8 Now the Wolves Roam Free

They had been locked up in the metal room deep under the fancy state of the art headquarters. Far below the ground humans walked on.

It smelled like feces in there and the only sounds were the occasional titter of a sewer rat. Darkness swung back and forth in the area as doors were opened and closed.

The underground, usually devoid of human life now had scatters of it. Three Systema Games guards stood in front of the room and one of them, the tallest, fished out a bunch of keys from his pocket. They jangled against each other, echoing in the eerie quiet.

The three guards lined them up, still holding them by their cuffs, like puppies in a shelter.

Kai tripped over his untied laces on the way and his forehead collided with Adrien's shoulder. Adrien was off-guard and the sudden impact made his legs wobble and his body plummeted towards the muddy ground, turning his peach face a dark disgusting green.

"Bunch of buggers, can kidnap a girl but can't watch their own feet," the shorter guard sneered, nudging the taller one. The five boys and the guards towered over Adrien, all of them with a silent smile on their face.

Adrien's nose hurt. He felt drips of blood smear on his hands as he wiped his face, his nerves screaming with pain in every movement.

"We can't wait all day," the tall guard broke in, he nodded to one of the boys, Romeo, "You, help him walk."

Romeo raised his eyebrows for a slight second but he complied and bent down to lift the broken boy. Adrien grunted and pushed him away, "I don't need your help."

Romeo took a step back, slightly hurt.

How had they all ended up like this?

They had joined together to play a game and now, 10 years later, they were walking out of the sewers with the world's biggest company against them. And Adrien...Adrien was their friend, why were the five of them doing this to him?

Romeo looked at Kai, his thick blonde hair falling over his face. They had been trapped in Breakfire for 10 entire years, locked in like sheep. So it also explained why they looked like young cavemen.

Those 10 years of quarantine definitely showed on their pale faces and thin frames.

Kai met his stare and simply smiled, telling him with his gesture to not worry too much.

Two minutes later, they were on their way to above the ground, three guards leading, five sort of healthy but revenge driven boys following and Adrien limping behind them.

Darren saw them come in and lead them to a glass room, not ready to leave them yet. He had set up six chairs in a row for them to sit on. Silently, they did as they were signaled.

Adrien didn't look up, just stared down at his torn shoes.

Plop. A blood drop spread itself on the white tile.

"So this is them," Darren's attorney spoke, gathering up his files on the table. "Other than being a little frail, they don't look like they've taken damage..hmm.." he scrutinized each face.

The attorney was a few inches short of Darren's height so he looked up and motioned him to bend down, "They look real. You sure they came in through the game world? It is hard to believe for an old man like me."

Darren scoffed, "If you knew my father, you wouldn't doubt it all. This was his creation. A game where you could walk into and out of as if travelling between worlds, too bad it's shut down now. They are technically humans with normal lives, but had been trapped in the game because of a malfunction..." Darren whispered back, lying about the last thing. Malfunction, ha.

The only people who knew about the real Breakfire Online were those who had been closest to Darren's father. They were so confident about releasing a movie about it with all their secrets in it because the real world would never believe such a thing.

The attorney leaned back and raised his eyebrows, "Really? You are joking right?"

Darren smiled and grinned. He laughed, and patted the attorney on his back, "Yes, Mr King, I'm joking. We would be crackpots to believe such a thing to exist," he laughed again and the attorney joined in, "Yes, I thought so too! You're a really funny person Mr Hermann!"

Tasha stepped forward and tapped Darren on his shoulder, "Um, Darren, you should get this over with, the public might start a protest soon," she warned and everyone in the room except the boys turned their heads to look outside the windows.

Surely, a crowd was building. And many had placards demanding freedom for the 'innocent' teenage boys.

Mr King nodded and asked the final question. "Yes, Mr Hermann, the government will approve of this. Do you know their residences?"

Darren shook his head, "They don't have one. Instead, we have provided a residence for them."

"Where, can I ask?"

"Lordes Mansion, south of Boldman's Estate," Darren replied, not letting out anything else.

The attorney frowned, "That's a really secluded area..."

Darren bit his cheek and prayed that the attorney won't oppose it. Darren stayed up an entire night finding such a place and placing secret cameras and guards all around the newly bought house. Darren would let them out...

But he wasn't going to let them go.

"...but it isn't a hostile area and the environment is pretty good. So no hiccups there," he ended, giving the approval Systema Games wanted. "You can take them there, I'll report personally to the government."

Darren smiled tightly and bent his head in thanks, "Yes, thank you for the assistance, Mr King."

And out went the dumb lawyer, happy that his work was done. The boys' cuffs were removed and they were led out through the basement and into the limousine parked in the underground parking lot.

Darren sat in the back with the dangerous looking six boys.

For a few minutes...everything was silent between them. A veil of tension. Thankfully, no serious protests broke out and the limousine rolled onto the busy highway with ease.

Darren reached over to the mini-fridge and took out a soda. "You guys must be thirsty," he said and tossed the can to a dazed Kai leaning on the window.

His hand shot up and caught the can perfectly. "You are Hermann's son aren't you?"

Darren smiled sadistically, "Why? Wanna kill me?" He needed to put a brave face in front of them, otherwise nothing would go his way. Them almost killing Ashe had dropped a lot of Darren's confidence.

Kai smirked, "I will. When you grow guts. It would be sad to kill a powerless kid."

Darren chuckled and shook his head and handed out sodas to the rest. Romeo took it without questions and popped it open, the water fizzing around his hands. He took a swig, his Adam's apple bobbing up and downwith each gulp.

"Ha..." he said when his parched throat finally met some life.

"You're going to lock us up again right?" Ethan guessed, noticing that the road had wound down narrow and the cars on the road had decreased.

"No doubt," Darren dead panned, really enjoying the power he had over them six.

Ethan stared back at Darren, "How much ever you try, you can not stop us. We will attack. That's all we've been doing for the past ten years," he shot back, "Breakfire taught us to kill. Now we will kill Breakfire, before you can even blink."

Images of horrifying monsters and dangerous levels passed through their heads. Dark caves, an army of trolls rushing for their throats. Every single day in the game, they had ran for their lives, trying not to die.

Darren's face went blank and his voice was now harder, "Like I will let that happen."

Kai continued staring out the window, looking at the roads pass by. They were safe, but they were not. He closed his eyes and tried to remember what his parents looked like. Were they still alive? Did they look for him when he was gone?

And then his mind suddenly shifted as the limousine took a right turn.

They should have been able to kill the girl and finish the Hermann blood line. The knife had grazed her skin but, it hadn't cut her.

A tiny thought started forming in his head..."We spent a lot of time in the game...did we spend so much time there that we became a part of it? So much time that we have no influence over the real world?"

Kai gritted his teeth. Hermann had did this. He had shut down the game and turned them into a part of the code. And that only made his blood boil. His rage against me grew with every passing moment.

"No, I'm human...I've got to be," Kai re assured himself. He and the others looked just like Darren. No difference.. "I'm human." But that was just him trying to run away from the cold truth.

The limousine rolled into a green estate that spread over an entire field. In the center, stood a huge three floor house that glimmered in the autumn sun. Its front lawn was perfectly mowed and flowers filled the driveway other than the marble fountain in front of the entrance.

The front door opened into a large hall lit with golden lights and scented with sweet smelling perfumes. It was two or three times bigger than my own house.

Once Darren left them at the door, he got back inside the limousine, "Stay here all you like. Food's free. Electricity is free. No phones, though. There's TV and rooms for all of you," he shifted his stare towards Ethan, "You might want to think twice about killing me, boy," he winked and the limousine drove away before their eyes.

Ethan just shook his head as he watched the limousine go.

Romeo turned around and looked back at the house, "Woah. This is so much better than the Caves of Kaala. At least there aren't any giant ants to eat us here."

Ethan shook his head again, "Boys, are we actually going to stay here?"

Kai shrugged, "Romeo is right. This is better. We can re-think our plans here. Once we have a job and some money, we can change locations and take the girl down."

Romeo's jaw dropped at the emotionless plan Kai stated. But he didn't say anything to oppose him. He was leader after all.

Kai lead the way with Romeo and the other two following. Before Ethan followed them in, he turned around to look at Adrien about to get in. He placed a hand on his chest and pushed him back, "You," Ethan sneered, "Stay out."

And the door shut close.

Adrien slumped against the front wall in despair and stared at the sky. An involuntary tear fell from his eye. "Ashe...I hope you're okay," he thought, despite the situation he was going through.

Night fell soon and the five boys had eaten the foods already cooked by the part time chef in the morning. By the time they retreated to their luxurious bedrooms and TV sets, it had started drizzling.

As the night grew darker and star shone brighter, the drizzle had risen to a heavy rain that soaked Adrien's feet. He shivered in the cold and curled up his body weak with malnutrition.

Adrien thought that this was going to be the new normal. Him outside the house suffering for protecting an innocent girl and his ungrateful friends happily enjoying inside.

But what he didn't know was that by the next afternoon, the Lordes Mansion will have a new member.