This Is My Battleground

Chapter 19
Episode 4: Scene 2

After probably two minutes in the elevator, it STOPPED. I looked at the floor counter, but it said we where on the thirteenth floor. Great. Len dropped his arms around me and used his longest gun to push open the emergency exit. He used the handrail around the elevator to jump up then pulled me up afterwards, gently pushing me to the service ladder. I grabbed on to it and he was about to jump on after I climbed up when I heard a sickening snap. The elevator groaned as Len's eyes widened.

"Len!" I shrieked. The elevator dropped from below him, but he jumped off just in time. I let out a breath and began to speak but he placed his finger on his lips and urged me to climb. I nodded reluctantly, but continued until we made it to a safe edge. I crawled onto it and watched as Len release a silent breath of relief. His eyes told me not to make a sound and his actions told me we were being listened to. I almost jumped when I heard the elevator crash into the last floor and Len held me still.

"Don't say a word," he whispered into my ear. He fished my old clothes from his pocket and wrapped a live grenade around it before tossing it up as high as he could. I pressed my back against the wall and he covered me just incase it didn't work. When the grenade went off, I heard a chorus of screams and bodies fall from the higher floors of the elevator shaft. He crawled over my legs and pried open the elevator doors on that level, beckoning for me to follow him.

"Damn, I almost crapped my pants," he said, falling to his knees when we walked onto the floor.

"So attractive," I told him, sarcastically.

"Oh? Do you prefer I fell with the elevator?" he asked, getting up.

"Of course not," I said, walking ahead. "But it would have made things funnier." He placed a hand over his heart and feind hurt.

"Princess, you hurt my pride."

"You know how much I hate it when you call me that," I responded, rolling my eyes. "Hurry up. The others probably got downstairs before we did." He nodded and placed a kiss on my cheek before walking on ahead. I followed him through the lower hallways, but this particular floor gave me...an off feeling. While we walked on this floor, there weren't any other footsteps than our own. It felt empty. Dead. And it scared me.

"...Rin, you alright?" Len asked, stopping in front of me.

"It feels...like...no one's been on this floor for ages," I explained. The hallway was dark and smelled of mold and rotten carcuses like in the sewers. At one point, we had to get out a flashlight to continue heading through to find the stairs. I stayed close to Len and pulled on his arm when I saw a sign next to a door. "Len, shien the light on that." He pointed the beam towards the sign and in faded letter it said Chemical and Animal Lab.

"Oh shit," Len said, under his breath. "It's the origin hell hole of those creatures." He took the light away from the sign and looked around the entire hallway until he found a door we had passed minutes before.

"Len, what do you think you're-" I didn't even finish my sentence when he literally kicked down the door into an abandon lab. Of course, it fell easily, but I wondered why Rein and Ren didn't remove this floor or at least remake it. In the room glowed of chemical waste in numerous different colors and Len walked inside, looking around.

"These things are at least eight to ten years old," he said, impressed.

"Len, this isn't any time to be amazed by things that we fight on a daily basis!" I snapped. But not even I could hide my curiosity, so I followed him in. Broken glass and metal were everywhere, but a soft hum sounded from behind a wall. Slits of light shown from the bottom of the wall and Len searched until he found a secret switch. The wall turned and Len made me back up for safety. It was a girl, about maybe eleven, floating in what looked like yellow toxic waste. She looked as if she were sleeping and on the glass was the intials carved Project: CU9K.

"This must be why." I looked at Len and he walked to the computer which looked out of place in the lab. It looked new. The screen flashed on almost immediately and a password was asked for. Len stared at the screen for about a minute before typing in the password correctly on the first try.

"How did you...?" He pointed to the sticky note on the side of the computer.

"Rein was never the smart one," he said, continuing to work. "Rin, look at this." I focused my gaze on the computer and gasped. All these statistics, background info, and parental history of this girl. She was only refered to as "CU9K" and she was originally used for experimenting since birth because her parents were unable to take good care of her and her half sister.

"Her parents are..."