Lost Control: Chapter Two
Refuge.. at long last...
"We can't... we shouldn't..."
"But they won't follow us in there!"
"How can you say that? You don't even know what's ahead!"
"Where else can we turn? If we run along the ridge, they'll just cut diagonal and catch us!"
"Erk... They're coming!"
"We're out of options... JUMP!"
...
Utter blackness, just as the pair had predicted. Landing from the hundred and forty foot drop, the robot continued running, clutching the girl to his chest. Bouncing off every stone, tripping at every pothole, slipping on every patch of thick moss, the dark side of the planet was just as bad as Simon had predicted. Too weak for infared, radar or even a simple torch light, the machine plowed ahead, power levels dropping dangerously low. What seemed to be a forest began to thin, the obstacles fewer and fewer, until even his footsteps seemed to echo differently.
"Are they still behind us?"
"I.. d-don't know... It's hard to tell."
Suddenly, the world went bright, the pair dropping to the ground in a daze. Looking upwards, the girl saw a sky above her head. It was purple, without stars, as it always was at this time of day... Yet here it felt more like some distorted twilight. Glancing behind, her eyes scanned the wall of pure black energy. It felt as though the darkness was just some kind of band, running down the centre of the planet. She knew from her grandfathers sattelite pictures that this wasn't true. They had just stumbled into one of the pockets that littered the dark side of Denshi.
"Something must be seriously wrong... "
"W-what do you mean?"
"Think about it, Amanda... We didn't cover our tracks, we didn't make any attempt to silence our movements..."
"Do you mean...?"
"Yes. The lanthers."
"Oh no..."
Suddenly, a huge beam of light shot out from the darkness, ripping off into the distance like a missile. A crunching sound, and the roar of flames minced the air around them.
"THEY'RE HERE!"
"B-but... how? They were so fast..."
"It doesn't matter! RUN!"
The pair took off once again, down the thin channel of light land. Reaching the end, they veered sharply to the left, plunging back into the darkness...
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"Th-that's it! I can't! Energy too low!"
"Come on! Please! You can't stop!"
"B-but-"
"Hey... is.. is that...?"
"It looks like a city... but.. It's not registered on the maps I'm programmed with..."
As the bedraggled pair were about to drop from exhaustion, they had come back out into the light. A few minutes after regaining their sight, Amanda's sharp eyes had spotted what appeared to be buildings. Intact buildings. Gritting his dental-plates, D-17 jetted into the air, grabbing the girl and rocketing into the sky.
Was this finally a place they could be safe?