Chapter 4: The Island Base
"Come on, they can't be far," Helena said, getting off the boat before Luis had tied it.
She barely registered Luis yelping in surprise and calling after her as he attempted to steady the boat. She ignored him and proceeded to follow the rocky path ahead, her mind on Ashley. Fighting Salazar and escaping Del Lago had delayed them enough, and getting Ashley back was only going to solve half their problems. With no back up in sight or in contact, they would have to make it through the base to reach Luis' machine.
-And they'll be expecting us,- she thought.
She cursed, almost breaking into a run. She had to hurry. She had to hurry. They'd wasted so much time on the boat.
"Helena!" Luis cried, finally catching up to her but struggling to keep up. "We… we shouldn't rush in blindly. They've set up posts just… just past this tunnel, we'll be walking right into the line of fire! Can we… can we please stop a moment? I-I need to catch my breath."
Helena bit back a growl, needing to make a deliberate, considerable effort not to snap at Luis and even more so to stop moving. He was tired and beaten up, she told herself, things she couldn't feel right now. If anything, she felt restless, full of energy that seemed limitless, but it also made her impulsive and irritable, her instincts and temper becoming harder and harder to reign. She didn't know if it was stress or yet another effect of the plaga.
"Make it quick," she said, not quite able to take away the threatening edge in her voice. "Do you know where they're taking Ashley?"
Still panting, Luis nodded, needing a moment before he could talk.
"There is a chance they'll put her in one of the holding cells in the nearest facility. That is, if they're not taking her directly to Saddler. Either way, it would be wise to check the facility. I know a shortcut, I've managed to find alternate routes during my time here, but… those posts I've mentioned? There's no getting around them, I'm afraid, and we need to access the gate they're guarding to reach the shortcut."
"Then we'll go through them," Helena muttered brashly, already on the move again.
"Now? Oh. Oh!" Luis exclaimed, scrambling after her. " Yes, of course, of course, I was done resting."
Halfway through the tunnel, Helena's handheld went off, a call coming through. She hesitated before answering it. Just minutes ago, she found out she still couldn't contact Hunnigan. There was a chance it was her handler, but it was more likely that the line was still jacked.
When an aged man's face appeared on the screen, what little hope Helena had quickly turned to rage. She nearly crushed her handheld, unused to her enhanced strength, and would have terminated the connection had the man spoken a second too late.
"I would not do that, Agent Harper," he said in Spanish, his old, pale face wrinkling as he smiled. "I see my boy Salazar did not succeed in his attempt to… subdue you. Perhaps I should have heeded Mendez's concerns regarding you and Luis."
"You have something to say to me, Saddler?" Luis murmured darkly, also in Spanish, his tone faintly hostile and confrontational.
-Saddler?- Helena thought in alarm, eyes quickly returning to the screen.
"Ahh, Luis," came the response, followed by a low chuckle. "I should have known your loyalty to me died with your grandfather. No matter, you continue to be of use to me. I must thank you for bringing Agent Harper to me. Her body's reaction to the plaga is so fascinating, wouldn't you agree, Luis? Perhaps I'll have you study her, as you did with your grandfather. Unlike him, she may survive your experiments."
"I'll kill you," Helena snarled viciously, baring her teeth.
"Ramon mentioned you were very ill-mannered, Agent Harper, and I see he was right. He also said you were very much an American, arrogant, overconfident, and uncompromising. Tell me, Agent Harper, do you realize the irony that you would not have made it this far without the gift of Las Plagas, or do you, like your country, mean to turn our power against us and claim it as your own? Regardless, you pose no threat to me, nor I to you. Time is your enemy, Agent Harper, time I've been whiling away, time your president's daughter has little le-"
Helena cut the call. Saddler had nothing more useful to say, and her handheld's casing had already cracked in her increasingly tightening grip. She hastily pocketed it, getting it out of her hand before she could do further damage.
Luis was looking at her, she noticed, like a guilty man ready to confess. It was a look she had seen in her line of work, but few people displayed as much shame and remorse as Luis did.
"It's true what he said, Helena," he told her with a sigh. "When I came home two years ago, everyone in the village was already infected. All the children were dead, including my nieces and nephews…" he trailed off, stopping to clear his throat and discreetly wipe his eyes. "For two years, I helped further Saddler's cause. I personally had a hand in creating the gigantes, the novistadores and the regeneradores you have yet to see. By the time I completed the machine, the only family I had left was my grandfather. He... did not survive the operation."
"I used people, Helena, picked them out like… like cattle for slaughter, and for that, I am no better than Saddler. To me, they had no names, their faces forgettable, unimportant. I don't even remember how many of them I strapped down on my chair. They screamed, they suffered. Those are the things I remember. I killed them, Helena, so that my grandfather would have a chance to live."
When Luis finished talking, he was unable to look at her, his head bowed, his shoulders sagged.
Helena thought of Deborah, the only family she had left. There was no question that she would do for her sister what Luis had done for his grandfather.
But she wouldn't have tried to run.
"Your machine is the only thing that can save Ashley now," she said, her way of telling him that those villagers did not die for nothing like he thought. "But if we live through this, and you try to run again, I'm going to beat you within an inch of your life and drag you into a cell myself."
She headed off, not even sparing him a glance. Behind her, Luis let out a weak, humorless laugh before following.
XXX
They hit the tunnel soon enough, which brought them to a giant platform on a cliff. Instinctively crouching with Luis behind a line of boxes, Helena peeped outward over the platform and was afforded a view of the area ahead.
One of the guerrillas stood atop a small building, using the searchlight mounted on it as he kept watch. Crates, sandbags and equipment were scattered about, indicative of how long they had been occupying the post. The other visible guerrillas were on patrol, armed with knives, morning stars, cattle prods and, most concerning of all, guns.
"Shit," Helena whispered, ducking back behind the boxes. "They have firepower."
"Maldito," Luis cursed in his mother tongue. "I was wondering when the merchant's merchandise was going to turn up. What's the plan?"
"I have a silencer," she said, taking out her Picador. She would have preferred to use the sniper rifle for this, but one shot from it would give away their location. "I'll take out the ones on the walls and in clear sight," she told him. "When they notice us, take out the spotlight and clean up whatever I miss.
"Helena," Luis hesitated, seeming cautious. "Be careful. I don't know if your body can take any more punishment, pain or no pain."
"Don't worry about me," she said as the searchlight flooded passed over them. "We have to get to Ashley, that's all that matters. Now cover me."
"Alright," he relented, though uneasily.
Maybe he was starting to get it, she didn't care if she didn't live through this, only that Ashley had to be saved.
Not dwelling on it, she waited for the next cast of the searchlight to pass, and when it did, she silently rose out of cover and aimed her Picador at one of the ground patrols. She had to be quick about this, it wouldn't take long for the others to spot the bodies.
She quickly lined up a shot, well aware of the searchlight, and fired twice, hitting the patrol in the head and killing him. A nearby guerrilla noticed and rushed towards the body, forcing her to hurriedly gun him down. She shot him in the arm, chest and finally the throat, managing to kill him before he could get a shout off. She disposed of the next similarly, but couldn't take down another two guerrillas before the searchlight was aimed back at her.
"Shoot it out!" Helena whispered in a rush, not ducking down as the first hints of light hit her arm then went out.
She killed one of the two with two well-placed shots, but the other started firing back at them.
"Get down!" Luis hissed, grabbing her vest and yanking her back to the ground.
The remaining guerrilla shouted, and suddenly a spray of gunfire struck the boxes they'd taken cover behind. A shot eventually broke through, catching Helena in the vest. Luis pulled her further back into the tunnel for more protection.
"Grenades," he reminded her, unlatching the first from his belt as gunfire momentarily ceased with the guerrillas giving chase.
Helena grabbed her own grenade and waited for the footsteps to get close. She rolled it out onto the platform while Luis tossed his up half blindly over the boxes. As the guerrillas jumped over to the platform, the grenades blew up from under their feet, their cries sounding through the explosion.
"Let's go," she said, hurrying to round the corner and using her Hydra to shoot a flailing guerrilla into the water.
Waving Luis on behind her, she ran to the stone wall of the small building ahead. She did a quick check around the first corner and, finding the way clear, surged ahead through the first doorway of the run down building.
When she passed by a large, cracked window and a ladder, a guerrilla jumped her from around the bend, tackling her and falling with her. She flipped over quickly to shoot him point blank, but before she could make the turn, he swung a cattle prod at her. Instinctively, she reached out to block it and the prod caught her on the hand, the shock strong enough to immobilize her.
Luis hurried over, shooting the guerrilla in the back of the head and stunning him. Helena recovered, shoving him off and punching away her assailant with her burnt hand. Luis shot the guerrilla a few more times, making sure he was dead.
"Helena!" he cried out, seeing her hand.
"I can't feel it, Luis," she assured him, getting to her feet once again.
"It doesn't matter," he said, coming up to her and reaching for his pack. "You need to wrap this," he insisted, pulling free the wrap he'd used to cover the golden mask.
"We're in the middle of a fight here," she grumbled.
Luis ignored her and moved them back behind the wall, his expression serious.
"You're not going to make it to Ashley at this rate, Helena," he told her, and she scoffed.
"I'll get to her," she promised.
"It'd be nice if you could actually walk away with her, too," he added quietly, looking her in the eye.
She took the wrap halfway from him and finished the job, tucking it against her palm. Her hand was burnt badly, from her palm to her fingers, but she still registered no pain.
"Let's just get this done," she said as she reached for her magnum, going for a stronger gun with less ammo restriction.
She grasped the gun in her hand, not feeling any surge of pain but noting how raw it was. It was going to hurt if she got the plaga out of her body, but until then she could still work like this.
"Let's climb the ladder," she directed, "get a better view of what's behind here."
As she went up, she was met instead by the heavy set man with a machine gun. Standing at the upper edge of the platform, he spotted her once her head came up through the hole in the flat roof.
"Down, down!" she barked at Luis, shooting the man in the gut with her magnum as Luis hopped clean off the ladder.
She slid down a couple of steps, bullets spraying the floor and the hole where she'd just been.
"Get behind the wall!" she ordered, unlatching another grenade, remembering how her Picador's bullets had simply bounced off the man's thick head when she shot him in the castle tower.
She flung it up the hole and ran, the memory of his fat, meaty hands on Ashley only fueling her rage at him. The grenade went off, blowing out a chunk of ceiling on the other side of their wall, but she doubted it had killed him. Before she could worry about him too much, Luis checked around his side of the wall and his voice grew loud in alarm.
"RPG!" he yelped. "Helena, jump!"
He threw himself behind a lower stretch of wall and she jumped the opposite way, out into the open because she had no choice. In the middle of them both, the wall exploded with a deafening crack of stone as it shattered outward where they'd been crouching. The large man with the machine gun fell; the explosion had collapsed the roof supporting him.
Luis started shooting after the guerrilla with the RPG as the machine gunner rose up from the fall and turned red eyes on an exposed Helena. She shot him twice with the magnum, once in the shoulder, and once in the head, and was glad to see that the bullet had penetrated, but the man had already started to raise his machine gun.
She scrambled to her feet and jumped behind the only remaining side wall for cover, two bullets catching her vest from the back. She had no time to think about it and lobbed her third and last grenade, rolling on to her back quickly to have the magnum raised and ready by the time her assailant rounded the bend, bullets showering the dirt already. The grenade exploded under his feet and she added to the damage with her magnum, nailing him twice in the face and neck before he spun and fell, the rapid gunfire ceasing.
Helena hurried over to the fallen man to make sure he was dead, and he was, not a limb twitching. Her relief was short lived when she saw Luis on the ground a few feet away.
"Luis!" she called out, rushing over to him.
"I'm okay," Luis panted. "It caught me in the vest," he explained, "Just got the wind knocked out of me."
Helena dragged him by said vest behind some boxes for cover in case there were more of them.
"Can you check me?" she finally asked, turning her back to him. "I think they caught my vest, too, but…"
"You're clean," Luis said after a moment, and only then did she allow herself to breathe in relief again. "Good thing I got the vests, eh?"
She gave him an unamused look.
"Good thing I shot the merchant, you mean."
"And I still lost my scepter."
"You're going to lose all of it when they arrest you, you know."
"Confiscate!" he corrected her. "They're going to confiscate it. That means I might get it back."
"Don't hold your breath on that," she told him, shaking her head.
She glanced around their new cover, checking for more guerrillas. The path looked clear for now.
"Are we going to run into more of them in your passage?"
"It's not the known route," he said. "Saddler may not have thought to protect the shortcut passages. Then again, he knows you're with me, so it's possible."
"Great," she grumbled, "more gunmen."
"Maybe not though," he added, always seeming to find the bright side of things.
"Okay," she sighed, "lead the way."
XXX
Luis' passage brought them just outside the facility, the area suspiciously unguarded.
-It's a trap,- said a voice in her head that sounded like Ada.
"Has to be," she muttered, not realizing she had spoken out loud. "What?" she snapped when she noticed Luis staring at her strangely.
"Ah, Helena," Luis began cautiously, "you're not by any chance hearing voices, are you?"
Helena looked at him, giving him the strange look he had been giving her.
"What the hell are you talking about?" she said flatly.
Luis' expression turned serious, further confusing her.
"Helena, you said, 'has to be,' a moment ago. Now, it's very likely I misheard, but you sounded like you were responding to someone. That, or you talk to yourself but this is the first I've heard of it. I ask because I believe the plaga have a collective intelligence, and I think they communicate through high frequency sound waves. So, if you were hearing voices, it could mean-"
"I'm not hearing voices, Luis," Helena cut in, sounding snappier than she'd like. "I was just... thinking out loud," she said lamely, her face reddening.
That was a lie, she did just respond to Ada's voice. Imaginary Ada, she knew that, but she wasn't going to tell Luis she was imagining Ada's voice.
"I see," Luis said, staring at her again. "But why are you blushing?"
Helena twitched, barely resisting the urge to punch him.
"It's none of your damn business."
"I see," Luis repeated, sounding infuriatingly amused. "So, then," he said, wisely changing the subject, "you were saying?"
Helena glared at him a moment longer, then nodded towards the double doors leading into the building.
"No guards, no barricades. It's a trap."
Luis blinked, then looked around, seeming to just realize it himself.
"Now that you mention it…" he said, walking towards one of the doors. "One of the regenerador labs is in this facility. If Saddler set them loose, we may be in trouble."
"What exactly do they regenerate?" Helena asked, taking position at the other door.
"Yes, the research team wasn't very creative with some of the names," Luis drawled, but quickly turned serious again. "El Gigante, the novistadores? If, by comparison, those are mere by-products of our experiments, the regeneradores are what you would call a resounding success. They can regenerate any missing body part almost instantly, be it their limbs, their heads or any hole you happen to shoot in their body. Near indestructible, really."
Helena turned her eyes from the window on the door to Luis.
"Where's their plaga?"
"That is our other problem," Luis said. "They have several in their bodies, around three to four, and they're only visible via thermal imaging. Fortunately, I know where we can find an infrared scope for your rifle. Unfortunately, it's in the regenerador lab."
"Of course it is," Helena grumbled. "Is there any other way to kill them?"
"Enough firepower should do it, but I'd wager it's firepower we can't spare."
Helena swore. Luis was right, and she doubted the merchant would turn up here.
She looked at the window again, seeing the outline of a figure entering the dimly lit hallway. As it walked directly under the light, she saw that it was a tall white wolf with untamed fur that bristled from its body in every which way, its red eyes glowing. Another soon turned up, followed by three more, all of them looking towards the window.
Helena barely managed to duck and pull Luis down with her.
"What? What is it?"
"Wolves," she whispered, switching her Picador for her Hydra. "I don't think they saw us."
"Colmillos," Luis said, also keeping his voice down.
"What?"
"Infected wolves, that is what we call them."
"You call infected wolves 'fangs'?"
"As I've said, not very creative."
Helena shook her head at the response, wondering why she bothered to ask.
"At least it's not regeneradores," Luis said, bringing out his own shotgun. "The colmillos' plaga come out as long tentacles from their backs. They're very fast and tend to attack together, so it was wise to pick your shotgun, Helena."
"There's still a chance there are regeneradores further in," Helena added, preparing for the possibility.
Luis nodded.
"You know, I'm surprised the colmillos are here at all. Salazar kept most of them as pets. They were part of the trouble I ran into in the castle, chased me all over the maze. Of course, it didn't help I had a pack full of food."
"Food," she murmured, and just like that, she had an idea. "Luis, give me some of our food stores."
"What are you thinking of?" Luis asked with a suspicious eye cast at her.
"We can lure them out, sneak in and lock the doors," she suggested. "If we attack even one of them, they're all going to come for us. This way, we won't even have to waste bullets."
"No, we're just wasting the rations instead," he said, unimpressed.
"We'll just use a little bit," she said, waving him off.
"Easy to say when you don't feel hunger!"
"Fine," she responded, her tone challenging, "you pop your head over the window and shoot them."
"I wasn't saying it was a bad idea…" Luis mumbled, finally fishing into the bag and pulling out a small pack of dried jerky he'd saved up. "You can probably use this."
"I just need a few pieces," she told him, taking a small handful.
"How do you know they'll smell it over us?" he asked as he put the rest of the jerky back and zipped up his pack.
"We'll be upwind of the smell," she said. "Besides, neither of us smells very appetizing. I just took a bath in the lake and you still smell like sewer rat."
"It's not a lake!" Luis sputtered indignantly, completely ignoring her other comment. "Wait, are you teasing me, Helena?" he practically cooed, sounding amused now. "Did you just make a joke? How precious!"
"Shut up," she snapped, then waved him over to the other side of the door. "Crouch there, be ready to run to the door when I say so."
"And where will you be?" he asked as she went off to plant the food down the ways a little.
"Beside that wall after opening it."
"... this sounds like a dangerous plan."
"Oh, shut up. I gave you the easy part and you're still complaining."
"Yes, well, I don't relish it when you throw yourself in the way of a bomb either. I care about you, you know."
"Just be ready to run," she told him, going back to the side of the door and ducking down. "Here we go," she said, waving him down.
Taking a breath, she slowly pushed in the door about two feet, hearing low, growls coming from the hallway and towards them. She quickly ducked against the side wall, holding her breath to keep quiet.
She couldn't see them at first, but as the growls got louder, she saw the first wolf start down the hill with its nose to the ground. Three others followed, just as she had seen in the window. She was in perfect sight of them; if even one turned around and saw her, they'd all be on her in seconds. But for the moment, the wolves kept their snouts down, sniffing for the treat she left further down.
Judging it safe when they found the jerky, she snuck around the corner of the building to the door and waved across Luis. As he made a dash for it, a wolf lifted its head, turned, and looked back at them. It growled, turning away from the jerky to face him.
Helena was already at the door, only waiting for Luis to take the last few steps before the first of the wolves rushed for them. The moment Luis stepped in clear of the door, she slammed it behind him.
The barking sounded unexpectedly close, and she could see them through the window bounding over. She held the doors in.
"Luis!" she growled with the first bump of a frantic wolf against the door, their barks so loud it hurt her sensitive ears. "Find something to brace this door with."
"Right!"
Luis turned into a room to the left to find something. Glass was shattered in the small window, not enough for the wolves to get through, but paws and snouts could fit. She backed up her feet from the door and held it without feeling the effort, but she wondered if her arms might give way without warning from exhaustion alone.
"Hurry!" she called after Luis, the growling getting louder and starting to give her a headache.
She turned to see where Luis had disappeared to, in time to see a final red-eyed wolf leap at her seemingly out of nowhere.
She barely had a second to comprehend there was another wolf before another intercepted it mid-dive, smashing into the fifth wolf from the right side room and nowhere at once. The new wolf bit and started tearing at the other's throat with its teeth.
Helena's back was to the door, still holding it shut as Luis rushed in, Red9s drawn at the sound of commotion.
"Not the white one!" she shouted at the last second.
Luis shot the black wolf. It howled as plaga erupted from its back, tentacles flying, but another careful shot put the wolf straight down again. The white wolf mewled and pulled away, muzzle dirtied with blood from the other wolf.
Everyone was still for a moment, then Luis, with his gun still trained on the white one, uneasily said, "Helena…"
"I know this wolf," she told him, recognizing that injured leg, the punctures having come from a bear trap. "She saved my life," she said, and the wolf looked at her like it knew it was being talked about and let out a small whine.
"It's a wild animal, Helena…" Luis trailed off in protest.
"Don't hurt her, Luis," she snapped. "Are you going to get a brace for this door or what?"
"If it eats you while I find a brace, I'm going to feel very, very bad."
"Noted," she said, then shooed him off. "Now, find one."
He slowly, doubtfully left again, though she could see him staying close and leaving the door open just in case he had to rush back.
"Hey, girl," she called out gently, holding out a hand for the wolf. "Thanks," she said, looking at the dead wolf. "for that."
The wolf tilted her head, golden eyes shimmering bright. She was a big wolf, no doubt, standing both tall and formidable and with enough bulk to do damage. Her fur was off-white and dirty, more matted than the others, and she had mud all over her legs in addition to dried blood on her injured one, but Helena knew that fur was probably pure white when she was washed and she'd be quite a beautiful wolf without the bloodstains from her jowls and leg.
"You're not going to hurt me, are you, girl?" she said, speaking softly.
The wolf let off a soft whine, approached cautiously a few steps, then licked the tips of her fingers in a friendly manner.
"I'm back," Luis announced with a long pole in his arms. Helena moved slightly so he could slide it between the door handles and lock the outdoor wolves out for good.
"I'm going to have a look around," Luis said, warily glancing at the wolf one more time. "Here, Helena," he offered as he handed her his pack. "I wouldn't want to give any more colmillos more reasons to kill me, and it looks to me like your canine friend is hungry."
With a wave, Luis headed out. Helena first looked at the pack in her hands, then at the wolf, who was staring at her with wide, curious gold eyes. She opened the pack, trying to find something suitable enough for a wolf. They didn't have much left, a few energy bars, some crackers, chips and what was left of the jerky they used as bait.
She grabbed the jerky and placed the pack on the ground, the wolf's eyes fixated on the food she just fished out. As she reached into the plastic bag to get a strip, the wolf fidgeted about but remained seated, anxiously licking her lips.
-She's acting like a pet dog,- Helena thought, having suspected before that the wolf was domesticated in some capacity.
Slowly, she held out her hand to the wolf, the strip of jerky on her palm. The wolf sniffed curiously and froze, eyes lighting up, then quickly gobbled up the entire strip, barely chewing it before begging for another.
"Wow, you are hungry," she said, feeding the wolf another strip.
Figuring the wolf was also thirsty, searched the immediate area for something that would make a suitable enough bowl. She found a small tray and set it down in front of the wolf, taking one of their last two bottles. She gave to the wolf what would have been her share if she still felt thirst, though she did have a little for herself first for the sake of rehydrating.
Again, the wolf sniffed at the offering, then began to drink in earnest. Helena cautiously placed her hand on the back of the wolf's neck, and when the wolf just stopped for a moment and resumed drinking, she began to pet the animal. Sure that the wolf was completely at ease with her, she checked the leg that had been injured by the bear trap.
It looked to be healing well for an injury that didn't receive any treatment, and there didn't seem to be any signs of infection. It also appeared to be the worst of the wolf's injuries, the rest were minor scrapes from the brief scuffle with the colmillos.
"Way's clear," she heard Luis say loudly from a distance, loud footsteps heading their way. "Next room leads to the regenarador labs," he said as he approached them, looking at the wolf with an uneasy expression. "I found more cages ahead, and more dead wolves. If I had to guess, I'd say the wolves were somehow loosed and attacked the colmillos, and the colmillos retaliated. Your canine friend is very lucky, or very smart, maybe both."
"Do you think she's infected?" Helena asked, absently petting the wolf.
"It's more likely than not that she is, Helena," Luis answered, watching the wolf for a moment. "The good news is, the plaga is nowhere near mature. She and the other wolves must have been very recently brought in."
Helena nodded.
"I saw her earlier when we were heading to Pueblo. She was caught in a bear trap and I freed her."
"And now she's returned the favor," Luis remarked in amusement, finally seeming to relax around the wolf. "Without the right equipment, I can't tell whether or not the plaga eggs have hatched. Unless she coughed blood while I was gone…?"
"No," she said, then her hand stalled mid-pet, an idea coming to her. "There's a chance the eggs haven't hatched? Would the drugs you made work for her?"
Luis didn't respond immediately, seeming surprised by the question.
"It's not something I've tried, but it should work. But, Helena, how exactly would you go about that? The pills are nowhere near as attractive or delicious as jerky, and I don't think you should be prying her mouth open. She has sharp teeth, very, very sharp teeth."
"You just answered your own question," Helena said, reaching into her pocket for the bottle. "How many should I give her? Two?"
"Yes, I think so, but how are you going to-"
"Like this," she replied before he even finished asking, taking a strip of jerky and rolling it with a pill tucked in.
She held it up to the wolf, who stopped drinking and ate the jerky without issue. The second roll was devoured similarly, and soon all the water was gone.
"Wow," Luis murmured, shocked and impressed.
"Never had a pet dog?" Helena asked, going back to petting the wolf, much to the animal's delight.
Luis chuckled.
"Pet dog? Yes. Pet wolf? No."
Helena snorted but didn't comment. The wolf blinked at her, head tilted.
"So, Helena," Luis said, "is she... coming with us?"
She didn't say anything and simply looked at him, silently daring him to keep playing dumb. At the same time, the wolf turned to him, regarding him curiously.
Luis looked between them, then laughed.
"Well, how can anyone say no to that face?"
XXX
"Be ready for them," Luis warned as they stood before a door with a circular window they could peep through.
It looked pretty dank and misused for a building they conducted active research in, Helena noted, but at least it had lights, dim they may be.
"Is there a way to keep your canine companion from pouncing on the regeneradores?" Luis asked.
"Why?" she asked back, regarding him suspiciously.
"The regeneradores bite."
She scoffed, feeling pettily offended on the wolf's behalf.
"So does my wolf."
Luis gave her a hapless glance.
"If you think she can take it…"
Helena's new pet nudged her hand with a wet nose, as if understanding and reassuring her. She stroked back between the wolf's fluffy, upright ears while she pondered. There was no way to tell if the wolf would follow specific instructions from her, but Helena knew she was no weakling, having survived for this long against both the plaga and the colmillos.
"She'll be fine," she told Luis. "Don't worry about my wolf, worry about getting us those scopes and finding Ashley. You really think she's in this place?"
"There's more than one holding cell in here we use for test studies," Luis explained. "Saddler is just stalling us now, waiting for the plaga to mature. Keeping us busy with colmillos, ganados and regeneradores would do the trick. The old man's overconfident, too, I really wouldn't put it past him to keep Ms. Graham in the same facility he's stalling us in."
"Alright," Helena agreed, though she wasn't thrilled with idea of finding Ashley in a place like this. The girl had been through enough already. "Let's get going."
"Heading in," Luis affirmed, pushing the door in and carefully starting in ahead of her.
The shelves around them were stocked, from medical equipment to jars, canisters, and appliances, none of which were food items and all of which she found concerning. They passed the shelves and what looked to be a kitchen, slabs of rotting meat hanging from hooks.
She wrinkled her nose and even saw her dog turn away from it.
-God,- she thought, -it reeks.-
"Ugh, did all of you eat rotten meat?" she groaned as her wolf started sniffing around on the floor, for what, she couldn't imagine.
"I don't work back here," Luis replied defensively. "We're on the other side of the building."
"Surprise you couldn't smell it from there," she muttered, making a face. Her wolf started to wander, nose stuck to the ground. "Girl," she called, following after her, "Where you going? What'd you find?"
The white wolf yipped in an unusually high tone, one she hadn't heard from her before.
"Shh!" Luis quieted anxiously.
"Girl, what is it?" Helena asked, following her wolf around the corner.
She came upon a burnt, charred body on the ground. The wolf licked her jowls and moved close to the naked body, her tongue flicking out at it.
"Girl, no," she reprimanded her wolf, gently grabbing her by the scruff of her neck to stop her. "That is not food, don't eat that," she said, pulling her back from the body.
The wolf whined, looking after the charred meat feast with sadness.
"Control her!" Luis hissed, checking around a further corner beyond them to make sure they hadn't been heard.
"She's just hungry," Helena responded, growling at him. "Here, girl," she called her wolf, reaching into her pocket and pulling out one of the few jerky strips she had left. It was a small one, granted, but she didn't know when she'd need them again.
"You know what your wolf needs?" Luis asked playfully as he waved them over.
"Besides a large meal?" she mumbled, luring the wolf towards Luis with the jerky strip and rewarding it to her when they reached him.
"A name," he said, sounding proud of himself.
"That so?" she drawled, humoring him.
With her wolf finally cooperating, sad as she might be to trot along without her crispy treat, Helena walked freely beside Luis with her sniper rifle held in a hand.
"Yep," Luis chimed, speaking softly, but surely. "You should call her Duckling."
Helena looked at her proud wolf, then at Luis and the stupid grin on his face.
"Duckling," she repeated flatly, unimpressed.
The wolf made a confused sound, then tilted her head at Luis, gold eyes blinking at him.
"Duckling," he exclaimed cheerfully. "She took to you like a baby duck imprinting. Duckling!"
"I'm not naming her Duckling," Helena said gruffly.
The wolf nuzzled her hand, as if in thanks.
"It's a cute name."
"My girl is strong," she snapped. "Not cute."
"She kind of reflects her mistress, eh?"
Helena narrowed her eyes at him for the remark, but he just continued on without noticing until something clattered ahead. They both froze, the wolf following suit when Helena stopped, glancing at her for instruction.
"Is it one of them?" she asked Luis.
Luis ducked his head behind one of the shelves to check.
"Aye, Agent Harper."
She slapped him upside the back of the head briskly.
"Knock it off," she growled.
"Hey," he whined, rubbing the back of his head. He reached down to his belt, pulling loose one an incendiary grenade. "Can you keep Duckling moving with us?"
"Her name is not Duckling."
"Same question," he casually repeated without so much as a flinch. "I can burn it and we'll run past while it's regenerating, but we can't wait around if your wolf starts to linger. We don't have the scopes yet."
As her wolf started to growl, Helena nestled a hand at the nape of her neck.
"I'll keep her moving," she told Luis.
With a nod, Luis lobbed the grenade down the hall. At the opposite end, the regenerador, a humanoid, dark-colored figure, turned at the rolling click of the grenade striking the ground, its front looking much worse than its back. Helena had about a second to see its face, mouth hanging open with fangs too big to fit in it, all sharp as a shark's. Its red eyes gleamed from its small sockets a second before the incendiary grenade went off, fire lighting up the ground under it and engulfing it.
"Let's go!" Luis said, running towards it with his shotgun out and ready.
Helena followed, her sniper rifle in one hand, the other firmly but gently leading her wolf by the nape of her neck. Even as they approached the regenerador, its limbs were already starting to regenerate at an alarming rate.
Luis blasted it once with his shotgun as he passed, proving a wise move as the regenerador attempted to snap at them with its teeth. Helena hurried on with her wolf, who seemed to understand when she gave her a guided tug to pass the monster. She glanced at it, and what a revolting sight it made, its misshapen body thrashing on the floor.
They entered a room with barred arches and a curving stairwell down to a second basement level. Helena's wolf suddenly started barking, then escaped her grasp as a cry in Spanish rang out from below.
"Guerrillas," Helena said, raising her sniper rifle to the shouter she saw through the bars down below.
"Let's not take long," Luis commented, glancing nervously down the long, twisting hallway where they left the regenerador.
Helena shot off a guerrilla's half-armored head as two others rushed up the stairs, armed with morning stars and makeshift wooden shields. The wolf jumped the first of two, landing on his shield and knocking him off balance. He fell down the stairs, the wolf riding the shield on his chest like a sled. Leaving Luis to handle the other guerrilla, Helena ran to the stairs and raised her sniper rifle.
"Girl!" she shouted, prompting the wolf to pop off the fallen guerrilla's chest as he made a grab for her, and then quickly put him down with a shot to the chest and to the neck.
With the guerrilla dead, her wolf trotted faithfully back up to her.
"Good girl," she murmured, pulling out another very small strip of jerky for the wolf.
"Let's keep moving," Luis said, leading them to a door. "They have guards here, good chance Ms. Graham is being held in one of the cells nearby."
"The regenerador is capable of cooperating with the guerrillas?" she asked him, having thought the regenerador was similar to the garrador.
"That was odd," Luis admitted. "The regeneradores are even more indiscriminate than the garradors, Saddler's control on our experiments is weaker. Perhaps this one wandered off and they let it be."
Entering a room, he pointed immediately to a few bullet holes in a blockade of chalkboards in the room, which led down a pathway. Helena followed, her hand drifting to her wolf's scruff again, not wanting her charging into crossfire. Her wolf seemed to understand and didn't bark or run on ahead this time, though she growled lowly once.
"Helena…" came a familiar voice, muffled by static.
Helena stiffened up instantly, then shot on ahead. There was a guerrilla sitting with a row of monitors, the screens displaying different areas of the compound. Probably having seen them coming, he was ready with his gun out and shot at Helena, but only hit her bulletproof vest twice before her arm was around his neck, snapping it. He fell lifelessly to the floor.
"Dios," Luis mumbled in shock.
"Close the door," she told him as she headed straight for the monitors.
She saw regeneradores awkwardly pacing about in halls of the laboratories, guerrillas in the immediate vicinity, and then her gaze fixated on one screen, where Ashley, who sat curled up with her knees up, arms around them in the corner of a small, lonely cell. She gave an occasional whimper now and again, and mentioned Helena's name more than once.
Helena reached back for Luis as soon as he was close and yanked him over to the screen.
"Where is that?" she asked.
"They're the holding cells I was talking about," he explained. "They're a little past the laboratories, but… I don't have a key for her cell, Helena. The access keys I've taken from the other researchers will only work in the science area, I'm afraid."
"Would the guards have it?"
"In a way…" he trailed off. "A regenerador seems to have it."
"What?" she growled, confused and annoyed. "Why the hell would a regenerador have it?"
"Because look," he said, pointing to one of the screens where a regenerador, whose body was covered in spikes, had a key card attached to his hip that glistened on the dim screen.
"What the fuck," she cursed. "Tell me you at least know which room it's in."
"I do," he assured her, managing a grin. "I know exactly where that iron maiden is."
"Iron maiden," she muttered, unimpressed with its name. "What's the quickest route to the freezer with the least resistance?" she asked, turning back to the monitors.
Luis took a gander at the screens.
"Well, it looks like we've got ganados from here on out until we hit the labs, which is only in this one spot," he murmured. "They seem to have quarantined the rest of the regeneradores in the science areas. Maybe that other one really did just escape, eh?"
"So?" she pressed, not amused.
"So, I've got the route and it's not far to the labs," he confirmed, backing away from the monitors. "But we're still going to encounter some resistance on the way there, especially when we hit the labs with the regeneradores. They're right past this next area."
"Alright, I'll follow your lead," she said, looking down the slender pathway to a blue door on the other end of the room.
"Funny, it doesn't feel that way," he remarked, chuckling.
Helena's wolf came over to her and rubbed against her leg. She petted her wolf between the ears again before carrying on after Luis.
XXX
The next area had them dealing with guerrillas who employed a sort of hit and run tactic by utilizing a bullet proof roller door. With firepower back up, they threw dynamite and then quickly had the door closed, a process they seemed equipped to keep up for hours. Helena had neither the patience or the time and so, in a move Luis called stupid and crazy, she managed to roll a grenade past the door as it was closing.
The guerrillas made a run for it, but the blast of the grenade still caught them. It didn't kill them, instead making their plagas come out. Helena cursed, hating that she had to use a flash grenade to finish off the guerrillas.
"Alright, it worked, I'll give you that," Luis conceded, "but if those bullets hadn't hit your vest, I don't think I'd be congratulating you, Helena. You got lucky, and if I were you I wouldn't tempt the fates again any time soon."
"Yeah," was her only response, spoken quietly and noncommittally.
They continued on, encountering one more guerrilla who was armed with a morning star. Her wolf lunged, biting his leg, and Luis gunned him down with the Striker shotgun.
"Good girl," she praised her wolf, petting her affectionately.
They reached a set of gray double doors, the windows spattered with what looked like dried blood.
"Is there any way you can keep Duckling from attacking the regeneradores?" Luis asked, looking at the wolf in concern.
"I'll try," Helena said, reaching for the wolf's nape with one hand and her Hydra with the other. "I'll hold her if I have to."
Her wolf looked at her, seeming to understand the gesture, then pawed at the edge of the door, whining softly. Helena gave her wolf a rewarding pet, but kept her hand on her nape.
"Here we go," Luis said, opening the door and stepping into the dark hallway. "Lights are out, hopefully the power isn't."
Helena reached behind her ear and switched on her tactical light, casting a faint illumination ahead of them so they could see. Luis quietly closed the door behind them and they slowly ventured on.
A moment later, she heard something, faint at first but steadily getting louder. It was someone - something - breathing, the heavy, stuttered rasps that sounded so forced and rabid it almost seemed unnatural for it to breathe.
"This way," Luis whispered, leading them away.
Hearing a growl, Helena tightened her hold on her wolf, not painfully, but enough to have a good grip on her if she took off.
She stopped, hearing another rasp that sounded startlingly close. She grabbed the back of Luis' shirt, snagging him only seconds before he rounded another corner, and suddenly, a regenerador lunged, arms out and reaching for Luis.
Luis squawked in surprise and abruptly fired his shotgun, hitting the regenerador in the chest. It only staggered back from the blast, needing another two shots to be knocked down and then one from Helena's Hydra for good measure.
"Come on," Luis mumbled, his voice slightly shaky.
The regenerador already reconstructing itself, Helena hurried off with Luis, walking with her wolf as she kept the way ahead lit with her tactical light. She heard more rasping and shuffling, not just from the regenerador on the floor. The other regeneradores were coming for them.
Kicking through a bolted, chained gate that Luis pointed her to, she heard regeneradores from either side. One emerged from a side hallway, breaking right into their route, and another burst out of the double doors that led to the freezer room.
"Fucking locks," Helena growled, blasting into the first regenerador from her angle while Luis shot at the second, her wolf straining in her unbreakable hold.
The regenerador in front of her went still, gray, black and yellow liquid spurting from the stump of the arm she had blown off, the limb reforming fast. She quickly shot off its leg, dropping it to the floor.
"Hold them off!" she ordered Luis, leading her wolf to the freezer room and kicking the doors open. "Come on!" she called to him, just in time it looked like, as the regeneradores were growing limbs faster than he could shoot them. She couldn't back him up, her Hydra out of ammo and one of her hands still holding on to her wolf.
Luis scurried over to them, a regenerador on the floor reaching out for his ankle. Helena forcibly stepped on the outstretched hand, crushing it, and Luis finally made it through the doors.
"Agh!"
Helena turned, seeing the other regenerador with its mouth latched on Luis' right shoulder, its maw so big and wide it could have easily engulfed Luis' head whole. Acting quickly, she struck the regenerador's nape with her Hydra, the blow strong enough to dislodge it from Luis, and hurriedly shoved the stunned BOW past the closing doors.
"Med kit, med kit," Luis mumbled, grabbing his shoulder and heading towards the side room.
Not as willing to drop her guard, Helena lingered with her wolf by the doors to wait and see if they would hold against the regenerador outside. She watched Luis go, but her gaze soon strayed to scan the freezer room, particularly the rows of regenerador bodies at the center that hung from the ceiling like butchered livestock. The BOWs appeared lifeless, but for how long, she wondered.
Her wolf sniffed, then made a face. She petted the disgruntled animal, sharing the sentiment.
"Failed experiments, Helena, subjects that didn't survive the final phases but useful enough to keep around to further our research. They won't trouble us," Luis assured her as he fumbled through his pockets, eventually finding a card key and using it on a wall panel.
The door to the side room opened without incident, and though Helena knew Luis had gone out of his way for those access codes, it was equally unsettling how little effort Saddler seemed to put into strengthening the security in his own laboratories.
-Is he just stalling us?- she thought, growling quietly
"The scopes are in there," Luis said, pointing to a chamber as he went for the wall mounted first aid kit on the opposite wall. "Aiyiyi, this is deep," he hissed after baring his wounded shoulder. "That is going to leave a very unattractive mark. I do not think I can get away with saying I got this from an overly enthusiastic bedmate."
Helena, in the process of fixing one of the scopes on her sniper rifle, could only shake her head at Luis' uncanny ability to make jokes at the strangest time. She snuck a glance at the hanging regenerador bodies once more, still not relaxed despite Luis' assurance. Her wolf looked equally tense, seeming ready to lunge at the slightest movement in the room.
Luis, leaving his shoulder unattended for a moment, reached for his pack and dug into it, this time coming up with a bottle of pills.
"These should do it," he seemed to say to himself, taking three and popping them in his mouth. "We never confirmed if regeneradores can transfer the plaga with their saliva, no one exactly stayed alive long after being bitten by a regenerador," he said, his tone now humorless.
"You had another bottle?" Helena asked in surprise, having recognized the pills as the same ones Luis had given to her and Ashley for their plaga.
Luis blinked, looking back at her equally surprised.
"Of course I do, Helena," he said, now staring at her queerly. "You didn't think so? I thought that's why you didn't panic when the novistadores made off with Ms. Graham." He paused then, as if realizing what he just said, then added, "Well, I suppose that was the last thing in your mind, considering the circumstances."
The moment he stopped talking, one of the regenerador bodies dropped to the ground.
"Must have been loose," Luis said with a shrug.
The body twitched, then began to move.
"Or not," he mumbled sheepishly, looking embarrassed.
"I knew it," Helena snarled, stepping in front of her wolf to discourage her from charging ahead. "There's another rifle over there," she calmly told Luis as she lined up her shot. "Get the other scope and grab it."
"Shoot its plaga!" Luis reminded her, then rushed to get the gun and scope.
Easily seeing plaga through the thermal scope, Helena quickly fired at the first she saw and sent the regenerador reeling. Her wolf, as she had when Luis had been bitten, remained at her side, though she did growl at the BOW.
"These were all dead last I checked, I swear to you," she heard Luis say as he fumbled with his own rifle and scope, his injured shoulder making the task difficult. "They must have mixed in a live one in there to get us."
-Maybe more than just one,- Helena thought, taking out the other two plagas on the regenerador.
The regenerador seized again, but soon began flail and writhe on the ground.
"What the hell?" she mumbled in disbelief. "Why isn't it dead?"
"There's one on its back," Luis said like it was an afterthought.
"And you waited until now to tell me?" she grumbled, then focused back on the regenerador that had already back on its feet.
She shot its leg, dropping it back on the ground. She took aim at the last plaga, but as she pulled the trigger, it curled its body and sprang, launching itself towards her with its mouth agape.
"Shit!" she swore, barely ducking in time to avoid it.
As Luis struggled to help, she pulled her wolf away and switched to her Hydra, needing to keep a hand on her wolf to reign her in. She took advantage of the regenerador's sluggish recovery and shot point blank at its back, remembering where the plaga was. It reeled as it had before, then went still, finally dead.
Keeping the sniper trained on the hanging bodies, Helena slowly moved closer to Luis with her wolf.
"There may be more," she told him, sparing him a quick glance. "I'll help you with your shoulder when it's safe."
"Okay," he responded in a strained voice. "I think it pierced to the bone."
She fired a couple of rounds at the regenerador bodies, attempting to draw out any more live ones. She waited, then fired off another round and then waited again. When nothing happened, not a sound or a twitch from anywhere in the room, she lowered her weapon and went to Luis' side.
"We should hurry," she said, ripping off his sleeve where blood stained through and helping him remove his flak jacket. "Good thing you had this on," she said, noting the large puncture marks on the jacket, no doubt taking the brunt of the regenerador's bite. "It probably saved your arm."
"Told you I was smarter than I looked," Luis joked in a strained voice, the smile he attempted looking more like a grimace. As she cleaned and wrapped his shoulder, he said, "We should fix you up, too."
"Later," she replied dismissively and glanced at the doors, where she could hear regeneradores gathering and shuffling about outside. "When we're not cornered," she added, then finished wrapping his arm and ripped off the end of it to tape it in place. "Not too tight?"
"Not at all," Luis said, managing an actual smile as he picked up his vest to put back on. "Thank you, Helena. You have a surprisingly gentle touch, has anyone ever told you that?"
Ignoring him, Helena turned to her wolf and called her over with a soft, "Here, girl."
Her wolf eagerly approached her, and remained pleasantly well behaved as she cleaned and covered her injured leg. Helena went about it quickly to save the wolf discomfort, and when she stood again, Luis had armed his own sniper rifle with a scope.
"Incredible," he murmured, chuckling and shaking his head in obvious amusement.
"What?" she demanded, annoyed and confused.
"You even take care of the wolf before you take care of yourself," Luis pointed out, then coughed on a laugh. "Hell, you even took care of me before that."
"Shut up," she growled, rising to her feet to pick up her sniper rifle from the table.
"And you take it as an insult!" Luis exclaimed, laughing in earnest.
Before Helena could hiss back at him, the doors burst open, the latch in the center finally giving, and three regeneradores stumbling inside.
"Go through them!" Luis yelled, pulling a grenade from his belt. "The exit isn't far, follow me!"
As the three regeneradores writhed on the floor from the grenade, Helena guided her wolf away and they ran out the doors. Luis took an immediate right turn when they exited the gated area and Helena followed him down a narrow hallway until they reached a steel door with a panel. Luis swiped a card on the panel, the reneradors right on their heels. Helena went in first with her wolf and Luis followed, hurriedly shutting the door behind them.
"Let's see them break through that," he said, a little out of breath.
"Where are we heading?" she asked, still holding on to her wolf.
Luis nodded.
"To waste disposal, we can reach Ms. Graham through it. I doubt they have any more regeneradores about, but I did see the iron maiden up ahead, beyond her cell." He stopped then, noticing her staring at him, and said, "The regenerador with the spikes. Iron maiden. Yes? We've discussed this, Helena, not the most creative with names."
"What else is different about this one?"
"Other than the spikes, you mean? It's much tougher than an ordinary regenerador, also more aggressive," Luis went on, then added, "We're more than likely to run into more ganados on the way to Ms. Graham's cell. Saddler does know we're here, and I'm beginning to suspect he either means to kill us or stall us."
"Yeah, I think so, too," she muttered, silently cursing Saddler and his games. "Tell me when we're close," she told Luis, and then headed down the narrow hall, her wolf right behind her.
XXX
They reached what looked to be the waste disposal control room. There was a door leading out and a large bay window overlooking the ground floor. Below, guerrillas milled about near the massive dumpsters, guarding the area. Helena raised her rifle, intending to shoot through the glass and pre-emptively kill one.
"Wait!" Luis suddenly shouted, waving his arms in front of her.
"What the hell," she growled, having been so close to pulling the trigger.
Luis simply held up a hand to her and went over to the controls. He then pointed to a large crane across through the window and turned to her with a big grin.
"See that? I can use it to dump the ganados in the disposal chute," he declared, already tinkering with the control panel.
"They can't possibly be that stupid," she muttered, keeping her weapon trained on the guerrillas but allowing Luis a chance to try.
He moved the crane over one of the guerrillas and lowered it, surprisingly catching the man unaware and plucking him up with ease. He squawked and flailed as the others scattered about, hiding behind the giant dumpsters. Even as Luis dropped the guerrilla into the giant chute, the others remained huddled in cover, not one of them thinking to check the control room.
"What the hell," Helena found herself saying again, watching the whole thing in disbelief.
Luis laughed, going for another attempt.
"Hah, look at that! Two at once!"
Helena shook her head, unable to fathom how Luis could have fun at a time like this. She lowered her rifle, watching as he dumped the pair of guerrillas and went for the rest. It wasn't difficult, the remaining guerrillas continued to cower behind the dumpsters, doing nothing more than shouting and shooting feebly at the crane.
"And that's how you do it," Luis said as he dropped the last guerrilla.
"We're lucky none of them thought of coming up here," she remarked. "Good thinking on the crane, though, it saved us ammo," she said, walking out the door with her wolf. "How much farther?"
"Just around the corner from the chute," Luis answered, jogging to catch up with her as they made their way across said area.
They went up a set of stairs, passed what looked like an empty conference room, and soon arrived at the holding cells. Luis held up a hand, indicating they had to be quiet, and lead them to take cover behind a wall separating them from the other half of the area. Helena's wolf began to growl, and she reacted fast, petting her and speaking soothingly to her until she stopped.
"Do you have any grenades left?" she asked Luis, keeping her voice low.
"None on me," Luis whispered back. "You?"
"Just three," she said, quietly moving to the end of the wall to peek into the hallway ahead.
Catching a glimpse of armed guerrillas patrolling their way, she took one of her grenades and flung it at the group. The moment it went off, they hurried past the incapacitated guards, Helena finishing off the survivors as they went.
They turned a corner and into another hall that led to one of the cells, at the end of which stood two tall, bulky men armored in thick, crude plates, one wielding a sledgehammer and another armed with a morning star. Suddenly, her wolf broke free from her lax grip and bounded ahead, lunging at one of the men and knocking him over. Helena sprinted towards the other, Luis following her, and together they gunned down the other, shooting the unprotected areas of his body.
"Girl!" Helena called, prompting her wolf to break away from the downed man and return to her side.
Her wolf safe, she and Luis killed the guard, not even giving him a chance to reach the morning star on the floor.
"Helena?" came a familiar voice from the other side of the cell door. "Helena, is that you?"
Hearing the frantic, desperate call, Helena turned towards the door and saw Ashley peeking through the small window and gripping the bars on it.
"Ashley!" she cried out, rushing to the girl.
"Helena," Ashley breathed, so relieved to see her she was nearly in tears. "You're here, you came for me."
"Yeah," she murmured back, attempting to smile reassuringly as she extended her free hand, which Ashley eagerly took with both of hers. "We're getting you out of there, okay? We know where the key is, we just have to-"
With a loud gurgle, one of the guards sprang to his feet, moving surprisingly fast. He shoved Luis aside and grabbed Helena around the back, swinging the morning star at her. She felt the pressure of it piercing into her side, but not the pain.
"Dios!" she heard Luis yelp while Ashley called her name in alarm.
She shrugged off the guard, her enhanced strength making it easy. He stumbled and fell back on the ground, giving Luis the opportunity to open fire. Luis expended nearly half a dozen shotgun shells on the guard, making certain he was dead, and proceeded to do the same to the other.
The threat gone, Helena accessed her most recent injury, first seeing the deep scrapes on the back of her arm and then the morning star, some of its spikes protruding out of her side.
"Oh, my God," Ashley mumbled in horror, making a strangled noise as Helena pried the weapon off. "Helena, are you-"
"I'm okay," Helena hastily told both Ashley and Luis, not even giving him the chance ask. She dropped the morning star and turned to Luis. "I'll get the key, stay here with them. Is the iron maiden-"
"No," Luis cut her off, shaking his head. "You stay here, Helena," he told her, staring at the fresh blood at her side, visible even under the vest and the jacket she wore. "I know where the iron maiden is, I'll get the key," he said as he took from his bag the other med kit he had taken from the freezer room.
He then nodded towards Ashley, who looked at her pleadingly, silently asking her to stay, and Helena hadn't the will to protest after seeing the look on the girl's face.
"Okay," she relented, taking the med kit from him.
Luis left his pack and other guns with them, taking only the sniper rifle and extra rounds before going off. Once he was out of view, Helena turned back to Ashley, stepping as close as she could to the girl.
"Are you okay?" she asked. "Did they hurt you? Did they do anything to you?"
"No," Ashley responded softly, her voice shaking. "They didn't do anything to me, they just put me in this cell. I think they were going to take me somewhere but it looked like they changed their minds. Maybe they found out you were coming?"
"Could be. Saddler knows we're here," she agreed, reaching for the pack Luis left with them.
They were so close, she thought. They just needed to get to Luis' machine, get out of range of the jamming signal and call for the extraction team. Just a little more, she told herself, and Ashley would be on her way home, safe, cured, and free of Saddler and the plaga.
"Here," she said, handing food, water and the bottle of pills through the bars. "Take the pills first, and you have all of that, okay? I've already set some aside."
Ashley gratefully took the offered items, saying a soft, "Okay," as she did.
Before doing anything else, Ashley reached for her hand, grasping tightly.
"Helena," the girl started, eyes becoming teary. "Thank you… for coming for me."
Helena looked in Ashley's eyes and nodded, squeezing her hand comfortingly. At her side, her wolf pawed at the door, prompting her to use her other hand to pet the agitated animal.
"Go eat," she gently urged Ashley. "Luis will be back soon. I'll be right here."
"Okay," Ashley said, squeezing her hand back before slowly letting go.