Chapter 8

Sorry I took a while to update… been busy with school and such #_#… plus at this point I'm having to write out new scenes instead of just polish and edit ones I've already written.

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It had begun raining. At first it was a few drops, then it began pouring. It was strange, the rain of the slums, for the metal structure of the top plate above did not permit them to see the clouds, the cause of the downpour, rather, the rain came through the cracks and edges of the top plate, of which there were seemingly plenty, and therefore created a very uneven and bizarre looking rainfall.

"Guess our luck is pretty worn out…" remarked Jim as they crawled into a large-sized tube sticking out of one of the large walls that separated Sector 5 from the other sectors. This wall in particular was huge, stretching over many miles in all directions.

"I hope this tube doesn't have any of that stuff they suck out of the planet in it…" Danny said, sniffing the dank odour around them. "I've heard it's poisonous."

"From who?" Jim raised his eyebrow.

"Don't remember." Danny replied, shrugging and sitting on the edge of the tube, staring out at the bleak scene around them. There were a few poorly built houses in front of them, not built too closely  to the wall, as ALIEN had ordered some kind of limit. In the distance was the church, it was some way away now, and Danny didn't harbour much hope that they would revisit it.

"After that fiasco at the church, there'll be swarms of police down here. We'd better leave as quickly as possible." Jim said, staring down the tunnel to see if he could make out any light.

"They won't make a huge effort. Not for us."

"They sent the Turks here, didn't they? The Turks are pretty high up in the organisation. Remember when the came to Kalm?"

Danny remembered all too well. It had been quite soon after he and Jim had met Tifa. They had watched with curiosity as the Turks entered the town, asking questions and shoving the townsfolk around. Danny remembered people being extremely scared, and a few women even began crying. Tifa had thrown a stone at Reno's head. Being a young man back then, perhaps no more than seventeen, Reno had turned around and began yelling at her, threatening to chase her. Tifa had responded with a grin and another throw, this one Reno dodged. Just as it seemed Reno was going to come after Tifa, Tseng had put his hand on Reno's shoulder. Tseng was still relatively young at that point. Not much older than Reno, and he wasn't the leader. The leader of the Turks had been a blond-haired man, with dark eyes and a scar across his face. Rude and Elena had not been there.

"Tifa was so crazy." Danny laughed, and then sighed. He missed her a little, ever since she'd left he'd often wondered what had become of her. Her parents had been distraught, and in many ways Danny felt they were angry with him for letting her leave. He convinced himself there was nothing he could do, yet, there was always a little voice, continually reminding him he could have grabbed her arm, called out to her, even gone with her…

"Yeah!" Jim interrupted Danny's thoughts, laughing. "Maybe she's here somewhere, too. If we can find her…"

"We won't." Danny's dead serious voice cut the conversation short. He said no more, and an uncomfortable silence descended upon the two. They hadn't talked about Tifa much since she'd gone.

"What do you think Aeris and Jerad will do now?" Jim asked after a few minutes. "They surely can't stay in the church."

"I suppose ALIEN will want to find them and get as much information out of them as they can… they'll probably move somewhere else. I'm sure they have plenty of friends here."

Danny was sure Aeris and Jerad would be fine. Whilst he could care less what happened to Jerad, he was concerned for Aeris, as she had shown such kindness to both of them. She had not kicked them out, and had often defended them. He felt guilty that they were now leaving them with a big problem, and turned to Jim.

"Let's not get any more innocent people involved, okay?"

"Okay." Jim nodded, he too felt responsible for the situation they had put Aeris and Jerad in. "Well, I can't really see what's down that tunnel… but I think we may be able to get to a different sector through it. Shall we get going?"

"Actually… I'd like to sit here for a bit. At least until the rain stops…" Danny replied, staring at the church again.

"Sure… I guess." Jim sounded a little confused, but shrugged and sat next to Danny, looking out and also fixating his gaze on the holy structure that seemed so faraway. For just over an hour they sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Danny's mostly consisted of Tifa, Aeris and how he'd left both disappointed. In a way he had let them both down. Jim on the other hand was purely thinking about the future, and whether they'd find his parents. Every time their image came into his head, he felt his heart ache. He just couldn't believe they could be dead. They had to be in Midgcar somewhere, and he was determined to find them. He vowed to himself he would not leave Midgcar until he found them. The rain slowed to a drizzle, then eventually stopped altogether. The slums lightning remained the same, so there wasn't too much of a difference in the dull scenery. Danny wondered if the sun had come out above, or whether it was still overcast. His gaze became unfocused as his thoughts began whirring again, and he didn't register the far away cry of his name for a few seconds. When he did, he sharply looked up and saw two figures. One was running towards them, the other walking at a slower pace. They were dressed in two very large coats, which were a dark blue colour. They were hooded, so neither Danny nor Jim could make them out at first. It was only when the running figure got nearer they realised it was Aeris, and deducted the figure behind was Jerad.

"Aeris!" Danny smiled, happy to see her despite his guilt.   She stopped outside the tube, out of breath. After a few seconds she looked up at them, her face a mixture of happiness and tiredness. She certainly looked far different from the shaken and crying figure they had left behind.

"Danny! Jim! I knew you'd come this way!" She still hadn't quite caught her breath. "I just hoped… that you hadn't gone too far!"

"We decided to sit here for a little bit… what's the matter?" Danny asked.

"Jerad and I were talking… and we decided… we want to come with you." She said slowly.

The two rebels looked at each other, confusion in both their faces.

"It would probably be better if you didn't." Jim told her, smiling apologetically.

"Why? We're strong… we can fight!" She replied automatically, as if she'd expected a refusal. "We have no where else to go!" She looked at Danny. "They'll come for us… Jerad wouldn't be able to protect me on his own… please… we want to help you."

"I don't know…" Danny thought back to what he had told Jim about not getting anymore innocent people involved. Then again, were Aeris and Jerad not already involved?

"You'd better let us come." The slower moving figure had reached the tunnel. It was, of course, Jerad, and he was seemingly in no better of a mood than before. "After what you've done… getting us into this!"

"Jerad!" Aeris sighed.

"No, it's alright." Danny said quietly. "He's right. We both feel guilty… if you want to come with us, you may. Tell me, does this tunnel lead anywhere?"

"Originally it didn't…" Jerad replied.

"Originally?" Danny questioned.

"I modified it. Took a while, but, I completed my work. It now goes through to sector seven." Jerad finished, a hint of pride in his tone.

"Then we'll go there… then we plan to go to sector six, to climb the pole." Danny said.

"How did you know about that?" Jerad mused, looking at both of them suspiciously. Danny simply winked and turned to Jim.

"Shall we get going?"

"We can get to sector seven before dark, then find somewhere to camp out for the night." Jim nodded.

"Camp out?" Aeris said, uneasily.

"We can't stay in any hotels. Too risky." Danny replied, turning round in the tunnel and beginning to crawl inside, the others following, with only pitch blackness ahead. He hoped no nasty surprises awaited them.