I understood that kind of fear and I was sick and tired of being afraid.

“It’s okay,” I told her. “Do you know how these cages open?”

“Who are you?”

“Just one of you hell-bent on getting out of this place.”

“Really?”

“Yes, now help me. How do the cages open?”

“There is a panel on the wall. You can activate by cage number or a whole row at a time using the levers.”

“Got it.”

I started pushing up on every single lever I could find and soon every cage door on that side of the room was open. People began waking and jumping out of their cages. It broke my heart to watch but I was grateful to be a part of their rescue too.

“Hey, what about us?” Someone across the room yelled.

“You can’t leave us here,” said another.

“There aren’t anymore levers.”

“Over here. There’s another panel over here,” a woman cried out.

“Please. Help us.”

“You can’t leave us here,” a man repeated.

It wasn’t easy to force myself through the crowd as they pressed forward.

“We have to move fast,” I told them. “I think there’s an exit door across the hall, but it’s really disturbing in there. I just want to warn everyone. Shield the children’s eyes.”

“What’s in there?” someone asked.

“A crematorium,” I said, thinking that would be the easiest way to describe it even though I knew nothing would prepare them for the reality of it.

Still, hearing ‘crematorium’ caused immediate panic as hundreds of people took off in every direction.

“Over here,” the woman desperately said again.

I saw the panel and pushed my way through it.

Chaos ensued.

As fast as I could, I hit every lever, freeing the remaining shifters.

They worked quickly helping each other down before moving as a group to the door.

“Stay together. We’re safer in numbers,” someone yelled.

I had to believe that was true and stayed with the group.

I was happy to see the majority did heed my warning though and walked across the hall and into that awful room.

“There’s a door over here,” someone yelled just as a gun fired.

“Stay together. They can’t take us all,” someone else hollered.