"Lights out!" Shouted the guard exiting the room, just as the whole room was engulfed in black.

Jesse laid still on his back, staring frozen at the ceiling. After a few minutes of waiting, he sat up and called in a hushed whisper, "Vi?"

Tonight was the night. Jesse and his sisters had planned this for months, a chance to escape from their prison of over a decade. They were being confined in an underground facility, it was a government run lab in disguise of a research station. Surface dwellers were too busy trying to hide away from the undead and survive in overcrowded towns to care what they were researching, but to the public it was presented as a place to find and test treatments for diseases, and infections caused by the undead. 

The reality was far more unsettling.

The only truth in that sentence was that the building was government run, and it was a lab. Although the purpose was to feed the government's greed for power. The government kept files on everyone who had been involved in some inexplicable and puzzling incident, more specifically, people who had been effected by the mutations in the environment. After the planet had been mostly overrun by the undead and order was staring to be established, it became clear that whilst most people who were infected became one of the undead, some developed abilities that were inexplicable.

The research facility was made to run experiments on these individuals, but after they began to die off one by one, the government became desperate to obtain the mysterious powers and began kidnapping those who were descended from the gifted. So, the entire lab was filled with kidnapped children and those suspected of possessing powers. Most people end up staying their whole life confined in the underground, never developing powers. Trapped in a lab with endless tests and no way of freedom. In ost cases this was a better alternative than being discovered that you do possess the powers. The government would try anything to extract and control the abilities possessed, subjecting prisoners to cruel torture and many would not survive the repeated abuse. 

The three siblings knew they couldn't afford to pass this opportunity of escape up. They had been content to lie low and live a miserable existence in the lab.

Jesse gripped his own gun as his heartbeat threatened to cut through his chest. A tenseness started to overtake his body... No. He wouldn't let the nerves control him. 

As Naoko in front of him started to move, he forced his limbs as stiff as steel to work, following hurriedly after her. Outside the door, Naoko was in the middle of the room, shooting her crossbow at guards perfectly, as if she hadn't just spent the last decade in a cell. 

One down.

And another.

Another.

Jesse saw a guard lurch from behind them, carrying a hand knife and heading straight for Naoko. Seconds later, he was on the floor. Oozing blood from his neck at Jesse's feet. A smoking gun in his hands which were now stained with blood.

Jesse didn't have time to reflect on what he had just done befor Violet was shouting at them from the other side of the room. 

"Over here!" She screamed.

Jesse and Naoko turned to see her waving from a corner in the hallway. Presumably a door had been there, now the entire wall had been blown apart. Jesse gathered that this was where they had entered. But more importantly: where they could escape. 

After exiting the building, sounds of gunfire continued even despite how far they got. They came to the barbed wire fence. The last piece keep them caged here like animals. Jesse turned to Violet who nodded knowingly and handed him a blade. 

Jesse began to cut the weaker parts of the wire at the bottom, cutting and slashing his hands in the process as blood trickled onto his wrists. He saw Naoko turn her head away out of the corner of his eye as he continued to dig under, now scraping mud away from underneath. 

He began to channel more energy into his fingertips, although he was already at his limit, he could handle pushing himself a bit more if it meant being free of this hell. His now enhanced fingertips, were peeling the wire further upward and bending it into unnatural shapes, big enough for people to crawl through. 

Jesse let out a pained hiss as part of the wire pierced his palm. He wouldn't be able to heal it right away due to the lack of energy and hoped in his head that he could avoid it becoming infected. 

"That's enough." Naoko said, pulling him out of his thoughts.

He turned to look at her, who had a look of frightened concern plastered on her face, gaze flicking back and forth to his now completely red palm. Jesse immediately regretted making her feel worried but knew it couldn't be helped unfortunately.

"I'm fine, don't worry about it!" He smiled to her whilst turning his hand palm down, "are you sure it's big enough to crawl under?" 

"It's great, you did a good job." Violet smiled down at him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

He crawled under first, then followed by Naoko, then Violet. Jesse turned to Naoko again, who asked, "Does it really hurt?" Her expression turning worried again.

Jesse faked calmness and scoffed replying, "Really? You underestimate me! This is nothing, I can barely even feel it."

"Jesse..."

"I mean it, I can heal it later! For now I just need to preserve some energy, once we get further away from this hellhole then I promise I'll treat it."

Her expression softened as she nodded. 

"There's a small fishing village called Zostrar about a 6 hour walk from here," Violet explained, "Once we get there, we can use my savings and find us a guide so we can reach Eskar."

Jesse's face brightened truthfully this time, "Lead the way Vi!"