The Slavers - Part 3

"Crap."

That was the first thought that came to Octavia's mind as she heard the creak of the floor board. Before, they ended up hiding to avoid detection, but now they were frozen, fearful that any other movement would add to the noise and wake someone up.

Then that is when they heard it. A rustling sound from there the slavers had been sleeping.

Octavia quickly craned her neck to the side, looking over at all of them, expecting to see one of their heads up searching the room for what had woken him up.

But after a search herself, that wasn't the case.

What she did see, however, was one heat signature shift and move about. Thankfully, it was much like how someone shifted in their sleep, rather than waking up.

After what she imagined was him getting comfortable, Sylvia and Octavia still remained where they were for a few more moments, just being sure that there wasn't any delayed response or that someone was slowly coming too in a groggy state. They had to be sure, as they didn't want any problems as they continued their search of the house.

With the time ticking away, the man ended up shuffling around again, his first position seemingly not being comfortable enough, but eventually went still again. Looking over the rest, all was calm and peaceful.

They both released an internal sigh at the crisis that had been averted, and started to move again. The only problem was that the creak had occurred as Sylvia's foot had stepped onto the plank.

So, as soon as she moved to step off, they could both hear the plank start to creak but thankfully quietly, given how slow they were moving. Really though, there was no way out of this without a creak happening again. The only thing that Octavia realised she could do, was make sure they didn't cause another one again somewhere further down the stairs.

With Octavia slithering on her tail, the weight was quite evenly distributed across multiple planks. This meant that creaks were non-existent whenever she slithered over the stairs, and if they did, she was sure they would be muted. Sylvia on the other hand, as we had seen, was not able to stop this. So the solution was that Sylvia needed to move like Octavia did. Well, technically that was the case, but Octavia thought of the next best thing.

Leaning over, she very quietly whispered in her ears what she was going to do. Then with slow quiet movements, she slowly wrapped her arms around Sylvia's waist.

Had they not been surrounded by several slavers and needing to remain as quiet as possible, this would have been very intimate. Even with the situation as it was, it wasn't enough to stop the blush on both their faces.

But, needing to focus on what was going on, they quickly got back to it. Sylvia lifted her foot off the plank as silently as possible, and Octavia made sure to watch the room in case there was any movement. Once it was free from the floor, Octavia lifted her up with her impressive strength, which felt like she was just lifting a grape, and then slowly slid down the stairs, getting away from the men.

…

On the floor below, they both just collapsed to the floor, in silence obviously, and just lamented over how bad things could have gotten.

Even if none of those men knew how to use the weapons that they had, there was no way Octavia would have been any defend against them all. They would have easily overwhelmed here, and there is no telling what would happen after that.

Thankfully though, it being night, the men would have woken up groggily, meaning she and Sylvia probably would have had enough time to dash down the stairs and back out through the door they came before the men realised what had happened. But, while that would have been the likely scenario, you can't discount something unexpected happening.

At least now, they knew where the men were, reinforcing the need for stealth. But, with them all sleeping and no one being on guard, they had free reign of the place. So, all they had to do now was find the slaves.

"Where could they be?" Sylvia asked.

They had searched through the whole house and had a quick gleam of the outside area, so the only place really left to search was the shop. Which is where they headed next.

Back down to the ground floor, they then headed outdoors. They passed the still-paralysed monster in the outdoor privy, being sure to do it quickly as the smell still lingered around it and then got to work looking around for a way into the shop. With no one leaving the shop at the end of the day, they had to have entered this outdoor section to reach the abandoned house to sleep. She couldn't think of another possibility of how they would have gotten to the abandoned house.

Sylvia using her night vision had a clear view of the place, but it was pretty much sparce. There were the several boxes that Octavia had hidden behind, the walls of the shop and the house, the outdoor privy and then there was the wall of the village.

It was clear to see that this was the section of the wall that had opened up before, the hidden entrance. She could see what looked like large handles for pushing it open and pulling it closed. There was also a very long plank that ran across the door, keeping it locked, sitting to two very thick metal slots. The had quite the set up here.

Octavia couldn't help but marvel, but also be disgusted at how much work would have been needed to create this entrance. The time and effort to breach the wall, without anyone knowing or seeing. Then to breach it at the edges, so they could install whatever they had as hinges for this thing. Then fitting in the extras to make it easier to open and close, as well as a lock.

On paper, it seemed simple, but doing it on such as scale and without anyone noticing was amazing. It did however mean that these people had likely been in operation for quite some time. Which added to the disgusted feeling that she felt.

But after enough thought on the set-up, they found a problem. They couldn't see a way into the shop.

"There must be a door somewhere. How would they go from the shop to the house without one?"

Octavia voiced the question, even though they both knew what they were looking for. She probably did it to try and make sense of it, as if saying it out loud would help.

But after a good amount of searching, they couldn't see anything that resembled a door anywhere along the walls.

It was at this point, that she realised it must be another hidden entrance like the village wall. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Should someone go looking through the shop, they might stumble upon the exit to this area, and then find the that the wall could be opened. All manner of problems would crop up for them if someone found that.

So, this led to both Sylvia and Octavia running their hands all along the wall of the shop hoping to find something that opened a door. Its possible there was an area that had to be pressed or removed to open a door. Or she might find a seam that would tell her she was on the right track.

But as the night continued to pass, neither found anything.

"It's too complex. There has to be something from this side to open a door, otherwise they wont be able to get back in in the morning. It's also probably something as simple as the wall."

They couldn't just leave the abandoned house to open the front of the shop, otherwise questions would be raised. They had to come through this outdoor area to get to the shop.

They were starting to lose hope, not finding anything along the wall. This meant there were only two other options.

One was the privy, which she really hoped had nothing to do with it. The other was the pile of boxes.

Making their way over, they went ahead with inspecting things. They didn't want to just move things as that might tip the slavers off in the morning, so only sight was used.

As they looked through it all, Sylvia called out.

"I think I found something."

Octavia quickly joined her and, in the moonlight, saw what may have been the entrance they were looking for.

It was inconspicuous, and if you were not looking for it, you wouldn't have found it.

At the base of one of the boxes, they could see something wooden underneath it.

All it took was a quick move of the box on top to see a small trap door set into the grass.

The girls looked at each other, no words needing to be said. This was the way in, and they needed to head down there to find more evidence, and with hope the slaves.

So, with a quick pull on the handle on the door, Octavia brought it up, and headed down with Sylvia following. Both heading into more darkness, within which they had no idea what would be present.

Only for them to freeze yet again as the wooden trap door slammed back down with a bang, darkening things further, and possibly waking everyone up.

"Crap."