It was still dark when I finally went up on the roof to the helicopter. It was quarter till 6 and dawn was approaching. Reno was already up there, doing some work on the copter. "So, this is your baby?" I said, coming up beside him.
"Yep," he turned around and looked at me, wiping his hands on a rag. "Ever ridden in one of these bad boys?"
"No actually, it's rather exciting," I said, balancing on the back of my heels.
He turned and looked at me, "What to learn how to fly it?"
I looked up at him, his face anticipating my answer, "I mean yeah, sometime."
He gave me a pat on the back, "Someday when work is slow, I'll have you flying this is no time."
"Reno, the chopper ready to go?' Tseng ask walking up to us.
"Yeah, ready to go when you're ready, yo,"
The ride wasn't that long, Reno and Rude flew; Tseng, Elnea and I were in the back. We land on the out skirt Firon. The sun was just above the horizon and it cast a creepy shadow on the already eerie ghost town. Walking through to the main square, we kicked up dust that had settled over the years.
"Alright, here's how it will work, Elena and I will take the west half of town, Rude, Reno, and Annie, take the east. Pulski's address is 683 Belzer Road. Call me if you find anything and watch out for the monsters," Tseng told us as we made sure we had all our equipment in order.
We went our separate ways and after searching streets and a couple homes, so far we came up empty handed.
"No Rude, I'm telling you we already went down the street," Reno said, as we walked, I strayed behind ever since they began their little quarrel.
I rolled my eyes; we had been walking in circles and obviously have been lost for the past half hour.
"Reno, that will lead us back to main square," they both stopped, causing me to nearly walk into them.
"No it won't, it'll lead us to the far side of town, you know where we need to go, yo"
"Oh for Christ sake," I mumbled. I circled around them, not pay attention and started scooping the area.
I rounded an alley kicking a rock, while their arguing got further and further away from me. I leaned against a wall and let out a heavy side. First mission out and it was a bust. Or maybe I spoke to soon. I looked down at the ground and something caught my eye.
"Hey guys," I called out, making my way back to them. They were still in the middle of the argument. "Guys, guys, I found something," I said, breaking them up.
"What'd you nab?" Reno ask, the two of them turning to me.
I held the flash drive I found on the ground in front of him.
"A junk drive?" he said.
"Why is that of any importance to us?" Rude asked.
"Well," I started, figuring they would be just as excited as I was, "It was in the alley, not cover with dust or anything like everything else around here is. Not to mention there weren't these 4 years ago when this place was abandoned."
Reno took it from my hands, "Which means this had to have been left rather recently," he said as he eyed it up. "Good find little lady," he grinned at me.
My small victory was cut short by an explosion towards the west. We all turned towards it, watching as the fire climbed and smoke rose.
"Shit, yo," I heard Reno say as Rude's phone went off.
He flipped it open and put it on speaker, "Tseng, Rude here."
He was breathing heavily on the phone when he answered, "I ran into a problem when I entered Pulski's home. Listen, I don't have time to get into it, just get to the chopper, the whole town is rigged to blow in ten minutes. I'll meet you there."
We looked at each other for a split second before running back to the copter. Within 2 minutes we got there and Tseng was staggering behind us, obviously injured. Rude and Reno ran over to help him over; "Dude what happened," Reno was the first to ask.
"Someone caught me off guard and stabbed me, I didn't get a look at him. I'll be fine," he said as they lifted him in the copter. "He ran off, but not exploding Pulski's house and detonating the rest of the bombs through out the town."
I looked around; surprised no one else had noticed the one thing that was glaringly apparent. "Where's Elena?" I blurted out.
They all looked at me, terror flashing through Tseng's eyes, "You mean, she isn't with you?"
I shook my head slowly, "No."
"We split up before I was jumped but she answered when I told her to vacate now." He said, getting up, trying to go back in. Rude pushed him back down, us all knowing he didn't have the strength.
Time was ticking away and making a plan would just waste what we had left. I didn't bother consulting with them and started running back into town.
"Annie, wait!" Reno yelled after me. The first explosion had awoken many of the monsters and the further I went into town, the more that stalked me.
I stopped in the middle of town square, trying to figure out which way to go.
"My god you can run fast in heels," Reno said, catching up with me. I turned and looked at him just in time to see a creature jumping to attack him.
"Duck!" I yelled, pushing him out of the way with me. We rolled out of the way together as I pulled out my sword and killed it in a swipe.
"Come on, we're running out of time," and I ran down a street to the left, Reno keeping a close pace to me. We ran through another intersection as a giant bird swooped down at us, raising my sword, I went to attack. But instead, my inner klutz I had been able to suppress finally emerged as my heel got stuck in a crack, sending me down to meet the pavement. My sword went skidding across, but not for long. That damn bird swooped down, grabbing it with it's talons and few off with it.
I let out a sigh and cursed myself, dropping my head.
"You okay?" Reno asked, crouching down to help me up.
"Yeah, fucking birds," I said, getting up and brushing myself off. I looked around, doing so to gather my thoughts, but instead I saw a body in a black suit lying on the ground. I let out a gasp and went running towards Elena.
"Looks like she's just knocked out," I said, kneeling next to her. "You carry her, I'll cover you?" I asked, reaching up my skirt and grabbing my gun out of it holster.
"Yeah, " he said, snapping his head towards me when he heard me cocking the gun. "Woah, where'd you whip that out of?"
I look at him like he was stupid, "My inner thigh, where else am I going to keep it?"
He shook his head in amazement, "I swear to god, you astonish me more with everyday."
"Well snap out of it, we're running low on time," I said getting up and shooting some monsters that crept near us. Once he had a hold of Elena, we made our mad dash back.
We were so close, Rude had the copter blades spinning, all we had to do was get in and go. And then I saw it, that fucking bird, sword still with it, practically mocking me. "I'll be right back," I said as Reno put Elena in the copter.
"Wait, no Annie. We've got to go," he yelled over the sound of the blades.
"5 minutes, it's my favorite sword," I yelled back.
"I'll buy you a new one! There's only 2 minutes left!"
"Plenty of time, just get the chopper up, I'll get on, no worries!"
"Fucking birds," I mumbled running towards, aiming my gun as it started to fly away. First shot, a miss. Second shot, clipped it's wing. I went to shot again but instead my gun just clicked. I pulled out another clip of bullets to reload it. My heart was racing and my hands were shaking. When I went to reload the clip fell to the ground.
"Dammit," I said picking it up, 1 minute left. I quickly put the clip in and aim at the bird, shooting it dead center in the head. It dropped to the ground as I grabbed the sword. While kneeling beside it, I spotted something black and rather out of place. Bigger than another flash drive, and when I picked it up I realized it was a wallet and upon opening, I found something much more interesting.
I was running the fastest I'd ever had, knowing I was almost out of time. The helicopter was up in the air, a ladder was hanging for me to climb up. Reno had the door open, yelling at me to hurry. He hoisted me up once he had a good grip of my hand.
I rested my head on his shoulder, panting hard, completely exhausted. Reno gave Rude a thumbs up, keying him to go. "Never do that again," he said putting his head on mine. I laughed as I wave the wallet in his face.
He slipped it out my hands, looking through it, confused at first, but then smiled. I reached over and slid the door to the helicopter close just in time as the bombs went of and we flew away from the explosion