case, there would be three other people.

But at the last count, there was Ren, Cleo, Stress as well as Doc, Tango, Jevin, Iskall. Seven people. So everyone was accounted for.

Xisuma didn't have much more time to think before he heard the door swing open and a mishmash of heartbeats. He didn't speak at first and heard Rem calling his name.

"I'm in the kitchen, first door on the left."
Ren walked into the kitchen and the other went into different rooms, probably the living room to relax for the first time in ages. Days, maybe weeks, time was kind of irrelevant when you couldn't see night and day and the people you lived with had terrible sleep schedules.

"So who's here?" His voice must have startled Ren as his heartbeat skipped a beat and he audibly jumped. However, neither of them mentioned it.
"Oh, there's all of us. But Doc and Iskall aren't really in the best of conditions. They're- uh- they were targeted by Concorp for different reasons."

The sounds of the front door opening and closing again broke the silence that lingered after the explanation. Two injured people, and by the sounds of it they were both just hanging on by a thread. But something wasn't right.

Two people unable to walk. And six pairs of feet. Cleo, Jevin, Ren, Stress and Tango. Five people. Who was the sixth? Did they pick up another person? Well, that's what Stress and Iskall did.

"Thank you, Ren." The dog didn't reply, instead moving, presumably to the window.

"You know, I still have no idea who this Wels guy is. He just said he knew Iskall and we all went with it."

"Ren." Xisuma's voice was deadly serious.
"I have no idea who you are talking about."

Ren chuckled and, little to Xisuma's knowledge, looked out the window. There, outside, stood a baffled Wels and Hels. Hair changing quickly between colours as both fought to front to see the outside for the first time in years. It was gorgeous. It was so much better than he had imagined it to be.