Page 31 of Rage

After visibly gulping, Maverick shuffles on his knees to face the metal container. When Peter doesn’t move from his armadillo stance, I pull my foot back and kick him in the rib. He lets out a pathetic whine and curls up tighter.

“LOOK WHAT YOUR FATHER HAD YOU PROTECTING!” I screech, fury locking up my limbs.

The kid only sobs louder and rocks faster.

“Look up, Peter!” Maverick hisses, shooting me a nervous glance. “She might kill you if you don’t. Come on, look! This is all going to be some misunderstanding. A mistake. There’s nothing, you know,badin these containers, right?!”

Peter gasps repeatedly,loudly,as he drops his hands away from his head before sitting up on his heels.

“I don’tfuckingknow, Rick! You heard Father’s instructions and none of them even hinted at what was inside of this thing!” Peter reaches up and grabs the roots of his dark, tightly coiled hair. “You know as much as I do!”

“You have to knowsomething!” Maverick insists, almost desperately. “How do you not know what your dad?—”

“Shut up and watch,” I demand, cutting him off.

Drake uses the bolt cutters to break the padlock holding the door to the container closed. It takes a second and a great deal of force, but Drake manages the feat. The lock drops to the ground with a loud clatter. Dre steps back so Kingston can open the door. The metal hinges whine in protest as the door swings open.

I can smell the women before I can see them.

Days, maybe even weeks, in a shipping container doesn’t make for a hygienic experience. But the stench radiating from the container is nothing compared to the sight of the people inside. Bile climbs in my throat as they begin to appear. One after another, they poke their heads out, staring around at us with fear and trepidation. The women are young, scared, and malnourished. That much is clear.

Seeing them and their gaunt appearance sickens me and drags my thoughts back in time. Screams of pain, exhaustion, and hopelessness echo in the back of my head. They don’t belong to me. The sounds of suffering come from the victims I witnessed at the hands of the Butcher of Briar Glen. Their suffering haunts me to this day.

I couldn’t save those women. But these ones, I can.

“Run,” Drake snarls at them, pointing in the direction we’d come. “Runnow. You don’t have time to waste. People are coming for you. Look for the break in the fence and take off down the road, butstay off of it! That’s the only way in and out of this place, so there’s no choice but to use it. Flag down a cop car once you hit the highway.”

The women stare at him, either too frightened of the masked man staring back at them or not sure if this is some sort of sick trick.

As Drake tries again, voices at my feet drag me back into the moment.

“W-wait… What the fuck? Who are those women? W-why…. Peter, why are those women in that container?”

I look down to find Maverick, mouth gaping and face paling even further as he witnesses the crime he’d been taking part in.

Peter shakes his head wildly. “I don’t know!”

“Have they been in there the… thewholetime?” Maverick asks, his voice growing louder, more panicked. “Their hardly older than your sister! What the fuck would you’re dad be doing with them?!”

Before I can brace myself, he leaps to his feet. I tense, ready to slice him to ribbons. But rather than attack me, Maverick steps toward King and Dre.

“Run!” He shouts at the woman stumbling out into the fresh air. Most look a bit dazed, as if they can’t really believe they’re free. “Run now! These guys are right! We’re expecting your transportation unit any second. Go! Go!Go!”

“What are you doing?” Peter hisses, clearly panicked. He shoots me a terrified look before reaching up to grab the bottom of his friend’s suit. “Mav! My dad will kill us if he knows we were involved inanyof this!”

“Let him try!” Maverick snarls, glaring down at his friend. “I’m not scared of your dad. He needs to be scared ofus,Peter! What the fuck is this?” He waves his hands at the women who are beginning to understand the enormity of what’s transpiring. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see them scurrying into the night. “If he thinks we’re just going to sit back and let him get away with this, he’s got another thing coming to him.”

Peter winces but slowly gets to his feet. He looks at the women, his expression pinched with dread and horror before he looks at me. Peter doesn’t know it, but our eyes lock as he stares into my mask.

“I-I-I really didn’t know they were in there,” he says. Fat tears stream down his face. His bottom lip trembles along with the rest of his frame. “I swear it.”

“Neither of us would’ve been onboard with this if we’d known,” Maverick adds, his voice strengthening. He looks at me, his shoulders stiff with tension and his fists clenched at his side. “You have to believe us.”

“We don’t have to believe shit,” Wyatt growls behind his mask. “We should kill them, Daze. If one of their dads is in charge of this, they could be lying.”

Owen nods once. “It would send whoever is in charge a clear message.”

“No! Please, don’t!” Peter cries out, stumbling back away from us. “D-don’t kill us!”

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