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Chapter 11: Damage Sustained

What are you waiting for, it's just a minute away/ Travel light you might just find yourself there for the day/ What are you waiting for, it's just a mile away/ Following Rita, Following Rita... ---'Following Rita' by Train

5:00...4:59...

Jason was waiting for the end...he knew that if he saved himself, he'd be thrown in prison anyway. He felt sick to him stomach. The slow-acting poison gas was devouring his insides...clock on the wall now read 4:40...Rita made no motion in her chair. Michelle came over the loudspeaker:

'Hey, stupid! Make up your mind!'

Jason had a rush of angst just then...he was pissed off at Michelle, Tolbi...everyone who had wronged him...

4:00...3:59...

'Stupid !@#...you aren't going to save Rita by being quiet!' Michelle said, laughing again.

Rita still didn't move, and Jason was feeling the burn of the poison in his lungs...he was dying, and he couldn't prevent it...

2:24...2:23...2:22

KA-BOOM!

An inferno of fire erupted from the trading post above. Another explosion blew the ceiling off of the underground room. A dark, looming figure cast a massive shadow over the room...and the shape of an airship came out of the darkness. A familiar voice...it couldn't be.

'Are you...?' A weakened Jason choked out.

The man on the ship jumped down, landing in Rita's chamber. He frantically unlocked her shackles, and helped her from the chair. She slumped over his shoulder, unconscious. The man, startled, looked at Rita's eyes. A cold, cloudy haze came into them. Rita had reached her end. The man screamed loudly, and drew his scythe. He began hacking apart the wall that blocked the chamber from Michelle's room, causing a massive crack to form, and the structure began caving in.

'Jason! Get out of here before the place explodes!' the man said, leaping onto a rope ladder that had just started to burn.

'I... I can't move... I can't breathe...let me die! I don't deserve this life...and all the pain I've caused Rita... Just go! Before you both die...' Jason said. 'O true apothecary! Thy poison is quick...with this, I die...' He let his head hang, and drifted off.

On the airship, the man laid Rita down in a room, and left to go fly the ship. He landed in a cornfield, and went into Rita's room to check on her. There, he saw Rita, laying lifeless, laying cold. It seemed to him that she had died...but...she was breathing. Her face became full with color...

And then, he felt the sharp pain of a sword in his back. He turned, and saw the most venomous being alive. Michelle had escaped...and had a vengeance to go with her freedom.

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