Free *Editing*

Chapter 7

Birdy feels her body being lifted up. She tries to bite back against the shocks keeping her in the dark, but in the end she always falls back into nothingness.

"Bird?"

Barn whispers her name and she opens her eyes abruptly. The cold air, the smell of sweat, and the shadows around her make her assume she is once again in the Cold Cell. She turns her head to look at Barn who has her in his arms. Her head is gently resting on his lap and she groans putting her hand on her forehead.

"The Cold Cell?" She asks him. His eyes soften and he shakes his head. Birdy furrows her brows, and slowly gets up into a sitting position. Barn keeps his hands on her back helping her stay upright.

The two of them are in a long, square room with solid stone walls and no windows. Her eyes settle on four rows of cold metal benches. Each row is filled to the brim with people. They are lying on the floor or nestled into the corners away from the dense heat of all the bodies. Birdy looks behind Barn. They are up against the far right wall of the room and are still wearing the clothes they were forced to fight Carnivore in. The smell of sweat, blood, and ash on her skin is beginning to reek. Birdy instinctively tries picking off some of the dry blood stuck to her wrist as a way to divert her attention from her panic.

"Where have they taken us now?" She asks her brother with her head down. It's hard to hear his response over the mumbling and chatting of the crowd. "I overheard many people say this is the Holding Cell." He doesn't hold back the truth. Birdy scoffs and rests her head against the wall.

"Fucking, prison." She growls and clenches her fists. "How are we going to get out of this Barn?" She looks over at him and his face is droopy and his mouth tight. "I'll figure something out Bird. This place looks like a barn-house filled with a bunch of animals, maybe escape is possible..." He whispers the last bit of his sentence and holds his leg massaging away the pain. Birdy looks at it. The wound is healing and still stitched together, but the purple and green bruises around it are still a cause for concern. Her own fractured rib is still in a great deal of pain, and she watches her cell-mates while taking deep breaths into her lungs.

She doesn't recognize anybody, and her heart sinks when she realizes Patra most likely did not survive the fight. The others cell-mates mix from homeless individuals to common Celedoran citizens. A few others have blood on them and menacing gleems in their eyes. The front door to the Holding Cell has a row of thick metal bars and nobody guarding it. She can see white painting brick lining the walls and beyond that on either side people are talking and chatting like normal. Once in a while, a nurse in all black passes by and doesn't make eye contact. One of Adamants guards passes, but he is not wearing his usual red neon mask. His face is completely revealed and his usual silver, bulky armor has been replaced with a lighter version with short sleeves and white pants with silver army boots. His dark silver eyes scan the crowd of criminals for a meer moment before moving on.

Birdys eyes fall on a short, skinny man with wild eyes and track marks along his pale arms. His head shakes and he leaps to his feet. He kicks the metal bars and everybody turns towards him. He begins to scream and shout incoherently. The only engligh Birdy is able to pick up is, "Let me out, please!"

A guard comes around the corner with a grin on his face.

The helpless prisoner reels backward as the cell is clambered open. The guard grabs him by the neck of his black t-shirt and pulls him into the hall. Two other guards appear from the left and closes the cell door behind them. Barn shakes his head and Birdy frowns deeply.

The man begins to beat on the prisoner. Everybody in the Holding Cell has fallen silent in fear. The victims face begins to swell in size and he curls up in the fetal position. The other two guards are watching with humor on there faces.