Disclaimer: NO I do not own Inuyasha. That awesome privilege belongs to Romiko Takahashi. Thank you!

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Chapter 19: Siege

"Are you sure you're alright?" Kagome asked again.

The guy she was talking to nodded. His face was bloody and bruised and nearly unrecognizable. "It may be hard to believe, but I've had worse." His words were slurred and garbled because his lips were swollen.

"Good, stay here and rest." Kagome smiled at him and stood up.

The injured were being kept on the upper floors and there were far too many.

Without knowing it, the kids of hell had slowly been making this place a fortress over the years.

In the 80's, when Smoke had passed through the walls and made them soundproof he had only done it with the intention of keeping the sound of their music inside. But whatever he did had made the wood unbreakable by the axes and picks the guards bombarded them with. The burned out fourth floor provided them with wood that they needed to block the first floor windows and door. Stockpiling medicine for those who had been to solitary or who had some other such horror put upon them had enabled them to take care of the people that the guards had injured when they ran inside and still have some left over. Being starved day in and day out had made some people smart enough to start stock piling canned foods and when they found themselves locked inside the food became very handy. Half the buckets used to catch water when it rained were being used as makeshift toilets and when they got full, as stink-bombs to the guards waiting below. The other half were on the roof, waiting for rain to fill them with fresh, drinkable water.

Their oasis, their safe haven, had turned into a fortress over night because they had been building on it over the years, making it stronger, inpenatrable. So even though the guards had axes and claws, they couldn't enter. And when the contents of their toilets began raining down on them, they refused to come closer.

It wasn't ideal circumstances but it was all they had. And it was better than what they had before.

"Sango, what's going on?" Kagome asked seeing her friend looking out the window into the courtyard below. They were on the third story.

"They brought some kind of drill." She said beckoning Kagome closer and moving over so she could see. "And they're wearing hazmat suits so the bucket-bombs aren't working."

Kagome looked down and saw three hazmat suits taking a large drill to the wood of the wall. "How long have they been doing that?"

"Twenty minutes." Sango smiled. "And three drill heads."

Even as she spoke, the guards curses floated up to their ears and they stopped drilling to look at their worn down drill head and the completely unharmed wall.

"When we get out, remind me to find Smoke and kiss him." Kagome laughed.

"Get in line." Sango said as a bucket-bomb came flying out of the window below them and hit one of the guys square in the face mask.

"Score!" Kouga's voice was easily identifiable as was Ayame's laughter. Despite his previous assurances that he didn't like Ayame at all, he hadn't let her leave his side since they had escaped inside. Ayame wasn't complaining.

Kagome and Sango laughed as the guard wiped the brown slightly liquid mixture of the face mask and glared up. The glare lost any power it had when sent through a hazy layer of feces.

Even guns had no affect on the wall, and when the kids pulled down the windows and the black shades that covered them, none of the guards could see where they were to shoot. This drill was their latest, and most recent, failure.

"Anyway," Sango turned from the window, "when do you think Inuyasha's coming back."

"He should be back soon." Kagome said faithfully. "He's been gone over a week."

The girls started back inside the dorms, the guards having lost their ability to entertain them for now.

"He needs to hurry up and find help." Sango said, her expression turning grim. "Our food wont last us forever. We're saving most of it for the sick and injured and eating sparingly but still we only have a few days left."

"We'll be fine." Kagome insisted. "Kouga and Ayame are working on getting a whole on the roof so we can start sending people out. Demons and those who are most injured on their backs first."

Sango laughed in amazement. "You were born to lead, Kagome. I don't think we could have done all this without you."

"You would have done fine, I have no doubt." Kagome laughed as they climbed the stairs to the fourth floor. They were rather unstable and creaky from the fire from decades ago but they had yet to fall and no one worried about them.

"I do." Sango said. "It was you who had us abondon the first floor, it was you who thought of the bucket-bombs, and you who decided to put buckets on the roof to collect water. And you were the one who decided to widen the whole so we could escape."

"It sounds a lot better than it really is." Kagome laughed. "The whole was already there, I'm just widening it, and the bucket-bombs and collect water is just simple strategy."

Sango laughed and shook her head.

It was almost a tangible thing, the feeling of relief and happiness that came from being in charge of their own lives for the first time in a long time. For once, though they were trapped within these four walls, they decided when they woke up, when they ate, where they went. No one threatened their safety, no one threatened their health.

"By the way," Sango said, "how are your injuries? You're the only person who's wounded who's walking around. I haven't had a proper look at them since we wrapped them."

"They're fine." Kagome lied easily. They had begun to ooze but Sango had been right earlier, Kagome had taken over as a sort of leader and these people needed her. Her bites would have to wait until they were out.

And they would have to get out. Food was running low, medicine was scarce, and if the guards ever got a hold of them again revenge would be swift and deadly.

"Kouga, Ayame. How's the whole coming?" Sango asked.

Kouga was returning a bucket to it's former place and Ayame was putting on a pair of thick gloves to protect her from splinters.

"It's getting there." she said. "This wood is sturdy though, you would think it would just break off easily but no. We can still only get one person through at a time and they have to be pretty thin." She returned to the wood and started pulling. They had to be careful though. Sturdy though the wood may be, one false move could send the burned roof tumbling down causing who knew what damage.

"We'll get the whole made, Kagome. Don't you worry." Kouga assured her with a wink.

"Kagome! Kagome!"

"What?" Kagome asked as Miroku came running up the stairs.

"There are police outside!" He said making everyone in the room jump to attention. "They're everywhere!"