Outside of the tower, the fairgrounds were still in peril. Night had fallen on Oria, and the boys Bryce and Ray were holed up in a small building not far from where they were last seen. The building they were in was little more than an oversized janitor's closet, filled with chemicals of the sort necessary for keeping the fairgrounds clean and tidy. With them, was a person who was actively sewing up Bryce's shoulder with a simple needle and thread.
"Ow, that hurts!" Bryce complained.
"It's better this than dying," the man remarked firmly, "I can tell you that if I weren't to get this sealed up now, it wouldn't be long before the pain would be the least of your problems. Now keep it down will you?"
Ray, who was waiting by the door, was keeping an eye out as he peered through the high, narrow window beside him.
"Those bastards are all over the place. What kind of monsters would want to do this to a whole civilization?" Ray remarked tensely. He was on edge after narrowly escaping being another number amongst the dead. Him and his friend alongside him.
"I guess it was fortunate I happened to be at this event, even if it meant I myself may have been amongst the dead," the man responded in a careful, controlled tone.
As Bryce gritted his teeth and squirmed through the piercing sensations and tightening quelch of being sewn, he found a moment to struggle out a response. "Mister Wilkenson, thank you. I don't know where we would be if you weren't here," he said gratefully.
"Dead on the pavement in a pool of your own blood," Wilkenson stated in brute honesty, tugging the knot tight.
Bryce winced and took in a sharp breath through his teeth at the unexpected tug, which brought a momentarily further pain to his shoulder.
"There, that takes care of the major bleeding," Wilkenson states, as he snips the thread at the base, "Now you'll just need some fresh gauze. It appears I'm all out," he explained.
"What were you doing here anyways?" Ray asked Wilkenson quietly.
As Wilkenson cleaned his hands off with some alcohol and a dry cloth, he took a moment of silence before answering Ray. "The same thing as you boys. As I'm sure you can imagine, many of the teachers took the time to come out here to set up stalls or enjoy the festival. After all, the school did close for this event, so why wouldn't I be here to take part?" he replied.
A brief pause filled the room.
"I guess I just didn't take you for the festive type," Ray prompted.
"I don't think any of us did," Bryce added.
Wilkenson sighed. Never did he imagine he'd be meeting his students outside of his classes as so, and now he understood where they were coming from.
"A festival is where the people are, and as I'm a teacher, and practitioner of one's health, it's only reasonable that I would want to be somewhere that my talents can be used to assist," he addressed.
The room fell quiet again for a moment, before Ray took another glimpse outside. "That idiot better still be alive," Ray thought aloud, expressing his frustrated concern.
"Alice..." Bryce muttered under his pain.
At that moment, Wilkenson decided to put in some insite on the current topic. "You two mentioned he went into the sky building. While I was outside, I didn't see any of those armed terrorists going in there, so there's a good chance he's holed up in a room somewhere. It's mostly vacant, so moving about inside shouldn't be too much of an issue. The biggest challenge would be getting into the building unnoticed," Wilkenson noted.
"Well then, we need to get in and get him out of there. With whatever those guys are doing here, there's no guarantee that building is going to be vacant for long," Ray added.
"But you guys, what if Alice is already...," Bryce gulped before muttering the next word, "...dead?" he asked hesitantly.
"Ifs don't matter!" Ray insisted, while marching over to Bryce with frustration in his eyes, "We still have to try! He's our friend, and I'm not just going to give up on him because times got dark! Alice is family as far as I'm concered, and you do not turn your back on them!" Ray was adamant about his decision to save Alice, while Bryce fell quiet, looking to the floor with unease.
"And just how do you suggest going about getting inside?" Wilkenson questioned Ray.
Ray tisked in disapproval at the seemingly absurd question. "Obviously we go right in the front door!" he exclaimed rashly.
"With all those armed men out there? Don't go thinking that'll be an easy task," Wilkenson pointed out.
Ray was becoming quite noticably heated. "Look, that's the way Alice went in, so that's the way he's coming out! Have you got a better suggestion?" Ray snapped back fumingly.
"Easy there sugar coat. We may not be in class, but I'll still give you an 'F' for bad behavior," Wilkenson mocked sarcastically.
"Oh piss off!" Ray snapped.
Look, all I'm saying is we need to lay low while we figure out a way inside. I'm not looking to get shot down more than the rest of you. I still have a family to provide for after all," Wilkenson finished.
"Well we can't just wait around here," Ray persisted.
At that moment, Bryce spoke up. "Maybe...," he began to say with a brief pause, "we could create some kind of diversion?"
Ray looked to Bryce with a strained, puzzled expression, while Wilkenson too peered over at him. The two of them having become curious as to what Bryce had in mind.
In the next moment, a loud crash and boom enveloped the air, as we see from outside a large explosion filling our view. The small, compact building erupting as wide spread debree desecrates the scene.
While a few of the armed terrorists were blown back by the sheer force of the explosion, several of their scattered forces gathered 'round to check up on this turn of commotion. Debree fell everywhere, and the small group responsible was nowhere to be seen.
Just then, flickering lights approached the crowd of terrorists as one of the transport vehicles pulled onto the scene. The window was already rolled down, and inside, the driver was ready to give his report from within the carrier.
"It's time to pull back! We've received new orders from higher up. The mission is accomplished!" the masked driver relayed.
Little did they know, that the events of this day were about to go beyond them all.
As we arrive at the entrance of Sky Tower, Blyke can be seen exiting the front door. Looking ahead, he sees the havoc his organization has decided to wreak over Oria, all in an effort to obtain the chip and purify the realm of witnesses.
"Those dirty..." Blyke bit his tongue. He felt in the worst way being involved in such a heinous act. "All this just for the objective..." He had not a single strand of pride.
A moment later, he noticed a puddle of blood at his feet, and in the center, laid the case containing the chip they were after.
"I gotta give it to the man, he is wise," he remarked, talking about the red herring who escaped him.
Blyke pulled out an encrypted cell device, and when pressing a single button, had called up his superior. "The task is done. The artifact is in our hands," he reported. The call ended there, and soon all the troops would be called back.
When Blyke went to turn back into the building however, Ray, Bryce and Wilkenson too had made their way to the entrance of Sky Tower, as they took cover for a moment behind an abandoned catering van.
"Crap! There's another one right there," Ray exclaimed in a shudder.
"Well it's like you said, we can't just wait around here, Alice needs us!" Bryce reminded him.
"Don't you think I know that?" Ray remarked. "Looks like we're just going to have to deal with him. After all, the less of those terrorists we allow inside, the safer it'll be for Alice," he proclaimed.
"Don't do anything rash. You don't want to get yourself killed," Wilkenson warned him.
"Look, there's one guy there, and we're limited on options. If we don't take him now, he might get close to Alice, and I'm NOT going to lose him!" Ray insisted boldly.
"I just hope you know what you're doing," Bryce responded quietly.
Wilkenson nodded to Bryce in agreement. With that, the three of them ran ahead with Ray leading the charge.
Before he could step back in to head for the roof where his chopper was waiting, Blyke heared the sounds of footsteps running up behind him. Quick to react, he turned around to face the three individuals head on. Ray came in with a punch, to which Blyke caught the fist and grabbed his forearm, dipping his knees and using Ray's center of gravity to throw him to the ground in the distance beside himself. Bryce came in with a crouched lunge, holding his injured shoulder away with his still weak body after losing so much blood, and decided to pull back and throw in his arm to punch Blyke in the chest, but Blyke's keen reflexes simply leaned back, and smacked Bryce's punch downward before lifting his leg high and kicking Bryce in the face, causing Bryce to be tossed back, winded. Wilkenson, who thought himself all the cleverer, squatted down to the side of Blyke, and threw his center of gravity into Blyke's side. Blyke easily avoided this stunt by turning his back, positioning himself behind Wilkenson, and thrusted himself at the rear, knocking Wilkenson back onto his face. As Ray got up to charge Blyke again, Blyke deflected Ray's punch, and delivered his own into Ray's face, before following up with a side kick to the other side. This threw Ray back once again. Charging in for a push, Bryce was caught by an unexpected trip, as Blyke dropped down, kicking Bryce's legs out and quickly punched up in a fluid motion, pushing his fist into Bryce's chest as he was sent over. When Wilkenson came in for the second attack, Blyke simply grabbed onto his arm, stomped on the back of Wilkenson's shin, gave him an elbow to the face, and gripped him by the forearms to throw him too to the ground beside him.
Wasting no time, Blyke removed the injection device from his toolbelt, and when Ray came running in again, he sidestep kicked Ray's legs off balance, gripping Ray by the chest of his shirt with his right hand, dipping his left arm under Ray's left, and shift his center balance while using all the strength in his arm and leg to flip Ray onto his backside before quickly dropping himself down and stabbing the tranquilizer into Ray's chest.
As the other two came in for one final charge, Ray could feel a burning sensation coursing through his chest, spreading out as a sharp pain began to rise.
Blyke dealt with the other two with ease, as he performed an approaching lunge, raising his center and bashing his shoulder into Bryce's chest, quickly stomping into his calf muscle as he did Wilkenson before, and dipped over kicking Bryce straight in the ribs of his side. Then performing a sideways backstep, he ducked under Wilkenson's right hook, punching just under his armpit to shift Wilkenson, and grapping that shoulder with his left hand, Blyke rose his right arm over the same side and slammed his elbow into the base of Wilkenson's neck while sidestepping in the same direction within a fluid motion, paralyzing Wilkenson and sending him toppling to the ground.
In that moment, Blyke turned around with little resistance and proceeded back inside. Bryce and Wilkenson laying on this ground stunned.
As the sharp, burning sensation progressed throughout Ray's body, he fell into a fit of convulsions like a sudden seizure overriding his entire being. The convulsions were violent and full body, as he screamed hoarsely through his teeth, and droplets of spit erupted out with his pain-filled screams.
Bryce, who had collapsed head on his shoulder, finally came to, as he noticed Ray's body violently shaking on the ground in front of him, foam spewing through his teeth.
"RAY!" he screamed, painfully lifting himself up to rush over to his side. Wilkenson took a bit longer to his senses, and lay on the ground with his body lightly bobbing over as he tried to focus on the scene before him.
More violently than before, Ray's convulsions where practically sending his body vibrating across the floor. His eyes now rolled back into his skull; his ocular veins bulging, bloodshot. The muffled tones of a roar-like scream were squelching through his foaming grind.
Bryce held Ray by the lateral region of his neck, trying to shake him awake in his panic, but Ray remained barely aware.
As Wilkenson regained his focus, he was jumped with shock as he got ready to rush to his feet. "No! Don't touch him!" he shouted to Bryce as he got up and rushed over. He grabbed Bryce by his upper waist and his shoulder, being mindful not to further damage the one with the wound. "Bryce! You can't touch him!" he instructed, doing his best to pull him back.
"Then what am I supposed to do?!" he screamed in a panic. He swore at the condition of his friend. "Ray!" he screamed out again.
"I'm sorry! I know, but there's nothing we can do! We have to let it pass!" Wilkenson tried to reason.
Bryce was in a state of hysteria, as he tried to shake Wilkenson off of him. "No! Not Ray! Not MY friend! Not Ray!"
Ray's convulsions continued, until they came to an abrupt end. He lay there frozen, with his eyes barely open.
"Ray!" Bryce shouted again as he tried again to reach him.
"No! You still can't touch him! You don't know if it's actually over yet!" Wilkenson called out, still trying to restraint him.
It was a bitter chapter, as times came to pass.