Cynophobia

☠₁₄☠

 Cairo rolled away from the older brother. Vincent pulled out a gun from his side and shot each brother in the leg. Their screams echoed through the tunnel all the way into the main cave. Cairo slid on his knees over to me, putting on arm behind my back to support me. "Cyn, are you alright? Do you need to go to the hospital?"

"I'm fine, just winded," I gasped. "Claude, they cut Claude. Is he ok?"

Vincent ripped the bag off of his little brother's head. "He's alive, but these two traitors won't be when I'm done with them."

"How did you find us?" I asked.

"Ivy sent me to tell Vincent a camera was broken. We came to investigate it and came upon you two by chance," Cairo explained.

Vincent stared at the two boys with a glare I haven't seen from him before. It was hatred, pure hatred. He pulled out his walkie, gaze unwavering. "James, get to the mining tunnel. I have two new traitors you can use as bait."

"No please, we're sorry!" the younger one cried, "have mercy!"

A sadistic grin appeared on his face. "Mercy? You want mercy? If I was merciful I would kill you before I threw you to the Cynoids with grenades. But I'm just going to torture you this time. You get to stay alive and watch each other get torn apart until your last breath."

I backed up a little. Cairo put his arm under mine and helped me up. Claude's cries and sniffles were muted by the cries of pain and begging for mercy of the two boys. I could hear footsteps running down the tunnel. James appeared with two other men behind him. One of them was Ray.

"I'll take care of them from here," James promised. He looked at his leader with a smirk. "Tortured or killed first?"

"Just tortured," Vincent replied picking up his brother. He started carrying him towards the main cave.

I shuddered as James casually explained all of the things he was going to do to the brothers. I looked back, catching Ray's eyes for a second. He looked concerned for me, but I knew he couldn't ask.

Cairo helped me to the abandoned tunnel. He gently helped me sit down against the back of the cave. "Thanks for saving me, I would have choked to death."

"Of course, we will always be a team," he said quietly. He sat down next to me in the dark. "What happened?"

"Those were Liam's older brothers. They were trying to maim Claude. They were envious their brother got injured fighting Cynoids while Claude gets to stay in the cave all day," I explained. My breathing was finally starting to slow down.

Cairo pulled out his water canister from his side and offered it to me. I drank it gratefully. "I still can't believe anyone would take out that kind of thing on another kid. What was even the point? If they were just going to maim Claude, he could still tell Vincent who did it."

"They seemed blinded by grief," I said. "Is Vincent really going to..."

"He seemed pretty serious about it," Cairo said. "I knew this place was bad. Maybe now Ray will listen to us. I always knew big civilizations like this wouldn't work out. If the Cynoids don't get them, they will rip each other apart."

I laid my head on his shoulder. I remember what Ray said about running away like cowards. "How many people can you fit on the plane?"

"About six excluding my seat in the pilots den," he replied. "As for how many people the island will be able to support, I don't know."