"This reminds me of Orb during the Earth Alliance invasion." Cagalli said as she and Athrun forged ever deeper into the city. They were moving building to building, reasoning that the people most seriously injured were likely to be trapped in the buildings, not walking around on the street outside. So far they hadn't found many wounded people. The people they had found were so obviously dead that neither Cagalli nor Athrun even stopped for a moment. People missing both arms or with a wooden spar through their chest didn't need first aid, they needed funerals.
"Except that in Orb, there were few civilian casualties." Athrun said grimly, wiping at some dried blood that had seeped out from under a collapsed wall. Yet another person that wouldn't need saving. "Watch the stairs; I don't think they're very safe."
Cagalli picked up a chair and pushed it down the stairs. True to Athrun's prediction, the stairway collapsed after the first few steps down. "I love how perceptive you are." She commented with a small smile. Athrun finished searching the room with both eyes and ears.
"There aren't any more people in this building. We should move on to the next one." He decided.
"How? The stairs down are gone and we got into this building from that fire escape that you said we should avoid like the plague from now on." Cagalli countered. Athrun thought for a moment.
"Let's try the roof. Maybe we can jump across to the next building or find another fire escape. The stairs going up look pretty sturdy." Athrun said, demonstrating his faith as he walked slowly and carefully up the staircase. The roof was barren and flat. Cagalli moved over to the edge and looked down at the seven story drop.
"Yeck. I hope the other buildings are close. A fall from this height wouldn't be fun at all." She commented.
"Depends on your definition of close." Athrun replied. "The closest building is about eight feet away, with a ten foot drop in height."
"I hope we find the people that did this." Cagalli said as she made her way over to her love. "I'm gonna tear them apart."
"You'll have to wait in line, dear. I'm going to get there first and Kira won't be far behind. You can have what's left over after that." Athrun replied. "Though I'm not sure what good we can do, right now anyway."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well… I was thinking we should go get our Mobile Suits. If we had those, we might be actually able to do something to prevent something like this from happening again, rather than just search through the ruins for survivors."
"Problem being, that you and I are persona non grata in Orb right now." Cagalli said. Athrun nodded. "I agree with you though. If we could get you and Kira into even a few Astrays, we'd be able to do a lot more to rectify the problems we're in."
"I also want to find out what happened to the Archangel, Eternal and Kusanagi. I forgot to ask Commander Waltfeld when he visited us in Switzerland. I hate to say it, but it looks like we'll be needing to get the three ship alliance together again."
"The Kusanagi is patrolling Orb's space territory while undergoing refit and rest rotation. Kisaka told me that much in the reports he used to send to me. But he never mentioned anything about the Eternal or the Archangel, probably because he feared our communication lines weren't secure enough." Cagalli replied. She looked at the roof of the nearest building. It looked like a lot more than eight feet across. "How am I going to cross this?" she wondered out loud.
"I could carry you…" Athrun began. Cagalli shook her head. "What? You're not very heavy and I can jump a lot farther than eight feet with this much room for a running start." Athrun protested.
"Thanks, but I think I can make it on my own. I don't need you to carry me everywhere." Cagalli told him. "Besides, what if you tripped when you landed? Where would I be then?"
"On the other roof… in my arms… safe and sound." Athrun remarked. Cagalli brushed that off with a flick of her head. Athrun frowned. "This doesn't have anything to do with you being uncomfortable about physical contact…"
"NO!"
"Alright, alright." Athrun held up his hands placatingly. "How about we make the jump together then?"
"… Fine. Together. But you'd better not help me. I want to do this on my own." Cagalli warned him.
"What's with the independence obsession all of a sudden? You never minded my help before."
Cagalli sighed. "Look, just let me do this by myself. I need the confidence builder. I appreciate the offer for assistance, but I need to start relying more on myself, rather than just taking the easy path and letting you and Kira solve all the hard problems. Its great that you're willing to shoulder the tough jobs for me, but I'm the ruler of Orb damn it! You can't do my job for me. It's like you said back in school, about homework. If you did all my homework for me, sure I'd get good grades and I'd be happy, but when a big test came around I'd be helpless and wouldn't know what to do. And you can't always be around to save the day." Cagalli burst forth. Athrun stared at her.
"This really is more than just a jump to you." He commented. Cagalli nodded tightly. Athrun smiled and without warning took off sprinting towards the edge of the roof. In less than a second he had leapt to the next roof over, landing with legs bent to absorb the shock of the drop. He made it look so effortless and easy that it seemed to Cagalli that he had just flown over to the other roof.
"Athrun!"
"Well, come on then, princess. Now I can't help you. I'm not around, so its time for you to save yourself." Athrun called back. Cagalli looked down at the drop again and got a bit dizzy. When she looked back up Athrun had turned away and was walking towards the rooftop door of the other building.
"Where are you going?" Cagalli demanded.
"I'm going to go look for a way down. Just look for me inside when you get across."
"But what if I can't make it across on my own?" Cagalli protested.
"Shoulda thought of that before you made that little speech, huh?" Athrun taunted with a wide grin. Cagalli clenched a fist in his direction.
"When I get over there I'm going to shove that smile down your throat." She promised. Athrun waved sardonically and entered the roof stairway, closing the door behind him. Cagalli stamped her foot in anger. "Damn it." She studied the drop again. It really did look a lot farther than eight feet across. Stop thinking about it so much. Just act. Cagalli told herself. She squared her shoulders and backed up from the roof edge, moving to the far edge of her roof. "All right. It's just a little jump. You used to do this all the time in junior high." Cagalli muttered. Though that was in a sand pit, without a seven story drop awaiting the short jumper. Gah, stop thinking about that. Distractions are only going to get you killed or hurt at a time like this.
"How could he just leave me up here?" Cagalli asked. "I mean, what if I tripped and broke a leg when I landed? What would I do then?" You might die up here… no… Athrun would come back and find me. That's a certainty. Calm down. You were the one who asked for this after all. Why all the self doubt? You've piloted mobile suits in battle, and directed a warship in space combat without turning a hair. What's a little jump compared to that? And besides, you hit it right on the head earlier. Kira and Athrun can't take all the load themselves. They have their own problems to face and jobs to accomplish. They can't rule Orb for me. Neither can Kisaka. Of course, I'm not ruling anything if I can't get across this little gap. Right now I'm just queen of this rooftop, for all the good that does me.
Cagalli closed her eyes tight and shook her head, banishing her internal debate. Taking a deep breath she charged towards the roof edge. Horrible images of her flailing as she fell to the hard pavement far below assailed her as she ran, but she forced them back. Fear was okay. It was okay to cry, to be afraid. It just wasn't okay to let that fear rule you, to turn you into a helpless child always waiting for your guardian to come back to save the day. Cagalli reached the edge of the roof and squeezed her eyes tightly shut to avoid looking down and faltering. She pushed off with her right leg and soared into the air. She seemed to hang forever in midair, afraid to open her eyes to look around. She tensed her legs, preparing for the shock of landing. However, with eyes squeezed shut, she had no idea when her feet would hit the other roof. If they ever would…
Her feet struck pavement and Cagalli shrieked as she lost her balance and tumbled forward, out of control. She stuck out her hands to break the inevitable tumble and squeezed her eyes shut tighter, not wanting to see the hard ground rushing up to hit her. However, before she could fall more than a few inches forward she met a firm but yielding form that resisted her momentum and held her upright, even as it moved backward to absorb the shock of impact. Cagalli held her breath for several long moments, still waiting for the impact with the ground. When that didn't happen she dared to crack open one eye. A dark green shirt, exactly like the one Athrun had been wearing rustled gently in the rooftop wind less than an inch from her face.
Cagalli slowly opened her other eye and lifted her head, to take in the rest of Athrun, who was holding her securely in his arms. "Nice jump." He said in congratulation. Cagalli slowly cranked her head around and looked behind her. The roof edge was a good five feet behind her. She'd made the jump and then some.
"I… made it by myself…?" Cagalli asked.
"All by yourself. Though it does help to open your eyes when landing." Athrun confirmed.
"But you caught me?"
"I couldn't let you take a fall after making it that far. Besides, you said you didn't want any help with the jump. You never said I couldn't be waiting for you on the other side, ready to offer aid if you should have trouble. I can't do your work for you, but theres no reason I can't help you finish what you start yourself. That's what husbands do for their wives, and friends do for friends." Athrun replied tenderly.
"But I saw you go inside." Cagalli protested.
"If you knew I was waiting for you, then the jump would have been meaningless. But you made the jump even though you fully believed I was nowhere nearby. You accepted all the possible consequences for your action and took it anyway… I'm not even that good all the time."
"But I only did it because you made me angry." Cagalli continued. "I wanted to prove to you that I really could do it. And then I wanted to punch you in the jaw."
"Motivation is motivation, love. If getting you angry enough to make the jump was the only way I could get you to do it, then I have no trouble with provoking you until you cross. Besides, you didn't really want to hit me, do you?" Athrun asked with a smile. Cagalli smiled back.
"Of course not…" she whispered, drawing closer and hiding her balled fist from his view behind her back. Athrun started to lean down for a kiss when she drove her fist solidly into his gut, sending all the air rushing out of his body in surprise. His eyes widened and he started to gasp but Cagalli captured his mouth with her own before he could draw any air in. She stared at his wide eyes, tinged slightly with panic as he tried for air that wasn't to be found as she darted her tounge around his mouth. Air finally started leaking in through his nostrils and Athrun's look became less panicky and more blissful. When Cagalli pulled back at last, he still gasped for breath for several very long moments.
"You nearly killed me there." He accused her.
"You shoulda thought of that before you made your little speech, huh?" Cagalli mocked him. "Motivation is motivation, love." Athrun had the grace to glare at her for using his own words against him. Cagalli started to pull him closer, a banked fire starting to burn hotter inside her. To her shock, Athrun actually pulled away. She looked at him questioningly.
"Now is not the time or place, Cagalli. We need to be a little more circumspect if we want to avoid a follow up of last time." Athrun answered her unspoken question. "But I'll definitely look you up when we get back to the bunker. Your room or mine?"
"Don't make me assault you again." Cagalli replied, raising another clenched fist. Athrun held up his hands in defeat as they both turned to go down the stairs inside the building they now stood up.
"You can beat on me all you want, but I want you to save a little bit of that energy for figuring out how we're going to get our mobile suits back." Athrun informed her.
"I don't even know where they would be. I'd think it would be at Morganroete's primary facilities on Onogoro, but there are nearly a dozen locations I know of that Kisaka could have stashed them. And knowing Kisaka, theres probably at least another dozen places I don't know about where they could be kept. There's no way for us to find out while we're here in Hawaii though, that's for sure." Cagalli mused as they began searching through the darkened building. Light streamed in through many broken windows and even holes in the wall, but still large parts of the interior were deep in shadow. Athrun guided them around several weak spots in the floor as they descended through the levels of the building.
"So are you thinking we should go to Orb and do some scouting around? I remember doing that back during the war, before the Archangel made it to JOSH-A. It was only by purest luck I discovered that Orb was actually hiding them, that time. It strikes me that this would be much the same situation, though even less likely to bear fruit." Athrun asked once they reached the second floor. There was a lot more rubble here, debris from floors farther up. There were also a few corpses, mostly hidden by the wreckage, but identifiable enough as some of the people who had worked here, in the business center.
"Well, this time around you'd have Alkire and the TEMPEST unit's resources at our disposal. They seem pretty well versed in intelligence gathering." Cagalli replied.
"True. But despite what they say, I don't like the thought of getting them too involved." Athrun countered.
"Why?"
"I don't quite know how to put this… let's just say I have some doubts as to whether or not their goals and our goals coincide very well."
"That was pretty vague. Mind clearing it up a bit for me?"
"Fine. I believe they are nice people, and we certainly owe them for sheltering us and offering their protection. But to be blunt, they're a pack of killers. Cold hearted commandos who are trained in dozens of ways of sowing death and confusion and panic. Their solution to ending the war would be to kill enough enemies so that the other side gave up in despair. They probably wouldn't object too much to a Genesis type weapon, as long as it was used like it was in the first shot, to wipe out only strictly military targets. I foresee a lot of friction between them and us if we ever go into battle together." Athrun clarified.
"I see what you're trying to say, but I don't agree. After all, you've killed people and I've killed people. Kira's killed people too. To be totally honest, the only ones of us who has not directly killed someone at least once would be Lacus and Mir, and they took part indirectly in the deaths of others as well, though of course not willingly. From a lot of people's viewpoints, the three ship alliance was nothing more than a pack of killers, devoted to spreading death, confusion and panic among both sides of the war. Sure, we had the right motives… but still… what really makes us better than Alkire, Raine, Victor, James and… well… Vlad is a special case?"
"Yes, he is. I don't feel at all comfortable around him, even if he is a kind soul now. I'm not saying my hands are stain free, but he's got a lot more to account for than I like to contemplate. As for the other TEMPEST members… well, I see your point. I'm not really in any position to judge them, am I?"
"Don't get me wrong. I feel much the same way about them as you. I like them, and I think it's great for Ysak and all, but their attitude doesn't sit well with me at times. They just plain refuse to look beyond their warrior philosophies at the greater truths. Killing people doesn't stop wars. I'm not sure any one thing can really stop a war. But if there is one thing, killing your enemies isn't it. Not so long as those enemies have families and friends of their own, anyway." Cagalli returned, shifting a large wooden beam out of the way to check a young man who looked like he might have still been alive. No such luck. The beam had crushed his spine and he had bleed out from the compound fractures of both legs, paralyzed and unable to call for help. Cagalli shook her head as she and Athrun left the victim and made their way down to ground level.
"Well, we certainly can't let them get away with either this or the attack on Junius Six." Athrun said, as they once again emerged into the sunlight. "Philosophical problems aside, we still need Alkire and his friends now. They're the only reliable way we have of getting to Orb with any chance of going undetected."
"So we are going to Orb then?" Cagalli asked.
"Aren't we?"
"We are." She decided. "If nothing else, we need to talk to Kisaka. Hopefully after we break him out of jail."
"You sure that's okay? You'd be breaking your own country's laws." Athrun teased. Cagalli considered that with more serieousness than he had intended.
"I don't like breaking laws. But the greater good demands it. We need those mobile suits. And Kisaka is the only one I can think of that might know where they are. And I doubt he would be able to tell us from inside prison, without the authorities finding out and confiscating them for their own use. And then it'd be twice as much hell getting them back. Breaking Kisaka out of jail seems like the plan that will engender the least damage to my country." Cagalli replied.
"Besides, we have a team of Commando's who break out of jail for laughs on our side. It'll be a cinch." Athrun said with a chuckle that Cagalli joined. Athrun looked around after they were done with their laugh. "I think we've gone far enough. We should head back. The authorities will be along soon, and you and I have to be off the street by then."
---------------------------------
"This is too familiar looking." Ysak commented as he surveyed a collapsed house, with the family still inside. He had tried digging in to them, but had desisted after finding out that the house had no basement and that the entire house had been crushed flat. Nothing living could have remained in there. It was nothing more than an odd looking grave now. "It reminds me of Panama after we were done occupying it, without the destroyed mobile suits of course."
"I heard Panama was a bad battle." Katie commented from behind him. She was poking through some debris on the front lawn of the property while Chanel tended to an older man they had found lying unconscious on the front walkway.
"It certainly wasn't a clean battle, by most people's standards." Ysak allowed. "But I was on the victorious side, so I don't really consider it a bad battle."
"I heard that ZAFT executed a large number of Earth Forces soldiers after the battle. Even those who were surrendering or wounded." Katie persisted. Ysak remained silent, replaying the images he had witnessed, of Ginns slaughtering surrendering soldiers as they stood around in groups. He remembered the sound of gunfire hunting through the smoking ruins that had persisted for hours after the battle was officially won.
"Was that true?" Chanel asked, coming up behind Ysak.
"What do you think?" Ysak asked her back. Chanel just nodded.
"Did you… participate… too?" Katie asked. Ysak glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.
"I don't shoot surrendering soldiers. What's the fun in attacking those who don't fight back?" he told them grimly. Of course, then flashed through his mind the image of the shuttle fleeing the flagship of the 8th orbital fleet, the one he had assumed was full of cowardly EA soldiers, as he destroyed it while it attempted re-entry. It wasn't until much later that he had learned the shuttle had been crowded with civilian refugees from Heliopolis, people who had been stowed away aboard the Archangel during that ships journey from Heliopolis to the 8th fleet. Ysak forced the image out of his head. Now wasn't the time for reminiscing.
"That's what we thought." Chanel said as Katie nodded in agreement.
"We should move on. There's nothing here but death. Is the old guy going to be all right?" Ysak said. Chanel bobbed her head.
"He just has a concussion and a few broken ribs. He was tossed around by the shockwave but the house shielded him from most of it. He's stable and warm. He'll be okay for the next few hours, more than enough time for the proper authorities to arrive." She reported. Ysak nodded and led the way down the residential street. Their search sector was in the lower class area of the belt of suburbs that surrounded the commercial heart of the city. Most of the houses had been one or two story affairs, enough for a single small family of modest means. Of course now were nothing more than piles of rubble and kindling. This close to the blast zone, the shockwave had hit like the fist of a god. The old man had been the first survivor Ysak and the girls had found.
"I don't understand how Blue Cosmos could nuke one of our own cities. What sort of rational drives them? How can they think that this is right?" Katie demanded suddenly. Ysak smirked at her.
"You're asking a Coordinator why Blue Cosmos does things? As far as I can tell they act out of pure malice, often driven by their cowardly fear of their superiors. They're a plague. Trying to figure out their rational for doing things is usually pointless. They do things because they believe that whatever it is will bring them closer to their precious "Blue and Pure World", whatever that is."
"I don't see much pure around us now." Chanel said quietly. "In fact, I don't see anything but destruction and heartbreak and pain here."
"It makes me so mad!" Katie said, clenching her fists in rage. "All the helpless people in this city. They never had a chance."
"Neither did a lot of people up in Junius Six." Ysak pointed out. Katie and Chanel came up close on either side of him.
"So what…"
"… are you going to do now?" they asked, Katie beginning and Chanel finishing. Ysak, now used to their peculiar manner of talking in sequence, rubbed his jaw in contemplation.
"I've been waiting for a recall notice to the ZAFT military for quite some time now. You can bet they'll be screaming for our protection now, forgetting of course how they felt about us after the war." Ysak said.
"But you're a mobile suit pilot! What are you going to do without a mobile suit?" Chanel asked. Ysak looked at her.
"ZAFT has many mobile suits. Just because I don't have the Duel handy doesn't mean I'm machineless. They'd probably give me a CGUE or something suited for my skills. I am a team commander, you know."
"But what good would you be able to do in the kind of war that looks to be shaping up?" Katie wondered. Ysak turned his head to glare at her.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean…" Katie started
"… that in a full scale nuclear war, what good are mobile suits, even with skilled pilots?" Chanel finished. Katie glared at her twin.
"Stop reading my mind. I want to speak to him too, you know." Katie admonished.
"Sorry. I can't help it."
"Yes, you can. It's called keeping your mouth shut and your mind busy elsewhere." Katie countered flatly. Ysak noted a real tone of tension in her voice. He patted them both on the shoulder placatingly.
"Calm down. We've got lots of time for both of you to talk to me as much as you want." Ysak told them. "Though that was a pretty strange thing to say. Chanel can't really read your mind, can she?" Ysak joked to relieve the tension. Both girls remained silent for a long moment. Ysak missed the brief widening of both girls eyes as they stared at each other.
"Of course not." Chanel said suddenly.
"That's silly." Katie added.
"Telepathy doesn't exist." Chanel continued.
"Its just we know each other so well, being twins and all." Katie emphasized.
"Exactly." Chanel confirmed with a nod.
"Exactly." Katie nodded herself. Ysak stared at both of them strangely.
"You… didn't have to convince me. I was making a joke." He pointed out. Both girls looked uncomfortable.
"Oh…"
"Right…"
"Of course…"
"We knew that…"
"Anyway, in answer to your question, theres lots of things skilled mobile suits pilots can do, in any war, nuclear or not. During the last war I shot down nuclear missiles before they could hit the PLANTS. So did Kira and Athrun. And besides, you have to occupy the enemy territory. Nuclear missiles don't make perceptive guards." Ysak continued, feeling a change in subject was in order.
"Why?" Katie asked.
"Why do nuclear missiles make bad guards? You're kidding?"
"No, no. Why do you have to occupy enemy territory?" Chanel clarified. Ysak thought about that for a few moments.
"Umm… because if you don't occupy the enemy territory, they'll just move more troops there and attack you again… that's pretty obvious, I think."
"What if you nuke the territory so hard theres nothing but irradiated bedrock remaining? Nobody will move more troops back to an area like that." Katie countered.
"Why would you do something like that?" Ysak demanded.
"Why did the PLANTS build and fire GENESIS?" Chanel retorted. Ysak started to say something but couldn't think of a suitable retort. The girl's point was starting to hit home. In a war of mass destruction, what real role did mobile suits have? They were great for fighting a conventional war, so overwhelming that both sides spent huge sums researching newer and better ways to make them. But one nuclear missile could destroy an entire army of mobile suits with one shot for a tiny fraction of the cost. And with a nuclear missile you could launch it from half a world away at no risk to yourself.
"I think we're all in deeper shit than we thought." Ysak managed at last.
"No interdiction system is perfect." Chanel said.
"Especially a human controlled one." Katie added.
"Even Kira and Athrun can't be everywhere at once. If the Earth launched wave upon wave of nukes at the PLANTS, eventually some would slip through." Ysak said, horrified.
"And vice versa. If the PLANTS launched nukes at every major city in the northern hemisphere, theres no way they could all be shot down." Chanel replied.
"The PLANTS…." Ysak began then stopped. He had been about to say that the PLANTS wouldn't use nukes, but he realized that wasn't the case. The PLANTS had developed the N-Jammer canceler in the first place, re-opening the nuclear bag, so to speak. Besides, the PLANTS were human, just like anyone else. If the EA came at them with nuclear missiles, they would respond in kind.
"We need to smother this before it gets any worse." Ysak declared. "We need to get to our mobile suits. Without them, we're just bystanders."
"I beg to differ. You have Uncle Alkire and Raine and their friends on your side. And Chanel and me. We aren't just bystanders." Katie protested. Ysak shot her a sardonic glance.
"Sure. Right. But compared to the power of a mobile suit, Alkire and TEMPEST really aren't that much." Ysak said with more than a hint of arrogance. Chanel and Katie stopped and glared at him, striking twin poses with hands on hips and jaws jutting ever so slightly. Ysak continued walking for several paces before stopping to look back at them.
"Sure, maybe they couldn't level a city block without a few hours of preparation, but theres lots of things they can do that would be impossible for you to do in your "powerful mobile suit"." Katie said forcefully.
"Like sneak around. A sixteen meter humanoid machine is hardly inconspicuous. It's pretty hard to miss one, really. And what about infiltration missions? You told us about the one you were on in Heliopolis. Would that have been possible if you had just attacked in your mobile suits?" Chanel continued.
"We would have pulled it off somehow. We only chose to sneak in because we didn't want to damage the colony too much. For all the good it did us."
"Oh, shut up. You can't just blast every problem you get into. Sometimes finesse is required." Katie said, breaking her pose to catch up with him.
"I know that. I have plenty of finesse. I'm merely very judicious about when I put it to use."
"Sure, whatever, Ysak-y." Chanel said, also catching up to him. "You have finesse like Dearka has tact."
"I've warned you about comparing me to Dearka. That's not cool. I'm going to make you regret that later."
"What about me?" Katie asked impishly.
"Oh, you know what they say. Sins of the sister and all…" they all shared a laugh. It wasn't until afterwards that Ysak looked around at the devastation still around them that he felt a little uncomfortable. Laughter did not seem to fit this place. It would be like laughing at a funeral. Except that this was the funeral of an entire city. "We should move on. There's no one around here we can save." Ysak said into the strained silence. He led the girls to another residential neighborhood, but they weren't able to do much there either. Heavier equipment than just hands and feet were required to dig into the houses and collapsed buildings, in order to search out trapped survivors. They encountered many shocked and mildly injured people wandering aimlessly about in the streets, but most such groups required no first aid that they could provide. Once or twice they heard shots in the distance, undoubtedly from looters or other miscreants taking advantage of the chaos to enrich themselves, but they never encountered anything that required them to draw their weapons on the way into the city.
"Look at the time. If we don't head back soon, Alkire's gonna leave without us." Chanel said, after they checked yet another office building that was filled with nothing but dead bodies and debris. This close to the blast area, only a kilometer or so, Ysak hadn't expected to find any survivors, but he had checked just to be sure. Given some of the things he'd seen people survive, and even survived himself, he wasn't willing to rule anything as unsurvivable.
"You mean he'll come searching for us and give us a good bit more than a piece of his mind. They wouldn't actually leave without us." Katie replied.
"That'd be worse than leaving us behind. His lectures are so boring." Chanel said. Katie nodded her agreement.
"We've got time. If we walk at more than the crawl we've been doing while searching for survivors, we'll make it back with time to spare. It's only about a kilometer or so. We could probably sprint it if we had to." Ysak replied.
"I'd rather not. Let's just head back now. This place creeps me out." Chanel said, gesturing vaguely at the half destroyed buildings around them. Katie nodded her agreement again. Even Ysak was starting to feel a small bit of unease. In the late afternoon sun the buildings looked like dead fingers clawing at the sky. It didn't help that there seemed to be no other people around. It was like standing in some barren alien landscape.
"Yeah… good idea." Ysak said. He turned to head back up the street towards where the jet was when a brick came sailing out of nowhere and nearly cracked his skull open. If he hadn't seen it coming out of the corner of his eye, he'd have been lying on the ground bleeding. As it was, it nearly grazed him before continuing its flight to smash against the street several yards away. Ysak glared around as a large group of young adults of both sexes came rushing out of various nearby alleyways to form a cordon blocking off the way out of the city. There must have been at least twenty or thirty of them. All looked disreputable, being dressed in torn clothing with garish symbols and designs, many sporting tattoos of skulls or barbed wire or other things less easily identified, and of course, to top it off, many carried improvised weapons, like metal poles, chains, broken bottles and bricks.
"Weelll… look what we have here. These people look pretty rich." One of the meaner looking members of the mob said as he twirled a wooden baseball bat in one hand.
"Great… looters." Katie whispered to Chanel.
"Or a really big gang. Some of the colors and tattoos seem uniform." Her sister whispered back.
"Mighty fine looking girls too… no offense, ladies." The mean looking thug said, tipping his hand to the females in his group in apology. "I think they should stay awhile and be entertained. Of course, they'll have to pay for the privilege…"
"I dunno, Jack. They look like authority types to me. Lookit those medkits. They must be relief workers." Another ganger spoke up.
"And? You see any soldiers around here? No… neither do I. That makes them trespassers, just like anyone else." The gang leader shot back. "And trespassers gotta pay."
"You don't want to go down this path." Ysak warned them, reaching behind his back to grip his pistol.
"Sure I do, bro. Hell, I been down this path so many times I can tell you what you're going to say next." The thug said with a big smile.
"Oh?"
"Something along the lines that you don't want any trouble, and that if we'll just let you through, nobody has to get hurt, right?" Ysak nodded slowly. The gang leader reached behind his own back. "And then, if I say no, you'll pull the gun you're reaching for and say it again. But we got guns too. Right, guys?" he said to his gang. Six or seven of them immediately whipped out pistols of their own. One brutish girl even produced a pump action shotgun from inside her beat up leather jacket.
"You really have done this a lot." Ysak said. The gang leader nodded.
"It's a profession." He said wickedly.
"Too bad your career is about to be cut short." Ysak drew his pistol with blinding speed and blew the gang leader's brains all over the street with a snap shot. Ysak dropped and rolled left, bringing up his pistol to go for the gun toting looters, but Chanel and Katie had beaten him to the punch. Drawing their own weapons they had wiped out the gangers with guns before Ysak had even finished his roll. The rest of the gang bunched up with a hiss of anger and started to move forward, until Ysak and the girls pumped a few more shots indiscrimately into the crowd, dropping several more of the gangers. Having suffered casualties already, and berefit their leader, the rest of the gang chose the better part of valor and fled screaming back into the alleys.
"That's not how it had to go." Ysak murmured as the footfalls of the retreating faded. He looked at the contorted bodies of the dead gangers. "None of you had to die today. Especially after surviving the nuke."
"Ysak?" Katie asked. Ysak shook himself and looked up, slipping his pistol back into his small of the back holster.
"It's okay. We should get back, quickly. There might be more of them, attracted to the gunfire."
"Oh… good idea." Chanel said, reloading her pistol and tucking it back into her own holster. None of them spared a single backwards glance as they left, heading back up the street.