Un-Chain

Harvet had geared herself up for nothing. She quickly made her way down to the lower levels of the dome easily and unimpeded.

She had to stop to give both herself and Judith a quick break. Reaching into her bag she reached for the last of her energy bars and passed the can of mixed fruit, the one that she had snagged from the flower shop, to Judith.

Noticing how Judith couldn't open the can herself, Harvet took it back and quickly popped off the lid for her.

Harvet surveyed the area as Judith sipped at the fruit juice. The platforms down here didn't appear much different from the isolation cells. The bubbles, if anything, appeared smaller here. The prisoners didn't appear to have much room to move around.

She wondered if she should free some of them, but thought against it. She didn't actually know of a way to break open the barriers and didn't know any of the people down here. For all she knew some of them might actually be very dangerous, if not to her, than to Judith and the rest of the children she planned on freeing.

As she glanced down at her remaining rations, she wasn't sure if she could maintain enough energy for both them and the children.

The children were her main priority. Thinking back on it, if the Association wanted to free these people, it would have been easy for them. If even they didn't bother, than these people might not be worth freeing even as a distraction against the warden.

Munching on a tasteless ration bar, Harvet made her way back to Judith who had finished eating. Judith picked up the can as Harvet neared, holding it up to her. Harvet was surprised to see that Judith had saved her a piece of fruit.

Thanking her, she tipped the last piece of fruit into her mouth and savored the sweetness.

"Let's go, we need to go much deeper than these levels to reach them."

Judith nodded and climbed back onto Harvet's back when she bent down for her. Feeling the hot energy entering from her back, Harvet thanked Judith once more before running at full speed and once again using the dome and platforms, bounced downwards.

It was beginning to get more difficult to see down here. Harvet had the sudden thought that now might be a good time to tell Judith about her father, before whatever they found down below.

"Tell me after." Harvet slowed down slightly when she heard Judith's mumble.

"After all of this, after we're safe... After we get back to grey eyes... Tell me about what happened to papa then, okay?"

Harvet threw a surprised look over her shoulder but was met with determined eyes. Harvet could only nod at Judith and pick up her pace. Having the spare thought that she might not be able to see her nod, Harvet gave an affirmative answer.

Judith seemed to relax a fraction against her back and more hot energy poured into Harvet's body.

It just occurred to Harvet then, that Judith was giving her something to look forward to, she was giving her something that she had to do, for the future. She couldn't help the smile from her lips, although she didn't actually need this to keep going on, it helped knowing that Judith cared for her.

The dome shook and Harvet slipped from it. She cursed as she and Judith fell freely into the darkness below. Looking down, Harvet felt she could see something glowing. It was rapidly getting brighter as they neared it. Pulling Judith to her front so that she could grasp onto her firmly, Harvet braced herself for whatever she was about to hit.

Harvet was surprised to find that her fall slowed as she slipped into what felt like jelly. She quickly found herself on her feet and shared a look with Judith before glancing up.

Above them was a glowing red barrier. It was much different from all of the blue bubble barriers that the cell warden used. It looked more sinister somehow, and reminded Harvet of the red crystal tower that had grown out of the metal sphere underneath the teleportation array.

The red barrier shook and crystallized above them. Harvet reached out a hand to touch it, but her hand phased right through it as if it didn't even exist.

Hearing footsteps, Harvet and Judith stiffened. Turning their heads to the source of the footsteps, she and Judith gasped when they saw the malnourished figure of a small boy. Putting Judith down, she watched as Judith approached the boy, asking him a few basic questions.

"What's your name?"

"Are you okay?"

"What did they do to you?"

"Where are the others?"

"Are they here too?"

The boy didn't respond to a single question. Upon seeing Harvet, he rasped out something she couldn't make out before slumping over. Judith let out a shocked gasp and was doing her best to prevent the boy from hitting his head against the floor.

Alarmed, Harvet rushed over, rolling him onto his back and off of Judith, she began to check on him. He was still breathing, with difficulty but he was breathing and his heart was still beating. Although he was malnourished he didn't seem all that bad off.

Harvet let out puff of air in relief.

"He'll be fine, he's just sleeping." She reassured Judith who was still throwing worried looks at the boy.

Looking around, the room seemed empty. The three of them were the only ones inside of the room, there wasn't even any furniture to be seen. The red crystal above them was the only source of light and it made the entire room look eerie.

Harvet picked up the boy and Judith clung onto her skirt as they made their way to the direction the boy had come out from. Harvet had to make sure she didn't move to fast, she didn't want to jostle the boy in her arms.

Judith made a confused sound when they were met with a wall. She ran her small hands all over it and then they heard a click.

The wall folded within itself revealing a passageway. Along the walls in the passage were flickering lights that only slightly helped them see where they were going.

The passageway led to a hallway with numerous openings to small rooms that Harvet could not fit into. Inside of the room was just a singular cot, there wasn't even a thin blanket on top of it.

Following further down the hall, it widened into another large room. In this room, Harvet and Judith had to cover their noses. The air was rancid and a heavy smell of rot unnerved them.

Harvet heard a weak groan and immediately searched to find the source. Her eyes were met with a little girl laying down on the floor on her side, her hands were covering her face. She didn't look the slightest bit malnourished and her clothes while torn, didn't appear old. She must have just been taken in.

A little ways from her were two more kids, both on their stomachs. Both of the kids looked much more malnourished than the boy in Harvet's arms. They also looked as if they were beaten to an inch of their lives.

Their cuts were festering and puss oozed from the ones on their backs.

Judith gasped when the light flickered a bit brighter in the room, revealing the kids to her as well. She took a few steps back before she emptied out her stomach.

That couldn't be right though, why were there only four children? Shouldn't there have been more?

Harvet searched around the room again but couldn't see more than just these four children.

What had happened to the rest of them?