The Earth After Rebirth

"They take kids too? The files didn\'t have any..." Hiro trailed off and sighed, everything about this was exhausting and ridiculous.

The stench that came with the heat from below was something even the kids from the slum weren\'t used to. The smell was something else. It seemed they didn\'t give these kids baths. Just tossed food from where they were standing from time to time.

They were clearly underfed with how skinny and sickly they looked. They reminded Kiro of those zombies he\'d fought in-game once before, it was a truly terrible sight to witness.

"Dammit. If they couldn\'t take care of all of them, why take them in the first place?" Ishaan asked subconsciously touching his nose that was hidden by his mask.

"What you\'re trying to understand right now are things that are way beneath human understanding." Kiro said with utmost contempt.

They\'d learned about the little history they could about the old world, and this reminded them of the period of barbarians. Old humans loved wars, even if the enemy was just themselves, killing and stealing wad their favourite pass time.

The most disturbing thing was that, it didn\'t matter if you were a child, if you were old enough to work a weapon you\'d be plunged into the battlefield and hope for the best.

Even though their society loved telling them that they were far evolved, it was apparent that, this part of humanity will remain, primitive, as they liked to call it.

"What are we going to do?" Hiro asked absentmindedly, he didn\'t see a way out for the kids and that stressed him out.

"Rescue them of course!" Kiro said not having looked at him, surveying the hole and how better to get down there. He was prepared to jump, until James came rushing getting him out of the way and pushing down the ladder that was almost invisible.

"Won\'t this jeopardise our mission?" Hiro could truly not see another way, if they died today, the information, everything they knew would be buried with them. That was a scary thought. They couldn\'t afford a single mistake.

"What?" Kiro looked up for the first time, the kids and every prisoner were their mission, so he didn\'t quite grasp where Hiro was coming from.

"There\'s thousands of them, can\'t exactly guide them through the path we came from." With the mask that hid his face, his expression was completely unreadable, making his words colder than he intended.

"That much is obvious, so what?" Kiro could see the expression on his friends face even though it was hidden. "I get that you want to rescue your father but we can\'t leave these kids here. What if Isao or Freckles was one of them?"

Hiro gave him an expression that told him \'that\'s not fair.\' Kiro replied with one of his, asking him \'so? what is it gonna be\'

He couldn\'t imagine leaving his siblings and his friend\'s siblings down there to rot so he yielded. Comforting himself with the fact that, his father would have never been happy if Hiro sacrificed so many lives for him.

\'Hang in there dad, just a bit longer. I\'m coming.\'

"Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but how exactly are we transporting so many of them without being seen?" Nikolai chimed in.

"I don\'t know..." Kiro shrugged, looking around for anything useful, for any doors that could have been hidden in the walls.

"Then Hiro was right? It\'s useless trying to save them!" He cried.

"No, I was wrong. I shouldn\'t have even thought about that. Our goal is to have a better society for them, if I start thinking right now that they\'re disposable then I\'m not better than my father\'s captors." He was feeling more content with himself now.

Fully prepared to transport these kids to safety, though there wasn\'t a way yet, he wanted by all means to try.

Kiro used the ladder James found, to get a closer look. The way the kids looked inhuman, he looked over his shoulder now and then to ensure nothing was coming to attack him from behind.

Navigating through the stacks of tired and worn out bodies was a mission of its own. The bodies laid lump on the floor, the only sign that they were alive was the slow breath they took at irregular intervals.

"Anything down there?" James shouted, which earned him a hush from the rest. Remembering how they got caught the last time.

"Come on guys, this room is completely soundproofed." He shook his head at how incompete they could be sometimes.

"No nothing. I don\'t think there\'s a way out down here, I may have an idea, though I doubt any of you are gonna like it." He shouted at the top of his lungs.

"We may as well try."

The others nodded with James\' answer. Having him there made them all feel more secure, whether they wanted to admit that or not.

"We need to dig a hole through this wall right here. Then insert one of President\'s explosive, surely there\'s a tunnel on the other side?" He concluded with a question, he wasn\'t sure either but it was worth a try.

"Why won\'t we like that idea exactly?" James was confused, so where the others.

"If I\'m wrong, we may explode through a heavily secured room, thus making our presence known?" It was a gamble, but it was the only one.

"Let\'s do it."

Kiro turned a bit startled the voice was closer, James had come down. It was a mess down here, and they started working.

Some had to remain at the top in case someone came in. Making a hole in the wall was very difficult without a drill. But it didn\'t take them long before it was there.

Kiro inserted the explosive, then they tried to move the kids that were in front of the wall, as far as the space allowed them.

Kiro did the honours of pressing the button, a big explosion sounded, sending debris all around the place. The smoke was in the way, they couldn\'t see what was on the other side.