When Dawn Breaks 40

“How are we going to not only get all this stuff to your estate but all the shifters as well?” Emmett asked as he helped Bella pack up the lab equipment. Rosalie was with Peter and Alice packing up the office area while Jasper and Charolette were helping the shifters with the kids. Emmett had gotten to drive the swat team van back to the building so they could load up all the important stuff they could find in the building. He was hoping he could convince Bella to let him keep the van. It was no James Bond car but it was still cool.

“I have to work it out with Rosalie but I don’t know how I feel about loading all this stuff up into a plane. We may have to work out a way to drive it to the estate.” Bella didn’t completely trust the things they were going to be transporting to be safe on an air plane with strangers being able to have access to it. The little bit she had seen without digging to deep into the information had proven to Bella that others should not be trusted with anything that came out of this lab other then the children. Even the children she was wary about leaving in the care of strangers.

“Yes road trip!!” Emmett cheered.

“We will have to arrange vehicles first but maybe some of us can escort the shifters by plane while the others drive to the estate. I’ll have to work it out with Rosalie of course.” Bella knew her imprint wouldn’t want them to separate but they just might have to. There was no way she wasn’t going to have herself or Rosalie with the truck driving everything to the estate but Rosalie wasn’t going to like it if the shifters were at the estate alone. Bella wasn’t happy with the idea either but it had to be done.

“Bella all the shifters have left what would you like us to do now?” Charolette asked as she came into the lab.

“I know it isn’t a very glamorous job but can you and Jasper strip the vampires we left outside and then burn the bodies. I want to keep their tactical outfits to see what kind of protective gear they have. Then come back here and you both can help Emmett pack up while I go check out the armory that we found.” Bella wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. She wasn’t sure when or if reinforcements would be coming to check on the building. Until they went through all this information they didn’t know exactly who was in charge of all of this. Bella had a feeling that this wasn’t the whole operation. They were to well organized to have started here.

“That’s no problem. I myself am interested in their gear.” Charolette wanted to see exactly how they were able to deflect shifters from ripping the vampires apart. She had never heard of something that could stop shifter teeth before.

“Once we get settled at the estate I will gladly give you the chance to test it out to your hearts content.” Bella told her. She didn’t mind Charolette’s interest in the protective gear. It was something that could keep her and her mate safe and Bella understood the want to keep your mate safe. It wasn’t like Carlisle’s interest in the experiments.

“Can I come with you to the armory Bella?” Emmett asked after Charlotte left. He hadn’t gotten to see it and this was the first time Bella had even mentioned it existed.

Bella thought about how safe it would be for Emmett in the armory. He had gone above and beyond everything they asked of him so he deserved a reward.“I guess that’s fine. We just have to be really careful because I’m not sure what’s in there.”

“Yes!!” Emmett cheered again. This day was turning out awesome for him. First he got to fight some vampires with Bella, then he got to drive a swat van, he was now going through a super secret laboratory and he was going to get to go check out an armory filled with all kinds of new kinds of weapons. Bella really was the best to hang out with. It was to bad that shifters had to suffer though. He wished that they could have done all this stuff before the bad guys started kidnapping the kids. He never really liked shifters as the LaPush wolves were kind of jerks but after meeting Bella he had come to care for them a great deal. After seeing this place it had dimmed his enthusiasm but the fact that they had shut this place down made him feel proud of himself in a way he never felt before. He figured this was what superheroes felt like when they saved the world.

“All done.” Charolette announced when she came into the room with Jasper. “We stripped them down to their underwear and burnt them. What do you want us to do here?”

“Just try and pack things you don’t recognize. I originally didn’t want to take the equipment but I don’t know exactly what was done or the long term affects it could have on those kids. So if you see something you don’t recognize just pack it up. I’m not sure how we are getting this stuff to the estate so I don’t know how much room we’ll have. If we need to replace things it will be no big deal.” Bella told them.

“Got it.” Jasper wasn’t excited about touching all this stuff but knew it was important. He had been really impressed with the way Bella had been handling this whole situation and was happy to follow her lead. For someone who had been sheltered most of her life and hadn’t dealt with any form of warfare she was an exceptional leader. The way she handled this entire mission was impressive. She was even able to calm the shifters from their initial panic at seeing their children hurt.

“Emmett you ready?” Bella wanted to get things to go a little faster. They really needed to get out of this building soon. The nagging feeling that someone was going to come investigate wouldn’t leave her alone and she knew better than to ignore it.

“Oh yeah.” Emmett gladly followed Bella as she led him through another steel door that had been ripped from the wall. His only regret was he didn’t get a chance to see Bella tear the door off it’s hinges. It must have been awesome to watch.

Bella walked into the room and scanned the area. There was a wall filled with different weapons some she had never seen before. The thing that worried her the most was the many black cases of different sizes. They were heavy duty and some had warnings of toxic materials. She wasn’t sure if she or Emmett should be even touching them but it was up to her to see what was in them. “Let’s leave the weapons alone for now and let’s see what’s in these cases. Break the locks if you need to but try not to damage the cases.”

“Got it.” Emmett grabbed the first case and set it on the ground carefully. Luckily the room was large and well organized so there was enough room to inspect everything. Opening the case he whistled. “Whoah this one is filled with grenades. I don’t know what type of grenades but there are about three dozen in here.”

“Just be careful.” Bella inspected her own case. It was filled with the darts like the one Pasty’s people had found. Setting that one aside she reached for the another one. It was filled with the same darts but a red instead of green liquid in them. It took her and Emmett about an hour to go through all the cases and look through the weapons until they were done.

“This is enough stuff to equip an army to take out a lot of shifters.” Emmett said as he looked around. The amount of fire power in the room was definitely more than what was needed to arm the amount of vampires they had found so far.

“This is concerning.” Bella knew that was understatement but wasn’t sure what to say. “The amount of stuff here makes me think this is some kind of outpost. The amount of shifters is higher in this region because of the environment so it would make sense to have one here. The amount of cages is also telling.”

“How so?” Emmett asked.

“They were almost full and yet they were still going after the mountain lion shifters. The amount that they targeted would have been more than the cages would have held. That means they probably weren’t meant to stay here. Either that or they were going to kill the kids in the cages but I don’t think that was the case. I think they were going to ship them somewhere else.” Bella rubbed her forehead feeling a headache coming on. “We need to hurry up and get all of this stuff packed away. The van won’t be able to hold everything so we need to get something quickly.”

“What should we do?” Emmett was starting to feel a little nervous. If what Bella said was right that meant that there could be more people coming to investigate and possibly fight. He didn’t know if they would be able to take them out as quickly as they did the other vampires even with Rosalie and Bella both fighting.

“Let’s go meet with Rosalie. Vehicles are her thing so it will be her decision on where to get one. We will probably just try to rent one as it will be quicker as I estimate that reinforcements will be here by tomorrow morning at the latest. That will give us about twelve hours to get everything packed up and destroy this place.” As Bella and Emmett left the armory in search of Rosalie, Bella sent out a prayer hoping she was right about the timing. If anyone came sooner she wasn’t sure if they would be able to defend the vampires with her because if it was her in the position of having your base overrun she would send out elite soldiers not just regular guard. While she wasn’t worried about herself or Rosalie they still didn’t know if they had weapons that could affect vampires. The different types of ammunition they had found that Bella couldn’t identified didn’t bring much confidence that they didn’t. They would have to just hope they made it out of here quickly because there was no way any of them would be left behind.