War Fields: Chapter 11
Several hours passed, before Roxanne stirred from her sleep. The drugs that Rax had given her still left her dazed,
but she had to get up. "Annie? You there?"
"Duh! Where else would I have gone?" She replied in a sarcastic tone.
"We have to get out of here. We…we have to warn them." She sat up in her bed resting her arm around her waist.
"What do you mean warn them…warn who?"
"MASK," She stood up slowly and walked limping towards her cell door, her fist clenching something in her hand.
"I…I told Mayhem their location."
"YOU WHAT?" She snapped worried her father was in considerable danger, "WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?"
To save you…She stopped at the cell door and pulled the lock pick out of her hand and began to work on the
lock, "Because he would of killed us both, if I hadn't."
"If something happens to dad I won't forgive you! If something happens to ANY of them, I won't forgive you!" She
paused for a moment as she watched Roxanne open her cell door, after merely a few seconds of playing with the lock,
"Your serious about this."
She nodded as she limped over towards her cell. "Just don't kill me when I unlock the door. I was hoping to do
this when you got better, but if we don't leave now we're as good as dead." She looked Annie straight in the eye,
before attempting to unlock the cell, "I need your help to escape. I can't do this alone. Our dads need us."
"I don't exactly have any choice, now do I?" Annie said icily, ignoring the fact that her conscience
told her not to make any deals with this deceiver. "I want out of here just as badly, so I'll help you."
Roxanne unlocked the cell door, "There's a boat dock not far from here. Most the agents should be gone, so all
we have to do is avoid a few Contra World soldiers. We're going to have to depend on each other, you understand
that?"
"I'm not stupid," Annie remarked feeling just a bit insulted. "Of course I realize that. But after this
is over, I'm not making any promises."
Annie took a quick glance up and down the hall, then said suddenly, "Give me the lock pick."
"Why?" Roxanne questioned, completely taken aback. "What for? You don't even know how to use it!"
Annie rolled her eyes and explained as if to a small child. "If you need it back to open a door, I'll give
it to you, but I don't plan on using it for its intended purpose. That thing is the closest thing to a weapon
we have, and I've had enough experience with knives that the principle of using the lock pick should be the same."
"You can't fight with a lock pick!" Roxanne argued.
Tired of discussing it, Annie simply snatched the pick out of Roxanne's hand and transfixed her with a hard stare.
"Care to test that theory?"
Roxanne gulped at the disassociated look in Annie's eyes, as though she wasn't herself anymore. "No,"
she said quietly. She can't be serious a lock pick for a weapon. She really did hit her head hard.
"I didn't think so," Annie replied with satisfaction. In the same breath, she said almost reassuringly,
"Come on, I'll lead. Which way, left or right?"
"Right. Towards the end of the hall, there should be a set of steep stairs that lead upwards towards ground level."
Annie quickened her pace down the hall, until she reached the stairs, and cautiously glanced upwards. "Alright
then…" She stood there irritated realizing Roxanne wasn't following her lead, "you coming some time today?"
Roxanne walked down the long hallway slowly limping and squinting her eyes as she felt pain, "Well Sorrrrrry! I'm
still trying to picture you killing somebody with my pick. You know your not exactly helping me by being 20 steps
ahead of me."
Annie narrowed her eyes. Oh you're pushing it! Then moved towards Roxanne and rested her arm around her
shoulder forcing her to quicken her pace. She then tip toed up the stairs and noticed a guard standing around
smoking a cigarette. She whispers down to Roxy, "There's one guy at the top."
"Is he facing you or does he have his back to you?"
"Ummm…" She took another quick look, "back facing."
Roxy replied annoyed that she has to give step-by-step instructions, "Well hit him over the head with something."
"Something…all I have is a lock pick," she argued back.
Whose fault is that? Roxanne began to pressure her. "Stab him in the throat with it, use your arms to hit
him in the back of the head, a try a vulcan grip. I don't care what you do. Just knock him out! With all this
bickering between us, he's going to come down here and lock us both back up. You want that?"
Annie gave her a looking saying 'Of course I don't, but why do I have to be the one.' Note to self, she thought
dazedly, remind me that I REALLY need to ask for some self defense training.
"Get going, I'll be up there shortly," Roxanne remarked with displeasure eyeing the steep stone steps.
Annie cautiously moved up the stairs towards ground level. The soldier was ignorant of her present. His gun an
automatic rifle rested up against the wall, and he continued to puff smoke, as if he was on a long earned break.
Annie could hear her heart beating louder with every step; she feared the solider could hear it as well. This
was the first time in her life she'd ever attack anyone, but she had to. Anything to get out of here and away from
her! As she stood behind him, the solider could sense somebody was there. With full force Annie aimed to jam
the lock pick right into his throat, yet the solider turned his head at that exact moment, causing Annie to stab
him right at the base of his neck.
"AHHH," The soldier yelled in agony stumbling over is own gun knocking it away from his reach. In an attempt to
regain his balance from the surprise attack, he grabbed Annie and threw her across the room. "You little BITCH
how did you get out!"
Annie was stun by his force. What…what should I do next? she asked herself, trying to shake her head out
of the haze generated by the guard's blow. Dizzily, she tried to backpedal as the guard advanced on her menacingly.
"I had orders not touch you, but you just made me MAD!" The solider stood over her and reached down to pick her
up. Annie did the only self-defense mechanism she could think of. She kicked him right in between his legs.
He fell to his knees in a state of shock. Annie was going to run, but he grabbed her shirt sending her straight
back down to the floor. She turned her head frighten, as he was ready to throw a punch into her face. Instead
of hitting her, his entire body fell forward upon her.
Annie looked up and saw Roxanne hovering over them with an automatic rifle in her hand. She had knocked him out
cold, by hitting his head with the hilt of the gun. She then dropped the gun to the ground, as Annie came to her
feet. "Sorry I took to long," She huffed out of breath, "Thought you could use some help."
Annie's heart was still racing, "Help? I had a handle on the situation, before you butted in."
Roxanne smiled not convinced, "Sure you did…but hey it felt good didn't to get your hands dirty."
Annie didn't admit anything, the nagging feeling in the back of her head said that Roxy was trying to turn her
into the ruthless person she'd become. This is a survival mechanism only...that will never be me...I hope.
She shook her head one more time to attempt to clear the cobwebs in it. "Which way?"
Roxanne picked up the soldier's radio listening carefully, "Well were in trouble now."
"What you don't know the way out!"
"Your little fight made too much noise. They're sending a couple guards to investigate."
"Then we have to hide." Annie grabbed Roxanne and dragged her into a nearby room shutting the door behind them.
The guards could be heard out in the hallway trying to figure out what just happened. It was only a matter of
time, before they were caught.
"We can't stay here. It's not safe." Roxanne reminded her as she sat down in a wooden chair taking a rest.
"What do you think about taking the window out?" Annie asked checking to see if the coast was clear, "There's
enough trees and brush that it will make it difficult for them to find us." Annie pushed up on the window, yet
it wouldn't budge. "Its like it's nailed shut."
"We need to block the door with something," She tested a nearby bookcase, "this will do."
"What good is this doing? We can't hold a stand off in here." She argued as she did most the work pushing the bookcase
over the door.
"Pull the curtains off," Annie did what she was ordered, "I'm still not getting the point of this."
"Stop your whining and move out of the way," she ordered. As Annie stepped out of the way, Roxanne picked up the
wooden chair threw it thru window. The crashing sound of the chair breaking the window grabbed the guards' attention
instantly. Several guards were shouting and slamming their bodies against the door to pry it open, yet the bookcase
held the door shut for the moment.
She scolded her, "Oh just brilliant, Roxy! NOW THEY KNOW WE'RE IN HERE!"
Roxanne was on her knees cringing. The amount of force she used to throw the chair resulted in one of her stitches
prying open. I should of let Annie do it. "Hurry! Knock the rest of the glass out using the curtain!"
Annie wrapped the curtain around her hand and punched out the remaining sharp pieces of glass. She then stepped
thru the window glancing around the outside half expecting somebody to greet her. Roxanne got back on her feet
and headed over to the window. The bookcase was ready to fall over and the guards were only seconds away from
bursting into the room. Roxanne stuck her head and arms out the window, "Grab me!"
Annie stuck her arms around Roxanne's armpits and yanked her thru the window by force, causing her to fall straight
thru the window and on top of her. "Do you mind?!"
Before Roxanne could come up with snippy remark to reply back, the bookcase slammed into the ground, "RUN!."
Annie put Roxanne's arm back around her shoulder, and the two girls rushed off into the woods. They could hear
the guards rustling out the window behind them, yet they didn't dare look back. A few gunshots fired, yet they
kept dodging around trees. Neither girl stopped to rest, all they could think about was staying alive.
"I can't run anymore," Roxanne huffed in pain, "it hurts. Go on with out me."
"Oh please, stop being a big baby," Annie replied uptight. As much as I think I'd love to, I couldn't live with
myself if I left her behind. Not to mention that no one else would forgive me, except maybe Dusty. I don't think
he likes her much.
Annie smiled inwardly at the thought of Dusty praising her for ditching Roxanne, then she slid her mind back to
reality. "There," She pointed to a ditch, which appeared to be hidden well by the surround plant life. The two
girls entered the ditch and stayed as low as possible. Neither girl breathed a single breath, as Contra World
Soldiers stood above them devising alternative routes to search for the girls. Once they went off their separate
ways, both girls became relieved.
"We almost made it," Roxanne smiled.
"You wanted me to leave you back there," Annie snickered slightly at Roxy's emotional falling to her weakness.
"I'm just surprise you didn't." She remarked with a hint of surprise in her tone, "Hey look straight ahead." The
girls could see a hint of water in the distance. "That means the docks can't be far."
Annie lifted her head out of the brush, "No one, now's our chance." She helped Roxy to her feet and they raced
thru the wood side by side towards the waterway. Sure enough a dock was only a matter of feet away from their location.
For the first time in a long time, the girls smiled at each other feeling that luck had definitely been on their
side.
"How did you know there would be a boat waiting?" Annie asked still mostly carrying Roxanne's weight.
"If I told you who left me the boat, would you still get in it?" Roxanne threw a puzzling glanced at Annie. Annie
facial expression showed that she probably wouldn't touch the boat, if it were on loan from VENOM. "I didn't think
so, let's go!"
"This time I'm driving!" Annie insisted fearing another boat accident.
"Oh no arguments there," Roxanne replied as the girls finally reached the boat.
I can't believe I'm actually doing this, I don't even have my driver's license yet! Annie thought as she
steered the boat carefully through the waterways of Venice. She drove fast enough to give them some distance from
VENOM's lair, but slow enough that she didn't feel that she was in danger of capsizing the boat. I guess this
is kinda like driving the snowmobiles up in the mountains, except it's on water instead of snow. She slowed
down for just a moment as she glanced around at the surrounding landmarks to see if anything looked familiar.
"Roxy, is it just me, or does this area look familiar?" She asked the other girl, unsure if it was just
wishful thinking on the part of her aching head.
When Roxanne didn't reply, Annie turned to peer over her shoulder. Roxy still lay on the floor of the boat where
she had more or less collapsed after their escape. Annie couldn't tell if she was dozing or unconscious.
"ROXY! Wake up and tell me if you know where we are!" Annie demanded a little more harshly than the
first time. She snorted angrily when Roxanne still didn't answer her. "Some help YOU are."
"I heard that," replied a weak voice from the floor.
"Good! Now get up and make yourself useful and tell me if this area looks like where we should be!"
Annie ordered. "After all, YOU were conscious the first time around!"
Roxanne shot Annie a dangerous look, but reluctantly sat up and looked around. "Yeah, this is it...just keep
steering straight ahead."
An explosion rocked the sky above them, making Annie nearly jump out of her skin and stall the boat. "Beautiful,
right toward the sound of those explosions!"
"Looks like VENOM got here before we did," Roxanne muttered, adding a little too cheerfully, "At
least we know we're getting close."
"Thank you, I feel SO MUCH better now," Annie said with a sigh, trying to fight down the odd vertigo
of deja vu crawling through her mind.
More explosions crashed through the sky around them. Annie wished she could see what was going on, but the tall
buildings surrounding the waterway blocked the view of the battle. Even so, she was pretty sure her father had
Condor into the air by now, and a weird combination of elation and worry jolted through her. On one hand, she
wanted her father to chase down Vanessa in Manta and blow her out of the sky, but on the other hand, she didn't
want the tables to be reversed. Nor did she want to think about the fact that Mayhem could easily take him out
in Switchblade, although Annie was pretty sure Matt would be able to back him up in Thunderhawk.
The sound of cracking mortar brought Annie back to reality as she watched a missile careen into the building right
overtop of them on the waterway. She stared upward in stunned silence as the building started to sway and collapse
on top of them.
"ANNIE, WAKE UP AND GET US THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Roxanne screamed as she too noticed what was happening.
Frightened out of shock by Roxanne's sudden shout, Annie slammed the gas pedal to the floor, shooting them forward
scant inches from where the structure fell into the water. "That was close!" she breathed, slowing down
slightly.
Roxanne glanced behind them in time to see a fierce wave forming from the impact of the collapsed building. "Not
close enough!" She shouted a warning just a little too late. "TIDAL WAVE!"
OH SHIT! Annie did her best to keep control of the wheel as the wave hit, but the wave front was too strong.
All she could do was attempt to steer as the wave crashed over them. She managed to avoid a few more pieces of
debris before the wave collapsed, sending them on a collision course with the leftmost wall of the canal. She
tried valiantly to steer clear, but the water from the wave had stalled the engine. Nothing to do for it now
but pray! "Brace yourself, Roxy! We're gonna crash!"
Annie closed her eyes and grabbed the steering wheel for dear life, bracing for impact. They still crashed with
enough force to send her flying into the deck of the boat, abusing her already aching head with another blow.
Annie pushed herself up enough to rest on her elbows, then felt her forehead gingerly. Her bandage had fallen
away, reopening the gash already on her forehead, and she felt another one as her fingers came away bloody. She
felt the environment start to spin around her and go dark, so she laid her head back down on the deck.
"Smooth, Annie, really smooth," Roxanne grumbled in pain from somewhere beside her.
"At.. least... I...didn't...get...us...blown...up..."
Annie felt like she had cotton in her mouth as she forced out the reply. She tried unsuccessfully to prop herself
up on her arms, but the pull of the blackness was just too much. Heavy eyelids closed as the world faded around
her.
Roxanne turned her head annoyed, " Just moments ago you were yelling at me about my nap, but it's ok for you to
pass out!" Her ears perked up as she heard another boat in the distance.
