Project Songbird

Chapter 18

I nudge Jack lightly.
He glances back at me, but remains silent. He takes another step and the hair raises on the back of my neck.
"Jack." I mumble.
"I know." He utters back.
I take a step behind him and the door is closed by Trixie. She whispers a couple words of encouragement before leaving us on our own.
Jack starts forward slowly.
I fall into step behind him.
I am swamped with a cold sweat as if I had awoken from a horrific nightmare.
This is terrifying.
I want to open my mouth and speak, but for some reason I decide against uttering a single sound.

I had no idea how long we were walking down those stairs but eventually we made it to the bottom.
"It's freezing." I rub my arms.
Jack does the same before we start down the hallway. The floor was cold tile on my bare feet; for a brief moment I was reminded that no one had any actual shoes.
"How far do you-?" Jack starts but then he stops in front of me. I peer over his shoulder to see why he stopped.
Down the way was three cells.
Each cell contained one of our friends.
I grab Jack's arm before he makes a move, "Wait, it could be a trap."
"How do we get around that?" Jack mutters softly. We scan our surroundings to see a small door off to the left and a solid steel door off to the right. Once I made eye contact with the steel door, my heart dropped, "That must be the way to the auction."
"Then this is an office?" Jack points at the small door to the left.
"Jack?" Mark's voice comes from down the hallway, "What are you doing here??" He sounds alarmed to see his partner. Jack breaks out of my soft grip and hurries to Mark's cell, speaking through the small bars at the top of the cell's solid door, "I couldn't leave you here. Just being away from you was too painful."
"You need to get out of here!" Mark barks harshly, "It's too dangerous!"
"Mark..?" Jack takes a step back, clutching his chest.
"Get out of here now! Before they return!" Mark continues; his tone is aggressive. "If they catch you it'll only get worse! Get out now!"
"I'll check the office for keys." I hurry over to the door on the left and open it to see a normal office. Kinda weird.
I begin to search through the drawers, looking for any clue to where a key might be to rescue everyone.
I push papers out of my ways, "Come on, there has to be a key somewhere!" I could feel the anxiety creep up my spine as my search becomes more frantic. I stop for a second and just take a deep breath to ease my panic; giving the desk a once over. "There's the key." I grabbed the small brass key that was sitting up at the top of the desk. I make my way back into the other room. Jack gives me a look of distress as Mark was continuing to yell at us to leave.
I slowed my pace. How come Felix and Tyler are so quiet? "Jack, can you see Mark through the hole?"
"The cell is too dark. I can't make anything out." Jack shakes his head.
I furrow my brow as I slowly step to the door, placing the key in the keyhole, and then turn it to open the door.
The door creaks as it opens into the dark cell.
"Mark...?" Jack steps forward.
I grab Jack before he steps into the cell, "Wait, wait, don't go inside." Something is not right at all. I can't see anything in there and even if Mark was in this cell, his eyes tend to glow in the dark; much like a cat's. Jack mutters softly before he raises his voice, "Love, are you in there?" And then we both heard it.
Radio static before Mark's voice.
We couldn't catch it earlier due to the door being shut.
"It is a trap!" Jack yelps.
"What's happening?" Bob asks.
It was just a recording.
Jack hisses angrily.
"So our information was wrong?" Wade asks hesitantly.
No, I don't think so. I shake my head, "They must be down where the auction is going to take place. They were hoping to catch the last two Songbirds." We both turn to look at the door on the right.
"We have to go that way." Jack states, he makes his way to the door. I follow him, "This might make things a lot more difficult."
"Don't have a choice, do we?" Jack says as he opens the heavy door and we stare down another hallway. The air isn't freezing and it's dimly lit. Jack starts forward and I follow closely behind him.
"I guess we are going to see the auction regardless." I glance behind us to see the open door. The nervousness returns to my stomach. After a couple of minutes my vision begins to swim and I shake my head. Strange.
"Jack says you guys are going down another hallway, be careful. We have no idea what's going to happen." I hear Bob. He sounded a bit muffled.
Bob? That you?? Why do you sound like that...? Why is my head so foggy?
I squint in the dim lightening.
Jack stumbles forward and then collapses to the ground in front of me.
"J-jack!" I move to grab him only to also stumble forward. I can feel myself losing consciousness. Bob, something is wrong, get out of here!
And then it all fades to black.