Time Screwed Part 2: Escape from the City
by James L. Aevermann

Kid woke up with a start. She was in a strange room with about nine other people. Okay, eight other people and whatever Red XIII is. Then she remembered what had happened the other day. Sighing, she got up and walked to the window of the office room they had slept in. It was still dark; smoke from the towers around the city was blocking the light from the sun.

She looked back at the others, still sleeping. Wait, Leena was missing, that sweet girl. Then, memory struck her like a slap to the face; Leena was dead. She had been killed in that fight against that strange angel-wannabe-looking thing. She sat down where she was a began to cry; even though she hadn’t known Leena for all that long, they had become good friends. Sure she had a thing for Serge, but they had grown up together.

They had forgotten who they lost in the heat of their battle. They didn’t have time to bury them in this strange place. Perhaps it was best. They were left in a dead town, with the dead. The town would soon wither away anyway and become nothing but a memory. Kid buried her face in her hands and silently mourned for Leena.

A hand lightly touched her shoulder. She looked up to see Serge. He had tears running down his cheeks, also for Leena. He sat himself next to her, on the cold, hard floor. She buried her face in this shoulder and continued to cry. They mourned together, for what seemed like hours. But they decided that they had to carry on. They would remember her always.

Okay, enough crying for now. The rest of the group woke up. If you haven’t read Part 1, then you won’t really get where this is going. Anyhow, back to the strange world.

They all woke up slowly and remembered where they were. They left the building, deciding to explore this new place, and went off in search of someone who lived here. They walked through the streets of the city, finding nobody at all. The entire place seemed surreal, as if they were in a dream. The only thing was, they weren’t; this was a reality, now their reality, whether they liked it or not.

Red XIII suddenly stopped, “Do you hear that?”

They all became silent and strained to listen. Nothing.

“What the hell you telling us to listen for, stupid dog. I can’t hear a damn thing.” Cid said.

“I am not a dog. And I have better hearing than you, you will hear it when it gets closer.” Red XIII calmly responded.

“Whatever the hell you are. Shi’, do you even know what you are? And I say bull that we’ll hear anything besides our footsteps. You are getting old dammit.” Cid replied.

They decided to forget about it and keep going. Then, they heard it. It was faint at first, but it gradually grew louder until they could hear it clearly, the sound of a hundred soldiers (because they were in step) coming toward them. Off in the distance, they saw a large dust cloud rising.

Red XIII smugly looked up at Cid, “Still think that I am getting old?”

“Shut up. So, what the hell do we do? Are they the friggin’ enemy, or are they friendly?” Cid asked.

“Well, I don’t know. Why don’t we wait and see?” Agrias suggested.

“Oi, looks like they sent a party forward to check things out. Hey, you soldiers. Are ye friendly or, shit. What the hell? They’re shooting at us. I’ll kick their arses so hard they’ll kiss the moons.” Kid yelled pulling out her dagger.

The three soldiers saw the group of ten and fired. The group scattered, Irvine and Vincent shooting back as they ran for cover. Vincent jumped behind a truck as bullets rained past him. He risked taking a glace out. The three soldiers were positioned behind a small car.

Laughing to himself, he loaded a round into his rifle, the lovely Sniper CR. He crawled under the truck and looked through the sight. He aimed for the rear of the car, at a small, round, place where the gasoline goes. He silently said goodbye to the three and squeezed the trigger. The car exploded, sending the three flying through the air. They landed hard on the asphalt road. They didn’t move.

The explosion hadn’t really done any damage to their equipment, just their bodies. The group came out from behind their cover and to the bodies on the road. Kid kicked one of the soldier’s corpses.

“Oi, you shoot at me like that again, and you’ll fly higher than that.”

“Well, we definitely know that they aren’t friendly, and it sounds like they’re coming this way. What’re we going to do?” Alma asked.

“I say we take their weapons and head into that building there.” Irvine suggested.

They agreed and took the weapons, standard issue M-16’s, and all the magazines that the soldiers had. They decided to take the straps the soldiers carried them in too, as well as the other supplies they had: gas grenades, handguns, flashlight, and the combat knives.

They went to the nearest building. Strangely, it was unlocked. They went into the place and locked the door behind them. It was pitch black. They felt along the walls for a light switch and found one. Flipping it on, they found themselves in a gun shop. How lucky can you get?

They grabbed machine guns, handguns, uzis, MP-5’s, more M-16’s, and basically every other weapon they could get their hands on. Agrias, Alma, and Orlandu, not to mention Kid and Serge, looked confused. They didn’t know what they were doing.

They each took a gun of their choice and two handguns each. Then grabbed all the clips of ammo they could and stuffed them into every place in their clothes they could. They had the straps from the dead soldiers, and they found some more in the store as well.

When they were done, the weapons had been distributed as so:
Irvine—his rifle, an MP-5, and two handguns.
Cloud—an M-16, and two Uzis.
Cid—two small submachine guns, and a magnum.
Vincent—Sniper CR, an M-16, and two handguns.
Serge—two MP-5’s, and two handguns.
Kid—an AK-47 and two handguns.
Orlandu—an M-16, and two Uzis.
Agrias—a shotgun and two MP-5’s.
Alma—an MP-5 and an Uzi.
Red XIII—You didn’t really expect him to have a weapon, did you?

They explained to Serge, Kid, Orlandu, Agrias, and Alma how the weapons operated. Then made sure that the weapons worked and then sat down to make plans. They decided that they should split up and take different routes to get out of the city. The soldiers had to have had some way to get here so they decided to find out what it was.

They needed to get out of the city, anywhere but where they were. They agreed to meet by the same place they entered. The group split up and went different ways. Vincent took Red XIII, Serge, and Agrias, and headed south. Irvine, Orlandu, and Cid headed east. Cloud, Alma, and Kid kept to the shadows and went west.

The soldiers came from the north and spread out on the roads. They split into groups and ran through the alleys and streets, searching for any signs of people. Luckily or unluckily, there were a hundred soldiers running around the city.

Vincent ducked into a dark alley, pressing his back against a wall. The others followed suit, hiding themselves in the shadow that the small area between the buildings provided. He peeked around the corner to see where the soldiers were. Luckily, the four hadn’t seen them, yet. It would only be a matter of time before the squad looked into this alley.

Vincent didn’t want to give them the chance. He jumped from behind his cover and flicked the safety off on the M-16. He smiled to himself as the soldiers noticed him. He pulled and let the rifle go at full automatic. It was over in two seconds. The four lay lifeless on the ground and Vincent stood, only taking a few bullets to the chest.

The others ran out to see if he was okay, as they had seen blood splatter from his chest. He nodded to them,

“I’ll be okay. These will heal in a matter of minutes.”

Well, after all, Vincent was a vampire. How much damage could a few bullets do to him? He dropped his empty magazine and shoved another into the slot. They could hear more soldiers coming. Apparently, their little firefight had attracted more of the enemy. They took up positions on both sides of the street, Red XIII and Agrias behind a large overturned truck, Vincent crouching behind a small sedan, and Serge taking cover back in the alley.

They waited for the soldiers to come, which they did not too much later. A unit of ten ran the corner and took up defensive positions behind whatever they could find. Vincent and Serge began firing as soon as they saw the first soldiers. Three of them went down, but the rest kept coming.

The soldiers fired a nonstop barrage at the four. Serge, still with his back against the wall, put his MP-5 around the corner and emptied his magazine. Most of the bullets missed as he was just spraying blindly, but two caught a soldier in the stomach. He went down where he was.

Agrias looked under the truck, seeing if she could shoot from there. She crawled under it and cocked her shotgun. Aiming for a soldier she saw peeking out from behind a corner, she waited until he came back out. As soon as he did, she pulled. The soldier flew back and didn’t get back up.

Vincent didn’t care if bullets hit him. He could heal those wounds in no time. He looked out and picked his targets. When they broke cover, he pumped hot lead into their flesh. They continued like this, until there were only two soldiers left. The soldiers were getting desperate and calling for backup on their radio.

Vincent heard a faint humming coming from behind them, like the sound of an engine. As it grew louder, the source of the noise came around the corner, an armored Hummer with a 50-caliber gun mounted on it. The vehicle stopped right where they were. The four surrendered, obviously outdone. The two soldiers broke cover and ran for them. Then, the gun mounted on the Hummer moved, it aimed for the two soldiers and fired. It left them dead.

Puzzled, Vincent strained his eyes to see who was in the vehicle. He didn’t have to strain much longer, the doors opened and out stepped Cid. He smiled and blew a puff of smoke. He signaled for them to get in the back. They eagerly jumped in and closed the lid in the back. Vincent took a position manning the 50-caliber as Cid took the wheel and began rolling.

The others were in the Hummer as well. All ten of them were there, crammed into the small space. Alma was tending to Orlandu’s bullet wounds in his right arm. Other than that, nobody else seemed to be injured.

Cid drove the Hummer through the streets, only occasionally driving past soldiers, which the 50-caliber took care of rather quickly. Red XIII called up to Cid from the back,

“How did you get this?”

“This piece of crap? We stole it from a small group of stupid ass soldiers. Those idiots didn’t even see us coming.”

“And then you went to pick us all up?” Serge asked.

“Obviously. You’re all here, aint you kid?” Cid shot back.

Kid shot a look at Cid, “Oi, he isn’t Kid, I am. Don’t you go gettin’ us two mixed up.”

“I know who you are! I was…argh, forget it.” Cid said frustrated.

He drove the hummer through the city and back outside. They agreed to head for the direction the soldiers came from. Vincent wasn’t sure, but he thought he saw a landed airship in the direction they were going. He simply dismissed it and decided to find out when they got there.

~FIN to Part 2~