Looking down at the scene beneath them, made their stomachs churn. There must've been thousands of kids under there, some lying on top of another because of the lack of space. As big as the hole was, it wasn't meant to house thousands of kids.
The moment they opened it, unparalleled heat wafted throughout the room. Even at them open the hatch, none of the kids moved or acknowledged their presence.
"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.
"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.