Shade's Orphan
Chapter Three: The End Is Nigh
Hannah was strangely calm as they fell. She seemed confident of something, but Jack couldn't tell. He was too busy thinking of how smashing into the floor from fifty feet up would feel. At the last moment, Jack shut his eyes, bracing himself for impact…
It never came. Hannah bent her knees as she touched the ground, landing softly and with cat-like grace and agility. She deftly tossed Jack behind her and joined the fray with George. After he had recovered from the shock of being alive, Jack ran to Sarah, and under cover of the confusion lifted her over his shoulder. He realised that there was no chance of climbing the fence while Sarah was injured. He looked up to the fence where Rick was. He wasn't there.
" Damn it Rick, where did you go?" muttered Jack under his breath. His immediate problem, though, was with the Myrmidons net guns. He staggered under Sarah's weight over to where Hannah and George were furiously pummelling the fleeing Watchwards.
" Hold onto me," said Jack quickly.
" Where?" asked Hannah and George in unison.
" Anywhere, I don't care!" shouted Jack urgently.
Taking note of this, Hannah held onto his hair while George grabbed his belt.
" Not there," said Jack exasperatedly.
They both held onto his arm, but not before pulling his hair and yanking his trousers up.
" Aaaaahhhh! Thanks a lot, friends," remarked Jack in a high voice.
" Where to now?" asked George.
" Away from the Myrmidons," replied Hannah.
They all walked quickly away from the marching Myrmidons. They needn't have bothered, though, for to them nothing was wrong. Just a fault on the Watchwards' behalf. They decided to execute the 'crazy' Watchwards. Breathing heavily under Sarah's weight, Jack and co. made for the fences again, till he realised Rick wasn't there anymore
" Rick isn't there," said Jack.
" Where could he have gone? Why did he just decide to bail on us? We're his friends," said Hannah.
" I don't know, but we better get out of here," replied George.
"Yeah," agreed Jack, turning to leave. As they walked to the gates, Jack asked, " By the way Hannah, what the hell was with you when you jumped off the fence?"
" I dunno. I kind of felt a…tingling feeling. It was fantastic. I felt like I could jump off a skyscraper and barely break a sweat," answered Hannah.
" That's what I feel when I turn invisible! D'you think there's a connection?"
" I think we're going to get found out if we don't move it!" interrupted George.
Slowly they staggered over to where the Front Gate must be, and where their chances of freedom waited.
And it was just their luck that the Front Gate was open.
"H-hoo-hooray!" gasped Jack. Carrying Sarah had left its mark on Jack, leaving him out of breath, sore and very sleepy. He barely knew how he had managed it, but managed it he had. Now, with the Front Gate open, Jack was very relieved.
" I don't like this, Jack." said George suspiciously.
" What now?" asked Hannah exasperatedly.
" We escape the Dorms, narrowly escaping capture and death; the alarms have gone off, which will have woken every Myrmidon here, and the Front Gate just happens to be open?"
" It's funny how those things happen, innit?" said an unknown voice.
Everybody looked around worriedly. They hadn't heard of any Myrmidons that spoke English, but nobody was really sure if the Overlords were human or not; that worried them, and the three conscious friends looked around frantically for the owner of the voice.
"Don't worry, I'm not here to kill you, disembowel you, slice you up, behead you or gruesomely take all of your organs to make a Frankenstein-style freak. Yet," said the voice again.
Hannah couldn't help it, but curiosity got the better of her.
" What's Frankenstein?"
" You'll know it soon enough." answered the mysterious voice. Its owner stepped out of the shadows behind them.
" I'm here to help."