Darker by the Day
By JakandTornSweetheart
Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine. I just manipulate them for our entertainment.
Chapter 5
The Underground
As soon as she had her Krimson Guard uniform on, Torn took her by the hand and rushed them both out of the cell and toward the exit. And although she was bewildered and disoriented, Keira was a woman who never lost her concern for others.
"Wait," came her muffled voice from behind the red helmet as she tried to retrieve her own hand. "There are other people here… I think. What about them?"
Torn didn't hesitate in his answer and recaptured her hand in his. "We can't worry about them now. I have to get you out of here before Erol comes looking for you." He tried to move forward, but Keira's feet were plated firmly to the floor. She was determined. He had to give her that.
"We'll come back after we're more prepared. But now's not the time to just stand around. Let's go."
The helmet she was wearing was significantly loose and it shuffled back and forth as she ran. Finally, they stopped and Keira found herself in an elevator. She lifted the visor on her helmet and saw the indicator light rapidly blink from one floor number to the next. Still breathless and overwhelmed, she asked, "Where are we going?"
Torn slipped his own helmet over his head, and without looking toward her, replied, "You'll know when we get there."
I guess that means he doesn't really know either, she thought.
"Stay behind me, don't talk, and don't look around or at anyone. Keep your eyes on my back and just follow me," he ordered.
Then, before she had time to respond, the door swooshed open and Torn stepped out, and, afraid what would happen if she defied him, she quickly follow foot. Her eyes burning into the small of his back, she could only see red figures moving in all directions. She could tell something serious was going on, and the KG was frantic to do… something. But the answers weren't clear in the middle of Torn's back. Her heart was racing and she dare not take her eyes away from him for fear of being found out.
She didn't exactly know why she trusted this man. It just felt… right. There was something familiar about him, but she couldn't tell what. Maybe he did have the same kind of eyes as Brice; eyes that commanded absolute obedience when needed.
Brice...
Terri...
It was still so hard to think about them.
She was startled back into reality when Torn slapped the side of her helmet. "Stay focused! Get on," he ordered.
"Do what?"
"Get on the damn zoomer!" he yelled at her while trying to keep his voice down.
"Fine… I'm getting," she mumbled and slowly got into her side of the two-person zoomer that was parked to the side of the KG entrance. And when Torn sat beside her she said, "You didn't have to yell at me about it."
He slammed the gearstick forward to switch hover zones, and didn't respond until they were halfway through Main Town headed toward the Slums. "Well excuse me for being a little forceful. I thought you were going to stay in la-la land all day and blow our cover," he said and spoke through clenched teeth with the last few words.
They sat in silence until they reached the mouth of the alleyway where Torn planned to build the hideout for the resistance movement. He lowered the zoomer, shut if off, and sighed roughly. "I didn't mean to scare you or anything. I know you are… probably going through… some things. But nevertheless, we can't afford any mistakes right now. Not when we haven't even gotten off the ground yet."
"Who's 'we'? What are you talking about? Where are we?" she asked.
Torn smirked. "This is our new establishment of business and residence."
"What?"
"We are the resistance. We are the underground."
Keira huffed angrily as she hastily dressed and strapped on her newly-acquired weapon. She didn't know exactly how to use it, but she had a pretty good idea who she was going to use it on… and his name rhymed with scorn.
"How dare he go back without me," she said as she snatched the black army jacket off the back of a chair.
She climbed the stairs and listened for any footsteps before sliding open the door. These people should really install and movement sensor so the door could open on its own. It was all she could do to move the massive slab of concrete.
It was a calm night outside, a nice change from the hellish day she had been put through. Again, she thought of Brice and Terri. She hadn't had time to really stop and think about things. Truthfully, she didn't want to have time to stop and think about it. But where she was going now, she had no choice.
How dare he go without her?
Keira lurked in the shadows when she saw an abandoned zoomer after rounding the corner of the alley. It was likely that no one would come to claim before she could start it up and take off, but the trauma of the day had taught her to be more careful about her actions. One never knew where the KG were or when they would strike.
As she quickly leapt onto the zoomer and headed for the gate to the High Sl – Wait, the Baron had called it something else after the attack… Deadtown, that was it. So, as she headed to the gate to Deadtown, she thought of Torn.
He was the Commander of the Krimzon Guard, and now he was suddenly starting this resistance. Had the attack on the city affected him that much? Had he lost someone? Was he really on their side? So much mystery surrounded the man that she owed her life to. Why had he helped her in the first place? How could he have risked so much just saving someone as insignificant as her? There were so many things that she didn't know. There were still so many unanswered questions. She was so confused.
Keira was so confused, in fact, that she almost missed the turn for the gate. Remember her anger at Torn for leaving her behind the one time she felt she needed to be included in something, she jumped off the zoomer and slid through small opening in the ajar gate. She had every intention of screaming his name and pounding him into the ground when she found him.
But as she came to the other side of the gate, she nearly fell to her knees.
Everything was in disarray. Half the buildings she had come to know were nowhere to be found. The buildings that were still standing had been half-blown away, some of them still on fire. From what she could tell, there wasn't a single building that was still whole. Water from the bay had flooded half the town, and it was brown with dust and debris stirred up from the battle. Death was everywhere she looked. People were lying everywhere, people she had come to know, people she saw passing by on the street, people that she hadn't gotten the chance to know. Along side them were these indescribable creatures that looked ten times worse than any lurker she'd ever seen. The worse thing was the smell. The place smelled like death. It was absolutely awful.
It was all too much to take in at once. Tears stung at her eyes and she couldn't seem to get enough air to breathe. Despite the lump in her throat, a sob escaped from her mouth at the same time that she covered it so that it came out a muffled cry. Tears ran down her cheeks and over her hand as her chest heaved out the sobs it had been holding in all day. Finally, she did sink down to her knees in utter despair, feeling completely helpless and defeated. She felt like she was drowning in an inescapable darkness.
She didn't know how long she sat there crying into her hands, but she suddenly felt a strange warmth surround her. It actually felt kinda… nice. It almost calmed her to normal.
Keira opened her eyes to see Torn staring down at her with an expression of mixed emotions. Like the big brother she never had, he had kneeled beside her and hugged her to him, trying to comfort her. She knew nothing of the own agonizing pain he was going through.
"I left you so that you wouldn't have to see all this. We only came to salvage what we could, and bury all the people that the Erol and his men abandoned. I didn't think you could handle it," he said quietly. From his tone, she guessed that there were other people nearby.
She took a tentative look around and nearly flinched at the realization that all the destruction was a reality. "I'm okay now," she half-lied. "I need to go back home. I need to see them."
They stood together, but he kept his arms around her, feeling she wasn't ready to stand on her own. Then, to make her think he didn't already know to whom she referred, he said, "You need to see who? Where is home?"
Together they looked over to their left at the home of Brice and Terri, minus its roof and front wall. Some of the standing rubble had been moved to make a path into the small home.
"You don't want to go in there," he said.
"I have to go," she replied and edged out of his arm, her eyes never leaving the destroyed house she had so recently called home. Tears welled up in her eyes again, but she willed them away. "They're my parents. If I can, I have to see them."
She took only one step and stopped with a sigh. When she looked to her side, he was already there. "Will you go with me?"
He tried to give a reassuring smile as he put his hand atop her head. "Sure I will."
And he did just that. Torn stayed by Keira's side as she stared in awe at the mess her home had been reduced to. He watched her go through all the same emotions he had when he had first gotten there. Toward the back of the house, she found two figures covered with tattered sheets. Her heart sank. She knew somewhere in the back of her mind that there was no way they could have made it through the ordeal alive, but it was still so hard to actually see it with her own eyes.
He was still there in the doorway after she had finished crying and said her peace. When she stood, her back had a stiffness that wasn't there before. Her hands were clenched and her muscles were taut with tension.
As she turned toward him, he saw that her disposition was completely opposite of what it had been before. This side of Keira was unknown to him. This Keira was determined; hell-bent on a purpose.
"I'm not giving you a choice. You're going to let me join the Underground. You're going to teach me what I need to know to fight this war. Together, we're going to ground Praxis into the ground!"
That's it folks! Kiera's ass-whooping mad now. I felt now was a good time to skip two years ahead so that we can finally see Jak! Yay. I also skipped the review replies. Now that has a way to respond to reviews my mail, I think that's what I'll be doing from now on. But, because we all like to be acknowledged, I will list all my reviewers names for one big thank you. I'll update the chapter later with all the names. Right now, I thought it'd be nice just to give you a new chapter. Hope you liked it. Keep those reviews coming! - JATS
