Children of the New Dawn n-logy: Book 2 - Liberated.

Chapter 22: '' Today, we fight.''

Moments before... 

 Mama Ashley can be seen in the storage room rummaging around the shelves. ''Dylan... Fae..'' Her finger runs towards the edge of the shelves across the labels. She stops as she sees Dylan's number on a white label. She rummages through the box, grabbing Dylan's belongings such as clothes, accessories... ''Right, Time for 13-7.'' She sighs as she continues to look around for Fae's name label. Her watch beeps.

 =Access granted: -4, Mama/Papa: Ashley.= 

'Hurry on up, boy, hurry on up.'' Mama Ashley whispered to herself as she walked in a fast pace to find Fae's items.

On her way out, she grabs a guard's key-card. 

 In the moment.. 

Mama Ashley can be seen headed towards the elevator, and when reaching her destination she'd hold up the unknown guard's key-card.

 =Access granted= 

She steps in, pressing the number -2. 

As the elevator reached floor -2, Mama Ashley steps out and heads past the guards in a normal manner. ''Not so fast. Miss Ashley? You're not up here usually... are you?'' The guard questions Mama Ashley.'' No, I am not. Directress swapped places with me today.'' Mama Ashley folds her hands and strictly looks at the guard. ''Now, please, do not disturb me during work hours.'' She turns on her heels and walks down the hall. The guard put his weapon in his holster belt and folded his arms, side-eyeing Mama Ashley.

As she continues to walk down the hall, she sees that currently, the children are in the playroom. They look happy.. They don't know what is happening. She shakes her head and acts professionally, unprofessional. She reaches a door with an emergency exit sign. Taking a deep breath she unlocks the door. 

She enters the room, and its filled with giant exit tubes, along with smaller ones, for kids. The adult-sized ones are less comfortable, only equipped with an oxygen tank, while the kid-sized ones are equipped with Toys, pillows and even a blanket.

''Alright, today, we fight.'' She takes another deep breath and walks in a fast pace towards the computer. ''Alright, everything looks fine. now I just hope those kids are ready.'' She whispers to herself, as she walks out the door, slowly closing it behind her. 

No one is supposed to know..

The note ran in her head like a flock of race horses. The note she gave Fae. The note, the one she knew would make them wonder. Ashley always feared this day would come. Yet here she is, walking towards the playroom to collect a bunch of kids and shoot them up to the sky. ''Alright, who's ready for their first task of the day?'' Mama Ashley folded her hands and put a smile on her lip. She had reached the playroom.

''Everyone ready for their tests? Follow me. In an orderly line, please.'' Mama Ashley strictly orders the children.

''Yes, Mama.'' The kids say in sync, as they line up one by one behind Mama Ashley. There's 5 kids, all behaving like they should. They are dressed in the same clothing as floor -3, although the two girls are wearing a white dress instead. ''Mama?'' One of the boys spoke up.

''Yes?'' Mama Ashley answers, yet she keeps walking ahead. They boy stopped. ''This is not where we usually have our tests.'' The boy tilts his head. Mama Ashley turned her head, ''You can walk and talk, boy.'' She strictly ordered the boy to follow along, while having a conversation.

''We are not doing a normal test today.'' They reached their destination, just as Mama Ashley finished her sentence. She unlocked the door yet again, and ordered the children to move on along. ''Don't touch anything.''

''Woow.'' One of the girls says in amazement. ''What is this, Mama?'' She looks at Mama Ashley.''This is your very own tube. You get one each, and it will transfer you to another place. It is very important you all listen very carefully now, understood?'' She didn't give them time to answer, instead she walked towards the end of the room, where the small tubes were. ''Follow along, children. This is your tubes. I want you all to pick one. Choose wisely.'' She smiles, trying to reassure the kids that this was safe.

Yet is wasn't.

Mama Ashley knew, that if even one of them fail, she would bear the guilt for the remainder of her life. However long that is she thought.

The kids run to each their tubes, all very excited to get inside and experience their first travel.

 ''Alright. I will come by one by one and shut the door, don't panic.'' Mama Ashley instructed as she walks around, shutting door by door until finally reaching the last door. ''Are we ready?'' She asks, and they all nod in excitement as Mama Ashley shut the final door.

She walks towards the computer, typing in the password before hitting 'Ascend.'

It takes a few seconds to load, and the machines start whirling up like the sound of an engine starting. Then, the first tube flies above, and in a matter of seconds, all the kids are gone.
Some screamed, some laughed by the experience of being rushed to the surface.

A sigh of relief, yet panic hits Mama Ashley as she continues to walk past all the tubes, and out the door. Quickly scanning the area for guards, she moves on to the elevator. ''Miss Ashley. I have some suspicions about your presence here.'' A guard at the elevator stops her.

''Don't. I am here to train the kids. I forgot supplies.'' She folds her arms and scans the key card.

The guard raised his weapon. ''Hey! That's not your-'' Before he could finish his sentence, Mama Ashley had knocked him out with a punch to the throat.

''That should keep you out long enough.'' She brushes off her hands and steps into the elevator, that just opened.

The elevator doors opened and standing in front of Mama Ashley was Mitchell with her arm extended holding a pistol and a smug smirk had sat on her face. 

Mama Ashley trembled and raised her hands up. She managed to control her emotions and her facial expressions as she stood in the elevator. "Get out, and follow me." Mitchell instructed as Mama Ashley followed closely behind her. 

 Mitchell had led her to a room and opened the door. She moved out of the way, aiming the gun at Mama Ashley, threatening her to enter. 

"You're going to kill me, aren't you?" Mama Ashley spoke as she turned around to face Mitchell. "Yes. Yes I am. I'm just surprised that you were the mole all along. I should have expected that." Mitchell started speaking slowly. 

 Mitchell looked down at a table and quickly she turned it so it hit Mitchell in the thigh making her drop the gun. Mama Ashley dropped to her knees on the floor and scrambled towards the gun. Mitchell grabbed her leg and pulled her as she made way on top of her to strangle her. Mama Ashley held Mitchell's wrists as they tightened their grip around her throat, biting into her skin and cutting her oxygen supply. Mama Ashley reached for the gun and knocked it against Mitchell's head. 

 Mitchell fell off but quickly got up and reached for the gun. Mama Ashley fought back but lost her grip of the gun. 

 A shot was fired. Red liquid darkened the white of Mama Ashley's coat as she bled. She struggled to breathe as Mitchell got up and left the room. Mama Ashley reached with her shaky hands covered in blood for the book that laid in her coat pocket. She took it out and placed it next to her body with a label "FAE" on the cover. 

She then looked up at the ceiling and smiled as she slowly died. The kids were safe, her mission was done there. She closed her eyes and lost consciousness of herself. Her hand fell down to her side and a red puddle formed around her body, as blood trickled down her lab coat. Mitchell's footsteps echoing away.