Theyy had found what could only be described as a modern day dungeon. Reece frowned in disgust at the harsh treatment of the people kept there. The collars that each prisoner wore only added to the horror. Karina took it all in stride and began unlocking the cages with another one of the keys from the ring.

“Ciera, do you know how we can remove the shock collars without activating them?” he asked the lilin hopefully.

“I do,” she said, her eyes growing wide as a thought came to her. She fell back to the previous room and approached the control console, flipping several levers down. “Now, you should just need to use the right key and they’ll come right off.”

“Great, which key is it?” asked Reece, indicating the keyring with over a dozen keys that Karina had left in the opened door.

“I don’t know,” she responded, shrugging. “I never got a look at which one they used, but it was definitely on that ring.”

“Fuck,” cursed Reece. “We can’t be shocking these people to death while we try picking the correct key.”

“Find the most powerful of them,” said Ciera. “They’ll be able to handle it without dying.”

“What do you mean?” asked Reece. “Are you saying that none of these people are regular humans?”

“Exactly,” said Ciera. “I assumed you knew. The Purifiers are trying to eradicate all hidden bloodlines from humanity’s DNA. They experiment on us to find our genetic markers so they can track down dormant bloodlines and purify them.”

“Okay, my mind is blown, but we’re going to need to talk about this later. Right now, we need to figure out a way to free these prisoners and get them out of here. Then mop up the rest of these assholes and search this place for any more clues to their plans.”

They searched all the gloomy cages, quickly shushing any prisoners who got overly excited at the possibility of escape. There were more than forty cages in all, but only fifteen of them held prisoners. The lighting was poor, as was the ventilation. The smell was sickening; a combination of refuse, gore, and excrement. They quickly found the correct key and opened all their cells as they went down the hallway between them. Abused and filthy people filed out and Karina politely asked them to form a line. Only fourteen of the fifteen prisoners lined up. The last one in the line, Reece recognized despite all the grime on the poor creature’s face.

“Naeva, you’re alive!”

Naeva looked up at Reece and her eyes welled up with tears which poured forth, creating tiny trails through the dirt on her face.

“Oh... by the gods, ... Reece?... Is it really you?” asked Naeva tentatively, almost scared for the answer.

“Yes, it’s me! I’ve been looking for you ever since we crash-landed on the planet.”

Some of the other prisoners looked at Reece like he was an alien, which was probably exactly what they were thinking.

“I waited for you at the Cape!” she cried before quieting down. “They found me there...”

“I know. Angel and I found your note,” Reece responded, indicating her pack that was hanging off the cycle sitting in the hall.

Upon recognizing her pack, she breathed a sigh of relief.

“It really is you, and did you say Angel is still alive?” she asked with hope in her eyes.

“Yeah, he is. We met up at the Cape,” he responded. “We’ll rendezvous with him as soon as we figure out how to get you all out of here and these collars off.”

He hugged her tightly, despite her being filthy and smelling almost as bad. Then he released his grip on her and nodded.

“We need to get you a shower, but first let’s get you all out of here. Then we can talk.”

They were still missing one of the prisoners. Reece found the fifteenth person still lying in her cage. She looked elderly and lay still. Too still, she had died sometime recently. Her body was cold and stiff. That gave Reece an idea. Her sacrifice wouldn’t be in vain. He looked up at Ciera.

“Give me the keys,” he told her. “I know how we can find the right key without torturing anyone.”

Ciera handed him the keys and he used one key after another of the remaining keys to try to unlock the shock collar on the dead woman’s body. It was slow going with his nonconductive gloves. He shocked the body several times, but finally managed to find the right key.

“Thank you,” he said with reverence to the still form of the old woman.

After that, it was a simple matter of unlocking everyone else’s collars. About that time, they all started hearing shouts from both outside and down the hall, the way they had come from. They had obviously been discovered and were now out of time.

“Ciera, Karina...hold them here. I’m going to create a new exit,” commanded Reece.

The two women nodded as they prepared for the first of the purifiers to show themselves. Karina readied her spear while Ciera readied her Spear rifle. Reece got on his cycle and rode it past the prisoners and to the end of the hallway where it turned left. At the end of that hallway was a brick wall, with cages on either side. He pulled the grenade launcher from its makeshift holster on the side of the Helios.

“Fire in the hole!” he yelled before discharging the weapon into the wall of grey bricks.

The resulting explosion kicked back dust and debris in all directions. As Reece began to hear Ciera firing and the sounds of battle commence, the dust cleared enough to show that he had blown a good-sized hole straight through the thick outer wall. He re-holstered his weapon and rode the bike down the hall and out the hole he had just created, putting him back on the dirt road out of there. He quickly looked around and didn’t see any imminent danger.

“Come on out, it’s safe for now,” Reece yelled back into the prison.

The tired and starved prisoners began shuffling out after him. Once they were all clear, he pointed for them to head down the dirt road leading back to the highway. Naeva came out last and looked hard at Reece.

“I’ll lead them away from here. Take these motherfuckers out,” demanded the sultry werewolf as she got a good look at her body covered in filth and muttered under her breath. “Sons of bitches...”

Reece nodded, dropped his visor and activated the intercom.

“Angel, do you copy?”

“I hear you, brother. What’s up?” replied the man.

“We’ve got passengers, and an old friend. Naeva’s here and she’s alive. But we’ve got fourteen starving and exhausted people that need transportation. Do you think you could drive one of the trucks up here?”

“Really!?! That’s great news! And yeah... you got it! I’m on my way. Just give us a few hours to get there. We’ll be there at first light,” came Angel’s ecstatic reply.

“Copy that, see you soon,” came Reece’s grim reply as he forced his thoughts to turn to the violence to come.

Naeva steadily led the released prisoners down the road and out of harm’s way. Reece pulled Aika’s makeshift katana and a couple of Spear magazines out of the Helios and rushed back in to assist his two female companions in the fight. He could hear the continuous echoes of single shots being fired from the Spear as he ran up the hall, passing by the now empty cells.

He rounded the corner just in time to see Karina let go of her spear with one hand and catch a grenade before tossing it back out the way from which it had come. The near-instantaneous explosion gave them a brief respite from the relentless assault. Reece saw a wall of Z’s filling the control room and the hallway all the way to the original entrance where they were piled up three-deep trying to get inside. Reece approached Ciera first and offered her the magazines.

“Oh, thank the fates,” she said as she took one and popped it in. “Perfect timing. I’m completely out.”

At that moment, the entire outer portion of the room exploded inward, capturing all three in its path of falling brick and mortar. Karina and Ciera were completely buried while Reece was knocked back into the bars of a cell door by the flying debris. He was pretty sure he heard a rib crack, though he wasn’t sure if it was from the brick that hit him in the chest or the impact with the steel bars.

Either way, he was in a lot of pain and could barely breath through it. Every rattling breath was agony as he tried to figure out a way to help his companions without passing out. As the dust began to clear, he could see the outside. One of the behemoths had been left behind from the assault on the community and it had just smashed in the side of the building to get to them.

“Oh, fuck,” coughed Reece as his mouth filled with blood.

He then noticed that the Spear rifle was laying only a couple of feet away from his right foot. He spat out the blood and fought through the pain to roll over and crawl to the weapon, fumbling to retrieve it. He was able to get a hand on it and pull it to his chest. Sitting back up, he gasped in pain. It was then that he noticed that the behemoth was just standing there, retracting its enormous chain and spiked ball. The thought that someone must have been controlling it flashed through his mind. He switched the Spear’s mode to full auto and carefully aimed the gun at the beast’s left eye as it peered in at them.

He squeezed the trigger, firing off five or six rounds into the creature’s face. At least two were direct hits and luck was with him. He had grabbed the louder but more powerful explosive rounds and half of the giant monster’s head blew off, causing it the fall backwards and down the hill on the backside of the building. He heard a few surprised screams as the creature’s enormous corpse crushed some of those behind it as it rolled down the slope to a grisly end. Reece spat out more blood as he scanned the rest of the hill. He saw some movement and took aim just as a dark-skinned hand gently shook his shoulder.

“Let me,” groaned Ciera before flashing him a bloody yet mischievous smile. “You waste too many bullets.”

The kinky-haired woman looked awful, but she had managed to pull herself out of the rubble and sat up beside Reece. For his part, he simply handed the gun over to the crack shot. She smiled before taking aim and firing. Reece heard a yelp in the distance. Seven more shots and seven more yelps of pain. Then all was silent. Looking over at Ciera, he could tell that she was in worse shape than he was. He was glad that she was at least clear of the rubble.

“Karina!” Reece let loose with a ragged yell, realizing the smaller girl hadn’t emerged yet.

He ignored the pain and started pulling the chunks of brick away from the last place he had seen her. He uncovered a small leg, twisted awkwardly. He followed it up and uncovered Karina’s small broken and bloody body. Pulling her out of the rubble, she hung limply in his arms. He shook her without response. His mouth had again filled with blood, so he put his mouth to hers and forced his blood into her.

She was so cold in his arms. She wasn’t moving a muscle, nor was she responding to the blood he had given her. He looked back at Ciera and shook his head. She looked down at her own body and sighed.

“I think I’ll be joining her shortly, Reece,” said the beautiful girl through gritted teeth. “Thank you...for allowing me...to try... and redeem...my...”

Ciera’s eyes closed and her body went limp but remained propped up against the bars of the cell as her eyes fluttered shut.

Reece was overwhelmed. He had just gotten Naeva back, miraculously. And now, he had just lost two of his closest companions at the same time. He just sat there, lost.

"Without these two extraordinarily powerful women by his side," he thought. "How could he ever hope to defeat the Order and their seemingly endless supply of mutant zombies?"

“Aaaaahhh!” he screamed out before choking and coughing up more blood.

He knew that Ciera and Karina both, were dead. He wasn't as upset as he thought he'd be at the knowledge that he'd soon be joining them. Despite the agony from his broken body, he managed a smile... one last act of defiance.