Cory

"You fight like a thirteen year old girl!" I said, hoping to hit on one of his biggest insecurities.

Only then did I see the guards. They were ghostly silent. Even when they had us surrounded, they didn't say anything or make a sound. They just loomed there, giving off a strange, heavy feeling that was stifling and made me feel a little dizzy, like there was something wrong with the earth. Maybe part of that feeling came from the strange gas masks they wore. Sure, the air in that district was smoggier than usual, but I didn't think it required a mask. But with the masks on, I couldn't even tell where they were looking, much less, what they looked like. For all I knew, they weren't even human, and there was no telling what they were thinking. There wasn't even any available skin for me to grab to take a peak at their nerves or psyche. They were covered head-to-toe in black armor.

There were only six of them, but they were big, broad, and fully armed with semi-automatic handguns, which they kept holstered. The fact that they didn't even bother to draw their guns was even more intimidating. I stood still for a long, terrifying moment waiting for them to make a move but nothing happened.

Keeping my eyes on them, I extended a hand to Poldi to help him off the ground. He picked himself up slowly, without taking my hand and even went so far as to smack it once he was up.

I thought about trying to pass us off as stupid teenagers playing around in the wrong place, but our BPVs and sidearms betrayed us, not to mention, my Serpents brand. With no other option to lean on, I raised my hands in a sign of surrender.

"Are you kidding me?" Poldi said, giving me an angry look. "We come all this way and now you're just going to give up? You really are a cowardly traitor."

I kept my eyes glued to the guard in front of me, but leaned over a bit to mumble into Poldi's ear, "Live to fight another day, jackass."

Poldi, however, was too upset to keep things under his breath. "Do you really think they're going to let us live? Look at them! If you give up now, we might as well dig our own graves."

One of the guards let out a sound that might have been a laugh, but sounded warped and monstrous through the mask. Then the one I had been staring at took a step forward and spoke. His voice was definitely human, but muffled. "Her, we'll take alive. I hear the Jaggars are looking for a little girl trouble-maker. But I don't know who you are," he leaned down in Poldi's face to make us both feel especially small and helpless. "So I guess we can just toss your body in the river."

He hovered in front of Poldi for a long minute and before I could think through my whole plan of action, I decided to take advantage of his nearness. As fast as I could, I grabbed my switchblade out of my back pocket and stabbed him in the throat just above the line where his armor plating ended. The blade sunk in past the fabric and into his flesh.

The other guards pulled their guns just as I pulled my knife out and ran through their circle to hide behind a silo just beyond them. They took several shots at me, hitting my BPV once and skimming my arm twice. Fortunately, they didn't aim for my head or I'm sure they would have killed me.

Poldi also took off running at the same time, but in a different direction. While I had run toward the river, he headed east toward a shed. I couldn't tell if he took any bullets, but there were a few flying his way. Once he was behind cover, the shooting dropped into silence. I tried to listen for the sound of footsteps or anything that might warn me of where the guards were, but I heard nothing.

Frantically, I looked around for a way out. Less then a foot in front of me was the fence; my back was to the silo; and any minute now, I was positive I'd have scary guards on both sides of me. My only way out was up, but I had no time to take off my shoes.

The top of the silo was too high up to see, but there was a venting pipe just a short distance above the top of the fence that I was sure I could grab a hold of, so I wiped the cold sweat off my hands and jumped up on the fence. I heard shots fired from Poldi's direction, but I didn't bother to look. I climbed the fence quickly and sprung to the pipe where I managed to grab hold and pull myself up on. From there, I saw the top of the silo was easy enough to reach as long as I could find my balance enough to stand on the pipe—something that would have been much easier if I didn't have shoes on.

Below me, I saw the guards surround the place I had been. Poldi's shots didn't seem to have done any good to stop them. They pointed their guns at me, but before they could take a clear shot, I jumped up to the roof and rolled away from the edge. Laying on my back, I let out a deep breath, feeling the relief of safety.

That's when the pain of the bullets started to set in. The spot on my back where one hit my BPV burned and ached, and the cuts in my arm made my sleeve feel wet. I didn't dare look at how bad it was. I knew the sight would make it all worse. As long as I focused on what I needed to do next, the adrenaline would keep me functional until this was over. Then I could think about healing.

A strange sound came from inside the silo below me. Something moved around and growled or moaned or barked. I couldn't tell which. I could hear the animal dragging its feet around the silo and rubbing against the thin, metal siding. The thought of those hell-beasts in the SBS field came to mind and I wondered who this factory really belonged to. The animal called out again with something that sounded a little like a cow with laryngitis or maybe a car that was about to die. But it didn't scream like the brutes had.

I laid there on my back and thought about the possibility of releasing the animal and hoping it would attack them instead of me. I had really run out of ideas for how to get out of my bind and the longer I laid there, the more my wounds hurt and the more angry I became at Poldi for getting us into so much trouble. I would have been better off coming on my own.

My woes were interrupted by a gas canister being tossed on top of the silo. The air filled with a thick, white smoke, and I knew the guards would be climbing up here to get me in the cloud. With no other ideas available, I rolled off the other side of the silo, being careful to land properly, and ran for the window where it had all began. I jumped over the body of the dead guard on my way and snatched off his mask without stopping to look at his face. I tucked my head close to my body and jumped through the window pane, not knowing what to expect on the inside, but hoping for more places to hide or something to use against them.

The room I landed in was a small, vacant office space, but beyond that was a very large and open main floor. Parts of the old assembly line were missing and in their place, stacks of wire cages sat two meters high, each one containing a very small animal like the brutes I had seen at the SBS fields, except baby sized.

I ran behind one of the leftover machines that towered to the ceiling and provided plenty of safe cover to hide in wait for the guards. There didn't appear to be anyone else in the building, but it was hard to keep track of such things as the caged brutes started getting restless with me in the room. They moved around in their cages and moaned, stirring up too much noise to hear anyone that might come from behind me.

A gas canister rolled into the room through the door I had come in by. I heard another one hit the cement floor somewhere else in the room. I pulled the stolen mask on as the air filled with smoke, but it was too big for me and didn't seal tight enough. My mask filled with smoke and I had to take it off and try to find some cover. I didn't get far before one of the soldiers grabbed my right arm where I had been shot. I gritted my teeth and passed my gun quickly to my left hand to shoot at him, but he knocked it down and hit me hard on my face. I couldn't see anything after that. My eyes and throat burned. I felt the guard drag me somewhere, but before I could figure out where, I passed out for lack of oxygen.

When I came to, Mikkel was playing a card game with Wesley.