Chapter 13: Liberation
FREEDOM!
With the elevator out of service because of the power outage, we had to climb down thirteen flights of stairs to get to sub-level thirteen. All of the hallways also had the red emergency lights, but the nearby rooms seemed to be lit up, maybe from emergency generators.
"Why do they have to put so many floors between the ground level and sub-level thirteen?" Jamie asked panting.
"Insurance policy," I said "in case the hybrids were to get out, they could be stopped before they could escape."
"How would you know that?" Draig asked stretching her legs.
"Sub-levels twelve through six were testing experimental weapons," I answered "I saw the labels on the doors on the way down."
"I found a map," Cher exclaimed.
The map was spread on a wall in a 32x17 grid. There were nine rooms and a freight elevator on the map. 'Xeno containment' was in the top left corner of the map, to its right was the freight elevator, to its right was a laboratory, to its right was a room labeled 'human containment'. The room between it and a hanger on the bottom right corner was 'human experimentation'. To its left were the bathrooms, to their left was 'xeno experimentation'. Between 'xeno experimentation' and 'xeno containment' was a room simply labeled 'office'.
"That was convenient," Draig said.
"I'll say," I said.
"Where should we begin?" Jamie asked.
"Serpents?" Sheppard asked.
"Xeno containment it is," Jamie said.
We made it through a long maze of hallways before we reached the xenomorph containment room. There were dozens of crates, each crate was ten feet by twenty feet by ten feet. They were stacked on top of each other and beside each other. There was a giant crane in the middle of the room, it was probably used for stacking the crates.
"Okay," I said "there are a lot more here than I expected."
"Let's start with this one," Cher said pointing at the nearest crate.
I looked at the lock, "We need code clearance to get into these, and I don't have the code."
Ed came up to me and handed me his card, "As a security guard I have access to all xenomorph containment rooms."
"Is there a way to unlock all of the doors at once?" I asked.
"Yes," Ed said "but it won't open the doors. We'll have to do that manually."
After Ed entered all of the proper codes we prepared to enter the first crate when Draig spoke up.
"What's that?" She pointed up at the ceiling and I saw that it was beginning to drip green liquid.
"Everyone to the walls!"I yelled. We all went to the wall and watched as a hole began to open up. When the hole stopped growing, a familiar winged figure dropped in.
"Tenebrous," Jamie said.
"Mother," I said.
"Good to see you too," she said "now let's free our Family."
As the Sisters climbed to the upper levels to free the xenomorphs that we couldn't reach, I opened the first door and put on my goggles. The clipboard on the door read 'Panthera', I got a chuckle out of that. I walked inside and instantly tripped. I rolled to my back and found the xenomorph clinging to the ceiling. She leapt down and sniffed me, I was paralyzed with fear, but then she started licking me with a cat-like tongue. I sat straight up and she began to purr and circle me.
"You're cute when you're scared," a seductive voice said in my head, it was Panthera. She stroked her tail up and down my spine, making me shiver. And then she lay down on top of me, purring.
"Cher," I said in a strained voice "she's crushing me."
A second later, Cher ran in and pushed Panthera off of me. "Patrick is MY mate," she said.
Panthera got back up and hissed. I stood between them, "Ladies please, we have bigger issues right now… like escaping."
Cher turned around and left, and Panthera followed. Before she left, she caressed my backside with her tail, making me blush.
In the light, I got a good look at Panthera. Her skin was solid black, like all xenomorphs she had a smooth head, she didn't have any tubes on her back, she also had paw-like feet with retractable claws. She and Tenebrous were having a very important talk.
Within the next hour we released all of the xenomorphs from their cages, we had over one-hundred Sisters on our side. No one was happier that Sheppard, he scanned every single one of the hybrids with his wrist gauntlet and was given hugs by almost all of the hybrids.
Tenebrous picked me up and put me on top of the crane; Sophia, Draig, and Cher stood by my side. "My Brothers and Sisters," I began "we have released you from your prisons, but you are not yet free. Freedom rests in the hands of Sheppard, who will fly us out of here. Everyone who has escaped needs to follow him to the freight elevator. However, a select few of you can stay with us: Panthera, Taurus (xeno-bull), Draco (xeno-snake), Aquila (xeno-eagle), Leo (xeno-lion), Lacerta (xeno-Komodo dragon), and Ursa (xeno-grizzly bear). The rest of you need to follow Sheppard to the freight elevator and get onto the escape ship. But everyone needs to hear this: do not harm the humans unless they attack you first, help anyone in need, and survive. Are we clear?" The collective shriek and cheers from the crowd answered my question. "Everyone head out," I said "we've only just begun."
When the room cleared, there were two crates left un-opened. One was labeled 'Predalien', the other was labeled '?'
"Mother," I said pointing at the unlabeled door "could you open that one, please?"
With one hand, Tenebrous pierced the metal door with her claws and ripped the door off of the hinges. Inside was something that looked like a human, but it wasn't. His skin was snow white and he had no hair on his head. He stood up and turned around. He was seven feet tall and wore some kind of bio suit.
"A Wise One," Tenebrous said bowing.
"Adam," he said.
"What?" I asked.
"My name… Adam," he said "my English… not good."
"Patrick," Cher tapped me on the shoulder "I was in the laboratory, and I found something that you should see."
"Show me," I said.
"I... follow," Adam said walking behind me.
In one of the wings of the laboratory, there were hundreds, if not thousands of tanks filled with the strange liquid from Xandy and Xerxes's tanks. Each tank held a human-like baby. There was a clipboard on the edge of a nearby table, the date on the most recent entry was today. I picked it up and read aloud: "Attempts to mix human DNA with Queen DNA. Four hundred-ninety eight failures, two successes. Mother: Queen 217, Father: P. Manchester. Blood collected from Manchester's surgery. Children, once hatched from eggs, were put directly into containers." I dropped the clipboard, fell to my knees, and cried.
"Why do you cry?" Cher asked rubbing my shoulder.
"John Smith," I said through my tears "I trusted him, and he experiments with my DNA behind my back. I thought that he was my friend." Cher kneeled beside me and hugged me from behind.
"We found the survivors," one of Cher's Sisters said. She led me to the two containers that held the living children; there was a label on the tanks, it read 'xeno sapien'. They looked about the same age as Xandy and Xerxes, about ten, and looked human. However, their fingers were about three times the length of my fingers. Their metatarsal bones were about three times as long as mine, and their toes looked like xenomorph feet. They probably walked on the balls of their feet as well, like digitigrade animals. But these weren't animals, they were people, and they needed to be set free.
"Cher," I said "please free my children."
Using the chitin beak inside of her mouth, she bit into the control panel and pulled out a mess of wires. The liquid drained and the tanks opened. The first thing that they did was shiver. And they looked at me with sad eyes; they were blue, just like mine. They smiled when they saw me… revealing pointed teeth.
"How cute," Cher said picking the girl up. She held her like a small child, and the girl cooed happily.
"Draig," I said "could you come here please?"
Draig walked in with her wings folded behind her back. She saw the boy, smiled, and picked him up.
"He reminds me of a picture I saw in a book," she said "a picture of Beowulf." The boy cooed happily.
"I think he likes that name," I said.
"Beowulf it is," Cher said "what about her?"
"She has black hair like me," I said "so what about 'Raven'?" The girl cooed happily at the name.
"Let's introduce Beowulf and Raven to the Sisters," Draig said excitedly.
Tenebrous was very happy that we had new members of the Family, Xandy and Xerxes were excited that they had a new brother and sister, Sheppard was happy about finding a new species, Adam was happy about the newest members. We all laughed at the fact that Adam called 'Beowulf' 'Bio-wolf'.
"We should probably go to human containment next," Jamie said "we'll free them, and maybe some will come with us."
Well, that took longer than I wanted it to. But it's done now and I have an assignment for you… the readers. I have a poll on my page, please look at it.