The Strong Will Survive

Chapter Forty-Three - Lilith [EDITED]

 A lot had happened very quickly.

First, of course, there were the newly revealed identities of our kidnapper and his cult members. But, to be honest, the fact that the people who had assisted in kidnapping and torturing us were criminals wasn't the most shocking event of the 21st century.

Jared being gay? I was completely accepting of it, but I couldn't help but wonder once more - where was his boyfriend now? And a new question arose, now that I knew his backstory - did he miss his parents? We had assumed that Jared, since he had been living on the streets when he found me, had lost no one in the apocalypse. We couldn't have been more wrong.

And then KC had reappeared. As incredibly glad as I was to see her again, as much as I wanted - almost needed - to catch up and exchange explanations of what had happened to us, there wasn't nearly enough time. Suddenly, the bad guys - our kidnappers - were aware of our presence in their computer room, as well as the fact that KC was with us, and it sounded like they were mad.

"Flash drive!" I hollered scanning the room wildly. "Did anyone see Ken leave?"

My raised tone woke Benji up. "What?" he asked blearily, sitting upright. Then he caught sight of KC. "Hey!" he greeted her.

We all ignored him. "I thought he was standing guard at the door," Jared replied in answer to my question.

"He must have left. Why would he leave? Oh, crap," I groaned, running my hands through my hair.

"I didn't notice him leaving, Lilith," Jared said gently. "I mean, I know I was asleep, but I wasn't that far out. And you were awake the entire time - you would have noticed the door opening and closing."

"What do you mean?" I asked, utterly confused.

"I mean that the door never opened."

I gasped. "Okay, great, let's think about that in one second - I seriously need a flash drive!"

KC kept guard by the door as Jared and Benji rushed to my aide. We rummaged through the junk on and in the desk until finally, Benji held up a flash drive with a cry of triumph.

I plugged it into the computer, grinning when I saw that it was completely empty. "Start looking for other exits, wherever Ken left through!" I commanded, highlighting all of the incriminating files I had found and transferring them to the flash drive. Since there was so much to transfer, a loading bar appeared. I groaned in frustration and struck the tabletop with my open palm. "Anything?" I demanded over my shoulder.

"Nothing - wait, hold on!" Benji suddenly shouted, interrupting himself. I glanced behind me to find that KC and Jared were working to lift a large square of the floor up. It was silent, so if Ken had taken this exit, it would have allowed him to escape unnoticed. Stupid coward. He must have known people were coming for us.

Underneath the trapdoor, a ladder led into darkness.

Not feeling like facing the pitch black at the moment, I grabbed a flashlight from the tabletop. Having an idea, I also grabbed a small version of a carabiner and clipped the light to my jeans so my hands were free.

The loading bar on the computer screen continued slowly trickling toward 100%. I growled, banging the tabletop repeatedly. "You guys start going!" I shouted at my friends. "I'll follow."

"No way!" Benji countered adamantly.

"Yeah, first off, that would be a crap move on our part," KC pointed out dryly. "Secondly, you're not strong enough to close the passageway. Jared will have to go last." Jared nodded in silent agreement.

"Fine," I replied tightly. "Fine."

Something slammed against the door to the room and I bit back a shocked scream. My heart slammed against my ribcage desperately

The computer bar was completely full, claiming it was at 100% - but it wasn't disappearing, which meant that the information was in a delicate stage of the transfer process. I couldn't risk removing the flash drive just yet. I had to wait until it was certain that we had the information we needed.

The thing slammed against the door again, and once more. Muffled shouting came through to us.

"Wait, we can't leave," Benji realized frantically. "He still has Lydia, Reggie, and Daisy!"

My heart lurched. "He's right!"

"We don't have a choice," KC snapped. "I'm sorry, I really am, and maybe we'll have another chance to rescue them. But right now, we need to go."

I looked back at the computer and found that all of the files had been uploaded. The loading bar was gone. Gasping in relief, I yanked the flash drive from its port and shoved it into the pocket of my jeans - not the most secure place, but it would have to do for the time being.

Benji started down the ladder. "Wait," I called out. When he looked at me, I unclipped the flashlight from my jeans and tossed it to him. He caught it, turned it on, and pointed it down into the darkness as he descended.

"Go, Lilith!" KC commanded in a shout, and I followed Benji down into the ground.