"Come on, quickly," Natalia ushers the next group of kids out. They haven't even gotten half of them out when the owners of the house walk in.
"Hey, what the fuck!" one shoots at Natalia who dodges the bullet. She pulls out her own gun and begins to shoot at the owners.
"Run, get to the cars!" she yells at the children, "Mayday! Mayday! Finn!"
Finn hears gunshots upstairs. He runs down the hallway, leaving Dacre with the others.
"Natalia?" he calls from the basement.
"Get the others, they found them!" one of the owners yells. They continue to battle upstairs.
"They've found us! I need backup!" Natalia yells. Finn turns and yells for Dacre.
"We need to go! Natalia needs help!"
"There's still more!" Dacre yells back.
"We'll come back for them," Finn yells. Dacre closes his eyes. He doesn't want to leave the others there but he has no choice.
"Here, give them this," Joe gives a small box to Dacre.
"What is this?" he asks.
"A tracker," the gang leader answers.
"Who speaks Greek?" Dacre asks in Greek. A boy, maybe fourteen years old, steps forward. Dacre gives him the tracker, "Hold onto this, it will give us your location. You all have to get back in the cage now. We'll come back for you, okay?"
The boy nods.
"Okay, everyone get in this cage!" he says in English. The children worriedly get back inside the cage and Dacre locks them up, "We'll be back okay? I promise we will come back for you."
Some of the children begin to cry and it pains Dacre to leave, but he has to help. He runs down the hallway to help Finn and Natalia. The last SUV of kids was able to leave and is on its way to the Estate.
***
"Okay, and what's your name?" Gianna asks a little boy. Seventy children have arrived at the Estate so far and there are more to come. Bella, Gianna, and Robin have been learning the names of every child in the last three hours. They give them name tags to remember. As they wait for Briar and Jenna to come back, they have the children watching TV in the living room.
Felipé comes out with another round of food. The poor kids are obviously malnourished and extremely dirty, but the girls will deal with that later when they have clothes to give them.
"Okay, if you haven't had anything to eat yet, come over here!" Bella announces. About twenty kids come running over to the table where Bella has the food. She gives them bowls of mac and cheese plus a sandwich. Peanut butter and jelly or turkey and cheese.
There are a lot of younger children here since Natalia got them out first. They are easily entertained by the TV but will need sleep soon. Jenna and Briar finally come inside the Estate, but spook the children in the process.
"It's okay! It's okay! They're friends. Good people!" Robin exclaims. The two girls bring in boxes full of items. Bella finishes serving the food and sends the dishes back to be washed as Felipe works on the next round.
"Holy shit," Jenna comments, looking at the crowd of children, "Is this everyone?"
"No, there's more coming," Gianna sighs, "Thank god, your guys are here. The little ones are gonna need to go to sleep soon."
"Yeah, no kidding," Briar comments, "Bella, we need help unloading."
"Got it," she pulls out her radio, "I need men to assist Briar and Jenna in the garage. Take everything to the fourth and fifth level."
"Yes, Miss," various voices answer. Right now, Jenna and Gianna are sharing the second level. Briar and Robin are on the third. They will use the fourth and fifth levels as resting areas for the children.
***
"Trent? Trent? This is Florence Pugh, do you copy?"
"I copy," he answers his radio.
"I have a last known location for Sadie," she states, "My men have found her SUV in the Czech Republic. It looks like it crashed and the GPS was taken out."
"That's why Cinna couldn't track it," he says, "And the men?"
"Gone. They must have been taken with her," she answers, "I can come in to help if you would like."
"Yes, that sounds good. We have another situation going on at the Estate, so we could use all the help," Trent explains, "We'll have Cinna track your car in case you are ambushed on your way here."
"Lovely," Florence answers, "We are on our way."
***
"Okay, these pyjamas or these ones?" Jenna asks a young girl on the fourth level. The girl, a brunette, picks out pink pyjamas as opposed to purple, "Good choice."
Jenna smiles as she begins to dress the girl for bed. She can't be older than six. Jenna, Briar, and Robin have spent the last two hours prepping the two levels for the children and now are working on putting them to bed.
Now, Natalia and Briar are giving each child a bath or letting the older ones shower by themselves. Jenna and Robin are helping them get dressed and find beds after they wash up. Bella and Gianna are keeping the rest of the children occupied until it is their turn to go upstairs for a bath or shower. Dacre, Finn, and Joe are working with Trent to locate Sadie and Sabrina, now that Florence has informed them of Sadie's disappearance. Trent has not informed Bella yet.
"Are you going to stay up here with us?" the girl asks. Jenna's heart pangs at her voice. It's so soft and sweet.
"I... I will," Jenna gives in to the girl. How could she say no? She also realizes that these kids will probably be scared of sleeping and figures that at least one person should stay on each level with the children.
The little girl smiles, "Yay."
"All right, here we go," Jenna finishes dressing the girl, "Let's find you a bed."
The girl takes her hand as they walk through a maze of mattresses. Some of the other children have already fallen asleep, even with the lights still on. Others roll around on the beds with their new blankets and pillows. Each child gets one stuffed animal to sleep with as well.
"All right, this one is empty. Why don't you lay here?" the former gang leader says. The girl gets on the bed and Jenna covers her up. She goes to get the next child when the girl sits up.
"Wait! Are you coming back?" she asks with panic in her voice.
"Yes, I'll come back," Jenna coos, "I'm gonna go help some other kids first okay? But I'll be here."
The girl lies back down and Jenna gives her a kiss on the forehead. She stands up and has a hard time keeping her tears back as she walks back over toward the bathroom to help the next kid.
YOU ARE READING
bullets and bouquets
Ficção GeralIsla Rhodes, college student, moves to Sicily, Italy for study abroad. It seemed like a great idea at the time, until she runs into one of the most notorious gangs... Mature: themes of violence, gore, death, sexual content between 18+ characters #1...