Search And Rescue

Though Kruxe was sure there was still some hidden compartment below the deck he was now on, officially this was the bottom deck of the ship.

Here there were no openings on the floor of the ship and it was here that most of the ship's goods were stored.

With most of this section of the ship immersed in water, Kruxe could hear the occasional sounds of waves colliding against themselves and against the ship, the sounds actually having a calming effect on Kruxe who had just escaped with his life.

With these low wave sounds, things would have begun going well for Kruxe if not for the several cages that he was now staring at.

A place that should have been filled with barrels, crates and boxes was now instead filled with about a dozen cages, all of them seeming to be made with rather strong shiny steel, and within a few of them were people.

Perhaps it was due to the poor lighting or a lack of fighting spirit, but Kruxe's descent saw no reaction from either of the people in the cages.

There was the sound of whimpering, coming in different pitches and frequencies like several people were taking their turn to groan in anguish

Kruxe took a gulp and summoned his gun, his eyes quickly moving to find his mother, but he found the darkness within the cages a bit too thick for his eyes to piece through from a distance.

Quickly, Kruxe moved forward to find his mother.

Remembering that time wasn't on his side, Kruxe went from cage to cage, keenly looking at the various people in them, and when he confirmed them to not be his mother, he immediately moved on.

Kruxe felt the urge to scream for his mother so he could quickly identify her, but he suppressed this stupid feeling.

Were Kruxe to shout, there was a chance that someone would pick up on his voice, and most importantly, he did not want to rile up the people in the other cages, who knows how they would react if they found out he was someone who could free them.

Just descending the ship alone had nearly cost Kruxe his life, and with his mother's physical condition, his plan for rescuing her was still a rather shaky one, and he had no interest in inserting variables he could not control.

Though the time he wasted searching each cage burned his heart, the second his eyes fell on a woman sitting in her cage and leaning against its walls with her arms wrapped around her legs, all of Kruxe's frustration was nearly wiped away, and hope sprouted within him.

Though she had her head down and the dimness of her surroundings made her hair look black, Kruxe was still able to make out the huge circle with two overlapping crosses sowed onto the long robe she wore.

Not to mention the rather faint familiar perfume that he smelled coming from the cage, Kruxe was near sure that he was staring at his mother and wasted no time in lowly calling.

"Mom"

"Mom"

Twice Kruxe called out, but the woman before him did not answer, this lack of reaction making Kruxe begin having worrying thoughts.

The cages were placed side by side and pressed against the ship, and with the woman sitting at the other end of the cage, that meant Kruxe had no way to reach her, except he climbed over it.

With the cages being rather low, just barely higher than Kruxe, he entertained the thought of actually climbing over, but before he could think more about that plan, he heard the most precious voice to him in the world.

"Kruxe" the voice came, sending the called individual looking over at his mother with a stunned gaze.

"Kruxe is that you "Amelia called out, crawling her way towards the other end of the cage, Kruxe squatting so he was eye level with her.

"Mom it's me" Kruxe replied, tears threatening to spill from his eyes.

Her once beautiful hair and well-combed hair now scattered and spread all over her face, Amelia crawled up to Kruxe and sent her hand through the gaps in the bars, her hand going all over Kruxe's, her look of disbelief turning to fear and then horror.

"What are you doing here" Amelia asked, her voice coming out hoarse, and then with a realization of what it meant for him to be here she put her hand over her mouth tears quickly coming to her eyes.

"Kruxe what are you doing here?"

Seeing his mother in such a pitiful and frightened state, Kruxe wanted to console her, but then her words reminded him that he was in a far from safe environment and needed to quickly get out of there.

Not replying to his mother, Kruxe quickly got to his feet and approached the lock of the cage's door, there was a keyhole there and after giving his surroundings a look over and determining that the key wasn't anywhere nearby or visible, he lifted his pistol and pointed it at the lock.

"Kruxe please no, what are you doing here, leave" Amelia harshly whispered having by now realised how Kruxe had gotten there and his intentions.

"Help me"

"Help, please help"

As Kruxe aimed at the lock he could hear his mother weeping and her heart-wrenching pleas and then to his worry, another female voice began speaking up.

Realizing that he had no time and praying that just like with Maruge, no one would hear the sound of his gunshots, Kruxe fired his gun.

"Bam"

"Bam"

The shots wet flying consecutively and when Kruxe hurried to the cage to pull it open, he found the lock in pristine condition, a little bit black, but overall, it was in top shape.

He tried pulling the door but it didn't even budge, the metals of the cage hard as ever and then out of frustration he lifted his gun and began slamming it butt against the lock.

At the moment, Kruxe was desperate for a solution, the cages and their rigidness were an unforeseeable variable and now they stood in the way of him rescuing his mother.

"Don't go getting frustrated for nothing, even without the cages you still won't be able to rescue her." a tired and somewhat lazy voice said letting out a sigh at the end of his sentence.