It had been a week since 9, 7, and the twins had arrived in Haven and discovered a group of six survivors living in an old underground bunker. All of the survivors had befriended and accepted them…except for Trace.
After becoming enraged at the small band of former-stitchpunks, the young engineer had separated himself from the others – keeping to his room and workshop, and not speaking to anyone.
And it was 9 who blamed himself for this, he felt that he owed it to Trace…and the others…to fully explain what happened in Rovine. This is why he (along with 7, Winter, and Ciaran, who refused to let him go alone when they found out what he was up to) were going to return to the site where they were ambushed by the machine and retrieve the evidence to their story located within a bag left there.
Arming themselves, they set out.
Ciaran and Winter, being familiar with the city, led the way – cautiously navigating through the city streets.
When they were within the depths of the city, the guides began whispering back and forth low enough that 7 and 9 couldn't make out what they were saying. After several minutes of discussing something, Ciaran signaled for the other two to follow as him and Winter entered a ruined building. Once all four were inside, Winter turned to 7 and 9.
"The building we found you guys in is just down the road. Nine, you and I are going to stay on ground level and head for the building. Seven, you and Ciaran are going to cover us from above and keep an eye out for any machines. Got it?"
9 and 7 nodded.
"Ok then, let's go." She said, heading out of the building, 9 not far behind her.
"Seven, this way." Ciaran directed, heading up a still standing set of stairs. 7 followed him.
Ciaran led her up two sets of stairs to a partially collapsed third floor, where they used debris from the collapsed ceiling to climb their way to the roof.
They then began making their way across the rooftops, occasionally having to climb up or down to reach the next rooftop.
The tallest building on the street, the one directly across from their objective, was six stories. It was this building that 7 and Ciaran were scaling to reach what remained of the roof.
Upon reaching the roof, they looked below them to see 9 and Winter entering the ruined building across the street. 7 looked down the street…to see something that made her blood run cold.
Coming their way, down the road a ways, were three machines…two the same size of the one they had encountered before, and the third a smaller, more agile machine - looking like a bigger, more vicious version of the Cat Beast.
But this wasn't the only thing she noticed…
"Ciaran…" she gasped. He looked up and let out an audible gasp.
From the top of this building, you could look out over most of the rooftops on this side of the city and see out into the wasteland out past the city. It was out in the wasteland that they saw machines…too many to count…making their way across the emptiness towards the city. They looked around and realized that they were coming from all directions.
It wasn't until they heard the creaking of heavy metal followed by a barrage of gunfire had they realized just how long they had been staring at this horrific sight.
"9!" 7 gasped out before tightening the grip on her polearm, turning and jumping through the collapsed portion of the roof into the floor below.
Ciaran ran to the edge, assault rifle at the ready, and looked down to see 9 and Winter cornered against the building by the three machines. 9 had a bag strapped across his torso, presumably what they had come here to get; both him and Winter would fire at a machine with their weapons if it began to move toward them, causing it to falter back…but not retreat.
Ciaran raised his rifle and laid his sights on the machine that was closest to his building: one of the bigger machines. He fingered the trigger and prepared to fire…but ceased before he did, seeing a white figure dive from the third floor of his building onto the back of the large machine he had his sights on.
He couldn't make what was happening…but did see when one of the machine's legs buckled, causing it to come crashing down on top of the smallest machine, the figure jumping off the machine and landing with a roll.
He turned and immediately began making his way through the building toward ground level.
7 dove through the window of the third floor, landing on the back of the large walker-like machine.
Before the machine could realize what happened, she scanned the tubes and wires visible on the back of the machine; finding a tube that looked important, coming out of the machine's metal casing and running down one of the machine's legs, she sliced it with her polearm.
The machine began to sway below her, and felt vertigo as the machine began to fall. She jumped from the machine, landing on the street in a roll.
She heard a loud crash and glanced to her right to see that the machine had collapsed on top of the smaller machine, destroying both of them in the impact.
She turned face the remaining machine and saw a claw coming down on her, she jumped out of the way…but she wasn't fast enough, the claw had caught her arm…ripping deep into her bicep.
She let out a pained scream as she landed hard on the ground, her polearm sliding out of reach.
9 watched in horror as the machine began to move toward the collapsed form of 7. He immediately jumped into action, scanning the machine for any weak point…he saw it.
He rushed forward, aiming the hand gun he held toward the tube that ran down the machine's leg and letting out two shots. The bullets hit their target, and a clear liquid spurted out of tube.
The leg froze, rendered useless by the punctured tube. The sudden immobility of its leg caused the machine to lose balance, toppling over onto its side.
9 dropped the hand gun and unsheathed the combat knife he had. Dodging the machine's flailing limbs and claws, he climbed onto the machine's metal casing and began slicing at all of the wires and tubes protruding from within. He heard the whir as the machine powered down, and saw as the limbs hit the ground motionless.
Not taking a chance to celebrate his victory, he jumped off the machine and flew to 7. She was sitting up, but was disorientated and clutching her arm in a great deal of pain…9 fell to his knees beside her. 9 was so overcome with worry that he hadn't noticed that Ciaran and Winter were beside him until he saw a pair of hands gently remove 7's hand from her arm.
Winter moved closer and carefully separated the rips in 7's sleeve to get a better look at the wound.
"Shit! She's losing a lot of blood!" Winter ripped a portion of 7's sleeve off, creating better access to and view of the wound. Her arm was covered in blood.
Winter then took that strip of sleeve and began carefully binding the wound.
Somewhere in the process of binding the wound, 7 had lost consciousness from the loss of blood.
"We have to get her back to the bunker, now!" Winter announced, when she had finished binding the wound.
9 bent down and carefully picked up 7; and, trying his best not to jostle her much or worsen her wound, hurried back to the bunker, Ciaran and Winter running by his side, rifles ready in case there were any more machines.
Thanks again to all my readers and reviewers! You guys make my day! Next chapter will be coming soon!
Now excuse me as I go and try to get all this freakin' super glue off of my hands. :)
