"We're here," Mr. Davenport said, parking the car and turning off the ignition.
"So cliché," Bree commented, clearly unimpressed. "A warehouse? Really? That's totally original."
Mr. Davenport, Tasha, Bree, and Leo all climbed out of the car, squinting into the darkness at the warehouse that had been illuminated while the headlights were on. Locking the car and turning on his flashlight, Mr. Davenport led what was left of his family toward the building warily. They had come straight from the ruined Davenport Mansion, following Adam's GPS signal to this lonely building.
In sneaking through the rubble earlier that night, they had been relieved to find that the house had not been crawling with people. It had not been too difficult to find a way to get to the lab, which was (surprisingly) still in one piece for the most part. Needless to say, their worst fears had not come true.
Back to the present, upon walking up to the metal building, they were not shocked to see that the large door to the warehouse was locked with a padlock. The padlock, however, was no obstacle for Bree. She broke it easily, her bionics doing the job. Mr. Davenport pulled open the door just wide enough so that they could slip through, but no wider than that.
"What's in here?" Leo asked, his gaze following the flashlight beam as it shone on miscellaneous farm junk. "If this isn't it, where is the entrance supposed to be, then?"
"We'll just have to look around. It seems like there are no other storage spaces, so that means my brother is underground. Look for something in the floor," Mr. Davenport instructed.
They split up, and after five minutes of searching and bruised shins, Tasha found it. "Donald, I think this is it!" she called.
The other three came over to the place where she was standing, looking at the trap door Tasha had revealed by moving a couple of boxes. "Is this the entrance?" she asked.
"I think so," Leo said, and he gripped the metal ring on the small wooden door, pulling upwards. They saw that there was a staircase going down as soon as the door came free.
"This is too easy, especially for Douglas," Bree said.
"It's called a low budget," Mr. Davenport explained with a shrug. With that, they descended down the staircase, the dark enveloping them.
"This is creepy," Bree said with a shiver, keeping her eyes fixed on the stairs below her, which were tactfully lit up by Mr. Davenport's flashlight. They continued on in silence until they made it to the bottom, seeing a long hallway in front of them with many doors on each side.
"What now? How do we find them in this maze?" Leo asked.
"We'll have to search every room," Mr. Davenport said.
"That'll take forever!"
"Not if I do it," Bree said, and she proceeded to do so with a whoosh.
A second later they heard her all the way down the hall, saying "There are more hallways down here – I can check these as well."
The three non-bionics jogged to the end of the hallway where Bree had been, and after a second she appeared by their side, saying "I found them." Walking at normal speed, she led them to a metal door, stopping outside of it. "They're both in there," she said.
"Leo, Tasha, I want the two of you to go back to the car and wait for us," Mr. Davenport said, looking at them seriously. "This is going to be dangerous, and the two of you will only be a liability."
"Gee, thanks," Leo said sarcastically. "Glad to know we are appreciated around here."
"He's right, Leo," Bree said. "You've seen what Douglas and Chase (and/or Spike) are capable of."
"Come on, Leo," Tasha said, guiding her son back down the hallway.
"Oh, Bree, I forgot to mention this, but Spike can use bionics – he for sure has super speed now," Leo said quickly, and both Bree's and Mr. Davenport's faces paled.
"Leo! Why didn't you tell us that before?" Mr. Davenport hissed.
Leo shrugged, saying "I didn't think of it until now!" Leo was lucky that at that point, he and his mother had rounded the corner and were out of sight.
"What now?" Bree asked hopelessly.
"We wait for a while so that we can give Tasha and Leo time to get out, then we try our best," Mr. Davenport said simply, already looking defeated.
AN: Yes, that's it for this chapter. And yes, that was the second shortest chapter so far. The cliffhanger was just too good; sorry peeps :S
The support this story has received through reviews, favorites, and follows still blows me away; you guys are awesome!
And that is it for this short author's note as well - this story is just picking up pace, so stay tuned for Chapter 18!