Page 51 of Angel Condemned

Axton

Iunlocked the last of the cells and the prisoners swarmed me. Their cheers and claps on my shoulders and arms filled the hallway.

“Quiet. We need to be ready for when the Roulex come or this is for nothing.” Everything in me wanted to tear the door from its hinges that blocked our path to the other parts of the jail.

I needed to get to Jody. Prove to myself that she was all right. I couldn’t think of her hurt or worse. A weight pressed on my chest and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I needed to see her and feel her in my arms.

A hush fell over the prisoners. Any second the panel would swing up and we’d rush the guards. We’d already broken the cameras so they wouldn’t know where we were. Which, I wondered now if they’d just leave us here to rot or—

Smoke billowed out from the vents overhead.

Shit!They were going to gas us.

Men and women screamed, running over one another to get away. They surged to the exit door. Their fists pounded on the metal.

“Quick,” I yelled, then coughed, “find any window you can and breathe the outside air.”

But too many of them were dropping to the ground.

I yanked two young females in each arm and rushed them into my cell. Using as much power as I could from my wings, I hoisted them up to the window.

“Hold on.” I coughed. My wings, all of me, needed more time to heal damn it.

The women stuck their heads out as far as the bars on the window would allow and took gasping breaths.

There wasn’t enough room for me, nor could my wings keep me up. I sank to the floor, darkness swallowed me.

I awoketo my lungs feeling like they were full of rocks. I garbled in a stinging breath. Screams and shouts sounded muffled.

My head was foggy and I blinked, but everything was blurry. There was a pounding headache along the back of my skull.

“Wake up, wake up,” a female said, shaking me.

“Jody?” I reached for her and only grasped air.

“Hurry, brother, they’re coming for us.”

“Celica?” I bolted upright.

The two females, Ninjils, peered down at me. They must have been able to hold onto the bars and breathe the air outside while the Roulex pumped whatever the gas had been into the prison.

I raked a hand over my face. “Sorry, I thought you were someone else.”

“Hurry, the Roulex are coming,” one of them said.

I stood. A rush of nausea crashed into me and I swayed on my feet. “Let them.” I was looking forward to killing each and every one of them.

Holding onto the wall, I made my way out into the hallway. Cornered in a cell was not my idea of the best place to fight. And even though the hallway was narrow, it gave the advantage of the Roulex only being able to come at us from one direction.

Bodies lined the path to the door, but I stepped around them. They’d fallen trying to get away from the poisonous gas. Even now, clouds of it still lingered in the air. I hiked up my shirt so that it covered my mouth and nose.

Then a few aliens around me did the same. All of us stumbled and would be easy targets for the Roulex.

The main door to the cells squeaked open. Dozens and dozens of guards rushed forward, stepping on the unconscious. Hacking off limbs and heads.

They weren’t going to fight us back into our cells. They were slaughtering us. Had they done the same to Jody?

Rage snapped across my back like a whip. I roared, charging forward. I grabbed a Roulex in each hand and smacked their heads together. The sound of crunching skulls echoed in the hallway.

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