Page 12 of Carver

The cage with an open door and nothing more than a small blanket laying inside. A dirty blanket.

“FUCK!” Carver roared the word into the empty space.

“Boss? What’s going on? You’ve got to keep going. You’re almost to him.”

Trix’s voice had him refocused in an instant. He stepped forward, then realized what Trix was saying couldn’t be possible.

“There’s nothing else here. You’ve got to be wrong. Not unless?—”

“Tunnels.” They spoke the word at the same time.

Clicking away at his keyboard, Trix bit out, “Give me two minutes. I’ll get whatever is in there disabled.”

While Carver understood how short of a time it was, each second felt eternally long as he waited for Trix to figure out their next steps.

“Keep your eye on the wall across from the entry. A light should flash green… now.”

The tiny dot would have never caught his eye had Trix not been telling him to look for it. Whatever the fuck Mordecai was doing here, she wanted to make sure there was a path to safety. Thank goodness she didn’t make it this far. The arrogance she’d used to build her empire was the same that caused her downfall.

Carver approached the spot where the light had gone off. Up close, he could see the seam indicating there was a door. Since there was no handle, he pushed against where he suspected the edge would be. The door creaked open.

“You see him yet?” Trix asked.

“Not yet. I’m going to…” His voice faded as the small form in the distance caught his sight.

He ran over to the body, dropping down to floor without a care to anything. If this had been a trap, then he’d have been caught. There was nothing that could have stopped him from helping the boy.

Memories assaulted him, one after another. He wasn’t in this hidden tunnel. Wasn’t finding a complete stranger.

It was someone else. Someone equally as small and hurt.

Carver shook his head to push away the visions clouding his mind. He reached down to check for a pulse. It took a second to find one.

“He’s alive. Breathing. Heartbeat is low though.” He paused to see if the boy would react to his touch or his voice. “And he’s not responsive, Trix. We’re going to need a medic for this one.”

“Understood, Boss. I’ll get it arranged. Bring him straight here.”

While others might have bristled at being given orders, Carver took pride in knowing his men could step up to lead. He wouldn’t always be around. They needed to know what to do in such an event.

He lifted the boy slowly, careful not to jostle him too much. Whatever was wrong with him, it didn’t involve blood. He didn’t appear to have any broken bones either. Carver knew because he could practically feel every single one of them.

The boy was malnourished. There was no doubt.

Once he felt confident there wasn’t anything to be gentle about, he rushed from the tunnel and back into the horrid bedroom. He didn’t stop moving, his feet eating up the distance to the entry.

Slash came into view as he rounded the open doorway. “Boss!”

Carver moved in his direction. He could see they were finally getting the others loaded into the trucks. It seemed like once they knew the boy was taken care of, they were willing to leave.

“You made sure to get everyone out?” he asked his second.

“Hex is doing a final run through now. Trix said he was double checking too, since you know, he missed this one.” Slash nodded to the unconscious form.

As if he heard his name, Hex came jogging out of the house. “All is clear. The only bodies in there are the ones we took out. What’s the plan with it now, boss?”

“Burn it all down. And record that shit. I want proof that it’s nothing but dust and metal left behind. We’ll melt down the rest of it to repurpose somehow.”

Hex’s face lit up. “Sounds like a good time. You mind if I lead the efforts?”