((Okay… been about a month. Jumping back in, here. :/ Sorry if I am autoing Trails et al on location; let me know and I can edit.

Re: Kyren -- Heather's language doesn't matter much to me, personally Don't know about everyone else, though, hahaha))

Caden came up behind him and interjected into the conversation. Caleb stepped to the side a bit, allowing his former suitemate and the new woman room to verbally spar. The sparring match, however, did not last very long before the boy--Brandon--agreed to accompany their growing ‘army’ of inoculees. And then another boy showed up and rabbitted out of the room.

"He's not going to fare so well on his own - I'll follow," Caden said as Caleb stood there and blinked after the young Hispanic boy. Caden then proceeded to shift into his animal form and trotted off into the halls again.

When the woman started to follow the two who had left, Heather grabbed her wrist. This served to do two things: one, stop the woman in her tracks, and two, alert Caleb to the fact that others had followed down the hall.

"Are you freaking insane?" Heather hissed, and Caleb compressed his lips into a thin line of frustrated approval at her tirade. He flinched inwardly at the mention of family, and forcefully pushed away thoughts of Rachel. He would cross that bridge when he came to it. For now, getting out was what was important.

Heather swept out of the room, stalking after Caden and the young runner--Austin?--and Caleb turned to the woman once more.

“Look,” Caleb said, arms folded across his chest. “It doesn’t matter much to me whether you come or not. Frankly, we could use all the help we can get, but I’m not going try to force you to join us. All I ask,” he gave a lopsided smile, joking and hopeful and self-conscious all at once, “is that you don’t call down the guards on us if you decide not to come.”

And with that he turned away. It didn’t matter if she came, not really; it would be helpful, hopefully, were she there, but not the end of the world if she didn’t. She was a big girl and could make her own choices, he rationalized as he went to the door and watched Heather’s retreating back. The big question at this point, however, was... what now?

What was the smart thing to do? Splitting up didn’t seem to be the way to go, but at the same time it would allow them to cover more ground in somewhat more inconspicuous groups. And if it did come to splitting up, who would he go with?

Heather would be safe with Caden. He knew that. Between the two of them, they could easily take care of themselves. Adding whatever it was Austin did to the mix and things would probably be okay for them. But he still felt a pang of guilt for even considering letting Heather go. Hot-headed or not, she was still a kid.

But he couldn’t leave Abel. Not again. Besides, he reasoned, it was easy enough to tell the others where to find them later if need be--just change into a feather coat and his texting bill went down significantly.

He turned his head to look toward his friend, looking at the wolf and the coyote in turn and trying not to look as frustrated as he felt for the sake of the little girl in their midst.

“Well, guys--what next? Follow Caden and Heather to grab Austin, or go elsewhere and look for either the cage room or a way out?”

Damien looked up at the other subjects as conversation continued around him. Many times, he would have liked to jump in, but there simply weren't enough words in the infant canine dialect that C-block had developed to describe the coyote's intents or opinions; and even if he could piece together the words and phrases to construct his ideas, he couldn't count on an accurate translation every time, not with so few nearby who would understand.

Shifting back to human to interject didn't seem like the best idea, either. With every passing moment, the hallway around the door was becoming more crowded, leaving little room for an 180 lb. human to grow from a 45 lb. coyote; and of course every moment that passed also increased the chance of a guard showing up, in which case Damien wanted to be at full power in case a fight ensued.

The moment was broken when one boy from B-block decided to make a run for it on his own; apparently not wanting to leave anyone to face this place alone, the one called Caden took on his animal form and followed after him.

Heather stopped a woman from B-block(what was this woman's name, anyway?) from pursuing them both, ranted a bit about the subjects' slim-to-none chances of survival(at this point, Damien was glad she hadn't heard his conversation with Will) and then went after the two herself.

Then Caleb crossed his arms and spoke to the woman. His words were more simple than Heather's, but to Damien's ears, they also had more power. Should this woman join them? She could be useful if did, but ultimately, it was her own choice.

"Just don't call out the guards," was Caleb's only request, and then he turned away, as if he knew that his message would be received perfectly, and nothing else needed to be said. In that moment, Damien found he respected this man as one who could talk when talk was needed, and act when action was needed, and not confuse the two.

And Caleb's next words confirmed it, as he asked for input on what to do next. So, finally, in that brief moment of calm, the coyote barked a message.

<Friends go Kayje? Damien know way.>

It sucked having to use their block-captain's name to describe the cage room; the coyote could only hope Sabriyya would know what he meant.

"Well, guys--what next? Follow Caden and Heather to grab Austin, or go elsewhere and look for either the cage room or a way out?"
"Well," the woman said with an exasperated tone "if this is supposed to be a break-out, we should be looking for a way out, right?" She began walking down the hallway, following Austin, Caden, and Heather.
A hesitant moment later, Brandon timidly countered "...but, Cary, if we're getting out, it's not fair to leave those in the cage room stuck..." - though he shuffled right along behind the woman nonetheless.

- - - - -

The kid - Austin - took a right at the first hallway intersection, instead of left toward the red room Caden and the others had been in earlier. He trotted after the teen, privately pleased at how well he was keeping up without expending much energy yet, while his claws giving their telltale clicks on the floor. The kid took a quick look back over his shoulder, then went back to focusing on running to wherever he was going.
He did mange not not-so-softly mutter "Damn spots..."
The kid stopped at the next hallway intersection, quickly looking back and forth between the halls in front of him and to his left a few times. In that slight pause, Caden heard someone coming up behind him - by the scent he picked up a moment later, Heather.
Someone down the hall to the right yelled "Hey, kid!", drawing Austin's attention and causing him to sprint down that hall. "What're you doing out?"
Caden reached the intersection Austin had just vacated, passing a door to his right labeled "stairs", as the teen yelled "It's the others!"
Caden had to slow down to turn on this floor anyway, but the sight down this new hall made him stop dead nonetheless. Austin was addressing a group of at least seven guards, all in light armor. "They've broken out of their rooms and are trying to get everyone to escape."
"And there's one of the cheetahs," one of the guards said, looking past Austin to Caden.
Shit.

Sabra gave the coyote a funny look for a moment before translating for him. Caleb nodded at them both. Finally, someone knew their way, at least a little bit, around this place. He was more than happy to let Damien take the lead.

“Sounds good. Hopefully one of these,” he held up the keycards he had pocketed, “will work to get people out.”

Nevermind the distinct possibility that they would have to fight their way out.

Caleb knew that they were all unbelievably lucky that no guards had come down on them thus far. He was dreading what would happen when armed men came around some corner and trained their weapons on the escaping prisoners. Their group consisted of a meltable wolf, a turtle-coyote, a little girl, and… him.

Christ.

Not that he couldn’t usually handle himself in a fight. But it had been a long time between the last fight he was in, and the fight that had landed him and Abel in this place to begin with. They, obviously, had not won that little altercation. And the guards were armed. Caleb felt a tremor of nerves run down his back, and he clenched his jaw in response.

There was a kid. That’s all that mattered, or so he hoped. He fully intended to help protect Sabra and help get all of them out of this place. He only hoped that when the time came, he would be able to make good on his resolution instead of letting fear get the better of him.

Maybe if he got a gun. He knew how to shoot. Well, sort of, anyway. Last time he had held a gun was in college with one of his buddies who had taken him to the shooting range. But a gun would be better in a fight than a raven. It was just a matter of… oh… overpowering an armed guard, disabling him, and taking his weapon. It sounded absurd. And part of Caleb quailed at what “disabling” probably meant in this context.

But that was neither here nor there.

“So, which way?” he grinned at Damien, stepping back to clear the walkway for the coyote.

Damien's tail gave a quick wag as Sabra understood and passed on the message... then stilled as another thought entered his mind; one thin layer of the metal that now covered his back and shoulders would offer little protection if the guards started shooting.

Stepping forward into the containment block B's common room, the coyote pulled one of the aluminum panels loose from the wall, using the steel bolts to shape it around himself as he had before. This was followed by another, and then another, until Damien's back was coated in no less than three layers of metal from shoulders to hips. It was heavier, and movement was slightly more limited, but it would be worth it if/when the shooting started... and perhaps the show of power would convince the people on the fence about escaping that they had a chance.

Once Damien was certain of his armor's increased effectiveness, he stepped out of the room, barked at his friends to follow, and began to lead the way through the corridors, his own instinctive map guiding him to the cages.