A/N – Sorry I haven't updated in so long (braces for the brick-throwing...again); hopefully things will become more relaxed within the next few weeks. Anyways, here's chapter eight!

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 7...

Chapter 8

Rollin was about to ask what the plan was, though he already had a fairly good idea of why Cloud stayed behind with the bike. The revving of an engine only confirmed his suspicions: they were going to ride out of this damned structure. Hopefully, there was another more spacious vehicle downstairs that they could commandeer for the trip. The door to the elevator slid open, and they walked out to join the rest of the group. Tifa pointed to a blue truck, meaning for everyone to get in.

"I'm driving." He commented, opening the door to the driver's seat. Once he was situated, he studied what exactly he was working with: stick shift, key activated ignition – yet again, fairly primitive compared to what he was used to, but that wasn't a problem at all. There was only one very small yet important catch: the keys were missing.

'Typical.' He thought to himself wryly and clawed part of the steering column open, searching for the ignition wires. Quickly cutting them, he touched the wires together, causing them to spark and starting the engine. Grinning, he threw the truck into reverse and broke the restraints on the showcase that they were stuck to, then switching it back to drive and using his family's ever-present lead foot. Breaking through the giant glass that separated them from their only way out, the truck broke through the other various barriers set up to stop them from getting out (kind of defeats the purpose of barriers, if you think about it) and thundered down the motorway with Cloud following close behind.

As well as a squad of soldiers on motorcycles.

Barret began to fire on their position with his gun-arm, leaving Cloud to deal with them if they got too close. Rollin wasn't so sure that their luck would last long enough with only two people guarding the vehicle; even though Cloud fought as if he was born fighting on a motorcycle, Barret wasn't as accurate with his shots.

"Tifa, you drive." He ordered, only receiving a nod in reply. Moving with a practiced motion, he grabbed his rifle from out of the back seat, opened the door, and jumped into the very back. The door slammed shut from the speed they were moving at down this highway as Rollin loaded his weapon with a cartridge of high-impact ammunition. He didn't have a whole lot, but it was enough to last through this and hopefully until he could restock. He took aim at the nearest guard and pulled the trigger, putting a bullet right through his chest, knocking him off of the bike and into another guard.

Even though the guards were kept at a relatively safe ways away from the vehicle, it seemed that Shin-Ra wasn't short on replacements as wave after wave of motorcyclists advanced on the ragtag group. As if from nowhere, one of the motorcycles slammed into the side of the truck and caused it to veer to the side, but Tifa managed to keep the vehicle on course; Rollin shot at the bike's tires and heard a loud pop from the rear tire, followed by a shower of sparks. The guard still tried to slam into the truck's side again, but was easily stopped by the butt of Rollin's rifle: the gun was broken now, but Barret's inaccurate shooting covered for him for the moment.

Suddenly, the remaining Shin-Ra guards veered off to different branches of the motorway and disappeared. 'Either they are giving up, or…' Rollin looked over his shoulder, and found out the grisly truth…

They were running out of road, and fast.

And at the speed this truck was moving at, they probably wouldn't be able to slow down in time. Barret and Red must've figured this out as well, and jumped off with Aeris. Tifa opened the door, climbing into the back with Rollin.

"Hold on." He said as he grabbed onto her, jumping and rolling on the pavement. Part way through the rolling he heard a loud pop and pain lanced through his entire arm, meaning one thing: his shoulder popped out of place again. Eventually, they slowed to a halt a few feet away from the edge of the road, and he surveyed the damage. 'Yep, that was my shoulder…again.' He pondered, checking his limp right arm with disgust, 'At least she's not hurt…'

Actually…now that he thought about it, she did look like Megan if not almost exactly: the face looked very familiar feature-wise, and the eyes…the thought of Megan took him away from the physical world, getting him stuck in a forever-looping train of thought; he remembered about his promise that he would come back, that dinner was on him this time – it was funny how he remembered that little part of it…with the adrenaline pumping in his bloodstream, food was one of the last things on his mind at the particular moment.

An explosion brought him back to the reality he had unwillingly become a part of. He looked over to where the vehicle they had taken once was, assuming now that it had fallen over the edge of the drawbridge – the very same edge that they had almost gone over. Getting up, he popped his arm back into place and made sure it would still move like an arm should. Looking closer, there was a distinct tear in the shirt he wore near the bicep that revealed a tattoo; the Roman numeral of fifteen, by the looks of it. 'Great...more ID.' He thought with even more disgust.

It wasn't the first time that he had some form of identification stuck onto his flesh – as a matter of fact, he still had a bar code on the back of his neck, near the base of the collar thanks to the army. Although, ever since he figured out about the tinkering done on him who knows how long ago, it was most likely a by-product of the aforementioned experimentation. 'That reminds me…' he rummaged through his pockets and procured a few folded pages: his personal experimentation records. If he could find a way back to his time (and Cyphus for that matter), he had the perfect blackmail for a trip back home, and maybe even a boost in paycheck…dishonorable: maybe; sneaky: definitely; but well worth the risk.

But first: how to get there.

Cloud started to climb down a rope he had situated and secured around one of the metal beams, heading down to what must've been the ground – real ground, not the pitiful excuse of a ceiling that surrounded the city – followed by Aeris and Barret. Red jumped from pile of junk to pile of junk, finally landing on solid earth. Tifa started for the rope, but stopped just before climbing down.

"So what about you?" she asked, and he scratched the back of his head in nervousness.

"Not sure…" he replied, which was true for the most part: he had no clue as to where to go for finding the answers he needed. The nervousness, however, perplexed him. She sat down near the edge of the concrete road, legs dangling over the edge. Cautiously, Rollin sat down on her left, still contemplating where to go – hard enough not knowing of any other cities.

"Well, come with us then. Besides," she looked over at him with those deep red-brown eyes, "we could use the help." He thought about it for a second, and nodded in agreement. He was certain that they knew more about the area than he did by a long shot. Standing up, she climbed down the rope, and he followed.

A/N – Reviews are always appreciated!

Until the next chapter,

Lloyd Redgrave