Chapter 20
The Desert Prison
Part III
The prison was dark and it was permeated by the smell of cold metal. The group of SeeDs, once again led by Squall, made their way out of the torture room.
Zell stopped Squall once they were out in the hallway. Squall's eyes still looked tired and worn, but he seemed to be regaining some vitality. He looked at Zell, his arms folded.
"Didn't you come here as Laguna in the 'dream world'?" Zell asked.
Squall thought back, trying to remember.
"…… No." he finally said.
Quistis put her hand to her chin.
"So Squall doesn't know how to get out, either." she lamented.
Zell thought for a moment.
"Well… Either way, we kept goin' up and up." he said. "I think we better head back down."
Selphie just stood there as they planned. Her legs were sore, so she stretched a little as everyone spoke.
Quistis thought about how long it'd taken to just reach the 13th floor from the seventh.
"There must be a better way…" Quistis thought. She was tired too.
"It'd be a pain to go down every floor." she observed. "The alarm alerted monsters and guards everywhere."
"Yeah it would be a pain.." Zell thought. "Speaking of that though…".
"By the way, how the hell did they carry you up here, Squall?" Zell asked.
Squall pointed behind them, into the hole. A large machine that possessed clamps and platforms, was right in their line of sight. On top of it was a small operating room, apparently attached to the whole structure. It looked like a huge mechanical arm with a fist at the end.
"Whoa!!!" Zell cried. "What's this!?"
"It's like a crane that can carry a detachable cell from downstairs." Squall explained.
Selphie ran over to the edge of the hole, and peered down.
"Oh, so this big hole goes all the way to the bottom." she noticed. "So if we jump ALL the way down, we're outta here."
Selphie looked back at everyone, and smiled mischievously.
"Go ahead if you want to be squashed like a pancake." Quistis replied, rolling her eyes.
Suddenly, Zell cried out startling everyone.
"Oh yeah!!! I remember now!!!"
"Ward did this once…" he thought. "I know how!"
"We can move this arm by using the panel above and the control room." Zell suggested. "I remember Ward doing this."
Squall thought about what Zell was suggesting. Use the arm to go down, the same way they'd brought Squall up. Though they could, and probably would, run into trouble with the guards, but Zell's idea sounded like their best option right now… maybe their only option.
Zell continued. The plan was perfect, except for one thing.
"But we need to operate them both at the same time." he started. "Someone needs to stay upstairs and control the panel…"
Selphie and Quistis looked at each other, and then at Zell. Both of them knew who it had to be. Then they walked over to him, and put their hand on each of his shoulders.
Zell looked back and forth at them in surprise.
"…Me?" he said. Selphie and Quistis nodded assuredly, but with compassionate looks on their faces. They didn't want to leave him behind, even for a little while, but Zell knew more about the control panel then any of them.
Zell was tempted to argue. He didn't want to get left behind… but he was the only one who could even make a guess at how to operate the crane. If anyone was gonna escape, Zell would have to operate the upstairs panel.
"F-Fine…" Zell said, hanging his head. "I'll give you instructions from upstairs. Everyone get inside."
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Squall led Quistis and Selphie into the crane's overhead chamber. It was a tiny compartment, but large enough to hold them and probably two others.
"So, this is the arm control room." Quistis observed. She gazed about the small room apprehensively. Wires and cables were strewn about the floor, along with electrical tools and other gadgets. The place was kind of a mess.
"Hope this thing is stable…" she thought. "It should be… Galbadia puts a lot of money into their prisons…"
A voice came in over the speaker.
"Yo, can you guys hear me?"
"Hiya Zell, loud and clear!" Selphie said, jumping up and down. The room swayed slightly as she did.
Squall put his hand on his hip.
"So, what do we do?" he asked, giving a slightly annoyed glance at Selphie.
"Press the red button on the main panel." Zell replied. Squall heard Zell flipping switches and pressing buttons as he spoke.
Squall hit the large red button. The crane arm started up, it's engine purring loudly.
"I'll take care of the rest……." Zell said.
There was a long pause. The machine was running, but they didn't move. Suddenly, the room jerked down.
Zell cried out over the speaker.
"There!"
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Squall, Selphie and Quistis reached the third floor of the prison when the arm stopped. The machine slowed down and hummed as its' engine died out. Squall walked out of the compartment and looked around. It was what appeared to be a dirty parking area for the crane arm. There were tools scattered on the floor, and oil stained the walls. The room was dark and large cords of wire ran through the top of it's walls. They were definitely near the bottom level of the prison.
"Heeey, so what are we going to do now?" Selphie said as she looked around.
In front of them was a large metallic wall, with flashing red safety lights blinking slowly. A metal walkway made a bridge over to a large passageway. Overhead lights lit the way across the bridge.
"Well, there's a door over there." Squall replied. He took a step forward, but stopped hesitantly.
"…Where does it lead to, I wonder…" he thought.
"And?" Quistis said impatiently.
"What's he doing? We have to explore around here if we're going to find a way out…"
Squall looked back at her and shrugged his shoulders.
"….Let's check it out." he offered.
Squall walked over to the door. Upon opening it, they found a small, hexagonal shaped hallway. It was a dead end.
"Can we get out?" Selphie asked. She looked around for another opening, but saw none.
"If only we could get out of here…" Quistis thought aloud.
Squall walked to the end of the hall. The wall there was marked with a large gray 'X' across the red and black striped metal. He examined it closer and noticed something intriguing.
"…This is a door."
Squall pushed on the wall piece harshly, with a perplexed look on his face. He suddenly felt something push back hard, and the wall started to collapse.
Squall ran back as the wall came crashing down, being pushed by tons and tons of dark, black earth. Selphie and Quistis jumped back, frightened.
Squall looked at the mess. A huge mound of sand poured in before him, about half his height. Where did it come from?
"Sand…?" he said. He looked deeper into the opening he'd created. That was all he could see… Dark, black, sand.
*--------------------------PLACE MARKER---------------------*
(Sick of reading right now? Take a break, and find your spot right here when you come back to the story!)
Quistis and Selphie gazed at the mound in bewilderment.
"… Buried…? You mean we're underground?" Quistis said, worried. She sighed heavily and put her hand to her head.
"In any case, we can't get out from here…" she said in a frustrated tone. She combed back her auburn hair.
"All of that for nothing…" she thought.
They all stood there thinking a moment. Suddenly they jumped at a loud noise. It sounded like machine guns shooting at metal. A lot of them firing all at once, too.
"What was that?" Selphie asked, frightened.
"Gunfire?" Quistis guessed.
The sound got louder now, more machine guns firing rapidly. What was going on?
"Sounds pretty bad…" Squall said.
"……"
Everyone stood there, quiet. Was the sound coming towards them? If so, how? The only other room down here was the crane maintenance area.
Quistis and Selphie both gasped in shock as they realized that the gunfire was not coming from this area… It was sounding from the loudspeakers in the crane's operating compartment.
"ZELL!!" Quistis and Selphie screamed together.
Quistis turned to Squall and put her hand to her chest with concern.
"Let's get back, quick!" she said, agitated.
Squall nodded, his face grim, but anxious. He rushed over to the crane arm again, leading Selphie and Quistis.
"I hope we're not too late…" Selphie thought.
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"There he is! Over there!!!"
"Seize the escapee, dead or alive!!!"
Zell Dincht ducked and dodged as best he could. He hid behind a control panel and tried to clear his mind. Could he take them? Zell glanced over the panel and counted upwards of ten soldiers, all armed to the teeth.
"Tch! Too many! I'm outta here!" he thought.
The guards had finally caught him in the control room, and now he was in a tight spot. His only chance was to make a run for it.
He heard the guards stop firing to reload their machine guns. Now was his chance.
Zell ran down the steps and back onto the hall just above the cells.
"No where to go but… down…" he thought.
Zell gulped and ran as fast as he could towards the stairs leading down to the cells. He was able to make it all the way to the eighth floor before they caught up to him.
"Get 'im!"
Two guards were coming quickly behind Zell, still clumsily trying to reload their weapons. Zell didn't look back though. He simply kept running.
"Where am I gonna go?!" he thought frantically.
A few shots from a machine gun encouraged Zell to pick up the pace.
"…Ehhhh… Ah hell with it!" Just keep going man!" he told himself.
Zell ran as fast as his legs would run. Past the 13th floor, the 12th, 10th, and 9th .
As he ran down the steps and started around the hole on the 8th floor, Zell quickly remembered Quistis advice about the magic that the guards carried, and started junctioning his supply of 'Sleep' magic, so that he'd become unaffected by the guards spell.
"Should have taken Quistis advice earlier…" he thought, trying to arrange the magic with his GF.
"Oh well, it'll help now!"
As Zell turned the corner, he caught the stairwell in sight.
"Just gotta make it there… then I'll take it a little slower…" he thought. Just then, he felt something hit his head.
"Ugh…"
Zell skidded across the ground, his eyes closed. He just barely heard the voice of a guard above him.
"You bastard…"
Zell blinked and saw one of the wardens pointing a gun down at him. Zell quickly came to, got on his feet and covered his head.
"This is it…" Zell thought. "Goodbye…"
"DIE!!!" The warden yelled, his hand precariously close to the trigger. Suddenly, a dark figure came rushing down at the guard, and swung his gun handled weapon into the warden's back.
"Uh..!"
The warden fell to the ground. He wasn't dead, but the blow from the heavy weapon knocked him to the ground.
Squall hadn't really cut into him as much as he'd meant to, but the guard was unconscious nonetheless. One less thing to worry about.
Squall stood above Zell and the unconscious warden. He looked down at the prison guard with contempt.
"Didn't think he'd go down that easy." Squall said.
Zell opened eyes, and looked up.
"Squall!!!"
Zell's legs felt like rubber. He'd nearly died right there. If it hadn't been for Squall…
He fell to his knees and gazed up at the brave SeeD.
"Thanks, man!!!" he exclaimed. Zell grabbed hold of Squall's belt, and gazed up at him thankfully.
Squall cocked his eye, perplexed at this, and tried to step away.
"W-What!?" he said, trying to shake Zell off of him.
Squall never liked it when people did things like this… groveling. It was very embarrassing, not to mention irritating.
"Alright, Zell… that's enough…"
"Let go." Squall commanded in a harsh tone.
Zell didn't budge.
"I said let go!" Squall commanded again. He yanked on Zell's hair, pulling his head away.
"Dammit…" Squall thought.
He knocked Zell over the head with the butt of his gunblade. Finally Zell flinched and released him. He got back on his feet, and rubbed his head, wincing slightly.
Squall looked away, feeling very awkward. Zell stood there, still in shock from nearly being killed.
"…I've been in danger before…" Zell thought. "But… never been almost taken out, without any way to defend myself!"
"Squall! Zell!" Quistis voice came out from above. She ran down the stairs from the top floor to meet them.
"I'm glad you're all right." she said. They'd all heard gunfire on their way down to the 8th floor, but Squall ran ahead leaving her and Selphie up top.
"Squall, why did you go on your own?" Selphie started. "Is Zell that important to you?" She asked innocently.
Squall and Zell both turned away and blushed at this. Squall rolled his eyes, and Zell scratched his head nervously.
"Whatever…" Squall thought. "…I … He… … …Whatever."
Suddenly, machine-gun fire came from the opposite side of the crater. Squall, Zell, Selphie and Quistis all ducked down and hid behind the metal chasm's wall. Selphie and Quistis crawled along, getting closer to the others.
"There's no way we can get outta here!" Zell cried.
Squall felt bullets whizzing above his head. Zell was right. Heavily armed guards shot with out any restraint from the other side. If the SeeDs made one wrong move, they would be shot to death.
But the machine guns stopped firing as two louder shots rang out. It sounded thicker, and heavier than the automatic weapons that the guards were using. In fact, all of the guards stopped shooting and two of them cried out.
"Argh!"
"Ugh!"
The guards fell. Then, two more heavy shots sounded.
"A… shotgun?" Squall thought. "Galbadian soldiers don't use shotguns…"
The room was silent now. No shooting. Everyone could smell the smoke emitting from the fire-arms.
All of the SeeDs looked in the direction that the counter-shots had come from, near the stairs that Quistis and Selphie had just descended. They heard a young woman's voice.
"Com'on!" she said. "Stop trying to act so cool!"
They saw a young man in a cowboy hat walking down the stairs, only to be kicked by a young woman in blue. He fell down and crumpled up at the foot of the stairwell.
The girl continued.
"Gee," she started sarcastically. "…if only you had agreed with me earlier, we wouldn't be in this mess."
Squall walked towards the stairs. He saw Irvine Kinneas on the floor, and his 'client' on the steps above.
"Squall!!!" Rinoa yelled happily. She squatted down and hugged her knees, smiling.
"Squall's alive! I knew he would be. Squall's okay!" she thought.
"Yeah!" she said in an elated voice.
Rinoa skipped down the stairs, like a overjoyed little girl. She stepped onto the floor, and stopped right at Squall's feet.
The two gazed at each other for a moment. Squall didn't know what to say. His own relief and joy upon Rinoa's arrival shocked him. She just stood there, happily gazing at him with her almond-shaped brown eyes… and he felt good. Knowing that she was okay, seeing her here gave Squall an overwhelming sense of repose… He didn't know what to make of it, though. Squall began to feel awkward, just standing there, gazing at her. Thankfully, Quistis ran over.
"Rinoa, you're all right!" she said, ignorant of the uncomfortable silence between the two.
Irvine moaned from his spot on the ground.
"Uh huh." he said. He shook his head and smirked.
"Of course." he started, balancing himself. "Courtesy of my escort."
Zell glared over at the sharpshooter. He still didn't like him.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Zell asked.
"Ah…" Irvine scratched his neck, trying to come up with something. Rinoa interrupted before he had a chance to say anything though.
"My father pulled some strings with the military." she explained. "He told them to get me, and only me, out."
Irvine tried to come up with an excuse, before Rinoa explained too much.
"Then …"
Rinoa put her hand to her head in frustration and disgust.
"So this guy here…" she started. "He came and got me. Just me! Knowing you were all captured!"
"Ahh, that's…" Irvine tried to say again.
"Isn't that horrible?" Rinoa said, looking up at Squall.
Irvine sighed.
"Alright, alright…!" he said. "I said I was sorry."
"So much for my 'escort'…" he thought.
Rinoa ignored him.
"That's why I'm here to help!" Irvine continued.
Rinoa huffed loudly and turned around.
"After I scratched you to death." she said, putting her hands on her hips.
Irvine stepped back at her frightening glare.
"uh… A-A-Anyhow, now's our chance." he said, trying to change the subject.
Squall was finally able to clear his mind enough to speak now. He forced himself to focus.
"The basement door is buried in sand." he explained, somewhat awkwardly.
"Of course it is." Irvine replied. "This place is buried underground."
Squall looked confused.
"Buried?"
'That's right. This prison is…"
Irvine was cut off by a loud voice across the way.
"There they are! It's the escapees!"
Machine-gun fire started right away. Everyone ducked except for one person.
Irvine pulled out his gun and fired at the guards, aiming perfectly. But the guards kept shooting.
"Squall!" Irvine started. "You choose two to take with you, and head on up. I'll hold 'em here with the others."
"Up?" Squall remarked, covering his head.
Irvine fired two more shots. The guards fired back without stopping.
"Don't have time to explain now! The exits up there, trust me."
"…….. OK." Squall said.
Rinoa spoke up.
"I think I know the way!" she cried.
Squall nodded to her and pointed at Selphie.
"Irvine…" Squall started. "I'm taking Rinoa and Selphie with me. You, Zell, and Quistis follow us as soon as you can, got it?"
Irvine nodded, keeping his eyes on the guards across the way.
Squall led Rinoa and Selphie up the stairs. Once they were out of harms way, Irvine backed up to the stairwell. He'd stayed within the guards range too long already.
"My turn to boogie now." Irvine said. He fired another shot, keeping the guards at bay.
Zell and Quistis looked at each other nervously. There lives, like his shotgun, were in Irvine's hands.
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Squall, Rinoa, and Selphie quickly ran up the stairs, passing the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th floors.
"Do you think Irvine is going to be ok?" Selphie asked.
Squall shrugged his shoulders, still moving quickly.
"I dunno." he replied. "I told him to follow us as soon as he could…"
Rinoa stayed close to Squall as they moved along. She was so relived to see him alive. Back in Deling when he'd been run through by the sorceress' Ice spears, Rinoa was more frightened than she'd ever been. Now that she knew Squall was all right, she breathed easy, even though they were still in a terrible predicament. She didn't even give a thought to why Squall's shoulder didn't appear wounded.
"I'm just glad he's okay…" Rinoa thought.
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"Oh, man, this is endless!" Irvine cried as he shot at the guards.
Zell was hunched against the wall glaring up at Irvine.
"Yo, what's our next move!?" he asked.
Irvine fired two more rounds as he thought.
"Hmm…"
Minutes passed. Irvine and the guards kept exchanging shots, so for the moment, there appeared to be no way out.
Suddenly, Quistis raised her voice in excitement.
"I got an idea!" she cried. "Can't we go up again with the arm?"
Irvine smiled as he fired two more shots. He kept his eyes focused firmly on the guards across the chasm, but he thought about Quistis idea... It could work.
"Hey, good idea." he said, starting to lower his gun.
"But they gotta operate it from that room upstairs." Zell reminded them.
Irvine shrugged his shoulders and smirked.
"Leave that to me." he said self-assuredly. Irvine tipped his cowboy hat. "Alright! Let's head to the floor where the arm's stopped." he said.
Quistis, Zell and Irvine crawled along the floor of the prison. Luckily, they were heading down now, and were right by the stairwell leading to the floors below.
"The arm should still be on the third floor of the prison." Quistis informed them. "That's where we left it…"
Luckily, they were right next to the stairwell. Had they gone up, the guards would have had a clear shot at them, but they needed to push on deeper into the bowels of the prison.
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The lower floors of the prison were not heavily guarded. Irvine led Quistis and Zell down until they reached the third floor.
They stepped down into a very different area; The maintenance garage for the crane arm. Irvine approached the machine without hesitation.
"Hey! Hop on!" he said.
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Squall, Rinoa and Selphie made their way to the area right above the 13th floor. To their surprise, two moombas were waiting above the stairs.
One approached Squall.
"Yeee, Yeee, Thaa, Thaa."
The moomba placed a small bottle in Squall's hand. It was healing medicine for GFs.
Squall gazed at the creature, flabbergasted. Then, the other moomba came up. This one spoke more clearly.
"LLLaguna! HHHead. CCConfuse. RRRururururun."
Though Squall couldn't understand exactly what it was saying, he took the animal's advice. Squall motioned for Rinoa and Selphie to follow him, and they made their way to the control room which Zell had been caught in earlier.
Squall climbed the stairs to the area and threw the doors open. He was surprised for a moment, at it's size. They stood before a huge circular room, with one control panel near the center. There was a window peering out to the crane.
"This is it." Rinoa said. She pointed to a stairwell beyond the control panel. "There's another room up there, and then we're out."
Squall nodded silently, and they walked over to the flight of stairs. Once they reached the top, there was another large room ,just as Rinoa had said. Squall, however, ignored the equipment. He saw what appeared to be daylight coming in from a large opening, and walked quickly towards it.
"Finally, we're outside…" Squall thought, relived to be able to breath some fresh air.
They found themselves on a large balcony, attached to a bridge which led across to another area. The sun was beating down harshly from the sky, and the brightness made it hard to see what exactly was on the other side.
Not that they cared.
"We're outside!!! We escaped! We escaped!!!" Selphie said dancing around ecstatically.
Suddenly, they heard a loud voice over loud speakers which immediately discouraged Selphie's celebration.
"Prisoners may not go beyond this point. You will be terminated, a mechanical recording commanded.
Squall looked across the long metal bridge. A soldier and two Galbadian robots were coming across at them, fast.
"They're coming!" Squall warned, drawing his weapon.
"You're not going anywhere!" the soldier called out. He stood behind the two machines, ready to give commands.
The two powerful weapons stood at attention, their skinny legs and huge torsos being balanced by the advanced robotics inside. GIM52A. The most advanced Galbadian robot currently in use.
Squall quickly began casting Protect on himself, Selphie and Rinoa. The GIM52As possessed a system of Micro-missiles; tiny rockets that locked in on one target. With the protect magic, they would still feel some of the missiles' hits, but it would block them from the explosion and any permanent injury that might ensue.
The robots began to use their weapons, sending missiles flying in Squall's direction. He averted his eyes from the blasts, but was kept safe by his shield.
Quickly, Squall returned the favor, slicing into the machine harshly. He pulled the trigger on his gunblade just as he swung down, releasing an explosion which protruded the blade even further into the GIM52A's metal frame.
The machine began to falter at this, but attacked back, knocking Squall to the ground.
"Ugh!"
Squall leapt up quickly, and cut once more into the robot. It fell to the ground, buzzing frenetically.
*--------------------------PLACE MARKER---------------------*
(Sick of reading right now? Take a break, and find your spot right here when you come back to the story!)
The red-suited soldier gulped, but started casting magic on the remaining unit.
Squall, Rinoa, and Selphie watched as the machine began to glow a bright yellow. This was a spell which Squall had never seen before. He observed the robot cautiously. What was the magic doing to it?
The robot hummed with energy now. It began to attack everyone fiercely, and with much more power.
Rinoa rolled onto the ground, avoiding the GIM52A's blows, and shot her blaster-edge at the soldier.
"I'll let Squall deal with that… thing…" she thought. "But that soldier can't keep casting magic on it if we're gonna get out of here…"
The soldier fell back at Rinoa's advances. The blade of her weapon had cut into his uniform, damaging the magic control system. She saw this and smiled.
"Yes!" she said.
Squall was busy in a dead-lock with the robot. He motioned for Selphie to attack while he was keeping it busy. She was happy to oblige.
Selphie swung her nunchaku at the mechanical beast, leaving deep dents in it's metal covering. She continued to do so until she heard a loud clanking inside the robot's chest plate.
"I think I got it." she thought, stepping back.
Squall was pushed to the ground and the robot began attacking fast and hard.
"It's got so much power…" Squall thought, dodging as best he could. "Is it that spell?"
The robot was indeed stronger than before, but it began to slow down, and Squall heard it's mechanical insides begin to die down quickly. Finally, it fell to the ground. Squall stabbed his sword into it's body, just make sure.
As Squall and Selphie finished off the robot, Rinoa continued to fire her blaster edge at the soldier, who kept getting knocked down, or too scared to move every time she shot it. Finally, Rinoa's weapon hit him in the helmet with a loud clang, and the elite soldier fell to his knees, either dead or unconscious.
Squall put his hand on his hip, and breathed heavily. Was that all? Or would they have to fight more.
Suddenly, loud beep and a fuzzy voice came in from a distance.
"Hey Squall, can you hear me?"
Selphie looked around in surprise, and Squall turned his head, curious. It sounded like Irvine, only with a lot of static in his voice.
Squall walked back into the control room, followed by Selphie and Rinoa.
Irvine spoke up again.
"Hey! Hey, you guys!" he said, trying to get someone's attention.
Squall looked around a control panel. He heard their voices coming from a speaker, but he couldn't find the device that would allow him to respond.
Another voice came in over the radio. It was Quistis.
"Is this what you were talking about? What if Squall and the others have already gone ahead?"
Squall looked around and found the radio piece he was looking for. He pressed the button and spoke into it.
"I can hear you." he said.
Irvine spoke up excitedly.
"See! I told you we'd be alright. Squall, go ahead and operate the arm."
Squall rolled his eyes.
"How?" he asked impatiently.
He heard a little struggling over the radio, like someone grabbing it out from Irvine's hand.
Zell spoke now.
"Squall, push down the yellow button on your upper right hand side."
Squall looked around. He was never good at finding things on a complicated control board like this.
"Is this it?" he thought. Squall hit the button.
There was a pause for a moment, but then Irvine came in again.
"Alrighty!" he said. The arm had started moving them up. "We'll be there in like a second. Wait right there."
Squall heard the hum of the crane over the radio. It sounded… different.
Zell noticed something odd as well.
"Hey… Is it supposed to move this slow?" he asked.
Irvine replied causally.
"So what? What's the rush?"
Rinoa giggled. Zell's personality was cute, and kind of funny to her.
"Looks like they'll be just fine." she said.
Squall shrugged, and started back outside. They hadn't really been able to plan an escape route, or even take a good look at their surroundings, because of the soldier and robots.
"let's cross that bridge…" Squall suggested. "We still don't know how to get out of here."
Squall led Rinoa and Selphie outside again. They stepped out onto the platform and started across the bridge to the rusty red building on the other side.
In the middle of the walkway, Squall felt the wind blowing harshly. It nearly knocked him over. He glanced at Selphie and Rinoa. They felt it as well.
"What the heck?" Squall thought. He turned his head to look over the edge of the bridge.
Nearly 1000 feet below them was the desert floor.
the bridge was connected to two towers that stood high above the ground. Another tower behind them created a gigantic tri-tower structure, all connected by skyways. Except for the rusty red tops of them, the towers all looked like enormous screws, drilled into the desert.
The group gawked at the tremendous structure…. It was incredible, and frightening.
"So…" Selphie began. "How do we get down?"
Rinoa shook her head in disbelief.
"No way…!" she finally said. "When I came in earlier, it wasn't like this…"
Squall didn't understand either, but they couldn't just stand there and question everything.
"Let's just head for that structure over there." he suggested.
They began running across the bridge, a bit more carefully now. Rinoa and Selphie ran ahead quickly. They reached the opposite side, but just as Squall was catching up to them, something happened.
Intense grinding and clanking of metal was heard. Squall gazed about in surprise as the side rails of the bridge came down. He was about to make a sprint for the platform, but the metal plating of the bridge started to slide in, leaving an empty space everywhere there had been a panel.
Squall quickly began running in the opposite direction, attempting to outrun the transforming structure.
"Can't do it…" he thought, gazing back. "Gotta find another way…"
Squall leapt off the platform, just as a panel slide out from under his feet. Squall grabbed hold of the lowered side-rail, and hung precariously from the edge.
Rinoa and Selphie gazed in dread as Squall hung desperately. Rinoa called out urging him.
"Squall! Hold on!!! Over here, hurry!!!"
Squall barely heard Rinoa's voice. The grinding noises were getting louder and more intense. He looked down and saw the desert floor coming closer and closer to him.
"What's going on?!" he thought. Suddenly, Squall saw a huge cloud of sand coming up to him fast. The wind caused by the moving structure turned into a devastating storm.
"…Is it drilling into the ground?" he thought, closing his eyes. Squall started moving towards the opposite balcony now. His only hope was to reach Rinoa and Selphie before he got sucked into the tunnel.
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End Chap. 20
ugh. Too many chapters in the prison…
I have to be honest here.. I hate writing battle scenes.. they're so boring.. plus they're hard to describe. But I hope that they find favor with you.
*Takes sip of tea*
Gotta start on chapter 21 now. (Don't you just hate how casual I'm being after such an intense and exciting cliff-hanger?)
I'm gonna have a really hard time choosing a party for the next one. I'm considering the ever popular, Squall-Rinoa-Zell combo, but I'll give it some thought.
Catch ya later.
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