Chapter 7
"What's going on?"
"They have Geostigma."
"Geo-what? Wait, that's what you have too! You have Geosti… stigma too, right Light?!"
"C'mon, Sen."
"They're dying, Light! They're dying! Somebody help them!"
"Sen! Don't look! Come on!"
"Sen?"
I woke up with a shock. It was Raito. He looked strange. He looked somewhat panicked. There was an alarm going off somewhere.
"What?" I said. "What's going on?!"
He was holding my hand. He pulled me up. He looked throughout my cage with that panicked expression on his face. The ceiling shivered.
"Raito!" I screamed.
"The town," Raito yelled. "Edge's under attack! LOOK OUT!"
Part of the ceiling caved in. Raito seized my arm and dragged me under him as he covered my body with his. When the dust had cleared a bit, the ceiling still shaking, what was left was a gaping hole. It was in the corner. One part of the hole led to outside, the other part led to Light.
"Light!" I screamed and I rushed forwards.
Light had just managed to free himself from his glass tube. The room was lit by an eerie green light. Several doctors and guards lay crushed by falling objects.
"Light!" I cried and tackled him with a hug. He held me firmly.
"Sen, I'm sorry for scaring you," Light said. "I'll explain later. We've got to get out of here!"
From outside came a roar. From a monster.
It was a twisted, demonic dragon, its eyes sunken, red, and bug-like, its skull featuring a series of demonic, ram-like horns, and its wings supported by a series of fly's wings. It was huge, it was hideous and it scared the crap out of me. It seemed to be flying around, breathing a gas-like fire anywhere it pleased. Around the dedication statue built by Shin-RA, there was a circle of children, their heads bowed down as if in a deep trance. People were shaking the children, picking them up and running as various monsters chased them down and sometimes ate them.
"C'mon," Light said and he grabbed my hand.
"No, Light, don't!" yelled Raito as he grabbed my other arm. "The Master, he… he should set Sen free soon!"
"And what about me?!" shouted Light. "Was I just supposed to stay there until I died?! Or wait, maybe they would've found something that would make me live forever! Yeah! That would be great! Just stay here and wait for the world to end, that's a happy future! And what about you?! I know their plans. I know what they were going to do with you. You were going to take my place in Sen's life and replace her mother with some staff member. Play make-believe to cover everything up and adjust her memory. That was the plan, wasn't it?!"
"What?!" I cried.
"You have no idea!" Raito yelled. "You have no IDEA how much I wish I was like you! I wish I was special too! And I wish my name was Light! You've had a better life these past two years than I have my whole damn life!"
The ceiling started shaking again as the giant monster caused an explosion. We all dropped down and they covered me. When it was over, Light grabbed my hand again.
"C'mon, Sen." He climbed through the hole.
"Wait, Light!" I yelled. "We can't just leave Raito here!"
"Oh yes we can, and we will! Come on, Sen!"
"No, Light! He won't be able to escape by himself!"
"He doesn't even want to escape!"
I jerked my hand out of his grasp and grabbed Raito.
"Do you want to escape?" I asked him.
"I've been wanting to escape since the day I was brought here," Raito said through gritted teeth, then jumped up. He climbed after Light, then they both started to help me out.
"Oi!"
Mori had just walked inside. He ran to the hole and grabbed my legs. "Come back in here, all of you! Raito! Don't make me report this!" I screamed as he tried to drag me back inside. Light and Raito were pulling on my arms.
"Get her out!" Raito yelled at Light.
"Do you want me to break her arm?!" demanded Light.
I didn't like that idea, nor the one of Mori holding my legs when I was wearing a skirt.
"Whoever sees my panties must die!" I yelled and kicked Mori as hard as I could in the mouth. His head snapped backwards, he staggered a few steps, then slumped unconscious on the ground.
Light laughed, and so did Raito.
"Great job, Sen!"
They pulled me up and I found my footing.
"Are we in Edge?" I asked blankly.
"Yeah," Light said.
"I know where we are," Raito said. "They'd let me walk around sometimes… where do you guys live?"
"S-sector 4, we live in Sector 4!" I yelled as I watched the monsters drag down the humans.
"This way," Raito said. He grabbed my wrist and I grabbed Light's and we started to navigate our way through the chaos to the other side of Edge.
"Wait, we can't go home!" Light came to a halt.
"What?" I said blankly.
"They know where we live, Sen," Light said, "we can't go there."
"What about Mom?!" I demanded. "What about her?!"
"Oh God," Raito said.
"What?!" Light and I yelled.
"It's going to explode! Run!"
Light and Raito started to run, I turned around to see what was going to explode. The monster was making a giant ball of fire.
"SEN!"
Raito grabbed me around my waist just as the dedication exploded. Raito desperately covered my body with his own. Bits of rock and metal were sent everywhere as we were sent through the air. His body hit the ground and he let out a painful gasps, my head hit something along the way, then just spinning, spinning, spinning. Dizziness. Coming to a painful stop. People running past me, not concerned about my fate.
When I could finally sit up again, pandemonium had broken out. The crowd was so thick, trying to find their children, but running from the monsters at the same time, I couldn't see Light or Raito. I stood up and swayed a bit.
"Light?" I called. "Raito?"
Nobody but strangers answered me, calling for loved ones of their own.
"Light?! Raito?! Light!"
I started to hastily push my way through the crowd, calling their names, each time sounding a bit more panicky. Suddenly, I heard screaming, and everyone around me cleared. I soon saw why. The giant monster was pounding it's way towards where I was standing. I screamed and turned around to run. My clumsiness soon caught me and I tripped and fell, painfully scraping my knee open.
I was sure it was right behind me when a rather large, dark-skinned man with giant arms and a missing arm roughly pushed me out of the way. His right arm was a gun. And a rather large one at that, too. He started shooting at that monster and roared angrily.
Soon behind him were a short, thin girl with short black hair, holding a weapon I didn't know the name of, a man with short blond hair and a cigarette dangling from his mouth, holding a long-ranged weapon, a rather scary man dressed in red with long black hair and a golden claw, a red-furred lion-looking creature with one eye, and a mechanical cat who was sitting on top of the creature. I noticed their faded red ribbons on their arms, almost pink.
"AVALANCHE," I whispered wordlessly.
Light had thought that his brother was in AVALANCHE, but unless that older guy with the cigarette was him, I didn't see it. Maybe he had died.
Or maybe he thought Raito was in AVALANCHE.
I shook that thought off my mind.
I didn't get a chance to thank the man for saving my life, but it didn't seem like I had to. I stood up and started to search the streets again.
"Find Light. Find Light."
But where was he?
The street was empty and unfamiliar.
And where was I?