Chapter 105. Living Subjects Containment Site
Lily cowered within a glass jar. Trembling uncontrollably, tears fell from her eyes as she pressed her small paws tightly against her ears to block out the agonizing cries of her mice companions.
"I'm sorry... I'm so useless and can't save you guys," Lily whispered, her voice breaking between sobs.
The tormented cries of the mice abruptly ceased, and the lid overhead was unscrewed.
"Help!! Let go of me! Help!!" Lily cried out as she struggled in the grasp of a Meeh'ek draped in a white coat.
The stack of transparent glass jars next to Lily housed her mice followers. They frantically flung themselves against the walls of their confinement Despite their actions drawing blood, not even a single fissure marred the sturdy glass jars.
Lily was forced to lie spread-eagle on a small platform. A Meeh'ek with a blue mask over its face approached her with a writhing black leech in its hands.
Lily's chest heaved rapidly as tears cascaded down her cheeks. "I... I don't want to die. I want to go home..."
Just as the leech neared Lily's chest, the door beside was flung open with a loud bang. Charles stormed in with a large group in tow.
His grappling hook gun was instantly activated, and the sharp tip impaled the Meeh'ek's head. The creature was ruthlessly pulled toward the ground.
Charles carefully removed his gunner from her shackles.
"Lily, are you alright?" he asked softly.
Without speaking a single word, Lily clung onto Charles' finger and burst into a loud wail. It had been an overwhelmingly terrifying experience.
As Charles stroked Lily's fur to calm her down, he surveyed the room.
The place seemed to be a containment room for animals. An array of creatures, such as mice, geckos, and even bats, were contained within the glass jars that filled the room.
"Release them all," Charles instructed.
The group took action immediately and shattered the glass jars, releasing all the creatures within them.
With the addition of Lily's mice, Charles' group significantly swelled in numbers. However, it was far from enough. Charles needed more allies.
Just when Charles was preparing to move toward the next holding point, Lily hopped onto his shoulders. With her sniffles punctuating her intense crying, her voice came out strained and choked as she whispered, "Mr. Charles, everyone's belongings are in the room next to the next room."
A surge of joy ignited within Charles at the good news. Gently lifting the white mouse to meet his eyes with both hands, he tenderly planted a kiss on her head. Without missing a beat, the group swiftly darted in the direction of the room that Lily had pointed out.
When Charles and his party stepped back into the corridors bathed with the pulsating glow of red warning lights, they had their clothes on and were fully decked out in their relics and equipment as well. A fierce determination was apparent on everyone's face.
Armed once again with their weapon, everyone's combat strength had increased exponentially. The scattered, lone Meeh'eks failed to put up any resistance. Moving from one holding point to another, Charles took care of each room one at a time.
If they found a monster, they would set it free. If they ran into a human, they armed the newcomers with the weapons of Meeh'eks and welcomed them into their group.
By the time Charles and his party breached the last holding point, the wide and spacious corridor was getting a little crowded.
Apart from two sailors and a sous chef, all members of the Narwhale crew had been located. The remaining humans were all new faces.
"Captain! Do we make a straight run for it now?" one of the sailors asked.
"Sir, you rescued us. What's our next step? We'll follow your orders."
"We can go home after this? My ship has sunk; how am I supposed to get back?"
Their eyes were burning with hope as they stared at the savior who had just rescued them. However, none of them could comprehend the immense pressure weighing on Charles at this moment.
Charles wore a grim expression. He had released all the imprisoned creatures, and every communicable human had joined his ranks.
However, their forces were painfully thin and barely numbered two hundred. Even with the freed monsters wreaking havoc, their numbers seemed pitifully small against the tens of thousands of Meeh'ek outside.
"Bro, even after rounding all the test subjects, there are only so few of us. No wonder Salin's rebellion ended up in failure," Richard remarked.
With his harpoon, Charles sketched out the map of Laboratory 2 on the floor. With his brows pressed together, his eyes darted back and forth on the map. He needed a plan, and he needed it fast.
Da-da-da!
Gunfire abruptly erupted from outside the door.
The Meeh'eks had started moving.
Charles lifted his gaze from the map and turned to Bandages.
"Bandages, take some people with you and try to hold them off for a while."
Without uttering a single word, Bandages nodded and left the room with a few men trailing after him.
Time ticked away, and as the gunfire outside grew increasingly intense, Charles' gaze settled on a particular area of the map. A spark of hope flashed across his eyes.
Pointing at a section of the map on the eastern corner, Charles asked, "Richard, do you find this area familiar?"
"Read the room and cut the suspense, man. Just speak."
"Did you forget? This is where Lab 3 keeps its living relics. If there's a place like that in Lab 3, there's surely one in Lab 2 as well, right? Our allies are not restricted to our own kind. Those living relics inside there are our allies, too!"
Richard's voice grew excited as well. "If we release all the monsters inside. Oh boy, it's gonna be a hell of a party in Lab 2!"
"Let's do this!" Charles drew a decisive circle on the section of the map that he had pinpointed. He then stood up and marched out under the stares of the group.
Charging ahead at the forefront of the group, Charles got rid of the Meeh'eks that tried to stop them and guided everyone toward the living relics containment site.
Their journey was far from safe as more and more Meeh'eks closed in on them, each wave stronger than the previous. The peculiar abilities of the various relics in their hands caught Charles and his group off guard every single time. Casualties began to appear among the humans.
Splat!
Covered in blood, Charles lifted the Dark Blade in his hand and thrust it into the neck of a black-robed Meeh'ek.
The prolonged battle had left him feeling exhausted and on the verge of collapsing. But when his eyes fell on the familiar, thick, steel door before him, he knew he had arrived.
"Captain, I have explosives." With his face obscured by the Clown Mask, Dipp tried to rush forward with the explosives in his grasp.
However, his advance was blocked by the outstretched arm of a female believer from the Divine Light Order. Using the wall as a support, she turned toward the steel door and started vomiting profusely.
Calling the action mere vomiting would be an understatement—it was more akin to a forceful, projectile expulsion of vomit.
As soon as the dark green liquid that spewed from her mouth came into contact with the steel, a sharp, corrosive hissing sound erupted, and a pungent, biting odor instantly filled the air.
The acidic fluid swiftly ate into the steel door and left a gaping hole in its wake. The female follower was the first to confidently step through the newly formed passage.
This kind of steel door was designed to be opened easily from the inside. Charles ordered his crew to swing the steel door wide open. He already knew his next move.
He didn't let everyone enter and made them wait in the next nearest room.
There was a high possibility that whatever creature emerged from within could not distinguish friend from foe. He had no intention of letting both his forces clash.
Charles moved to the first door within the containment site. Just before he could reach for the handle, Dipp charged forward.
The young lad firmly affixed the explosives to the door frame and swiftly retreated while not forgetting to pull Charles with him.
Boom!!
An earth-shaking explosion rang out, and a monstrous roar sounded from behind the shattered door.
The green monster stared at Charles for a couple of seconds, then swiftly inverted itself and clung to the ceiling.
With startling agility, it then scurried away.
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