Eros peaked over the barricade, looking through the scope of his rifle. An Altered prisoner, covered in bone armor, was charging down the corridor. He counted three other prisoners just behind the Tank, each armed with a gun.

“Damn it, they have a Tank,” Eros said as he dropped back down into cover. The metal floor shook with every step the Tank took. Eros took out a grenade and loaded it into the grenade launcher attached to his rifle. He then stood up and aimed at the Tank, pulling the trigger to the grenade launcher when his crosshairs aligned with the chest of the Tank.

The grenade whispered through the air. Eros quickly ducked back down, just as the grenade blew up. Pieces of bone and shrapnel flew over Eros’ head. Eros looked over the barricade, finding the Tank down on the ground with a huge hole in the chest. The wound on their chest was visibly regenerating. The rest of the prisoners were scattered across the ground nearby.

“Move the barricade forward! We need to get over there fast, before the Tank wakes back up.” Eros yelled to his guards.

Warren and Lisa lifted the barricade and started moving forward. Eros and Ana stayed slightly behind, keeping their guns pointed towards the down prisoners. Eros wondered when the command would be sending reinforcements, they had been defending this location for hours and they were getting tired.

The team of four drew closer to the downed prisoners.“Halt, place the barricade,” Eros commanded, holding his hand up in a fist.

Lisa and Warren placed the barricade on the ground. They retrieved their rifles and aimed them at the prisoners.

“Me and Lisa, will go and restrain the prisoners. Warren and Ana, you two cover us from here,“ Eros said.

Warren and Ana setup behind the barricade, while Eros and Lisa approach the dazed prisoners. Eros stood over the Tank, their bone armor only covered their upper body.

“Lisa, use your knife to chip away the bone covering his left arm.” Eros said as knelt down and took out his knife. “I’ll do his-”

The right arm of the Tank hit Eros in the chest, sending him flying into the wall. He hit the wall hard and heard something crack. He coughed as he landed on the ground, specks of blood spraying from his mouth. He looked up, finding the Tank standing up and holding Lisa by her throat. Lisa struggled, trying but failing to use her hands to pry the Tank’s grip open. She used her legs to kick the Tank in the chest to no effect.

“Shoot the Tank!,” Eros yelled.

“We can’t, he’s using Lisa as a shield.” Warren yelled from down the hall.

Eros reached for his gun and aimed it at the Tank. Just as his finger touched the trigger, the barrel of a gun was pressed into his cheek.

“I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” a femine voice said to his side.

“Kids you all can come out now.” Three kids, dressed in orange prisoner jumpsuits, came from around the corner.

Eros’ eyes glanced towards the person to his right. It was a woman with long black hair and green eyes. She too wore an orange jumpsuit marking her as a prisoner. Looking around, he saw the other two downed prisoners had all stood up. They both seemed fine, pointing their guns at Warren and Ana.

“Elena, any casualties?” The Tank asked, their voice too sounded femine. Eros glanced down at the chest wound, finding it completely healed. The bone armor around the hole rapidly regrowing.

“Nothing major, but Gerald complaining about his back again. You took the brunt of the explosion,” said the woman pointing the barrel at Eros’ head.

“Hey, my back pain is real!” An older man with greying hair yelled. “Sydney you can’t keep letting her make fun of me like this!”

“Stop squeezing her neck so tight. You're going to kill her,” Eros said as he watched Lisa struggling to breathe with Sydney’s hand wrapped around her neck. He could hear her gasping whimpers.

Sydney set her eyes on Eros, her grip relaxing around Lisa’s throat. She lowered Lisa to the ground, then fully released her grip on Lisa’s throat. She walked over to Eros, until she stood over him. “You're the leader, right?” Sydney asked. “Let us into the vault.“

“I can’t do that,” Eros replied.

“What do you mean you can do that?” Elena said as she pushed the barrel of the gun deeper into his check. “If you don’t open the vault, we’ll kill your friends one by one.”

“What’s it going to be?” Sydney asked.

The radio on Eros crackled to life. “All guards in the Prison Sector are to retreat. The Ferals in the Kennel have been released.” The message repeated a few times, before stopping.

“Run,” Eros said as he elbowed a distracted Elena. She buckled from the blow, falling to the ground. Eros got up and started running towards the vault. Lisa was not too far behind him. With every breath Eros took he felt a stabbing pain in his chest.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Sydney said. Her bone tipped fingers dug into the back of his Eros armor. She then easily lifted him into the air.

Eros could feel her boned tipped fingers against his back, threatening to pierce his flesh. Lisa turned back, looking to help Eros.

“Don’t turn back, just keep running,” Ero said.

“We weren’t done talking,” Sydney said.

“Are you crazy, if you don’t stop this nonsense we’ll all die. The ferals are coming.” Eros said.

“Not if you give us access to the vault, “ The tank said, “We could hide out in there until they are gone. Or I could feed you to the ferals and find someone else who can open the vault.”

“Okay, as long as you can promise the safety of my men and myself.”

“See, that was not so hard was it,” Eros could hear the condescending tone in her voice. “Now tell your people to put down their weapons.”

Eros looked down the hall. Lisa had made it back to Ana and Warren, standing behind them as she rubbed at the bruise around her neck. Ana and Warren had their weapons pointed at the Tank and her gang of prisoners.

“Put down your weapons and surrender,” Eros yelled through gritted teeth.

Ana and Warren dropped their weapons to the ground and kicked them away. Lisa, Ana, and Warren then knelt down, putting their hands in the air.

“Okay, take their weapons and use their handcuffs to restrain them,” Sydney said as she lowered Eros to the ground. Gerald and the prisoner with the Mohawk rushed forward, doing as Sydney commanded.

Sydney removed her bone covered fingers from Eros’ armor and placed them around Eros’ neck. “Where’s your hand cuffs?”

“Here,” Eros gave them to Sydney. She attached them to his arms and moved him forward, joining the rest of his squad and Sydney’s gang ahead.

The others of Eros’ team were quickly retained using their own cuffs. Their weapons were given to the gang of escapees. Elena soon came up to join them, escorting the kids that they had with them. Her hand covered her face, blood leaking between the gaps of her fingers.

A high pitched bestial scream echoed down the hall, reaching Eros’ ears. Sounds of gunfire and human screams soon followed. The sound of feet hitting the metal floor reverberated down the corridor, coming closer and closer. From around the corner came a group of prisoners. Chasing after them were a pack of warped humans, ferals. Luckly their mutations were not benefitial in anyway. The once that Eros saw had physical anomalis like pale scaly skin, large hands, and tails. The common trait amognst ferals was that their mental state regressed to an animal. But Eros know that this pack was being lead by an alpha, a feral with one or more mutations that could do some damage.

“Help us!,” shouted one of the prisoners being chased by the ferals..

“Move!,” Sydney pushed Eros forward. Her strength almost made him fall over. He started running towards the vault, limping every so often. Sydney stayed just behind him. Her hand pushed up against his back, keeping him balanced and granting him a boost in speed.

Eros tripped and fell to the floor. Sydney picked him up and slung him over her shoulder. The hall began to blur as Sydney picked up speed. On the ground behind them, Eros could see that she was leaving dents in the metal floor.

Sydney slowed as they reached the entrance to the vault. She threw Eros to the ground and broke the cuffs around his arms. “Open it, before they reach us,” she said.

Eros stood up and accessed the terminal to the vault, he began entering commands into it.

“Eros, put your hands up and move away from the vault,” squad leader Tryone commanded. “Why are you aiding these prisoners?”

Eros put his hands up and slowly turned around. Tyrone, Hiro, Venessa, and Ray were all aiming their guns at Sydney and her gang of escapees. He quickly turned to look back to where they just came from. The ferals were still chasing a few of the faster prisoners, the slower ones were already being eaten by ferals in the back.

“Sir, we’re trying to escape the ferals,” Eros pointed to the ferals down the hall. He then gestured to his cuffed subordinates, “And we also didn’t have much of a choice but to let these prisoners come with us.”

“Just open the vault already,” Sydney commanded.

Tryone trained his kinetic rifle onto her. “You are a prisoner. You will speak when spoken to or I’ll blow a hole straight through your head. I’d like to see you heal from that.” His gun whined with a droiding ringing noise. “You will release my people and I will think about letting you all go free.”

“No. How about you open the vault and we all go in. And then I will release them,” Sydney responded.

Tyrone turned up the dial on the kinetic rifle. The droiding noise from the rifle climbed higher and higher with each tick of the dial. “I’m the one making the decisions here. Now do as I say or die.”

Eros eyed the ferals. They had just about finished eating the prisoners that they caught. The few that had finished looked to be eyeing Eros and the others, ready to pounce once the other ferals were done.

“We don’t have time for this. Onces the ferals are done with their meal and they will be coming for us next,“ Eros said as he turned around to the terminal and began to open the vault.

“Vanessa, stop him,” Tyrone commanded.

Vanessa moved to stop Eros.

Sydney grabbed her shoulder, preventing her from moving forward.

Vanessa pointed her gun at Sydney and fired. The bullets bounced off the bone shield Sydney constructed.

Sydney smacked Vanessa's rifle, sending it flying out of her hand. She then kicked Vanessa, causing her to fall into Ray.

Tyrone fired a kinetic blast from his rifle.

Sydney used the shield on her armor to defend her head. The blast tore through her bone covered arm, ripping a massive hole through her arm.

The ferals down the hall shrieked, charging down the corridor to attack the group. Eros could hear the sound of gunfire as the gang of prisoners and his fellow guards turned their guns on to the ferals.

Eros entered the last security protocol and the vault door unlocked itself and opened, revealing the vault inside. “The doors open, everyone inside,” Eros said as he stepped into the vault.

Once everyone else followed him in, he closed the vault door from the inside.