Victor realized that he would be running out of time soon if he did not go right now. He looked at Rod who was now almost on the verge of losing consciousness. He moved slowly towards the closed door while keeping an eye on Rod.
"Kid, do you think you could so easily escape from here? Stop doing anything silly or Gary would hunt you down wherever you try to escape… I don't think you can go back to, where you came from, they betrayed you once and they won't hesitate to do that again. Think carefully before you act once more."
"...."
Victor just ignored him and walked towards the door. Rod tried to reach for his legs but missed it by a few inches. Once he was out of the room, Victor locked the door behind him. He could hear the thumping on the door made by Rod. He saw the guards and also prisoners lying on the floor around the dungeon. He moved cautiously towards Jackson's prison cell.
"Aaahhhh...Ahhh..." Tucker's sound echoed around when he reached near his room.
He opened the door once and looked inside, Tucker still laid down on the floor while rolling around shrieking. He closed the door and walked forward with determination. This will be his only chance and he cannot let it go at any cost.
As he will be going near Jackson's prison cell for the first time, he felt unrest. He had seen how Tegus chomped of one of his toes and he had also heard the podcast that Slaughter did for Jackson. He was sure that these people were of no ordinary gang. When he reached Jackson's cell, he asked him while looking directly at his eyes,
"Do you want to escape from here? I can help you, but..."
"..." Jackson just looked at his small self and then completely ignored him altogether.
"I am serious! We do not have much time left. So answer me, do you want to leave this horrible place or not?"
Once again Jackson kept quiet and did not respond. So Victor continued as each and every second is valuable for them now,
"The truck would come in a few minutes. I had made everyone unconscious including the prisoners except you. If you can help me, then we both can escape from this hell…"
Jackson rushed towards the iron bars, which made Victor's heart pound hard against his chest.
"Are you telling the truth?"
"Yes, we just need to take care of the driver and his subordinate. Then we could escape by taking that truck. Do we have a deal then?"
Jackson hesitated as he was not sure if all this was also some plan by those alien creatures. Victor looked at him with expectation while tapping his foot impatiently on the cold floor. They were seriously running out of time and looking at Jackson, who was shilly-shallying, he almost lost hope.
"Ok. Let me out." Jackson finally opened his mouth and said.
"I am going to let you out but you have to promise me that you would not attack me or escape by yourself leaving me here to suffer."
"Alright. I promise. Now make it fast. If those creatures come back once again then it would be difficult for us to escape anymore."
Jackson whispered while looking around as he was unsure if those creatures were hiding somewhere and would jump in front of them when they were least prepared. Once Victor opened the door, he hurriedly walked out.
"So what is your plan?" Jackson asked.
"You might need to dress up as one of the guards here. If those delivery guys ask me, who you are, I would tell them you are the new recruit. Do not speak to them at any time. If you cannot handle it, just stay down while I handle the matter. If anything goes wrong, just shoot at them and then we escape. You know how to drive a truck, right?"
"I know how to drive a car but…" Jackson was not sure if he should share his personal life with Victor yet. He did not look harmful but after his recent experience, he just did not want to trust anyone.
"I think it should be the same way as handling the car. Let us hurry now. We need to change the way you are looking right now. Or else they may get suspicious and might shoot us on spot. Hurry! Hurry up!"
When Victor and Jackson rushed towards the front, Jackson heard someone's cries. He stopped and walked towards the door.
"He is Tucker, from the morning he was wailing and no one wanted to inform Gary about that. Just let him be! We do not have time to handle all this now." Victor said.
After walking for a few minutes, Jackson once again heard some noise from behind a closed door. The person was knocking on the door viciously.
"Ignore him. He is the only person who did not eat the food I made, so he did not lose consciousness. As I did not have many options, I just locked him in that room. But do not worry, we just need to make sure that we do not let those two delivery guys enter inside this place. And even if they enter, we have to make sure that they are unconscious before they come inside this door. Now let us see whose body size would fit you the most. You can leave the beard as it is, it would make it difficult for someone to identify you at first glance."
Victor took some clothes from one corner and asked Jackson to dress up. He then showed him the place where he could wash or clean himself up.
"Are you ready? I can see the truck passing through the hills. It would be here in no time now." Victor asked, standing near the oubliette where a screen displayed the approaching truck.
He climbed down the stairs and rushed towards Jackson. He handed a gun to Jackson, which he picked up from a guard who was fainted near one of the cells.
"Listen, I will go outside first and analyze the situation first. No one has seen you until now and the only person who knows your face is Tucker. So if anything happens to me outside, I want you to come out and shoot at them. Since it will be only two guys, we can bring them down easily." Victor said.
"Wait. I will go and you stay behind." Jackson said and handed the gun back to Victor.
"No, They have seen me before and they don't know you. They may get suspicious if they saw you first." Victor denied.
"Why don't we go together then?" Jackson suggested.
"Normally it would be me and another guy named, Rod, who would get the supplies down. This time I would say that Rod was currently busy with one of the prisoners, so I will ask for that subordinate's help. Once I bring him down, we will deal with him together. Next, we will take care of the driver. Just wait here for my signal. Do you know how to shoot?"
"Maybe…"
Victor was not so confident with Jackson but right now he was not left with much of an option. He nodded his head and waited for the truck to enter the perimeter. Once he saw the truck displayed on the screen hanging on the entrance wall, he opened the door. Before leaving he said,
"I am going out now. Have this with you and do not fire until I say so. Or else our plan may backfire on us. Even if the driver gets slightly suspicious then he would drive away from this place without a second thought."
Victor climbed the remaining stairs and opened the trap door from inside.
"Hey Vic, how are you doing?" Jeremy asked.
"Great! So what's up, Jeremy!" Victor stood there while looking at the door, slightly panicking.
He saw there were almost five armed men who got down from the truck. His anxiety increased as he was not expecting so many people and he was sure that their plan was going down the hill right at that moment.
"There are so many of you today. Did something happen?" Victor said in an unrestful voice.
"You tell me, Vic, what is actually going on here?" Jeremy asked.
"..." Victor blinked his eyes, as his pounding heart against his ribs proved that he was on the verge of collapsing.
'Are they going to get caught so soon? No… No… No… They have to escape. If these guys go inside then they would know that something was definitely wrong.'
"Do you know what had happened to Gary?"
Victor just shook his head. Suddenly he felt alarmed and remembered Tucker's situation.
"He is now in hospital and they could not figure out what was causing the pain in his head. It just so happens that he came here just a few days back. So the headquarters ordered us to do a thorough inspection of all the places he visited before and find out if we could get a clue." Jeremy explained while signaling his men to enter.
At that time Jackson came out of the trap door and looked at the situation. Since Victor had told him that there would be only two men, he thought it was better to go along with him and handle the situation. But what he saw outside made him panic. The men in uniform looked too difficult to tackle and if they started a fight here, he was not sure about the winning situation.
He retreated and closed the door behind him. He went back and took a few more weapons from the fainted guards while tucking them behind his back. Then he walked back to the trap door and stood in an attacking position, aiming his gun right at that door.