Chapter 22: Escape from certain death
Zack cautiously was pulling Aeris around each corner. He was quickly passing through each doorway, his footsteps almost completely silent as he carefully walked around the area. The walls were bare and painted a dull gray but cameras seem to completely cover them with movement sensors on their lens to track every move they made. Zack didn't seem to notice nor care though about the cameras. They already knew what he looked like and they probably already figured out that he and Aeris were now missing so it made no difference to him.
Slowly, Aeris followed after Zack, trying to keep in step with him so she didn't trip and fall, to slow them both down by mistake.
Zack suddenly turned to Aeris as they came to a dead end and he started scanning the area for anywhere to go. The door before them was locked tight, with a lot more bolts then the door that held him in his tiny prison had.
Suddenly, a gleam from a small vent gate caught his eyes, slightly above his head. He quickly turned his gaze to it and lifted his hands up, wrapping his fingers tightly around the thin silver iron bars and tugged back on them fiercely. They pulled from their latches and he slightly fell back from the force he used to yank the bars with.
Aeris reached out her hands behind him and pressed them against his back, holding his position so he could regain his balance, softly lean over and then drop the broken vent on the floor beside him.
As he stood once more, he turned to her and placed his arms under hers, lifting her above the ground quickly, and swung her towards the opening so she could crawl into it easily. He watched as she made her way in, and quickly pulled himself up after her. Aeris pushed herself forward, watching the vents that came before her, carefully curving herself around them so not to fall through.
Soon she came to the first bend and pushed herself so that she was sitting with her back against the wall and Zack made his way towards her grabbing her ankle as she started to move to go on.
"Shhhh.. Don't move." He whispered as he looked down carefully at the one vent to see that there were people noticing the movement in the vents. Zack took one more step towards Aeris, placing himself next to her and looked around for any exit way but could find none.
"Just wait a few more minutes." He told her and looked to her eyes and she smiled, lifting her hands gently to his face. She didn't seem to care of kind of danger they were in. Even in the dusty vent she didn't worry about how bad the place was. Instead, she leaned over quickly and took his lips with her own, holding to him tightly.
A bit shocked from her sudden kiss, he hesitated for a moment before he calmly closed his eyes, lifted his arms and wrapped them around her waist as he returned it.
As she slowly pulled away from him, a soft chuckle escaped his mouth as he looked to her.
"What was that for?" He asked in a low whisper as he tried to think whether to move or not.
Aeris shrugged at him and shyly smiled at him, turning her head away slightly with her gaze to the nearby iron wall. He chuckled at her and quickly lifted his hand under her chin and pulled her head back over towards her, leaned over and captured her lips with his partly smiling as he did. As he pulled away Aeris looked over at him, seeming to be thinking of a different but similar question to ask him but couldn't she couldn't think of anything different.
"What was that for?" She asked him softly as she moved her arms away from his neck.
He shrugged to her slightly and smiled as he slowly pulled his arms back from her waist as well, "Don't know, just felt like it." He answered in a playful voice and then tipped his head to the side as a motion for her to move on.
Aeris nodded quickly to him in agreement, closing her eyes for the moment as she did so and then turned to her right and started off towards the light that shone brightly ahead of her from the exiting vent. Zack followed closely behind her keeping his head at her his waist as he walked with her.
As they finally reached it, Aeris sat back and Zack pushed himself slightly up so he sat back partly against the vent with his legs resting on top of hers. He eyed the surrounding area in front of him to make sure no one was around, and noticed the deep green glow of the room. Carefully, he then wrapped his fingers around the bars and tugged them back forcefully to pull them out.
A sharp sounding screech reined through the area as he scrapped the vent back against the sides of the ventilation shaft until he finally turned it sideways before it hit Aeris in the side of the head. He softly laid it to the other side of Aeris so she could get out and then made his way in front of her, backing up so not to go head first out of the air duct. His feet slipped softly over the edge of the vent and he felt around with the soul of his foot for anything that he could rest it on. A solid bar came across his reach and then he slowly made his way down farer, hitting the floor with his other foot.
He quickly lifted his one from the bar before it could get caught in it and then lifted his hand to the top of his hair, swiping it back, allowing the dust to flick from each blade. Zack then turned his gaze back to the vent Where Aeris was still kneeling in, looking down at him. Slowly, he raised his arms up to her and she gently made her way over to him, sliding her feet forward and ducking under the side so she was barely sitting on the edge of the vent. Carefully, with her hands shaking, she lifted them from her grip against the side of the vent to keep her balance and reached out to Zack, gripping his arms tightly and he slightly lifted her from her spot and lowered her gently until her feet touched the blue tiled floor.
As he let go his eyes left her gaze and traveled around the room for a way out of it. He could only see the elevators though and he knew they would be spotted if they attempted to get into them and ride to the bottom.
After taking in a deep sigh he looked around the room again for another way out but was stopped by a light tap to his shoulder. Aeris was hitting him gently to get his attention but at first he didn't seem to notice so, she carefully gripped his shoulder and started to shake him softly and he finally turned his eyes towards her.
"Over there." She whispered to him as she released her hand from his shoulder and pointed over towards an almost hidden door with bright red letters above it that read.
STAIRS
Smiling down at her, he then gripped her hand with his and started towards the doors. After he got close enough, he stopped in front of the dark blue door and started rubbing his hand against the creases, trying to find the knob that seemed to have vanished within the deep colors.
His fingers then lightly brushed against the cold iron royal blue knob. He quickly lifted his hand as it hit and then slammed it down, clasping his fingers around it. Swiftly, he turned it and through it open. Holding to Aeris's hand Zack started down the stairs, his feet echoing against the empty black walls as he made his way down, trying not to go fast to pull Aeris down the steep stairs so she'd trip.
She held to the smooth railing to keep her balance as she followed after him, looking for another door but none came into view. She quickly then looked down through the center and yanked back Zack's hand as she stared through the endless sets of stairs.
Zack stopped and looked back at Aeris as she continued to stare downwards and then started to slowly make his way towards her and then looked down the center with her.
"Damn. this could take forever." He whispered but it didn't seem like he did because his voice echoed loudly through out the deep room.
Aeris looked up at him silently taking in a deep breath and then noticed a crack of light in front of them. She kept a firm grip on his hand as she started towards him, pulling him along towards it with her.
Cautiously he kept his gaze on her and tried to match what she was staring at. He turned his head as she walked passed him slowly and noticed the white light that gleamed out of the corner of his eyes from a pressed in door. He carefully walked along side her as she reached it and lifted her hand gently and flattened it against the cold steal and tried to push it open but it didn't seem to budge. She then turned her gaze towards the side of it and started searching for a knob but like before the color of the door seemed to match the color of it making it invisible to them.
Zack looked to the other side and started smoothing his own hands against it searching for one as well, but no matter how much they tried they couldn't find one. Zack didn't know if he should now and she suddenly heard the door above him swing open, it creaking loudly and loud voices began yelling through the area and Aeris jumped as the door from above struck the wall.
Out of fear, Zack turned back to the door and quickly did a side kick against it, knocking it open. He could here it fall as he looked out into the open sky. As he lowered his wide-eyed gaze he noticed that it seemed to be like drop that would surely kill them both.
Aeris looked down towards the other stairs from the shock of where the door was planning to lead them and heard another door swing open from below them.
"The Ancient must be around here! She couldn't have escaped sound the alarm and search the elevators and the rest of the stair wells." They heard Hojo from above them yell.
"Yes sir!!" A man yelled as he started back up the stairs towards the top floor.
Aeris looked up and then back down the middle of the stairs at the men as they began picking up the pace, her body shaking in fear.
Zack could tell how bad the situation was getting now and his breathing began to pick up the pace as he looked to her, and then without thinking he scooped up Aeris into his arms and walked to the edge of the wide opened door and closed his eyes, taking a step forward and started falling out of it.
"There she is!" They could hear the men say behind them.
"FOOLS! THEY JUMPED!" Hojo screamed as he came barreling down through the other soldiers and ran towards the opened door.
Aeris clinged to Zack forcefully as she felt them start to fall. The wind began pushing passed them and Zack tightened his grip to her as he watched the ground come towards them closer. He looked to Aeris and thought to himself that there might have been another way to get out of the building and now he had just killed them both.
"Zack!!" She screamed as she looked below them, her eyes pleading to him for this to only be a dream. His mind went blank. He didn't know what to tell her as they continued to plunge towards the ground; he just closed his eyes tightly and pulled her close to him.
Unaware, Hojo was watching them from above and a swift breeze caught his attention as he released his gaze from them he narrowed his eyes to the side of building and a large plane came charging towards them and swiftly passed Hojo and the other men as it flew by. Hojo held his grip firm on the sides of the door so not to fall from the sudden blast of wind, but as the wind died he watched as the plane plunged into a straightforward dive towards Zack and Aeris.
"NO! MY SPEICIEM!!" He screamed from above but Aeris and Zack couldn't hear him because the plane's engines drowned his voice out.
The small plane sudden pulled up at them and Zack slammed into the back seat of it letting out a loud yelp of pain as his ass struck the leather.
Aeris was shaking violently along with Zack from the sudden catch from it and they had their eyes tightly shut as it suddenly shot up into the air again and then started straight towards the outer part of the city.
"HA! That was great!" They heard a familiar voice scream in happiness.
Zack slowly opened his eyes, trying to squint passed the bright setting sun and looked ahead of them towards the front seat. Aeris did the same as she started to slowly release her grip from Zack's back, hoping she didn't dig into his skin to badly.
Bright yellow hair caught their eyes in front of them and the familiar smell of cigarettes in cased the air above them and the man before them slightly turned, pulling up his large brown goggles and started chuckling at them.
"Aw yes! The two are finally coming to! Shera, give them the bag I told you to pack!" Cid yelled, his smile warming. Shera sat next to him, on his right side and she carefully lifted a white plastic bag and slowly turned to face them. She smiled herself as at them happily and gently handed back to the bag to them, trying not to lose it in the thick breeze that pushed against them.
Zack slowly lifted his hand up from under Aeris's back and reached out, grabbing it gently from her and then placed it down on Aeris's stomach as he pulled it out.
He then began to untie the knot that held it shut and pulled it open to see what was inside of it. Zack laughed as he looked at the contents inside and pulled out a white shirt along with newly bought pants and then pulled from it a bright red shirt for Aeris and tight jeans along with it.
He looked down at his own clothes and noticed that they were a bit dirty anyways but wondered why Cid had gotten these things for them.
"Hey! What are these for?" Zack yelled over the loud engines and powering winds that rushed passed them.
"Thought you might like to go to dinner with us!" Cid yelled back looking back to them with a smile spread wide across his face.
"Dinner?! We just jumped off the 56th floor of a building and you want us to go to dinner!?" Zack screamed, his face looking in disbelief but with a playful smile across it as well.
"Yup! That's the case!" Cid yelled back and Shera started chuckling at him.
"So what do you say, Aeris? Wanna go?!" He asked her and she rolled her eyes while a small smile spread grew on her own pale face.
"Sure! Sounds like fun!" She yelled as she lifted herself and kissed him gently, just happy to be alive.
"OK THEN! OFF TO COSTA DEL SOL!" Cid screamed as he placed his foot down and started the gas up to full speed as they sped off over the ocean without a single trace of the Shinra in sight towards Costa Del Sol on the second continent.
Zack cautiously was pulling Aeris around each corner. He was quickly passing through each doorway, his footsteps almost completely silent as he carefully walked around the area. The walls were bare and painted a dull gray but cameras seem to completely cover them with movement sensors on their lens to track every move they made. Zack didn't seem to notice nor care though about the cameras. They already knew what he looked like and they probably already figured out that he and Aeris were now missing so it made no difference to him.
Slowly, Aeris followed after Zack, trying to keep in step with him so she didn't trip and fall, to slow them both down by mistake.
Zack suddenly turned to Aeris as they came to a dead end and he started scanning the area for anywhere to go. The door before them was locked tight, with a lot more bolts then the door that held him in his tiny prison had.
Suddenly, a gleam from a small vent gate caught his eyes, slightly above his head. He quickly turned his gaze to it and lifted his hands up, wrapping his fingers tightly around the thin silver iron bars and tugged back on them fiercely. They pulled from their latches and he slightly fell back from the force he used to yank the bars with.
Aeris reached out her hands behind him and pressed them against his back, holding his position so he could regain his balance, softly lean over and then drop the broken vent on the floor beside him.
As he stood once more, he turned to her and placed his arms under hers, lifting her above the ground quickly, and swung her towards the opening so she could crawl into it easily. He watched as she made her way in, and quickly pulled himself up after her. Aeris pushed herself forward, watching the vents that came before her, carefully curving herself around them so not to fall through.
Soon she came to the first bend and pushed herself so that she was sitting with her back against the wall and Zack made his way towards her grabbing her ankle as she started to move to go on.
"Shhhh.. Don't move." He whispered as he looked down carefully at the one vent to see that there were people noticing the movement in the vents. Zack took one more step towards Aeris, placing himself next to her and looked around for any exit way but could find none.
"Just wait a few more minutes." He told her and looked to her eyes and she smiled, lifting her hands gently to his face. She didn't seem to care of kind of danger they were in. Even in the dusty vent she didn't worry about how bad the place was. Instead, she leaned over quickly and took his lips with her own, holding to him tightly.
A bit shocked from her sudden kiss, he hesitated for a moment before he calmly closed his eyes, lifted his arms and wrapped them around her waist as he returned it.
As she slowly pulled away from him, a soft chuckle escaped his mouth as he looked to her.
"What was that for?" He asked in a low whisper as he tried to think whether to move or not.
Aeris shrugged at him and shyly smiled at him, turning her head away slightly with her gaze to the nearby iron wall. He chuckled at her and quickly lifted his hand under her chin and pulled her head back over towards her, leaned over and captured her lips with his partly smiling as he did. As he pulled away Aeris looked over at him, seeming to be thinking of a different but similar question to ask him but couldn't she couldn't think of anything different.
"What was that for?" She asked him softly as she moved her arms away from his neck.
He shrugged to her slightly and smiled as he slowly pulled his arms back from her waist as well, "Don't know, just felt like it." He answered in a playful voice and then tipped his head to the side as a motion for her to move on.
Aeris nodded quickly to him in agreement, closing her eyes for the moment as she did so and then turned to her right and started off towards the light that shone brightly ahead of her from the exiting vent. Zack followed closely behind her keeping his head at her his waist as he walked with her.
As they finally reached it, Aeris sat back and Zack pushed himself slightly up so he sat back partly against the vent with his legs resting on top of hers. He eyed the surrounding area in front of him to make sure no one was around, and noticed the deep green glow of the room. Carefully, he then wrapped his fingers around the bars and tugged them back forcefully to pull them out.
A sharp sounding screech reined through the area as he scrapped the vent back against the sides of the ventilation shaft until he finally turned it sideways before it hit Aeris in the side of the head. He softly laid it to the other side of Aeris so she could get out and then made his way in front of her, backing up so not to go head first out of the air duct. His feet slipped softly over the edge of the vent and he felt around with the soul of his foot for anything that he could rest it on. A solid bar came across his reach and then he slowly made his way down farer, hitting the floor with his other foot.
He quickly lifted his one from the bar before it could get caught in it and then lifted his hand to the top of his hair, swiping it back, allowing the dust to flick from each blade. Zack then turned his gaze back to the vent Where Aeris was still kneeling in, looking down at him. Slowly, he raised his arms up to her and she gently made her way over to him, sliding her feet forward and ducking under the side so she was barely sitting on the edge of the vent. Carefully, with her hands shaking, she lifted them from her grip against the side of the vent to keep her balance and reached out to Zack, gripping his arms tightly and he slightly lifted her from her spot and lowered her gently until her feet touched the blue tiled floor.
As he let go his eyes left her gaze and traveled around the room for a way out of it. He could only see the elevators though and he knew they would be spotted if they attempted to get into them and ride to the bottom.
After taking in a deep sigh he looked around the room again for another way out but was stopped by a light tap to his shoulder. Aeris was hitting him gently to get his attention but at first he didn't seem to notice so, she carefully gripped his shoulder and started to shake him softly and he finally turned his eyes towards her.
"Over there." She whispered to him as she released her hand from his shoulder and pointed over towards an almost hidden door with bright red letters above it that read.
STAIRS
Smiling down at her, he then gripped her hand with his and started towards the doors. After he got close enough, he stopped in front of the dark blue door and started rubbing his hand against the creases, trying to find the knob that seemed to have vanished within the deep colors.
His fingers then lightly brushed against the cold iron royal blue knob. He quickly lifted his hand as it hit and then slammed it down, clasping his fingers around it. Swiftly, he turned it and through it open. Holding to Aeris's hand Zack started down the stairs, his feet echoing against the empty black walls as he made his way down, trying not to go fast to pull Aeris down the steep stairs so she'd trip.
She held to the smooth railing to keep her balance as she followed after him, looking for another door but none came into view. She quickly then looked down through the center and yanked back Zack's hand as she stared through the endless sets of stairs.
Zack stopped and looked back at Aeris as she continued to stare downwards and then started to slowly make his way towards her and then looked down the center with her.
"Damn. this could take forever." He whispered but it didn't seem like he did because his voice echoed loudly through out the deep room.
Aeris looked up at him silently taking in a deep breath and then noticed a crack of light in front of them. She kept a firm grip on his hand as she started towards him, pulling him along towards it with her.
Cautiously he kept his gaze on her and tried to match what she was staring at. He turned his head as she walked passed him slowly and noticed the white light that gleamed out of the corner of his eyes from a pressed in door. He carefully walked along side her as she reached it and lifted her hand gently and flattened it against the cold steal and tried to push it open but it didn't seem to budge. She then turned her gaze towards the side of it and started searching for a knob but like before the color of the door seemed to match the color of it making it invisible to them.
Zack looked to the other side and started smoothing his own hands against it searching for one as well, but no matter how much they tried they couldn't find one. Zack didn't know if he should now and she suddenly heard the door above him swing open, it creaking loudly and loud voices began yelling through the area and Aeris jumped as the door from above struck the wall.
Out of fear, Zack turned back to the door and quickly did a side kick against it, knocking it open. He could here it fall as he looked out into the open sky. As he lowered his wide-eyed gaze he noticed that it seemed to be like drop that would surely kill them both.
Aeris looked down towards the other stairs from the shock of where the door was planning to lead them and heard another door swing open from below them.
"The Ancient must be around here! She couldn't have escaped sound the alarm and search the elevators and the rest of the stair wells." They heard Hojo from above them yell.
"Yes sir!!" A man yelled as he started back up the stairs towards the top floor.
Aeris looked up and then back down the middle of the stairs at the men as they began picking up the pace, her body shaking in fear.
Zack could tell how bad the situation was getting now and his breathing began to pick up the pace as he looked to her, and then without thinking he scooped up Aeris into his arms and walked to the edge of the wide opened door and closed his eyes, taking a step forward and started falling out of it.
"There she is!" They could hear the men say behind them.
"FOOLS! THEY JUMPED!" Hojo screamed as he came barreling down through the other soldiers and ran towards the opened door.
Aeris clinged to Zack forcefully as she felt them start to fall. The wind began pushing passed them and Zack tightened his grip to her as he watched the ground come towards them closer. He looked to Aeris and thought to himself that there might have been another way to get out of the building and now he had just killed them both.
"Zack!!" She screamed as she looked below them, her eyes pleading to him for this to only be a dream. His mind went blank. He didn't know what to tell her as they continued to plunge towards the ground; he just closed his eyes tightly and pulled her close to him.
Unaware, Hojo was watching them from above and a swift breeze caught his attention as he released his gaze from them he narrowed his eyes to the side of building and a large plane came charging towards them and swiftly passed Hojo and the other men as it flew by. Hojo held his grip firm on the sides of the door so not to fall from the sudden blast of wind, but as the wind died he watched as the plane plunged into a straightforward dive towards Zack and Aeris.
"NO! MY SPEICIEM!!" He screamed from above but Aeris and Zack couldn't hear him because the plane's engines drowned his voice out.
The small plane sudden pulled up at them and Zack slammed into the back seat of it letting out a loud yelp of pain as his ass struck the leather.
Aeris was shaking violently along with Zack from the sudden catch from it and they had their eyes tightly shut as it suddenly shot up into the air again and then started straight towards the outer part of the city.
"HA! That was great!" They heard a familiar voice scream in happiness.
Zack slowly opened his eyes, trying to squint passed the bright setting sun and looked ahead of them towards the front seat. Aeris did the same as she started to slowly release her grip from Zack's back, hoping she didn't dig into his skin to badly.
Bright yellow hair caught their eyes in front of them and the familiar smell of cigarettes in cased the air above them and the man before them slightly turned, pulling up his large brown goggles and started chuckling at them.
"Aw yes! The two are finally coming to! Shera, give them the bag I told you to pack!" Cid yelled, his smile warming. Shera sat next to him, on his right side and she carefully lifted a white plastic bag and slowly turned to face them. She smiled herself as at them happily and gently handed back to the bag to them, trying not to lose it in the thick breeze that pushed against them.
Zack slowly lifted his hand up from under Aeris's back and reached out, grabbing it gently from her and then placed it down on Aeris's stomach as he pulled it out.
He then began to untie the knot that held it shut and pulled it open to see what was inside of it. Zack laughed as he looked at the contents inside and pulled out a white shirt along with newly bought pants and then pulled from it a bright red shirt for Aeris and tight jeans along with it.
He looked down at his own clothes and noticed that they were a bit dirty anyways but wondered why Cid had gotten these things for them.
"Hey! What are these for?" Zack yelled over the loud engines and powering winds that rushed passed them.
"Thought you might like to go to dinner with us!" Cid yelled back looking back to them with a smile spread wide across his face.
"Dinner?! We just jumped off the 56th floor of a building and you want us to go to dinner!?" Zack screamed, his face looking in disbelief but with a playful smile across it as well.
"Yup! That's the case!" Cid yelled back and Shera started chuckling at him.
"So what do you say, Aeris? Wanna go?!" He asked her and she rolled her eyes while a small smile spread grew on her own pale face.
"Sure! Sounds like fun!" She yelled as she lifted herself and kissed him gently, just happy to be alive.
"OK THEN! OFF TO COSTA DEL SOL!" Cid screamed as he placed his foot down and started the gas up to full speed as they sped off over the ocean without a single trace of the Shinra in sight towards Costa Del Sol on the second continent.