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Here for all you’re enjoyment is the next chapter to the story! Hehe. Enjoy and drop a review!



“Troubling Gifts”





~A mind is a terrible thing to waste~



**~Chapter 17- The Dungeon Below~**



Brian races after his group once the cold iron door spreads open. He gasps and stares at the thick white smoke that is slowly evaporating. Kevin runs over to Brian and clutches him tightly. He scans the hallway with his emerald eyes and gulp.



“What the hell happened over there?” Kevin states horrified, his voice quivers at the melting flesh and foul stench of what once used to be human soldiers.



“That smoke! It killed them! Really it did, I saw it with my own eyes. The smoke just touched them and they melted. What ever that sick doctor is thinking of, he’s good at it!” Brian states exasperated, the bright blue orbs wide open as he shakes in fear. “What if we don’t make it out of here? I’m starting to have doubts.” He whispers, clutching Kevin’s arm tightly.



Dr. Natalie’s mouth drops open as she walks over to join the cousins. “Look, we can’t think about that now. I found a stairwell down below that will take us to the other group and out the building. I’m advising we all stay together and not lose each other. I’m sure Dr. Sanchez has many more tricks up his sleeve, so we gotta be careful, you hear.” Her dark brown eyes open wide with concern, her long dark brown locks tumble straight down her shoulders capturing her light tan complexion in the bright florescent light.



Everyone nods and hold on to each other with Dr. Natalie leading the way towards the only staircase at the end of the vacant hallway. Paige smiles: her light blond hair tipped with orange tips hangs gently down her shoulders and stares at Alison with reassurance in her voice, “Hey don’t worry Ali. We’ll get out of here alive. We’ll get to be back with our families and leave this hell hole of a place.”



Alison sighs and gives Paige a smile; her soft brown eyes however spoke a different story showing terror and agony for future expectations. Paige gulps softly and turns one last time to see the decaying bodies of the soldiers. The smell of death was consuming the hallways, lingering in the air as the group walks quickly to the nearest staircase. Kimberly walks behind the girls down the thick cement stairs leading to what seems like a dungeon, dungeon somewhat similar to where she and the other girls were locked at. What stood out the most was the stain of what looked like blood smeared all along the cell walls and its floor.



“Hold up! Wait! I know you’re not gonna put us behind some cells after we got out of it. I’m not gonna move till you tell me where we’re heading.” Kimberly says demanding an answer from the doctor. Her dark brown wavy hair hangs down her shoulders, mid length as her dark brown eyes glow, her amber rings in her eyes stand out from her light tan complexion. “Well? Are you gonna tell us or what?” She states impatiently, placing her hands on her hips.



Dr. Natalie sighs and stops in front of the dimly lit dungeon where cell bars are aligning both sides of the wall. The only light came from a lone light bulb swinging gently from a small breeze coming from a window. She places her hand on the white cement wall, annoyed at the constant questioning emerging from Kimberly. “I’m gonna only tell you this once, and only once, ok. So listen and listen well. This hallway used to belong to what was known as the altra species area. These humans or should I say creatures were transported here to be studied over four years ago.”



Suddenly Dr. Natalie gets interrupted and stops as Alison squeaks out, her voice and body trembling, “No! It can’t be! I heard about them but believed it was just a story used to scare us and keep us in line to behave. They can’t be real! No way!”



Brian and Kevin look at each other and stare at the doctor in suspicion. “Alison, let her finish, I wanna hear about this altra species. Kevin states, his deep voice echoes off the wall down the hallway. Brian nods his head and waits for the doctor to finish.



Dr. Natalie clears her throat and continues, “Well as I was saying, this altra species were once humans. They came from out of the country, somewhere in Asia and Europe. These six men and women, all over the age of twenty five were tested with a chemical called Deoxide which was injected to them similarly like you all were, at random. The results were fatal. After two weeks of the medication in their system, they began changing physically, the chemicals in their blood stream took a turn for the worst and they became as Dr. Sanchez and the rest of the company refers them to as the “Gremlin mother in laws.” Quite a name since Dr. Sanchez wasn’t too fond of his mother in law to begin with.”



Kimberly snorts and rolls her eyes, “Now I know why the doctor kept using that name every time he got a call from her.”



“So we’re does that leave us?” Brian whispers, too afraid to speak loud fearing the worst could be waiting for them in this dungeon.



Dr. Natalie takes a deep breath, “Well this leaves us with the fact that almost two days ago they escaped their cells after security came to drop off some blankets and snacks for them. They shredded and ripped apart the two security guards to pieces and now they’re running around here somewhere ready to get their next prey.”



At this the rest of the group took a sharp intake of air. Suddenly Dr. Natalie was surrounded by tons of questions coming from the group, everyone asking about something or another. “Can we stop them? What do they look like? What are their powers? Can’t we just blow this whole building up and get it over with it? Will they kill us if they see us?”



“Stop it! That’s enough!” Dr. Natalie states loudly, raising her arms in the air to notify the group that she’s frustrated.



“Sorry!” The group all responds, all eyes on her as she fixes the collar of her white lab coat.



“That’s ok. I know you all wanna know about this new info I told ya. But please one at time. Right now, we’re gotta move on, beyond this large experimental area is where we’ll meet the other group and then a hidden exit is below two floors down. Watch out, you lost the ability to control your powers now. Dr. Sanchez has entire control down here with your powers. What happened above with Kimberly is a warning sign, watch out cause it will happen again with each of you and knowing the doctor, he’ll do anything to separate and drain you of your powers. As for the altra-species, they don’t look human anymore. The chemicals in their bodies transform them to look like the walking dead, zombies or even monsters.” Dr. Natalie whispers walking down the drafty hallway. Everyone in the group were mumbling and whispering about the new information that was told to them.



At the corner of the end of the dungeon stood another stairwell leading to two staircases. Dr. Natalie smiles uncomfortably and turns to face the group. “Ok,” She sighs before continuing, “This is it, down these staircases we’re gonna get to the lower level of this company. There’s an exit that we’ll leave from, we’ll meet the other group down there.” She whispers softly, glancing at her watch. “We’re doing good time, we can meet them, let’s hurry. You guys beware, those experiments are around here somewhere.” With that she turns to walk to the staircase until someone yells abruptly. All faces turn to see Paige grabbed by her orange tipped hair in a ponytail. She is lifted in the air by her hair held on by a grizzly brown arm, its flesh now rotting and the bones crack beneath its horrific complexion. The entire complexion of the body is dark brown, its face a skeleton, its yellow bones gleaming beneath the brown flesh. Its face had piercing bright yellow orbs staring back at Paige. The odor from the beast was so unbearable as Brian and Alison start to gag from the smell.



Kevin stands next to the creature whose height is a large seven foot three inches. A small profanity escapes from Kevin’s lips as he watches the beast grab hold of Paige’s hair. Shaking nervously, Brian creeps up behind the creature until he feels a strong pat on his shoulder. Brian shrugged the touch off and turned thinking it was one of the girls, but instead sees a similar creature dressed in the same outfit, the only difference is that this creature had long dry red strands of hair in a tight ponytail. Another creature appears from the staircase as another enters the dim dungeon. A loud crashing sound was heard as the final creature looking the same and wearing the matching outfit as the others crashed though a window. This creature had thick black curls cascade down its decaying shoulders.



Kimberly gulps and shakes as she reaches for Dr. Natalie hand. She stares frightened at the doctor with dread in her face. Dr. Natalie looks back at her in panic as well, her brown eyes staring at the dark brown eyes with amber rings of Kimberly’s. “What are we gonna do?” Kimberly chokes out, the fear evident in her voice.



Dr. Natalie stares at the six monsters all staring and approaching them as Paige screams out in fear from being held up in the air.



“We have to help her!” Kevin shouts over the screams and growls of the monsters. “What can we do?” He screams out, his emerald eyes glowing in fear.



Dr. Natalie stares at him and shrugs, whispering in fear she looks at Kevin, “Pray.”

~*~



They all begin going down the stairs carefully as Ana holds on to Howie and Summer clutches a very weak A.J. who after the incident with the guard fainted and was carried away to the stairwell.



‘After these stairs we just gotta get to the end of the hallway and wait for Dr. Natalie and her group. Your powers are now out of your control. Understand that anything can happen now.” Jamelet whispers staring at A.J. who is being carried with the help of Nick and Summer. All heads nod and all head down the brightly lit hallway. “Ok we’ll just wait here, till the others arrive.” Jamelet states tugging in her dark brown ponytail and sighs.



Suddenly as Ana and Howie are walking down the hallway to reach Jamelet and the rest of group, a large iron door from above slams in front of them, blocking them from the rest of the group. Ana starts pounding on the door in fear as a weak Howie leans on the door in light pain. Another iron door falls down from the ceiling separating Nick from the others. A glass stall rises from beneath the floor and surrounds Nick in it. He begins kicking and slamming into it, hoping to break the glass but nothing worked. A burning sensation rises in his hands as flames begin shooting out of his fingers, his blue orbs begin to glow and a large flame of orange fire shoots out of his hands. He screams out in pain and realizes his powers are out of control. He couldn’t control the fire that was spreading in the stall. Fear rises him as tries to get out of the stall. The flames surround him as he coughs and bangs on the stall door, “Help me! Somebody Please, I’m choking on this smoke!” He screams, coughing hard to let the smoke escape his lungs.



Summer and A.J. glance around and tries to find a way to separate the iron door blocking Nick. With all his strength, A.J. stares at the iron wall and searches for an opening only to see a small screen for a password to be typed in. He stares at the screen and back at the where a large spiked wheel handle in the center of the door is at. With his mind, the wheel handle turns suddenly and breaks off the door as the iron door slides open to reveal a screaming Nick in a smoking stall.



Summer stares at him in surprise, “I thought you can’t control your powers down here.”



A.J. shrugs his shoulders and smirks, “Guess you thought wrong.”



Jamelet and Rose reach Nick and tries to break the glass down. “We can’t break this glass!” Jamelet screams over the sound of the crackling flames. A.J and Summer all try to break the glass down and noting that Nick is slowly suffocating from the inhalation of the smoke, they find an ax and was about to break open the glass case that Nick is in until two more glass cases rise beneath the white tiles, trapping A.J. and Summer together in one case and Rose and Jamelet in another.



Ana hears the yelling of the others and angrily stares at the small TV screen in the corner of the ceiling. She sees Dr. Sanchez face as he laughs and points, all the while stating, “Look who won now! Look who won now! It’s too late to help them Ana, come back and stay in this institution. You know you can’t survive in the real world. All those people out there are too afraid of you and you can’t live a normal life with your problems. You belong to us Ana, you and the others. There is no escaping, so give up now before you all die fighting for freedom. It would be a shame to lose your life for something you’ll never get.” The doctor states slowly, emphasizing the last words.



“Don’t listen to him! He’s just messing with your head!” Howie shouts out as he struggles to stand up and places his hands on the cold iron door. He looks at the small computer screen next to the door and breaks the code by shocking the computer screen and blowing it up with his mind. The iron door opens and they both rush over to see the others in the group trapped in what seemed like glass stalls all screaming for help.



Howie’s mouth drops open in surprise, “Huh? What now? They need our help, what can we do?” Howie desperately races over to one glass stall where Nick was close to fainting from the smoke the flames gave off.



Ana shakes her head and places her hand on the stall, freezing it. Thick ice covered the stall that Nick is in as Howie pushes her out the way. “What are you doing? You’re gonna kill him like that!”



Ana’s bluish green lit up as she shakes her braided light blond hair no. “The fire is out. He’ll be ok, he can warm himself up. Kinda wish someone can warm me up like that?” She states, staring directly at Howie.



Howie a bit uncomfortable turns to A.J. and Summer who are locked in a glass stall as well, both screaming and kicking at the glass.



Ana smirks and stares out at a small window in the hallway showing nightfall. She wishes she can get out of here without dying and waits for the gloomy night to respond back to her but the sinister darkness outside of the window makes no response. She sighs, feeling that maybe all hope is gone and that what Dr. Sanchez could be true. But she couldn’t believe that, at least not yet. ‘There’s always an answer to something’ Howie told her before, but somehow right at this moment that statement seemed hollow. She sighs and shakes her head heading over to see where Rose and Jamelet are locked up. ‘This is gonna be one long night, I can feel it.’ Ana thinks to herself as Howie finds an ax and swings to break the glass stall where the girls are in.

~**~



**~TO BE CONTINUED…~**