Cloud Cent Chronicles: Part 2 Chapter 2

 

Escape

Shadow didn't know what to say. What do I do? How do I make a decision like this? I-I can't. I can't decide. What should I do? I feel bad for her, but I don’t know who this lady is. I need to get out.

Shadow turned around, but before he could do anything, he started running behind the woman. As he ran, or rather, as he was forced to run, he took note of the woman. She had green hair down to her shoulders. She wore an expensive looking black blazer, but a cheap white shirt under it. As far as Shadow could tell, she had no mods. Wait, then how am I being controlled? He took a closer look and noticed something strange on her wrist. At first, he thought it was a typical Sergeant band, but upon closer inspection Shadow realized that it was a mod that he himself designed. An external modifier. It allows the wearer to swap out different mods on one part of their body. How did she get that? Shadow didn’t know what was going on, and quite frankly, he didn’t know if he wanted to. 

“Listen miss, I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t appreciate you controlling me. I can run on my own.”

“Is that so? Is that why you were just standing there when The Leader was trying to trick you?”

“Trick me?”

“Oh come on.”

“He offered me a way out of this mess and you took that away!” Shadow stopped abruptly.

“Fine. If you think that’s true-that I ‘took away your out’- then go back. Better yet, tackle me to the ground and bring me to him. I’m sure that will help you win his favor. I’m not controlling you. It’s time for you to make up your mind.”

Shadow regretted saying anything. He knew he messed up. Of course The Leader was tricking him. I’m so stupid! And yet he was too proud to get out anything more than a “...sorry…”

“Right. Then let’s go.” Shadow still didn’t trust her. None of his fears were resolved. He didn’t know her, and quite frankly didn’t really like her, but what other choice did he have? Go back to the leader and beg for mercy? No, she was right.

“So, can I get your name then?” Shadow asked.

“Not here. When we get out I’ll explain what’s going on.”

“And where are we going?”

“Not. Here.”

“Right…”

    They ran through the halls. Whenever they were faced with a door, the woman tapped her external modifier and opened it. When they saw a guard, she switched out the mod and put in a laser, shooting the guard. Shadow just followed along.

    They approached a large set of metallic doors, except unlike all the other pathways they took, these doors didn’t appear to have any hard light supporting them. No wires ran through from end to end. No brilliant shades of green or blue. Just cold, silver, steel. It was intimidating. And there was no mod that could hack the door. Behind them, a swarm of identical guards filed through the doors the woman had opened, each armed with mods that could kill them in fun and exciting ways.

    “I need you to trust me. We need to work together to get out of this.” The woman whispered to Shadow.

    “Trust you? How do you expect me to trust you? I just met you, and that introduction came with being chased by Sergeants! I don’t even know who you are! You want me to trust you, let alone work with you?”

    “I’m saving your life!”

    “Or just making my death even more painful!” The guards were almost there. Shadow didn’t know if he actually believed anything he was saying. All he did know is that he was scared, angry, and wasn’t ready to die. What other choice do I have?

    “Fine, whatever. What’s your plan?”

    …

 

    The guards filed into the room, wrists raised.

    “We have orders to take you two alive if possible, but dead if necessary. If you surrender now, your lives will be ensured!”

    Where have I heard that before?

    “We...we surrender.” The woman dropped to her knees. Shadow followed suit. Half the guards went to the woman, the other half to Shadow. Split up. The plan was working. Shadow’s mod was activated. He began following the guards. The woman was restrained with a pulsifer, a device that sends shocks throughout the body consistently, effectively disabling your muscles.

    They carried the woman behind Shadow. The guards won. They had both their targets. They could relax now. Their wrists dropped to their sides as they walked at a leisurely pace. All walked except for Shadow. Shadow grabbed the guard’s wrist directly in front of him and activated his weapon, causing the guard to shoot himself in the foot. They were in a narrow hallway. No maneuverability. 20 men were all shoving each other to try to get to Shadow. Some tried shooting him, but just wound up shooting their allies. In their panic to grab Shadow, the guards dropped the woman at the back of the hallway. The majority of the guards were in front of Shadow. Getting to the woman was easy. Shadow deactivated the pulsifer and the woman was back on her feet. She disabled her external mod.

 

…

 

    “Why are we going to surrender? Aren’t we trying to get away from them?” Shadow questioned.

    “Just listen to me for a second. When they detain us, they’re going to try to activate your mod. But I’ll activate it first with this.” She raised the external modifier. “Then, you’ll act like you’re following their orders, but really, I’ll be controlling you to go with them.”

    Great, controlled again.

    “Then,” the woman continued, “they’ll likely detain me with a pulsifer. That should disable my mod. Then, while their guards are down, you’ll break free, free me, and we take them out.”

    “And how exactly do I do that?”

    “I trust you to figure it out.”

    “Why do you trust me? You know that I was going to betray you earlier.”

    “We’re in this together. I have to trust you. We’re partners now.”

    “...”

 

…

 

    The rest was easy. All the guards were crammed in one tight hallway. All they had to do was blast them from the end and they were in the clear. All that stood between them and freedom was a set of heavy doors.

    “Ok, how do we get out?” The woman asked, mostly to herself.

    “Wait, you don’t know how to get out of  here?” Shadow was in disbelief. He was forced to put his faith in this woman, and now they were screwed. What the hell was the point of all of this? ‘Trust me’ she said. Great. Shadow decided to rely on himself.

    He looked around the room. Nothing but a pile of bodies and a huge door. ...Alright, that could work. Shadow began removing all of the weapons from the guards’ wrists.

    “What are you doing?” The woman asked. Shadow ignored her and continued on. Shadow laid all of the weapons by the door. “Oh.” The weapons the guards used were similar to the external modifier Shadow designed. They have a large flow of energy fueling them since they can’t use the wearer’s body as a source. Each time the mod is used, the source gets more and more unstable. And these mods were used quite a bit today. Normally, the source would just fizzle out and die when it reached a certain point of instability, but if it collides with a burst of energy, say, a laser shot, then it would cause a reaction, creating a small blast with a high burst of energy. And then if that collided with another source, it would create an even bigger blast. And so on.

    Shadow kept one of the blasters for himself. The woman backed up. Shadow shot. Might have overdone it. Not only was the door gone, but the wall with it. Either way, they had their way out.

    “That was great!” the woman exclaimed. “Knew I could trust you.” Shadow glared at her. They made their way out together.