Okay, I think these interruptions are getting annoying, so I'll keep it quick-
I am so happy that someone has added this story to their favorite stories list. You know who you are, and everyone, at your computers, give a little golf ball clap for... her, him? I really can't tell... But golf ball clap anyway! Kay, we're done now ^u^
Dialoglog (Wait, what?)-
LYNETI: so what now
VIHNAS: w#at do you mean, '$o w#at now?' $o we #ide until the world $top$... ending, or w#atever t#e fuck it'$ doing rig#t now.
LYNETI: b3for3 it was a show3r...
LYNETI: and now...
VIHNAS: w#at is wa$ before doe$n't matter.
VIHNAS: w#at DOE$ matter i$ t#at we #ide.
LYNETI: in a litttl3 low3r l3v3l thats not going to help us at alll you saw mc scar3dy pantss hiv3 crumbling 3v3n th3 low3r l3v3l
VIHNAS: well... t#ere'$ the armory?
LYNETI: y3ah r3al funnny w3r3 br3aking into a fucking armory
LYNETI: h3h3h3
LYNETI: im laughing so it has to b3 a joke right vihn
VIHNAS: well, ot#er t#an t#at, we can fly off into outer $pace and #ide out t#ere until t#e world $top$ t#rowing a #i$$y fit...
VIHNAS: except t#at'$ fucking impo$$ible!
YANILE: Uh, guys?
LYNETI: loook i dont know what to do w3r3 basicallly screwed any way you loook at it
YANILE: Lyn?
VIHNAS: exactly, you idiot! w#y even try anyt#ing if we're already $crewed!
YANILE: Vihn?
LYNETI: y3s l3ts just sit h3r3 and di3 b3caus3 w3r3 fucking us3l3ss p3ic3s of
YANILE: GUYS!
VIHNAS: ...
LYNETI: ... ... ...
YANILE: I work at the armory. I have a key.
LYNETI: wait you had a k3y this whol3 tim3...
LYNETI: YOU P3IC3 OF SHIT WHY DIDNT YOU T3LL US
YANILE: -_-;
VIHNAS: good, now i$ t#i$ key #ere or at your #ive?
YANILE: Oh...
LYNETI: its okay w3 can stilll g3t it
VIHNAS: t#i$ i$ a $uicide mi$$ion, you guy$ know.
LYNETI: y3ah w3lll so is sittting h3r3 doing nothing w3 may as w3lll try
VIHNAS: fine, alrig#t.
(I was too lazy for the whole 'he said this' 'she said that' thing. heh ^.^;
I stand up quickly, deciding that since I left the key at home, I should have to get it. I run outside, commanding that the others stay close. They don't object.
The greenblood region of this hemisphere is very close to Vihn and Lyn's yellowblood region. They tried to keep the residential regions clumped together, and the military regions are spread out. However, in the event that one region, or a whole hemisphere for that matter, broke out into a resistance, there was one armory in each residential clump.
There are two clumps- you move into one right after you pass the brooding caverns, and the clump that stood there before is knocked down to make room for the new hives. Its old residents are by then ready to fight in outer space or whatever I'd be doing in a sweep or two if it wasn't certain I would die getting this key.
I felt bad for the other hemisphere. Most of them were about six sweeps, all innocent and young, until bam! They're dead.
I try to breathe from my mouth to avoid smelling the burning corpses, running desperately quick, stumbling over chunks of hives that crumbled in the chaos.
When I get to my hive, I can barely breathe, and I can't believe that I'm alive. When I was running, I didn't think about the meteors at all. But now, I couldn't think about anything but the key.
Where had I put it? I run into my respite block and pull drawers out, turning them and checking their contents. I knock over my dresser, checking behind it.
"Yan, is this it?" Lyneti asks, pointing to my little key hook next to my door. I pause, my breathing reduced to sharp intakes of air.
"Yeah," I manage to get out, before I black out.
OM: did sh3 just
VA: o# my god...
OM: what3v3r l3ts just g3t to th3 armory b3for3 this thing colllaps3s right on top of us
VA: u#...
OM: vihn, dont spac3 out now i n333d you to stay awak3
VA: yea#, okay, $ure!
I look down at Yanile's unconscious body. I don't really like her, but if she knows her way around the armory, we need her.
I wrap my arms around her thick legs and throw her body over my shoulder like a fire rescue drone, running out and back into the mayhem.
It's gotten hotter. Flames lick my ankles, and I have to run to keep from burning. The thin, rubbery bottoms of my shoe melt and stick to my feet, scalding them. Forcing my cries of pain back down my throat, I run as fast as I can. It feels like hours before I reach the end of the region, at the boarder of thin wilderness.
"Lyn, you need to take a rest. Let's get something from this little shop here," Vihn calls, gasping and choking on the thick, grey air. I'm reluctant. I really want to get to the armory so that, even if it crumbles, and the feeling only lasts a minute, I can finally feel safe. But Yanile is getting heavy, and I am very thirsty, so I follow my matesprit into the small building. Yan makes a little moaning noise from on my shoulder- she's regaining consciousness.
I shift her to my other shoulder and push open the door. Inside is a small corner store. I grab two sports drinks out of the fridges for me and miss fatty and toss one more to Vihnas. He gulps it down, grabs another, and runs out. I follow him.
"H-hey!" A scared cashier shouts from behind the counter, coughing on the smoke. Poor drone doesn't even know he's about to die. "You have to pay for that!"
"What, are you gonna chase me for it?" I call back, and he looks like he just noticed the world crashing down around him. I don't have time to explain things to him, or to give him false hopes of survival. I can only run away into the blazing forest, face burning, thinking about how my previous problems were so miniscule compared to this.
In the wilderness, I want to cry. I remember running through the woods so many times to get away from my problems. My lusus would rarely follow me out of the house, and besides a few hives scattered loosely throughout the wilderness, there was nobody to judge me.
But now, all of my problems are right here, driving me forth and through the flames. Even on the path, where a few buildings lay in rubble, showing the way to the armory, I have to dodge falling branches set ablaze by the fire, and Yanile's weight is hurting my back. So I collapse under all of it.
"Lyn, get up! We're almost there!" Vihnas picks Yan off of me and puts her on his back piggy-back style.
"No," I say, breathing in the clear, cool air close to the pavement. "I'm fine dying."
"You're being ridiculous, now get up!"
"It's not ridiculous," I tell him, curling up in a ball.
"I don't fucking believe this," he says, grabbing my wrist and pulling me across the ground.
"No!" I whine. "I was comfy!"
"Fuck. You. Lets. Go," he says through clenched teeth. He lets go of my wrist for a second to adjust his moirail on his back, then re-grabs my arm. The pavement scrapes my skin, it's hot surface scalding me painfully. "Lyn, we don't have much further to go. I'LL hold Yan, just please!"
I look at his face. It's flushed, and he looks vulnerable, like a child again. "Please don't stay here."
He is such a baby sometimes.
I get up and sprint down the street.
"LYN!" Vihn screams, and I stop, looking back at him. "THE ARMORY IS *THAT* WAY!" So I turn around and run the other way, towards safety, Vihn following me.
By the time we reach the armory, Yanile has woken up, and, as predicted, all over Vihn like chocolate on a pastry, as if I know what any of that even is.
Still, she leads us to the lowest level with the highest level of military equipment available. While the pale lovers sit in a large vehicle equipped with many deadly weapons and Yan shows him what every single one of the jillion buttons does, I sit in a corner with some burgundy- blooded commoner.
After a minute of the common-blood talking about everything nobody else would listen to, I storm across the room and hide in a closet. I wrap my arms around my knees and shove my face between them.
"Lyn? Are you okay?" the annoying female asks.
"Go away!"
"Are you scared?"
"No!"
"It's okay to be afraid, Lyn. Everyone else is." The common-blood says he isn't, and Yan hisses violently at him. I chuckle, but don't let her hear.
"I'm not scared!" I scream, and she doesn't say anything after that.
But I am scared. My chest and throat tighten, and I'm shaking. I can't breathe normally, and my face is all wet. Am I sweating? Bleeding? I turn on a light and find a mirror on a wall over a sink, look in it, and cringe, because my eyes are red and leaking. How am I crying? That's not natural. I grab onto the sides of the sink for some kind of support, because my legs feel weak. Am I sick? What's going on? My breathing quickens, and a weird noise comes out of my throat.
Finally, I give in, get back in my ball, and sob. The voices outside hush, and they're all whispering to each other.
"Lyn?" Vihn calls softly. I tell him to go away. I don't need him up my ass telling me that everything's gonna be okay. I can clearly see that it will never be okay.
I sit in the closet for what seems like forever when the tears finally stop. I turn on the sink's tap and splash it on my face until the tears are all washed away. I dry it off with my shirt collar and open up the door. Vihnas and Yanile are cuddled up in the seat of a large vehicle. The employee is sleeping on the floor, snoring loudly.
I tip-toe over to my two friends, and I can't help but notice the subtle rise and fall of Yan's chest with her breathing- how her barely parted lips open a little more to inhale, and less as she exhales. Her eyes are closed lightly, and the light catches her thick green lashes in just the right way.
I remember the stories that we all were told as children. Stories of a time when trolls would raise grubs themselves, and sometimes, they would have several grubs, and they would be in a group together, and live together, and they all loved each other, even though they fought.
I don't think I love Yan at all, but sometimes, I forget that we ever got mad at each other. She looks so peaceful right now, it's hard to imagine that she could ever hurt a fly when the truth of it is that she's a cold blooded killer. We all are. We have to be if we want to live.
I hold my pointer and middle fingers together, kiss them, and press them softly to Yan's lips. I will survive this wreck. For Yan.
Because she fought so hard to live this long. And I'm not about to let her just die.
So, Lyneti realizes that she cares about Yan, and everything's all happy. Well, not really. This would be really boring if it ended there, and even more boring if it ended that happy. That's just not how I roll.
I am sososososo- SO sorry that this took so long. I tried to add more, but I always get so tired. I'm always tired, so I always fall asleep. And sometimes, I'm so sleepy, I forget to save, or I type random gibberish that makes no sense, and the next time I look at it, I think "what the FUCK did I just write?" So, yes, my writing process is slow. Sorry. Also, just to let you guys know, the human story is a lot less dramatic. I'm actually exhausted right now, so sorry for rambling, and see you next post. u.u Zzz)