Page 82 of I’m The Worst

“No.” The word barely leaves her mouth before she bolts.

“AJ! What the fuck are you doing?!”

She’s already running. Screaming something I can’t hear over the pounding in my skull. I grab another crowbar from the truck bed and chase after her. Then I see inside and the blood in my veins turns to ice.

Cages.

Rows of welded cages stacked inside the container like animal crates. Women. Children. Men. Packed into them.

Their faces are hollow. Eyes sunken. Bodies skeletal beneath torn clothes. Some don’t even react when the doors open. Others scramble to their feet like frightened animals, shrinking back from the light. The stench of piss, shit, and fear hits me like a wall.

Fucking hell.

“Wolff, please!” AJ is sobbing now, yanking at the cage locks. “We have to help them!”

Trying to catch my breath, I look back toward the warehouse door. The steel bar is folding.

Seconds.

That’s all we’ve got.

“AJ! We have to move!” I grab her arm, but she fights my hold—clawing, twisting, screaming.

“No! I won’t leave them!”

“Get in the fucking truck!” I drag her backward, moving as fast as I can.

She drives her elbow into my jaw. White light detonates through my skull. I lose my grip, my remaining strength nearing zero, and she tears free.

“AJ!” I shout, and my head thuds in response.

She snatches up the dropped crowbar and runs straight back to the cages. My knees nearly buckle. My hands are shaking. I can barely see straight.

She slams the crowbar into the lock.

Again.

Again.

Again.

The prisoners inside begin screaming, grabbing at the bars, the cages rattling against the floor.

“AJ! STOP!”

“That was me, Wolff! I was in those cages! I can’t leave them! I can’t!”

The lock snaps.

The cage door flies open. Bodies spill out in a wave of chaos—stumbling, crawling, falling over one another in panic. And then, the warehouse door slams inward.

Gunfire erupts.

Automatic rounds thunder through the space, ripping through steel walls and flesh alike.

I snatch AJ around the waist and haul her backward, just as bullets rip past where she was standing. Screams fill the warehouse. Prisoners scatter in every direction. Some make it toward the open loading bay. Others are gunned down before they get five feet.

Bodies slam into concrete.