MINDSPRING- This chapter popped up rather fast, if I might say so! Sorry in advance it's so long, but I really felt that all of it was necessary. Please enjoy, and review!


~Caitlin

The sounds of pounding feet coming from down the hallway forced me to open my eyes. Rex slowly stood from where he had been crouching, looked down at me with a small smile and put his helmet back on. He offered me his hand and I took it, rising slowly to meet the others.

I had expected to see Natalie and Maureen no worse off, and no better off, than I was- beaten, ragged, but still with a fighting spirit. What I saw nearly shattered me again. I felt my legs turn to jelly as they came into view. Rex steadied me with a hand around my waist.

Both of my best friends were being carried the men, Natalie nothing more than a small child asleep in the arms of one and Maureen riding piggyback on another. Both were unconscious, and both were horribly pale, with huge gashes on their bodies. Blood was congealing at the macabre wounds, and every so often, when their 'carriers' moved to sharply, they weakly cried out, but not once opening their eyes.

When the group came into the lobby, one of men who wasn't holding them went straight to Rex and reported, "They're not doing so well, sir. I just did a quick check, but I can easily see that both are very sick, plus they're suffering from an extreme loss of blood. Among other things." He straightened up, while the other gently placed Maureen and Natalie down.

"How long do they have?" He asked, in a matter of fact tone.

"A day at the most. They need medical attention now, but I can't do much without a bacta tank."

Rex nodded, and then addressed the group as a whole, "Let's get moving! We need to be out of this system in 3 hours! Take the speeders back to the ship, but split up! Veber, you take Maureen; Link, take Natalie. Be careful! Let's move!"

Veber and Link both knelt at the sides of my friends as the others raced outside. Rex didn't need to say who I was going with. He looked at me again and said, so softly that only I could hear, "Be prepared. The world out there is... different now." I nodded; I seemed to have lost the ability to speak. He released my hand, took out his two blaster pistols, and we ran outside.

He was right. I didn't recognize my home at all. Fires were raging everywhere; the old buildings in this area wouldn't last very long, that I knew right away. I looked up and saw hundreds upon thousands of Separatist planes dropping bomb after bomb after bomb onto the city. My mind was so dead, I couldn't figure out why they were doing it. I grabbed Rex's hand and held on tight, with both hands, when one of the buildings collapsed in a fiery ball of heat and dust. It blew hotly onto my face, so I ducked behind Rex to avoid it.

My shirt, torn and bloodied, was sticking to my back while my hair hung limply in a ponytail. I turned to face the building that had served as the prison while we sprinted away. If I had had the energy, I would have gone back and freed the other inmates. No one deserved to die that way.

However, I was so weak it took all of my strength just to hold on to Rex as he ran across the deserted streets, dodging the flames as they lapped up all of the old wood. My breathing was heavy, and it was the only thing I could hear.

I think that is what terrified me the most. Not the explosions, or the heat, or the falling bombs. It was the fact that there was no one else around. No screams. No cries of pain, or loss. Just the whoosh of the fires and the whistles of the bombs. No people at all.

Briefly I wondered where they all were. But my thoughts were cut short when a window exploded right next to me. I let go of Rex and dropped to the ground, covering my neck with my hands as glass flew past me. I felt a piece of it rip through my shoulder, and then the fire followed.

I began to wheeze as the smoke entered my lungs, and I couldn't see anything. Smoke was filling my lungs and eyes as I struggled to stand. I coughed violently again and covered my mouth with my ragged shirt, and lunged forward. "Rex! REX!" I weakly cried out, stumbling forward again. I started to cough more and more, and I dropped to my knees again. "REX!" I yelled, inhaling a big mouthful of dust.

Next thing I knew, he was right next to me, picking me up as gently and as quickly as he could. "Hold on!" he yelled as another window shattered from the heat. I threw my arms around his neck and closed my eyes as he started to run.

He was so strong- he carried me for at least five minutes before setting me down. I looked around, trying to place in my mind where we were. We hadn't gone very far, obviously, but I was so disoriented I couldn't figure it out.

I leaned against the brick wall of a building that somehow managed to stay standing while Rex ducked in the alley to get the speeder. I put my left hand over the glass wound. It burned like nothing else had, so I knew the shard was still in my shoulder, probably fairly deep. I brought my hand back, stared at the blood for a few seconds, and then wiped it off on the pavement.

I stood when I heard some sort of engine start; assuming it was the speeder, I peeked my head around the corner and saw Rex piloting some sort of motorcycle/boat thing. He brought it out into the street and waved to me, saying, "C'mon!"

Grinning, I stepped forward and up to the vehicle. He took my hand and helped me up. I asked, "So was anyone else there?" I started to blush a little when I realized I would have to hold onto him around the waist. I hesitantly wrapped my arms around him, my heart racing the entire time.

He paused a little, then shook his head and replied gruffly, "No. All the speeders were gone."

"Oh. Well that's good news." Rex laughed without humor and said darkly, "That means everyone made it and they're on the way to the ship, or they all died."

I sighed and said, "So encouraging. Let's get out of here, please." He nodded and said, "My pleasure." He gunned the throttle and we shot off.

As we passed burning buildings and empty streets, I felt something inside me break. It wasn't my heart, that I was all too aware off. It was more of like my hope for humanity. For my planet. My eyes stung with tears and I huddled even closer to Rex, trying to block out my pain. This was something out of one of my worst nightmares, the only difference was I had Rex guiding me out.

We had just reached the city limits when I heard something behind us. It sounded like another speeder, so I turned my head to look, thinking it was the others and we had finally regrouped. What I saw was definitely not friendlies.

Five droids on speeders were tailing us. I watched them, not really absorbing what they were. It was as if every single cell in my body was numb. Before I could warn Rex, they started to fire. I shrieked as Rex turned the speeder sharply to avoid the raining debris of one of the shots. As he rightened it, I had a sudden, crazy thought.

Slowly, I reached for one of Rex's pistols in the holster. I felt the cold metal weapon in my hand, and, squeezing my eyes shut, I found the grip and dragged it out. Rex noticed it, I'm sure, but he didn't say anything as he was concentrated on outrunning the droids and avoiding their blasters.

Adjusting my grip around him with my left arm for balance, I turned, right arm outstretched, and I aimed at one of the droids. The countryside was zipping by, the wind hot on my skin and ashes flying with it. My hair was flying all over the place. I couldn't tell how fast we were going, which was probably all for the better. I most likely wouldn't have had the guts to do this.

I pulled the trigger once, twice, three times. The third shot hit one speeder, which caused it to start smoking a bit. However, it was still flying at us, the droids intent on killing us. "Aim for their power tanks! It's the huge round thing underneath the speeder! " Rex yelled back at me, as he dodged a burning tree that had fallen on the street. Ashes rained down on us. I grimaced as some burned into my skin.

I bit my lip hard. This is so insane, I'm going to die, I'm going to die! I aimed the blaster pistol again and shot three times. This time, one of the shots hit the droids. As it fell off, it yanked the controls hard left and crashed into another speeder, which immediately exploded. I turned away from the explosion, and said to Rex, "I got two!"

"Great job! Now get the other three!" I rolled my eyes and faced the droids again. Now that I sort of had the hang of aiming for the specific tank, I launched one poor droid off fairly easily. It hit a building and exploded. I apologized mentally, cringing.

Three down, two to go, I thought, gritting my teeth. I shot like a mad woman at them, and they shot furiously back. I heard Rex calling for backup as we narrowly dodged yet another collapsing building. Luckily, it got one droid, so we were down to the last survivor.

As if in a dream, I heard a sharp crack, a hiss, and then a low rumbling. I froze, holding the pistol up as I looked around. My stomach dropped when I looked down. That droid must have learned something from us, because it had hit our power tank. I started shooting back, in a desperate attempt to end it. "Rex! We're hit!" I yelled at him. He yelled back, "And it's still after us?"

"Yes," I replied, a thickness in my voice as I placed his pistol back into the holster. I put my other arm around him again and closed my eyes. I started to pray under my breath.

"Hold on!" For a split second I had no idea what he was talking about. And then, as the speeder started to tilt dangerously from side to side, I suddenly understood. I held on as tightly as I could when it finally lost it's center of balance. In one single, swift motion, Rex jammed the controls, grabbed my arms, titled to the left again, and, as we fell off, kicked the speeder back. Right before we hit, I ducked my head as low as I could.

We hit hard, and the resulting shock made me let go of Rex. Dirt flew and grass was torn up as I landed. I was about to sit back up when Rex flew over to me from where he had landed a few feet away and pinned me down with his body. His arms were wrapped around my head, creating a shield. We laid there until I head what he was protecting me from; the speeder we had just bailed off of flew back and hit the droid squarely, causing a huge explosion. Metal and flaming pieces rained down, but nothing touched me.

A minute passed, then two. Finally, Rex sat up and took my hand, helping me up. I smiled shyly and turned to look at the remnants of the droid and our speeder. Small fires were still burning, but other than that, there was no movement.

I turned to face him again and grinned a bit wider this time. He positioned himself so that his arms were resting on his knees. I sat crossed legged in front of him. He took his helmet off and smiled back at me, "Nice shootin'."

I burst out laughing and said, "You weren't too bad of a pilot yourself." He grinned and replied, "I try. We're not actually too far from the rendevous point, so we should be out of here soon." Rex's face darkened and the smile fell when he saw my various cuts and scrapes. "How are you feeling, Caitlin?"

I shrugged and murmured, "I would really like to take a bath." Now it was his turn to burst out laughing. This will sound cheesy, but the sound of it made me feel... safer. A lot safer. I lowered my head and drew a trail in the dust, my heart fluttering like mad.

Not two minutes later, we heard the sounds of the ship as it flew low over the ground. I had lost quite a lot of blood, so everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Rex stood to silently watch our rescue ship arrive. It was a pretty big ship; it looked to be the same one that had gotten the men from the ranch earlier. When it landed, a single ramp extended and Rex helped me on. I was rushed to the medical wing on a stretcher while Rex went to the command deck.

As I sat on a cot, a medical droid taking my readings and Natalie and Maureen both unconscious on cots next to me, I watched as we took off from the planet I had called home.


MINDSPRING- I hope you enjoyed it, and feel free to click the yellow speech bubble right there to leave a review! Thanks~ ^^