Chapter 54

Looking around the dark room, Kazimir's breath hitches at the pain of the gunshot wound. He felt as if his entire leg had been set on fire.

"I gotta get my knife out of my shoe somehow." the young man says to himself, watching as everyone else tried to untie each other's ropes.

Falling forward, Kazimir manages to bring his foot back towards his hands, taking off his shoe and sliding it to the side, before grabbing it again and reaching inside for his trusted pocket knife.

The young man quickly begins to cut the rope, sighing in relief as he slowly started to feel the rope loosen.

Once his hands were free, he rips the duct tape from his mouth, before cutting the rope on his feet.

Quickly standing up, Kazimir almost loses his balance as in all the excitement, he forgot about the wound to his leg.

"Mr. Cizetto!"

The young man looks over and watches as Alexei walks over, followed by Dréy.

"Mr. Cizetto, before you do any more movement, you should wrap your leg first."

"Yeah, you can use my headband." Dréy adds, handing it to Kazimir.

"It's okay, Dréy. I can-

"Boy, shut up and take the thing so we can find a way outta here." Dréy interrupts, as he wraps the headband around the gunshot wound. "Tell me if it's too tight, I don't wanna cut your circulation."

Kazimir sighs.

"It's fine."

"Hey, Kazimir!" Jai says, running over with a smile on his face. "I gotta say, you were pretty brave to make Haruki tumble!"

"Uh, thanks." Kazimir replies. "It was kinda stupid of me to do that, though; I could've ended up with more than a bullet to the leg."

"Bro, where's Lanté?" Dréy asks, turning to Alexei.

"While we were on our mission, I told him to go survey the whole area from the highest building he could find. I don't know if he's-

Feeling his phone vibrate, Alexei quickly takes it from his shoe and looks down at the video call screen, before answering.

"There you are!" Laurenté says. "Where exactly are you?"

"We're all being held against our will by a blonde-haired, purple-eyed bastard." Alexei replies. "He's got Khristina with him, too."

Laurenté sighs and shakes his head.

"Alright, I'll ping your phone and try to get a set location on where you all are. Just sit tight."

The five men all wait in silence, Jai making a beat against the wall with his hands.

"Okay, I have a location." Laurenté says. "You five are all located in a forest, but there's no building. I'm guessing it's an underground bunker."

"Great." Alexei says with a sigh.

"I'll follow the directions as to where my laptop is showing me, so just hold on for a while."

"Hol' on?!" Dréy asks. "That bitch boy's planning to kill us, we can't hol' on!"

"Then put a plan together or something to take him out." Laurenté says. "I'll try my best to get there as fast as possible, but I can't make any promises. Stay safe."

Alexei ends the video call, before putting his phone in his pocket.

"Laurenté's right; we need a plan to take him down. Any suggestions?"

"Well first, we have to get out of here." Kazimir says, walking up a few steps to the door that led out of the room. "Who knows what he may have set up in this room to torture us."

Using his knife, he jiggles the doorknob a couple of times, watching as the door unlocked.

"What can you see?" Jai asks, peeking over Kazimir's shoulder.

"There's a long hall and two doors on the left. That's all I can make out."

Opening the door wider, Kazimir leads the way out, slowly opening the first door. He turns to the others, motioning for someone to check out the second door.

"Anything in there?" Jai whispers, trying to look through the crack of the door.

"There's an electric chair in the middle, along with a couple of weapons and some wooden boxes." Kazimir says. "Must be the room where whoever runs this place kill their victims."

"There's a flight of stairs and another- shit, someone's coming!"

Quickly closing the door, Alexei runs over to the first room, quietly closing the door behind him.

He puts his ear up against it and tries to peek through the small keyhole.

"Two people talking and one's holding a machete." the young law student says. "They're making their way over to the room we were in before."

The five men quickly take cover behind some of the wooden boxes as they hear the voices in the hall question their disappearence.

All of a sudden the door opens, followed by a multitude of gunshots and then—immediate silence.

Kazimir, Dréy, Jai, and Lennox slowly look up to see Alexei holding a machine gun, leaning against one of the crates.

He turns back to the others and gives them a warm smile.

"I say we should keep moving. They may have backup on the way."

Each of the men grab a machine gun, along with some extra ammunition.

"Man, it's getting cold without my shirt." Jai says. "Anyone have an extra one hidden in their pants or shoes or something?"

"I think if any of us did, we would've put it on by now." Lennox says, stepping over the dead bodies.

The five young men make their way over to the second door, Alexei cautiously leading the way down the steps, before stopping.

"There's a larger hallway and approximately three doors. Jai and Lennox, you both take the first door, Dréy and Kazimir can take the second, and I'll take the last."

Walking forward, each of the men stop in front of their assigned doors.

Peeking through the slight crack, Kazimir's eyes slightly widen.

Inside was a young girl dressed in a fluffy dress, feeding two men and a woman.

"That's one of Khristina's friends; the same girl who Pierre took Khristina on a playdate with. This place is fucking weird."

He steps aside to let Dréy have a look, hearing him groan.

"Sure is. Her name's Bianca; she and Khristina gotta tight bond."

Pushing the door open, Kazimir points the gun at the three older people and the little girl quickly runs over to Dréy.

"I'll be outside wit' Bianca and the others." Dréy says, picking up the young girl."

Kazimir nods, turning back to the three.

"Summarize what the hell this place is and I'll consider keeping you alive."

"Who're you?! Aren't you supposed to be in the waiting room?!"

*BANG!*

One of the men falls back, and Kazimir turns the gun to the remaining two people.

"Hurry."

"It's where we pamper young children for trafficking auctions." the woman replies, holding her hands up. "We're part of a larger group called Merderaé and all the money we make trafficking go to them."

The young detective nods.

"Tell me where I can find an Haruki Feliano."

"He's probably in the movie prop room; he's in charge of making the girls look like they're potential movie stars, before passing them onto us." the man says. "I-It's downstairs; just below this floor!"

"Do you know where I can a little girl who goes by the name Khristina?" Kazimir asks.

The man and woman both smirk over at each other

"I'd say she's one of the best girls here. I love seeing her tiny hands struggle to open-

*BANG! BANG!*

Kazimir watches as both the man and woman fall to the ground, before shooting them again and once more after that.

With his foot, he begins to kick all three in the head, taking the back of his gun and bashing in their skulls.

"Aye, Kash! We gotta get goin'!" Dréy says, walking back in. "Sheesh, you made a mess."

"Right." the young detective says, looking down at the dead bodies.

Walking out of the room, Kazimir joins the other young men and Bianca.

"There was nothing but a bed in my room." Alexei says. "I don't even want to know what happened in there."

"Me and Lennox found more flights of stairs!" Jai says. "Come on, I'll lead the way!"

Heading back to the first door, Jai opens it, quickly making his way down.

"Shouldn't you move a bit slower, Jai?" Lennox asks, following the young man. "I mean, we-

"HALT!"

Stopping, each of the men look up to see multiple guns drawn.

"Oh shit." Jai says, nervously chuckling.

"You all escapees?" One of the gunmen asks.

"Not really, you-

*BANG!*

Alexei quickly ducks as one of the men aims for his head.

"Drop your weapons. All of you."

Slowly putting down their guns, the young men look back up.

"Form a line!" Another one of fhe gunmen demands.

"Is there a possibility to negotiate a way out of this?" Jai asks, stepping forward.

"Goodness, kid. Just shut the fuck up and get back in line!"

A sound of gunshots begin to ring through the air and the five young men quickly shut their eyes.

"My, my. Don't you all look pathetic?"

Opening their eyes, the young men sigh in relief as Laurenté waves from above.

"Yo, Lanté! What's for dinner?!" Dréy asks, running up the stairs.

"Beef stew with yellow rice and a baguette on the side. There's chocolate fondue with strawberries and an assortment of cookies for dessert.'"

"That sounds nice, but first we need to find Khristina." Alexei says, sighing.

"I don't think she's in this building anymore. I had to check most of the rooms as I was trying to find you all." Laurenté says, crossing his arms. "Almost walked in on a group of people discussing a flight that had just taken off. They mentioned something about girls and boys between the ages of 4-10 being on it."

Kazimir sighs.

"Then she's definitely on that plane. Appearantly, this is where they get young children ready for trafficking auctions."

"Disgusting." Laurenté says as he shakes his head. "Fortunately, I overheard a discussion about the auctioning place and I've got the directions."

"Really?!" the five men yell in sync.

"Yes. It starts at 8:30 tomorrow night. Now, let's get going; the little madame seems to be hungry."

Everyone turns to Bianca, who pointed down at her rumbling stomach.

"How many people do we have left to avoid?" Lennox asks.

Laurenté softly laughs as he climbs up a ladder, opening the door which led to the outside world.

"None. I counted 38 people running this thing. However, I didn't recognize anyone with blonde hair and purple eyes."

Watching as the rest of the young men began to climb the ladder, Kazimir takes out a match and lighter from his pocket that he took from the first room he entered.

Lighting it, the young man smiles and throws it, watching as the floor slowly began to rise in flames.

"Burn in hell, bastards."