Ch3: Boomer

Song recommendation: The Everlove – Cities in dust

When she opened her eyes there was only darkness. Even after a few blinks there was still the black void. Her head swam in pools of confusion as consciousness attempted to rise to the surface. Cries of pain echoed in her skull when she tried to get up. She realized that she was trapped as her shoulder touched cold stone. She kicked away at the stone on top of her, sending it ten feet away. Standing on shaky legs, the very idea of being awake seemed a new concept to her. Dressed in an olive drab safari get up, her sandy hair hung about her face, covering hazel eyes. As reality began to focus, her vision was filled with violence.

The sound of water was running, children were running dragged by their parents. She knew she should be running too. Creatures of Grimm littered the streets, attacking anyone they could catch. The setting sun set its sights on slashing claws and gnawing jaws. Flesh was ripped as bones were broken. Monsters towered over bodies, charred and maimed. Though all her thoughts said she should help these scared and endangered people, instinct told her to listen to her own fear. As much as she was afraid to die, she feared for someone else's life more.

As Vale was being turned to the dust around the young girl, she unsheathed a matching set of gold-plated desert eagles, looking to them for courage, before taking a deep breath. Steel blades that shined like silver unfolded themselves in the shape of a kukri at each side of the barrels. Folding the 16-inch knives back to fit the 6 inch barrel, she knelt down until her knee barely touched the ground. Pulling all her strength into her legs, she sprang into a powerful leap, firing her pistols to rocket her way into the burning red sky. Shooting again to maneuver to an adjacent building, the girl ran along the roof as fast as she could. A Nevermore flew past her carrying the corpse of a man, thrusting its beak into the chest to feed on the carrion.

Not wanting her fear to attract the oversized crow, she hopped off the edge of the building, catching her foot at the side of the roof before pushing off in a burst of speed. The force of her jump cracked the concrete into powder and chunks. She rushed her way through the ravaged city in a series of sprints, slides and summersaults offset by shooting pistols. Screams for help were drowned out by the rushing sound of wind in kangaroo ears. Continuous kicking until she caught herself at the town square, the girl scanned the surrounding terrace for signs of her sister.

She spotted the café where they were to meet. A horde of Grimm had gathered at the ruined structure. And where there were Grimm, there was someone about to die. That is what she had come to realize right then. Filled with resolve, Barbara Boomer boosted herself to the once tranquil establishment. A Beowolf turned around as it was walking its way to table left standing, surrounded by five other creature that stood by in in a warped scene of friends gathering. It swung its paw as Barb entered its airspace, but before it could land a strike, she shot at the ground raising her out of the way before shooting down behind it, slashing at its legs with unfurled blades.

The Teatime Terrors, four more Beowolves and a rather large Ursa, growled out in rage as she brought her weapon down upon the monster's boney skull. Charging at her, one beowolf started swinging at her with it claws. She dodged away in backwards cartwheels as she found the opening to cartwheel kick it in the air. Aiming from its chest to it groin, she laid down fire in a blazing hail of bullets. The recoil pushing her shoulders back with each blurry pull of the trigger.

The assault bisected the creature leaving its devastated form to evaporate into black smoke. Another Wolf pounced out of the smoke only to find its prey vanished, not noticing she was right beside it as it looked away and never knowing as she blew a hole through the side of its head. Again, a wolf sliced at her feet. She stomped on its paw and pivoted herself to flatten herself against the beasts back, her kukri hooked at its neck. Shooting her gun decapitated the thing boosting her into a flip as she careened down to the last Beowolf, crushing it into the ground. The remaining Ursa roared at the girl, crimson eyes flaring as it bared it long jagged fangs. Barbara fired off four shots at the twisted bear before she ran out of bullets. Releasing the clips, she quickly reloaded from the clips strapped to her thighs and fired one pistol as she moved the other back ready to be thrown. She aimed at the Ursa's back quills breaking off as many as she could before throwing her other weapon like a boomerang, the gun fire as it was being thrown to help its speed. As Barbara fired the last of her shots, she unfolded her blade prepared for a melee. She hoped her other gun would make its mark on the beast's head, she hoped with all her heart, but hope rode alone that day. The golden hope she threw away came back, only to sink its blade into the monsters back. Barely a flesh wound on the ravager's mind, while her hearts sank.

Barbara looked back at the poor girl she had trapped underneath the ruble. Her matching sandy hair and ears pooled around her like an island in the middle of an ocean, her legs not visible beneath estranged steel and stone. Barbara could feel tears in her eyes as she looked back at the death before her. The Grimm had risen on its hind legs, paw raised in the air, bringing it down with 700 pounds of force. She began to close her eyes as a white laser beam burned through her alien attacker. Her weapon spinning from its place in the smoking heap of Ursa to clatter on the ground before her. Not wasting a second she grabbed her weapon and ran to her sister's side. Moving as much rock away from the girl as she could, she pulled her from the ruin, crying as she gazed at her legs. Mangled was the only accurate way to describe it. And as she sobbed holding her unconscious sister, the Atlassian military, composed of men and machine alike, fought and protected the survivors of the attack. She cried, sad and angry. Not only for her family, but also because she realized she didn't save a single person that day. Not a citizen of Vale, not her sister, she couldn't even save herself.