Chapter 13: The Midnight Raid-1
As the Night arrives, Dark gets prepared for the movie night. "Mike. It's time. Ask Darkness whether she would like to come?", he says to Mike. "Are you sure that this is a good idea to bring her? I mean-.", Mike says before getting interrupted by Dark saying," Come on Mike. Don't be like this. I thought about it and its a good idea to bring her with us.". "Cause she is like you and has a name similar to yours?", Mike asks. "Seriously? She saved me and my friends. Come on Mike. Trust me with this choice.", Dark replies in a serious tone. "Ah, fine. I'll tell her. This argument will go no where like this.", Mike says as he heads upstairs.
Few moments pass by and Mike returns with Darkness. "I'll grab my bag and meet you outside.", he says. Dark walks outside with Darkness. "Mike will take some time. So, Darkness. Where were you from?", Dark asks. "I was working as a researcher at.. I won't tell you the location but its near Reno.", Darkness replies. "Ah yes, the church one.", Dark says. "Wait. How did you?", she asks. "I am a researcher for the same institution too but, I was stationed at Truckee.", Dark replies. "Damn. Why we have to be so similar?", she says. "I don't know. Anyways, Mike's here.", Dark says before shifting his attention to Mike. "Okay people. Follow me.", Dark says as he starts walking.
A few minutes later, Dark stops outside a house and checks its mailbox which was just above his height. "Hmm. This is the spot.", he says as he walks towards the door. Mike and Darkness follows Dark as he rings the doorbell which was also at the same height as of the mailbox. "Come in Dark. We haven't started yet.", Sparks says as he opens the door. "Hmm. So what we watching?", Dark asks as he walks inside. "Some good old movies which we all like. Oh, so you brought Darkness too. That's good.", Sparks replies. "Yeah. So where all the others?", Darkness asks as she enters in. "Pyro and Nelson are inside while the rest are on their way. Also you should get a phone. The phone at the hideaway is becoming old and can stop working at any time.", Sparks says as he moves his attention to Mike. "Glad that you made it here Mike. Welcome to my house.", he says. "Yeah. It seems like you changed a lot of things like the doorbell and the mailbox.", Mike says as he enters in. "Yeah. My parents did that stuff for me. Very kind of them.", Sparks says before closing the door.
30 minutes later, someone rings the bell. Sparks heads towards the door and opens it. "You guys are late. We were suppose to start 20 minutes ago.", he says. "We know but Hydro became sick. The rest all went there to look after her as her parents are not home too. Its just me and Glacey.", Autumn says as she enters the house. Glacey follows Autumn. "Dark, come here.", Sparks says from the door. Dark starts walk towards Sparks. "We are running low in snacks since you and Darkness ate a huge portion of it. So, can you get some snacks from the local general store. It should be open still. Take Darkness with you since we ruined Mike's break.", Sparks says. "Fine. I'll be back soon.", Dark says as he leaves the house. After a minute, Darkness comes out of the house. "So we are riding together it seems.", Darkness says. "Riding? Where is this store?", Dark asks. "Few miles away from here. Anyways, the car is parked on the driveway.", Darkness replies as she heads over to the car. Dark follows her. Darkness enters the car and starts it. Dark gets in front seat. "Its weird that you don't know how to drive car with this new form.", Darkness says as she takes the car out from the driveway and onto the road. "Yeah. Its weird.", Dark says. "We won't be needing money as the shop is owned by Pyro's parents. They'll recognize me.", Darkness says as she increases the speed of the car slightly.
After some minutes, the car stops by a small shop which had seen better days. "Here's the spot.", Darkness says as she steps out of the car. "Are you sure about this? This building looks abandoned.", Dark says as he leaves the car. "It is made to look like one to attract less attention from raiders.", she says as she walks through a broken glass door. Dark follows her inside. The shop looked like a good shelter for refugees than a shop itself. Most of the metallic shelves were showing advance stages of rust. The cashier counter was missing too. There was a wooden door on one of the corner, Darkness heads over to the door. "This way, Dark.", she says before opening the door. The door creaks open revealing another room. The walls of the room was lined up with crates and boxes stacked up on top of each other. On the farthest end, a person sits with a dim oil lamp. Dark waits at the door while Darkness heads over to the person. "You have the snacks?", she says. "Oh its you. Sparks called me and told the situation. Here you go.", the person says handing a bag to Darkness. "Much appreciated.", Darkness says as she takes the bag and heads over to Dark. "That was pretty quick.", he says. "Yeah. Look over there!", Darkness says as she points at a group of raiders coming out from their van. "Shit. My gun is in the car.", Dark says as he takes cover behind a shelf.
The raiders enter in the store. "I'll use my shadow ball on them. That will give you some time to use your Dark Pulse.", Darkness says as she prepares. Dark nods and waits for Darkness. Darkness fires her shadow ball at 2 raiders who were coming out from a corner, knocking them out. Dark uses his Dark pulse on the van, blowing it up in flames. Panic broke out amongst them. They started to flee from the shop. Darkness fires another Shadow ball hitting one of them. "Move it.", Dark says as he runs for the car. Darkness follows Dark. "What will we do to rest of them?", Darkness asks as she gets in the car and starts it. "I don't know. We must tell the others first.", Dark replies while entering the car hastily. Darkness turns the car around and drives towards Sparks's home at great speed.
The car reaches the house in a minute. Darkness exits the car and rings the bell. The door opens, "Back already?", Sparks asks. "We have no time for this conversation. Tell the guys to get in the car with Dark. He'll explain. I'll get my van.", Darkness replies before running away from the house. Sparks gets confused by this and heads inside. He comes back with the rest. "Dark. Tell us what happened?", Pyro says as he heads over to the car. "I'll tell you guys later, but first. Nelson! Drive the car.", Dark says in a serious tone. Sparks closes the door and heads over to the car. Nelson enters the drivers seat and starts to drive it. "Pyro, Sparks! We have no time to loose! Get in quick!", Dark says. Sparks and Pyro gets into the car. "Dark where we heading?", Nelson asks. "To the general store owned by Pyro's parents.", Dark replies. "Why? What's wrong?", Pyro asks. "It was about to get raided by some raiders. Me and Darkness stopped them and I'm afraid that they will come back with an army.", Dark says as Nelson takes a sharp left. "What are you doing?", he says. "We are going to end this. We know their hideout already and we are going there. We will stop at Tyler's house where we have stacked our guns.", Sparks says. "Didn't Tyler left the county?", Dark asks. "He did. He gave us the keys to his house. But we won't need them. That house is long abandoned and there are giant holes in the walls so, we can easily fit in. The guns are literally on the floor with crates of ammo. Hope they are still there.", Pyro replies. "What about Mike and Darkness?", Dark says
After some minutes, the car stops beside an abandoned house. "I'll grab the guns while you guys think of a plan.", Nelson says as he leaves the car. "So. Their base is literally a skyscraper of 10 floors. The first 2 floors are barricaded and cannot be accessed externally. The third floor is connected to an adjacent skyscraper via a small bridge. Getting to the third floor is a simple task but then we don't know what's waiting for us on the 4th floor as they covered their base with plastic sheets. We know this by the drone's footage and that's all we know sadly. So, I'm thinking that a team of 6 will do the job at the third floor. The rest will provide cover fire from the adjacent skyscraper. Those are plastic sheets and not some metal so they can be easily penetrated. We find the leader and take him out. That's the plan.", Sparks says. "Sounds good enough to work.", Dark says before Nelson comes with some rifles and ammunition. "There will be elementals too so be prepared. Exploit their weakness. ", Sparks says. After a minute, the van comes and parks behind the car. Nelson gets in the car and says, "Okay people. Let's do this. For the safety of others and for ourselves.", before driving the car towards the raider's base. The van follows the car as it enters the city.