"This was supposed to be faster…" Zaffre was in a car with Detective Granite who was afraid that she was going to harm him if he upset her. They both had gotten the message from Cambridge to meet up with him at the foreclosed mall to help. However, there had been a small earthquake, and thus one of the main roads were destroyed, nearly making it impossible to cross. The two were taking the long route on a side route to get there, crossing the messy traffic as they went. Thankfully, they were nearing their location.
"I'm sorry Miss Verlegen, but I don't have sirens on my Cadillac," Granite apologized. Then again he would annoy a lot of people by turning a siren on to just get by faster, and it would be illegal in its own sense. They had gotten texts from Cambridge to come to this location, and that was not enough to justify a police force being called, but they came to check things out and see if everything was alright. Zaffre was glad that her children were up to handling this task, doubting it was close to easy. She just really wished they had informed her earlier.
"Least traffic seems to be thinning, think we'll be there soon?" Zaffre asked. Traffic was looking less intense now, but it still was pretty bad. The only thing that had improved was the seemingly lowered volume of cars. Granite drank some milk at the moment, until he put it back in his coat pocket.
"We should be almost there now… what the?" Granite pressed on the brake, the Cadillac slowing down quickly. The two could see a lot of smoke in the near distance. Cars were being forced to turn go back and head another direction. They finally arrived to the once foreclosed mall, which now there was nothing but mostly a huge fire and rubble. The fire department were already on scene and working their hardest. Zaffre climbed out of the car to witness the terrifying scene. This was the place her son had told them to meet up, but the older squid presumed Cambridge was not inside. She saw no sign of her other children yet either. Granite approached one of the firemen, Zaffre deciding to follow.
"Excuse me, I am Detective Granite with the IPD," Granite introduced himself to the only firefighter doing nothing but give orders and instructions on what to do to combat the fire and suppress it. He was an older squid, but he seemed calm and collective like he had fought thousands of wild blazes in his history.
"What can I do for you and your cohort, detective?" the elder asked, wondering if there was some sort of arson involved here, but so far the gas line under the mall had exploded, and that was the last nail in the coffin to finish a majority of the mall off.
"We're looking for my son Cambridge. He's kind of short and should be with a crabby girl with a scar and two eye colors. Have you seen them?" Zaffre was not even near the fire, yet she could feel the intense heat from all the way over where she stood. She considered becoming a firefighter at one point in her life, since she was very strong, but the mother had decided against it because she did not want to risk getting horrifically injured while raising her child.
"Yeah. They aren't hard to miss together or alone," Granite chuckled. The man in the fire uniform shook his head.
"Sorry, ain't gotten anyone here like that," he apologized in reply. They heard more rubble moving a little as the blaze intensified. Zaffre sighed in irritation. She was going to have to wait with Granite for all her kids to show up.
Cambridge was in pain. His slowly opening eyes tried to focus and adjust to his surroundings. Everything was fuzzy. He panted and coughed, feeling a burning feeling around him. He lay in the caved in underground parking lot, where there was fire blazing randomly across. He looked at the source of his pain, his right tentacle and left arm.
"Ah-!" Cambridge screamed in shock. His arm was impaled and trapped under rebar and heavy debris. His tentacle was stuck between the piles of rocks, its blue color and orange tint stained in dust. Some of his blue blood seeped from the injury in his arm. Cambridge panicked, seeing the fire spreading. He had no idea what to do.
"Help me! Someone! Help!" Cambridge cried out. Ahead of him, he looked up from the place he fell from. There was no chance to climb out of there, but no one was around to help him. The squids who attacked them in the mall were all splattered now beyond the one who kidnapped his fiancée. He didn't know what to do. He hung his head, defeated.
"Dad… guess history repeats itself, doesn't it…?" Cambridge recalled his mother's retelling about his father's sacrificial death in a fire to save them. He was going to suffer the same fate, and he had to accept it without tears nor regrets, but only memories of his family. Suddenly, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Nearby were the two knives lying under a piece of rock beside his custom inkbrush. The squid he had splattered had accidentally dropped them. At that moment, his mind turned around.
"…no… I won't let my family be ruined again!" Cambridge's voice echoed in his mind. One death had left nothing but one big scar in the hearts of sheen's family, and he refused to create a bigger wound for everyone. With full determination returned, he kicked the rock off the knives, using his free tentacle to pull them over before he grabbed it with his right hand. Only his legs, his left tentacle and his right arm were not trapped.
"Gotta do this… fast…" Cambridge opened the first knife, sharpening it on the concrete beneath him. H raised it to his left tentacle that was stretched back from where it was pinned. He brought the knife right up to the thinnest part of it near his head. He bit his lip in agony, beginning to slice through as fast as he could. In barely a minute, the tentacle was cut off, small blobs of blue blood gushing out. The new wound throbbed in pain.
"When I get out… I will find you, Zaiton… just you wait and see…!" Cambridge panted, putting the knife down. He then grabbed the biggest jagged rock his one hand could hold, raising it high and bringing it down on his trapped arm. He let out a cry of pain, feeling his arm hurt more, but he had no choice. If he wanted to do to his arm what he had done to his tentacle, he would have to break the bone of his forearm since the rebar was piercing the area above his wrist. It took a few more hard painful swings, but eventually he succeeded.
"Alright… agh… now for the hardest part," Cambridge panted, sweating a lot. The fire had spread a bit more, but he was doing his best to keep that in mind to check on the blaze occasionally. The teenage squid reached to his trapped hand. He first removed the ring from it, put it in his mouth, and then slipped it onto his other hand beside the other ring, the two representing his engagement. He did not want to lose either of them if he could help it. Cambridge grabbed the other knife and opened it. The blade bigger and sharper than the other, looking almost brand new as well.
As he cut through his arm, tortured agony and shock waves of pain coursed through his body. He had to saw through it with all of his strength and effort, doing just as his dad had done, except he wasn't using his own teeth for a makeshift knife. He would never risk breaking the ones dangling around his necklace either with how old and brittle they were. The young boy bit his lip, hard enough to actually draw blood.
"Uhgggg-aaaaaaaggggh!" Cambridge cried out as he finished cutting through his arm. There was nothing left of that arm beyond the badly bleeding elbow. The teenage squid grabbed his custom inkbrush, using it as a crutch at this point. He began to make his way toward the fire while it had spread onto a few loose stones. He crouched down, closing his eyes before thrusting his gaping wound into the fire, feeling it burn on contact. His only option was to cauterize it to stop the bleeding. As fast as he could after the excruciating start, Cambridge pulled his amputated limb back out, panting.
"Can't… faint… I've got to get out..." Cambridge continued his slow pace to try and get out of the underground parking garage, leaving behind his trapped limb and tentacle, the knives and a lot of his blood.
"Zaiton… Zaiton… Zaiton…" his mind continued to repeat as he staggered.
"So this is what you've been doing?" Zaffre asked. She and Granite were now with her children and the squid sisters who had showed up, having had to take a longer route here because of the very traffic issues the same ones they encountered.
"Yeah… the copper facility was insane…" Marie muttered, her boyfriend nodding in agreement.
"Antique shop was a bust for the most part too," Kreon shrugged. She found it very satisfying to beat up Jelek.
"Well, at least you've got to checking. I'm just concerned that we haven't seen Cambridge or Celesio. I've advised the fire department to look for them," Granite claimed, hoping that the engaged pair were not even here, and hoped they were safe like the rest of them.
"If I have to, I'll go help," Rackley declared, rubbing his head, finding things like this annoying to be constantly worrying, more so than the teenage squid's own mother did at the moment, though Zaffre had more confidence in her children than most parents would, given the escalating situation.
"Don't worry. Cambridge always has a plan, even if it's been made without five minutes of thought being put into it," Alizarin laughed, receiving a few agreeing chuckles, though Kreon rolled her eyes. That blue squid was good at planning on the fly, but his execution was horrible, but that was what family was for in a sense, to make sure everyone had support and assistance.
"Huh… something is going on," Callie pointed out, noticing three firefighters who had gotten pulled away from their firefight, the chief radioing in something.
"You squiddos wait here to see if Cambridge and Celesio show up. Me and Zaffre will go check it out quick," Granite claimed. The group of squids did not protest.
"Alright, I guess," Zaffre reluctantly agreed. She initially wanted to stay behind and watch out for her son, but decided getting her mind off would help take away some anxiety. The two went to follow the trio of firefighters inconspicuously, all heading to the left side of the foreclosed mall.
"Sir, you need to calm down," one firefighter chimed up.
"You are in critical need of medical aid. In any moment your body could go into shock from the pain," another added. When the two got closer to see what was going on, Zaffre felt her heart stop.
"Cambridge…?!"
Her son was there, his custom inkbrush acting as a crutch. Flashbacks rung in Zaffre's head about how she lost her husband in seconds, like her life was flashing through her eyes.
"Holy shell…" Granite gasped. Out of everything this detective had saw on his career, this was a new level of terror.
"…I can't… I need to find Zaiton…" Cambridge panted. His mom started approaching, with that look of anger across her face. One of the firefighters attempted to halt her.
"Ma'am you need to back away from the sce-gruh!" the firefighter felt a jolt of pain ring through his body. Zaffre jabbed a knee into his lower stomach, making him collapse holding his stomach in pain.
"Cambridge!" Zaffre kneeled to her son.
"Mom…?" Cambridge weakly spoke, seeing her fingers ball up into a fist with tears in her eyes. She saw his stub of an arm and cut off area of his tentacle, and the many bruises and burns across his entire body. In one second, he got punched overhead, and everything went black as he slumped to the ground on top of the firefighter.
"Get him to the emergency room."