Memento Mori
by Cassiopeie
Some thought of the Runners as birds.
She could understand why; to those on the ground, they were only visible as silhouettes against the sun, caught in their death-defying leaps. It sure could look like flying.
Faith, as well as every other skillful Runner, knew that was wrong.
A Runner was not a bird, flying in the sky above everything else; a Runner was a part of the city itself. A Runner knew the buildings, the rooftops, just as well as his or her own body, and could therefore use it as easily as if it had been connected to the nervous system. Nothing stood in the way of the Runner. It was more than an occupation, it was a nature, it flowed through their veins.
They were also the only living part of the city, Faith remarked to herself as she climbed up a container and jumped over a fence. The only part that was breathing, the only part that wasn't just white and shining and dead.
That was also why she was positive she would get out alive of this.
Her chasers were so different from her – bound to the ground and the dead city and the oppression and their big old guns – they could never flow through the city like she could, and that was her advantage. A great advantage. She almost wanted to turn her face to the SWAT units and laugh at them, right before she leaped through the air.
Not that she enjoyed this. Not that she thought it gave her thrills and excitement or crap like that. Quite frankly, she did prefer doing her job without a rain of bullets around her.
But she wasn't afraid. It didn't once occur to her that she could lose. That she could die. She realized the danger of the situation, but she would make it. She was a Runner. The chasers were not. There was no way they could defeat her.
No way at all.
She grabbed a pipe, climbed it up, ran over the roof, wall ran to the next roof, grabbed a ledge, everything with absolute confidence. Nothing could ever go wrong as long as she ran.
She heard her chasers approaching her – still not the slightest sense of fear – and she could see their bullets flying through the air, always missing her with barely an inch.
Faith – felt invincible.
She just had tomock them. Just a little bit.
She suddenly turned around and ran towards them.
Still making sure to avoid their bullets, she played around, jumped from roof to roof, side to side, with a taunting smile on her lips, intentionally looking like an idiot who wanted to get herself killed, and then – jumping behind one of the chasers and doing a quick disarm.
Or, that was the plan.
Nothing could ever go wrong.
As long as she ran.
Runners were not allowed to play.
The worst way of dying had to be falling. Losing grip, tripping, falling over the edge. Feeling the ground drawing closer and the sky watching you – the sky had never seemed so far away – feeling your end being just a few seconds away.
The panic. The foolishness. The fear.
Fear.
She had spent the best part of her life on the rooftops, close to the sky, and she would die on the ground.
She feared that.
She had never feared death itself, but she feared that.
Dying on the ground.
The cruelest fate she could ever imagine.
Foolish Faith. One moment of overconfidence could tear down everything.
What would happen when she was gone? Would she be remembered? Would anyone miss her?
Kate. I'm sorry.
She didn't close her eyes. She wanted to watch the world she was leaving as long as possible.
Bird or not, a Runner should never meet the ground like this.
She defied her nature.
And fell.
This was a spun-of-the-moment-fic. Just a random idea that I wrote down in an hour without putting much effort in it. So sorry if it's not exactly made of teh-great-awesomeness. Blame my muses. Anyway, the button under this text is still the best place to go after you've read this!
Memento Mori = Latin for "remember you are mortal".