Chapter 98Ceasing Children

Khuna and I walked through the building, enjoying the almost eery silence to the full. Though it wasn't completely silent, upstairs I heard the distant voice of Valerie talking to the children. Even my vampire ears couldn't pick up what she said though.

"Kai first?" Khuna suggested.

I nodded.

We headed all the way to the basement. All quiet, so to speak, as nothing was out of place. No alarms or sirens anywhere near and all the cameras we passed looked dead somehow. Kai had done his job well. I hoped everything would continue to go this smooth. It didn't take us long to find Kai, he was sitting in the server room with his legs up on the table, looking at us with a smile as we walked in.

"Having fun?" I asked.

"Yeah, but there isn't much of a challenge. Our timing is nice though, the tapes here are complete so we have a full backup and the encryption on it is laughable as I have the keys here already." Kai shrugged. "I'm basically waiting for the Virus to be written to the system's BIOS."

"Will it take long?" There was a progress bar on the screen, but it was full already.

"No, it's done, it's just doing a verify check and I have to do the backup BIOS with the original one. Both things will only take half a minute or so." He started typing again on his laptop.

His backpack was on the floor but besides the laptop and a network cable there was nothing there. All too easy it seemed. Did I forget anything? Did I overlook anything?

We destroyed the drugs and as much of the ingredients as we could. Valerie was gathering the children and Kai had everything under control. Why did I have a feeling something was going horribly wrong? The feeling kept nagging at me. I knew something was amiss, but just no idea what it actually was. I wanted to shrug it off, to walk away in charge. Why couldn't I?

"All done." Kai's voice interrupted my thoughts.

"Get your stuff, we'll head to Val." I smiled bravely.

He nodded and packed everything in his backpack, only taking a few seconds. He nodded to us and we three headed upstairs to Valerie, to the children. Unsure of what we would find. The building was nicer here though. Instead of the bland colors of downstairs, the walls were decorated with simple nice colors. Not too bright, but colorful enough to feel better. Office plants here and there did look very artificial but still better than nothing.

We walked though a corridor with a kitchen and a sort of classroom on the side. A recreation room with a large TV was all clean and proper, though the many closets punctuated the silence with the promise of toys. As this place was in the middle of town the absence of staff-quarters was not that surprising. Besides someone to be here for the night, the rest could just return in the morning. The courtyard big enough for at least a few cars.

And in the corridor, Valerie waiting with all the children behind her. They were eerily quiet, just standing there like 'proper children', the kind that never really exists. A child is not meant to behave, playing is meant to explore the boundaries of ones actions so that they don't have to repeat them after they grow up.

"They're drugged... I think." Valerie spoke softly. "They listen to what I command them, but only because they are probably conditioned to do so."

"That's terrible!" Hard to stay quiet at something like that.

"Their bodies are treated well and they get time to play, as their dreams and fantasies are very important. It could have been worse." She tried to look brave but her stance and her eyes betrayed her pain. Children, people, were not meant to be treated like this.

I nodded. "Let's go."

We led the children outside and retrieved the key for the bus from the front desk. It was large enough for the children to sit in, if Kai would drive slowly their travels would be comfortable. It smelled of wood and paint, so strange. Kai got in the drivers-seat, Valerie sitting next to him, closing the doors behind them. A glance back made me smile with the irony. With the children this silent and the slightly darkened windows the bus looked empty and abandoned. No one would expect it to be filled with two vampires and a group of children.

If they found out they would think the wrong thing entirely.

Now to open the gate. I was surprised at how easy the lock opened, it was very well greased. It's oily blackness was reflecting the lights of the courtyard as I turned the key. The gate squeaked slightly on it's wheels while it opened, proving that not everything was perfect after all.

Finally, all clear, all safe. All except for the footsteps coming from the street and heading this way.

Much closer than I thought, someone could see me standing here. I was about to move back when a guy stepped into the light near the gate. No! It couldn't be! This wasn't possible...

Hitori.

"Amy? What are you doing here?"