Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 189: Finding Leona

Chapter 189: Finding Leona

The main compound was a modern take on an old style country mansion. It had the flair of the south mixed in with the complexities of multiple buildings arranged into one, much larger, complex. So, what that meant was that the outer buildings formed a ring around the open center courtyard. The main house was at the front while various facilities were located in other spots. On the original print Laz had seen from the house being built, there was simply the main house in the front on there. A four story building with a basement and an attic that looked like the original structure. Although that was great for Laz in terms of exploring that building, the hard part was there the surround buildings, while not as tall, took up far more space length wise. And this wasn't including the outer sheds, the pool house and some storage building that Laz could only conclude stored things like cars.

Although Laz had made it to the main building, he couldn't help but swear to himself at what an impossible task this was going to be.

What Laz didn't know was that his silent movements were going unnoticed because of Fred's fear of him. Fred didn't feel safe, even in the compound while being surrounded by guards. Therefore, he ended up convincing both Brian and Agent Wallace that Laz would be the type of individual to charge in through the front, or to take a side path. Basically, any main route that he could find. So because of this, most of the security was focused on the front of the main building.

Guards with guns, traps, sensors, riot gear. Instead of spreading out, they just kept a minimal presence throughout the rest of the house while focusing on the main door. It was only because all of this added protection which was concentrated in one area that Fred felt safe.

Agent Wallace felt like it was a waste, but after hearing Fred exaggerate about the warehouse incident, he had no choice but to bring his guys closer together.

"Isn't this overkill?"

"You going to tell the boss that?"

"Hell no. But, we've got enough munitions to take down a drug cartel, all because of one guy?"

"No fucking clue here. The ones higher up say jump, we jump. That's how this works."

Although the men were being quiet and keeping to their posts, that didn't stop Agent Wallace from catching bits of their conversations while they waited and knew that there was a lot of distrust.

And he didn't blame them either. The biggest problem that he couldn't address was how was he suppose to describe things to the men and get them to believe him? I mean, the guy can set a person on fire just by touching them? No one is going to believe that. So instead, he could only treat this as a training mission and tell the men to be ready for every order they were given.

Agent Wallace could only wait and hope that he wasn't backing the wrong person. After all, this was the only lead he had so far.

Back to Laz.

Laz was being silent as he moved around the buildings occupying the ring around the center. He would have much preferred to have been able to jump up to the roof and walked along it there, but that would have left him out in the open. As such, he could only follow along the lines of the buildings, gently spreading out his senses to detect people and cameras while also carefully probing the inside of the buildings. It was slow moving, but he had no choice. The uniform he was wearing was rather useless if he was walking somewhere he wasn't suppose to be.

At this point, it was already rather late at night and he had already been at it for almost two hours. It had taken a while, but at least Laz was sure about some things.

First, he knew that Leona must be in the main house as his search had lead to nothing on the other buildings in the ring.

Second, he knew that the main force was also located in the main house as he could sense a lot more people there than in any other spot.

Third, he knew that there was at least one infected in the main building along with one of the 'blessed.' Based on this info and recognizing the infected's energy, he figured that asshole from the club and escapee from the warehouse was also here. Laz wanted to play connect the dots to figure out how he had ended up here, but he knew that it really wasn't important. The only important bit was that with those two in the same building, Laz couldn't probe it to find out where Leona actually was.

Laz was scared of being discovered and being attacked, he was afraid they would use Leona against him and that wasn't a position he wanted to be in. Laz knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't let herself be used and that would put her in even more danger.

For the moment, Laz had no choice but to wait, watch and listen for a chance.

While Laz was wandering around above ground, Leona was currently stuck underneath the ground, while locked in a cage. He head was throbbing from the drugs still running through her system and she could barely see straight. That mixed with the low light, dank air and confined space, she had a hard time staying upright. But she refused to lay down again. Of course, even if she wanted too, she could only barely do so in the cage. And even then, with the one blanket on the floor, it wouldn't be very comfortable..

In an effort to stay upright, she was gripping onto the bars with everything she had, trying to brace herself while focusing on the cage itself. With her normal strength, although she couldn't rip out the steel bars from their foundation and escape, she should at least be able to bend them enough to fit through them. But no matter how she exerted her strength, they wouldn't budge. She could only blame the fact that with the drugs still in her system, she couldn't focus enough to circulate her energy and strengthen herself.

Her head wasn't clear, but she could still make out that there were other cages in the area and she though she saw figures moving around in them. She tried several times to get someone to respond to her.

"Hello?"

"HEEELLLLLLOOOOOOOO?"

"WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING????"

Even yelling with her loudest voice she could muster at the moment yielded nothing. Just as she was about to keep going, she heard a small, mouse like voice come from one of the near by cages.

"Shhh... It will be bad if he hears you. But he can only hear you when he's here. No one else hears you. So shhh.... he likes the quiet. Unless he tells you to make noise, you have to shhh... Don't make him angry. He gets so angry. He gets so angry. When he is angry, he stays longer. So shhhhh.... When he is happy, he leaves quickly. He is either happy or angry. We want him to be happy. He leaves quickly when he is happy. But sometimes... sometimes... when he is angry, he takes you... behind the wall. We... are not allowed behind the wall. That wall, over there, behind the door. He takes you back there, when he is done with you. And only he comes back. Only him. We... he... maybe they are able to leave? Maybe he just tires of them and lets them out? Right? Maybe? Please? So... so... shhhhhhhhhhhh."

As the quiet voice faded out, Leona couldn't even take a look at the speaker since her head was still throbbing and the room was dark. For the little bit she could do, she noticed that she still had most of her clothes on, but they were messed up as though she had been dragged through the mud. Her shoes were gone along with the few bits of jewelry she wore. Was was basically left with only the white top and jeans while it felt like she had been searched. All the same, nothing was out of place so she didn't spend time worrying about it.

Just as she was about to keep going with screaming and assaulting the bars, she was able to heard a click, as though something had just turned. All of the sudden, all of the small bits of movement within the room stopped while even the sounds of breathing disappeared. Leona tried her best to see what was happening before a blinding light washed over the room.

Several lights that ran around the ceiling light up, all connected by metal tubing and enclosed in rusty steel grating. The addition of light to the dark, underground room just made the entire place look even more dismal as it didn't exactly light the room up. More than anything, it just lit the center of the room while leaving the cages that lined the walls still covered in darkness.

Although Leona couldn't focus enough to see properly, she could still make out various contraptions in the center of the room that looked like torture devices, restraints and even various tools. It was a chilling sight.

A single person walked into the room and took a large breath of air before letting it out. It almost seemed as though the person enjoyed the dank, stale air. That person that Leona couldn't see clearly seemed to settle themselves on the only comfortable chair in the place before leaning his head back and laughing. It was only now that Leona recognized his voice.

"BRIAN. YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

"Oh? You're awake? Amazing, just amazing. Considering how much shit they pumped into you, I was afraid you would be out for days and that someone would have to take care of you. Never fear, I made sure to scold them for that so that they would be smarter in the future. But it seems like I didn't need to bother. Ah well, still better to discipline them every now and then. I wouldn't want them becoming careless." Brian's voice seemed rather pleasant sounding in this dark hell, but even Leona could tell that the more he talked, the more the silent bodies in the cages seemed to shake with fear.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU ASSHOLE." Leona, despite not having ever really been mad in her life was doing a great job of channeling her rage. Although she was a little scared, even this situation wasn't enough to cause her to shrink back. Compared to being surrounded and attacked by huge ass spiders, this was still a pretty easy thing to handle.

"Oh now. That's enough out of you. If it wasn't for the fact that I have guests upstairs that I need to entertain, I would be more than happy to show you just how much fun we are going to have together. Also, that pounding headache of yours? That's not actually from the drugs they shot you with. That's something a little special that I got from a lab up in New York. It has a rather wonderful effect that suppresses your abilities for days on end. Although it isn't a long term solution, it will keep you powerless for quite a while. At least, until we finish catching that cousin of yours and having him hauled away for research. And not only that, but making a catch this big will do wonders for my future. I really must thank you for introducing him to me. Without him, arranging this entire thing would have been useless. But now, I even get you out of the deal. Isn't that just wonderful?"

Leona was more than just a little annoyed by the sound of Brian's victory speech, but even she had nothing to say back at the moment. She now understood the fact that she was being used as bait to capture Laz. Even though the rage inside of her was mounting, all it did was cause her headache to worsen as she almost passed out again.

"He's going to kill you, you know that right?"

"Oh, I can't wait for him to come here and try. I just hope I don't have to wait too long. You're looking more and more tasty every time I see you. I can't wait to hear what kinds of screams your going to make. And stay strong. I would hate to miss that moment when you finally break just because you lost all hope while I'm busy." Brian laughed as he approached the cage that Leona was in.

"Mmm... such a wonderful smell. So much stronger than these other, useless things. I will have to get more like you in the future. They can barely last a few days before they break down and none of them can handle the... more enjoyable things I have gather here. But you... oooo. It gives me shivers just thinking about it." Brian reached a hand into the cage which Leona grabbed and pulled. Even if she wasn't strong enough to bend the bars, she was still far stronger than a normal human.

Her yanking Brian towards the cage caused his face to hit the bars and caused him to fall backwards. Leona couldn't help but laugh as her swore while holding his bleeding nose.

"I would have made this a lot easier on you and started slow, due to our past. But now...mmm. I won't hold back. Just wait, cause it will be soon, you little sut." Just as Leona thought that Brian was going to be leaving, he suddenly raised his hand and extending his ringers out like claws, made a downward, sweeping motion. Before Leona could even figure out what he was doing, she felt like hot nails had been dragged across her skin from her shoulder down to her thighs. Moreover, five cuts had broken through her clothes and her skin, causing her immense pain and leaving her clothes in strips that were just hanging off her.

Despite that, she didn't make a sound and just glared at Brian, as though she was just waiting for a chance to snap his neck like a toothpick.

Seeing her not even flinch at this level of pain, Brian just attack her body with his eyes while laughing to himself.

"I simply... can't wait..."

With that, he turned around and walked out, turning off the lights while closing the door behind him.