Alice

Thanks to the falling rain, the earthen ground of the mountain had become nothing short of a mudslide, making it increasingly difficult to keep on walking up. My legs were burning from exerting this much energy to go up the steep incline. All around me, people were falling and sliding around in the mud every time they lost their footing. Any other day, we might have been laughing.

But this was no time to laugh. So many of the ones we cared for, had sent us on our ways and turned to storm the City. Shun was among those people, and I couldn't help but be sick with worry. The little army they were using to fight with, was dwarfed greatly by the Officials.

I hoped they didn't get shot down before they even reached the fence. The rain was starting to ease up, but the clouds told a story about there being more to come. I didn't like this weather. It felt like the world was crying as it watched more of its people get killed each day.

Somebody else lost their footing and fell down in the mud. We were now high enough on the mountain, that we could see down into the City. It looked so small and insignificant from this height, almost like there was nothing bad there. But I knew better. We all knew better.

Murucho was trudging through the mud next to me. I told him, "I want to stay here until they're done fighting down there." We both stopped walking. I was looking at the City, Murucho was looking up at me. He said, "Alice, I want to see our friends come back to, but we can't have everyone stop when we're so close."

Julie noticed that we stopped following the group, and she hurried down to us. "What's going on, guys?" she asked. Murucho wiped the rain from his glasses lens and told her, "Alice wants to wait here for the ones who went down to the City to fight." The rain was no longer falling for the time being, but I knew it wouldn't be like that for very long.

That ominous tension in the air ensured that for me. Now Julie was looking at me as well. I didn't like having two sets of eyes on me. She said, "I can see why she'd want to do that." Murucho took his intense gaze from me, and planted it on Julie.

"What?" he asked surprisingly. The silver-haired girl shrugged and said, "I want to see who all comes back as well." Murucho, obviously feeling outnumbered, sighed and said, "You can wait here for them if you want. And I'll stay as well cause even I want to see if our friends come back."

I smiled down at him and said, "Thanks for understanding, Murucho." He did his little kid laugh that I couldn't resist but to smile at. The refugees continued their trek up the mountain, not even aware that they were minus three people.

All of our eyes locked on a log, which we gladly sat down on. I was filled with memories of being back at the lake and gathered around the small fires and eating fish and rice while talking with Brunswick and his friends. The logs was slick from the rain, and bits of the decaying bark stuck to anything it could get a hold of.

The silence was welcoming; the only noise was that of water falling from leaves and birds chirping with the end of the storm. None of us spoke either because we didn't want to ruin this peaceful silence, or because there was nothing to say. Instead, we sat on the log and waiting to hear the gunfire of rifles fill the air and break the peace of nature.

Shun

Instead of going headfirst into the City by slipping through the fence, Dan made the point of going through the underground tunnel if we were able to get inside. We had used it in order to escape from the City when the cleansing began.

I remembered how I hated the small, dark and musty place that had never seen daylight as long as it had existed. Now, we were using it as a means of returning into the City. The threat was no different though. There was still a great chance that none of us would make it out and end up leaving behind friends and families.

At least they should be safe. But it was clear that none of us were going down without taking a good number of Officials with us. We found the secret entrance that led under the Wastelands and into the City. The hatch was still caved in from when we pulled it down in order to get out.

But when we dug up the ashes and debris we left behind, there was enough room for even Brunswick to fit through. Sadly, we had no light to help guide us through the tunnel, so we were feeling blindly in front of us to make sure we didn't run into anything. In the darkness, it felt like the path would never end.

But of course, it eventually did. Dan pushed the hatch up, and looked around. Just like we expected, we were in the elderly couple's home. But it wasn't in the same condition we left it in. The whole place was torn apart. One by one, our fifteen person army climbed out of the tunnel and into the damaged home.

Brunswick peered out of a window and looked around outside. He said, "Looks like there aren't any Officials walking around out there, so we're okay for now." Ten of us held rifles; the five that didn't have one, didn't need one. They were strong enough on their own and could make a weapon out of anything. Feliciana was one of those people.

Marquis was double-checking the ammo in his rifle and said, "So, what's the plan?" We all exchanged looks at one another. What we would do if we made it into the City, hadn't even come into our thoughts.

We were all too focused on getting near the City without being shot a pointblank range. Feliciana folded her arms and said, "Probably would be a good idea to come up with one." We nodded and sat up a table that had been knocked over and began to plot our attack.

Shun

Once we settled on an attack plan, we left the abandoned house and started towards our newest goal. We would do a direct attack on the headquarters of the Officials, taking out any that may be standing guard or walking around on the way.

What could be a better way to take them out than attacking the source of their orders and commands. We split into five groups of three; my group consisted of me, Dan, and Feliciana. Marquis, Val, and Brunswick split off into their own group.

The goal was to surround the headquarters and take it from all sides. Hopefully, we would be able to get that far to the plan. If that went well, then we would just go from there. The three of us had our weapons at the ready as we rounded the corner. You would have thought that there would be more guards standing around the Officials' headquarters.

But there was only one, and he was asleep on the concrete stairs. Not wanting to take any chances of drawing more Officials, Dan and I let Feliciana take this one. She found a nice sized rock on the ground, and put it into her weapon. She then slung the rock from the weapon, and it hit dead on target; the temple of the Official's head.

He grunted and fell over. When we got closer to him, I saw the thin line of red blood trickling down from where the rock hit him. I wasn't able to tell if he was unconscious or dead, but I didn't want to waste time to find out. Dan, Feliciana, and I ran up the concrete steps and into the headquarters, where we met more resistance.

The Officials that were inside were taken off guard by our sudden arrival. Feliciana was putting anything she could into her rope weapon, and began dropping Officials left and right as quickly as she could. Dan and I were shooting the rifles that we had taken from dead Officials back at the mountain, and took some out as well.

But we quickly began to run out of ammo, and Feliciana was running out of things to turn into deadly projectiles. When the Officials saw this, they started to close in on us like ravenous animals that realized their prey was injured. Dan and I kept the rifles in our hands, even though they were worthless for shooting, we could still use them as blunt objects like Nero had used on me.

As they closed in on us, glass shattered behind us, and we found an arrow sticking out of the shoulder of an Official. He dropped to the ground, twitching a little before going still. Several more arrows broke through the glass window behind us, and more Officials fell to the tile floor.

The room no longer housed a threat to us. The bodies of Officials laid scattered around us. Some of them were moaning in pain, others weren't even making any movements that suggested they had any life left in them. I didn't like the idea that most of them were dead, but then I remembered all the pain they had caused us, and I saw their punishment fitting and well deserved.

We turned around, already knowing where the arrows came from. Brunswick, Marquis, and Val stepped through the door. Glass cracked underneath the weight of their feet as they strode across the room to join us. The other nine members of our army followed in behind them.

Our mission to surround and take the outside of the headquarters was a success. But I couldn't help but feel that it had been too easy. Or that we should have been expecting more Officials. Dan shouted, "Come on! We need to hurry up and find Xavier before he slips past us!" Xavier, the one calling all the shots for the Officials, was a golden target. If we took him down, then confusion would surely follow among any remaining Officials.

Our people ran through the headquarters, and busted into Xavier's office. It was empty. There was a chorus of clicks behind us, and we slowly turned around to be faced with barrels of guns and about twenty Officials. They parted and Nero walked down the opening they made.

He wore that same grin when he said, "Isn't this a nice surprise. I wasn't expecting a visit. Were you, Andrew?" The Official too his left shook his head without showing any signs of emotion. Nero continued, "I hate to break up this nice little reunion, but we can't let you get away from us this time. Take care of them."

The guns were aimed at us again. My eyes began to scan for any sign of escape. They finally found a window that was open. Now, I was looking back and forth between the window and the Officials. "Run!" I shouted and made a mad dash for the window. Gunshots fired, but Dan and the others caught on quickly to what I was doing.

I slipped through the window and ran down the street. I snuck a quick glance behind me and saw Marquis, Val, Brunswick, Dan, Feliciana, and several others running away from the building. They quickly caught up with me and ducked into the nearest building we could find.

I counted how many people we had with us. Eight total. The rest of our fifteen either hadn't gotten out of harm's way soon enough or hadn't seem where we took refuge. We were panting heavily. Marquis patted my shoulder and said, "That was quick thinking back there."

I was trembling too much to respond to what he was saying. As I started to calm down, I noticed where I was at. We were in the jail that I had been in when Nero arrested me. There was a moaning coming from the hall that housed the cells. Curious, Dan, Feliciana, and I walked towards the sound to check it out.

The cells were filled with people; most of them dead or almost dead. The moaning was coming from somebody that I recognized that was an Official. Next to me, Dan said, "That's Clay." The Official was a bloodied mess. Worse than I had been when I was beaten.

Dried blood stained the floor around him, and his pale skin looked brighter against the dark floor. He looked like a ghost, and I knew he wouldn't last much longer. Dan had gone ahead and was walking down the rest of the hall of cells, looking in each one of them and at the people who were hanging onto life.

He then froze, and I was able to see his eyes widen. He dropped down to his knees and stared into a cell. Feliciana and I hurried over to him, and we both froze when we saw the blue-haired girl laying on the floor. I watched her ribs rise and fall with each breath. Dan held onto one of the cell bars and said breathlessly, "Runo."

sorry for not uploading the past few days. i've been helping a friend with a project and have been getting home at 9 at night. but as far as i know, i'm done with helping her, so i should be able to upload again. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~