Brave Enough - Lindsey Stirling ft. Christina Perri

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"Are you comfortable?" Aliana inspected me. I shifted my weight through the suit. There was a large gun strapped to my back and it was extremely uncomfortable. Gauntlets surrounded my hands and a clear mask was shielding my face from bullets. The only way to defeat me would be to knock the mask off and shoot me in the head.

"Do people usually die in these rebellions?" I asked timidly.

Aliana laughed. "If no one died then there wouldn't be a war. We're starting a civil war here in our city, and people die all the time. You're in a better suit than most. It was specially made by our rebellion and it should take a bit for the city guards to figure out how to move the mask and kill you."

"Will I be in the heart of the war?"

"Stars, no. We're putting you in a small group that's scouting the city. You'll be safer there."

I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked like a giant black bug, a large exoskeleton encasing me from head to toe. Aliana took the gun off my back and gave me a smaller, more manageable, pistol. I took it gratefully and clipped it to my waist, hoping I wouldn't have to use it.

"Are you ready to go fight?" Aliana asked, slapping me on the back.

"For earth and the citizens of Adron!" I cried.

-

The courage was slowly seeping out of my body. We were approaching the area and I could already tell that a war was raging. Sirens wailed all over the city and lights blinked repeatedly on top of the tall buildings. Large black shapes were swarming around the dome, but they couldn't get in without breaking the dome, which Aliana said would take down all the power for the entire city.

She was trekking beside me, a large gun drawn in her hands. I could tell from her confident walk that swayed her from side to side that she was comfortable here and had been out on rebel business a lot of times. Her hot pink streaked hair was tied back in a long ponytail that swirled around her with every step.

"Are we almost there?" Gun shots sounded close by and I was ready to jump out of my skin. Aliana shot me a warning look and pointed around the next corner. The wall curved in a rounded corner and grotesque graffiti painted over the dull grey metal.

We slid up against it with our backs, silently creeping around so that they wouldn't shoot.

"Who's there?" A gruff voice called. A gun came around the corner, poking against my nose. I squeaked but Aliana said "It's Aliana and Silver."

The gun vanished right away and a short stocky man walked around the corner. He did a quick bow, suddenly grabbing my wrist and yanking me to the ground. A gunshot echoed and two bullets whistled over the spot I'd just been standing in. The man lifted his gun and shot rapidly at the figure behind me. There was a sickening thud as they fell onto the pavement, which was slick with the blood poured from wounded people still fighting.

"Thank you." I muttered.

"Don't mention it." He pulled me to my feet. "Hey, Aliana."

She ignored him. Two other rebel soldiers had come around the corner and watched our back as we hurried to the safety of the troop. The soldiers started to bow and say polite things, which I thought was ridiculous, especially since we were fighting a war, and told them so. The silence that followed was awkward, but a bullet soon shattered it, hitting the wall right next to me. Aliana cursed the foolishness of the guards, who only had their eyes on me, and shot the soldier without even looking back. He was obviously hurt and would've hit me if he wasn't in pain. I knew my suit would protect me but it was still scary.

I pulled the pistol off my hip and aimed it at every sound that I heard. The others seemed more chill; some were even chatting. I had been put in an easy spot and none of the action was taking place here. All the huge explosions were taking place in the center of the city, where the government officials were. The popping of guns, wails of alarms, and ships dodging each other in the sky, dropping bombs made everything seem surreal. It was something that was hard to interpret into my non-technical brain.

Once in a while people ran past our hiding place. Most were soldiers, some of them rebels, while others were citizens trying to escape the chaos and destruction. They took no notice of us and we left them alone.

The radio crackled to life in the leader's hand. "Head more to the center. There's nothing happening where you are. There's a brawl a couple streets over, help the rebels there and combine forces. Send Silver back is she wants to return."

The heads swivelled to look at me. "I'm not leaving." I insisted. The information was relayed back to the base and we headed out.

It was sweaty in my suit. I was finding it hard to breath and the world seemed to be slowly turning black. We headed towards the loud sounds of fighting until they were raging around the next corner. We were just about to storm them, when a tall citizen carrying a small gun wandered past, tripping over a crack in the cement. She fell onto her stomach and whipped the gun in our direction. She was young, but her hair was dyed white and fell around her face in an angelic way. She looked like she was about to cry and her body shook. A long white dress was draped around her body and a lemon yellow fluffy shawl was drawn around her shoulders.

The soldiers lifted their guns, ready to shoot her, but I crawled in the way and screamed at them to stop. One of them was already pulling the trigger and his gun fired.