“Our first pit fight today will be Kai,” Maria started as she gestured at one of the new recruits, a tall kid with caramel skin and short black hair, “going up against Spencer,” she continued as she pointed to a Phantom who was sitting directly in front me, he had shoulder-length light brown hair and skin so pale he looked like a ghost.

Spencer got up and jumped down into the pit where Kai was already standing in the middle waiting. The rest of the kids who had not been declared worth keeping yet were against the walls of the pit, just like David expected they would be. The only kids who weren’t down in the pit were Orlan and Sakura since they had stayed with me and Sophia, and came down to the pit with us. They were sitting together in the very front row of chairs, with all of us Phantoms behind them.

“Begin!”

Spencer immediately struck at the boy in front of him, who barely managed to dodge the attack. I glanced back at the doors, hoping to see someone come through with the news that Xander and Ryker were no longer in their cells and that the night guards were all dead. When nobody came in I looked over at David and raised my eyebrow at him. He looked back at the door then over at me and shrugged. I frowned and looked back down at the fight, Kai was surprisingly still standing and putting up a decent fight, but Spencer looked like he was mainly just toying with the kid in front of him.

“Enough, he’s proven himself well enough,” Maria said as she held her hand up, Spencer immediately stopped attacking Kai and looked up at us, “Spencer take hi-”

The doors slammed open, getting everyone’s attention.

“Maria! The prison was broken into last night! Xander Carric and the Plutoan boy are gone and the guards are dead!”

“Impossible,” Maria said in disbelief as she turned her attention to the guard who had run in, “that’s impossible… what happened to security?”

“It seems like the system was… hacked ma’am… we have no footage of the past month.”

Maria slammed her fist down onto the pedestal she was standing at, then went towards the doors.

“Put those two down in the pit with the others,” Maria said as she pointed at Orlan and Sakura, “David you stay here with half a dozen guards and keep an eye on them. Everyone else start searching for the escapees,” she ordered as she stopped in the doorway and looked back at all of us.

David grabbed Orlan’s and Sakura’s shoulders and led them to a staircase that went down to the pit and ordered all the kids to gather in the middle. As guards and Phantoms began leaving the room to search for Xander and Ryker I reached down and grabbed my pistol, readying myself to draw it and take the guards down.

“Aidan, what’re you doing?”

I looked behind me and saw Spencer standing in the doorway giving me a weird look. His cerulean blue eyes narrowed in suspicion. Nobody else was left in the room other than the kids and guards in the pit, but Spencer didn’t look like he was planning on leaving.

“Staying here, if they got out last night we won’t find them anywhere in the facility or on the grounds, if they were smart they would have run off into the woods and not stopped until they couldn’t run anymore. No reason to waste time searching for them if they’re long gone.”

“What’s with the gun? You know we’re not supposed to carry those around openly.”

I sighed in defeat then quickly drew the weapon and shot the boy in his thigh. He yelped in pain and fell down, grabbing the spot where I had shot. I didn’t wait for him to recover, I just jumped down into the pit, the guards were too stunned to react quickly so I had taken two down before any of them aimed at me. The kids all dropped to the ground to avoid the flying bullets. I fired several more shots, taking down another two guards as the last two standing returned fire but missed. I was trying to avoid lethal wounds so that it wouldn’t be strange that David was the only survivor of the group. I took one of the last two guards down with a shot to his shoulder and a shot to his thigh. The last guard ran for the exit, firing at me as he went. David intentionally fired several shots that missed me by inches. I shot back and caught his side, causing him to fall over. I watched as the last guard decided he was outmatched and ran out the door, lifting his radio up as he went.

“Come on! Get up, follow me!” I shouted as I looked at all the kids, they didn’t respond immediately but once Orlan got up and ran towards me the others followed.

“Stay close to me, we have to be fast, the guard that got away will have called backup by now.”

I quickly led the way towards the garage, shooting guards and Phantoms in the halls as I went.

“Pick up their guns as you pass them!”

The kids behind me quietly acknowledged my order and several picked up the weapons of the people I had taken down so far. I turned a corner and a bullet skimmed my side causing me to wince and get behind the corner again. I glanced at the wound and saw that only a small amount of blood was coming through my shirt, not a major wound at all. I ignored the pain as I quickly aimed around the corner and fired several shots before fully coming around and aiming more accurately at the person who had shot at me.

“Come on! We’re clear,” I exclaimed as I made my way down the hall, the kids followed.

We’re almost to the garage, just down this hall and to the left. Three guards appeared at the end of the hall with assault rifles.

“Down!”

The kids instantly dropped as the guards opened fire. I crouched to my knees and emptied my clip, taking all three down.

“Aidan, your arm!”

“Fuck,” I said under my breath as I saw my arm bleeding badly, clearly I had been hit again, “anyone else hit?!”

When nobody said that they had been shot I stood up and holstered my empty pistol then ran to the end of the hall and picked up one of the assault rifles from the downed guards. The kids followed and I took a quick headcount, ending with twenty-four, which is the number I should have had. I nodded in satisfaction then looked at the door to the garage.

“Let’s go!”

“But your arm,” Orlan said as he pointed at my still bleeding arm, “won’t you bleed out? And doesn’t that hurt?”

“Not any time soon I won’t,” I answered the first question as I started towards the door with them following closely behind, “and yeah I bet it hurts like a bitch, but right now I’m not feeling much of anything because adrenaline is a crazy chemical.”