The Unwanted Ones - Book One

Chapter Twenty-Two

The others drop down into the dark abyss with me. I put my hand over my face as the stench hits me. Old rotting sewage, human waste, and god knows what else.

"It smells like fifty years of hard labor down here. Like sweat from every human that ever existed," Danny gripes, his voice distorted behind his hands that he has tightly clamped over his nose and mouth.

"Could be worse," Gwen replies. "It could smell like your old socks." She rolls her eyes at him for added affect.

"Hey guys, I'm pretty sure we've got to head that way," Matt says, pointing to the right. No one contests him on this so we start trekking in that direction. By now my eyes have completely adjusted to the darkness. A few minutes later I've even gotten used to the foul smell. We're walking in a filed line, with Matt in the front and me right behind him. Lena is behind me, and she's whispering to me.

"Do you think it'll be easy?" she whispers, her voice tinged with worry.

"Maybe, I hope so. Maybe they'll all be gone or asleep," I theorize even though I definitely know that won't be the case.

A dark thought crosses over my mind. What if it comes down to my life versus someone else's? if one of them pulls a gun on me, will I be able to pull the trigger on mine? Gregory had me pegged right about that, I was hesitant as hell to do that to him, choosing instead the path of least resistance. But what if that's not an option next time?

I try to quiet those disruptive thoughts, telling myself that if the time comes I'll do the right thing. I've been training for this.

We've been walking for a while until we near a sealed of concrete wall. Seemingly impenetrable. Matt places a hand on it, knocking it quietly.

"This is what stands between us and them, I'm guessing," he tells us, reaching for his side. He pulls out his laser equipped pen and points it towards the wall. But then he turns to us. More specifically, me.

"How do we go about this," he asks me quietly, quiet enough for the others not to overhear.

"Maybe you take a group, I take the other. A small one of maybe three or four to retrieve the cure, one to handle anyone that gets in the way?" I suggest.

"Sounds good," he murmurs.

I turn to face the others, their expectant faces catching me off guard. Matt and I really are heading this operation. That's kind of jarring.

"Alright, Matt is taking a team to retrieve the cure. My team will be making sure nothing gets in the way of that," I tell them.

"Maybe the other way around," Matt suggests to me. I shrug, not finding a switch in roles.

"Alright well I'm going to need Melissa, Lena, and Philip to come with me," I say decisively. They're good at close contact fighting, and are very quick and covert. Matt nods at my choice.

"The rest of you are with me. We'll go in ahead and spread out through the building, taking out insurgents." he says.

With that he fires up the laser at the wall and we watch as it falls inward with a loud thud.

We go into the basement. I try to revisualize the blueprint of this place, trying to figure where the cure would be. Matt and his crew leave us there in the basement so they can go handle their business, while I stand with me crew.

"First move?" Philip asks me, his face serious. His usual self satisfied smirk is gone.

"Upstairs, that way," I tell him, pointing to a door. The four if us go through it, and file up the steps trying to be quiet. We're going to have to search every floor of this building it seems.