Into the basement.

Max followed the men as they hurried down the hallway. She could hear gunfire and explosions in the distance, muffled yelling penetrating the walls. It seemed that the fighting hadn't moved to this part of the Manticore compound yet, leaving the hallways empty as all the guards had moved to help in the fight.

Max slowed as she heard a soft whistle in the distance. Oh no. "Get Down!" She screamed at the two other men as a wild motor impacted with the building. The explosion sent her flying back as the walls collapsed into rubble.

"Uhh" Max groaned as she pushed some rubble off of her. Unhurt she picked herself up. "Fuck she muttered as she realized she had been cut off from the two other solders. The explosion had blocked off her path forward but had also blown open on of the restricted doors. "God shuts a door..." she muttered to herself as she looked down the new passage.

Past the blown out door were a set of stairs leading down into the Manticore basement.

"Why'd it have to be the basement?"Max groaned. She could remember the trips down into the depths of Manticore when she was young. The horrors that she saw down there. Mantciore buried their mistakes in the basement. All of the scientific misshapes they had made. All of the genetically manipulated creatures that never lived up to their expectations would be locked up in the basement. The children used to call them 'nomalies. The mutant mistakes of Manticore, some more beast then man, some not man at all. They were monsters.

Max could hear the approaching sound of troops heading her way. There was no way she would go back to being locked up with Lydecker. She would take her chances in the basement with the freaks. If she was lucky the solders would be too afraid to follow her down.

"Fuck me." Max muttered as she reached the bottom of the stairs. She didn't know if it was apart of the attack but somehow all of the cells had been opened. All of Manticores mistakes were free. Maybe the basement wasn't such a great choice after all, Max thought to herself as she cautiously sneaked through the dark corridors, hoping to god nothing noticed her.