5.2
Blake had talked about Portland in the past; about how it contained powerful elements that he wanted to find for himself. He'd been open with them about his desire to gain the power to influence the world and direct people onto the path that he thought was right. He'd told them that going to Portland and obtaining those rare elements was a critical step towards accomplishing that dream.
But he's hiding something.
Of course, they all had things that they would rather not share with anyone else. Everyone does.
But Blake was hiding something that was important to their decisions as a group. Something that would be best for all of them to know.
It wasn't like Nikki had much of a choice, though. She wanted to continue her life with the others, and she couldn't force Blake to tell her everything. This life was going to be risky; she knew that, so was there really any reason to get so worked up over something like this?
Even if he's secretive and maybe a little twisted, he wouldn't do anything stupid, she reassured herself.
If nothing else, she could surely be confident that Blake's decisions would be in the group's best interest–he wouldn't bring them on a suicide run through Portland.
"What are we doing tonight?"
The words came from a cold voice that none of them had heard in a while. It seemed that even Eve had found it within herself to be concerned about their current situation.
"Good question," Blake replied. "I'm not sure what we'll do specifically, but we'll need to hole up somewhere, ideally underground. It needs to be someplace we can defend, even if a thousand rogues try to break in."
Suddenly, the distant gunshots rose sharply in volume. It sounded like a full-blown war was taking place ahead.
Do rogues fight each other? Nikki wondered fearfully.
The squad pressed forward with both urgency and caution. Along the way, they saw many things that they'd never even imagined could exist. If it weren't for the knowledge that their lives were in danger or the depression that had been hanging over their heads, they would have gazed at the broken city in awe.
Massive roads came together, criss-crossing over each other in a multi-layered maze of unimaginable weight. They saw parking lots that held hundreds of cars, although every vehicle looked as if it had been picked up by a tornado and dropped hundreds of feet back down to earth.
And after many hours and many miles were behind them, they came upon the most spectacular sight of all.
Several buildings appeared to be merged into one. First, there was a multi-layered grid of concrete and then an elegant, towering red brick building, which was topped with a dazzling silver extension whose hundreds of glass windows glittered a beautiful blue.
When they reached the foot of the towering structure, Blake gazed up at it and read the word "Providence," which was attached high on the wall in large silver letters.
He was surprised the word had survived for so long.
"Something's coming," Nikki spoke hurriedly.
She'd been fretting for several minutes, finally feeling the approach of a distinct danger.
Blake stopped. "Let's go into that building. There must be a basement level. It can be our shelter for the night."
They were already within around two miles of the center of Portland, so they needed to find a place of refuge before venturing much farther.
BANG BANG BANG
Windows shattered, and they sprinted off the road and into the building through a metal shutter that had already been torn apart.
They heard an animal's shriek as they dashed into the hospital's ruined interior, frantically searching for some way into the basement.
Eve spotted a dark, doorless opening that looked promising, and they leapt into it and down the stairs behind without hesitation. The staircase ended in a dark hallway, which they hurtled across before turning into the first room that still had a door. The handle was gone, but the iron slab stayed shut when they closed it.
They'd entered some sort of locker room with perfectly smooth, light gray floors and several rows of baby blue lockers. There were also matching blue benches, although, for everyone except Eve, it was far too dark for them to actually see the colors.
Corvus sat down on a bench, Blake and Nikki paced silently, and Eve stood next to the door without moving.
As they waited out the hours in that pitch-black locker room, the only thing they could hear were the distant reverberations of gunshots from above. It seemed that they'd finally reached the warzone they'd been tailing the entire day.
Was it pure coincidence that they'd found shelter at the exact moment that the rogues were upon them? It wasn't as if it had become twilight yet, so the sudden increase in rogue activity couldn't be attributed to that.
Whatever the reason, the four were happy to be within the safety of an underground room and not up on the surface, getting peppered with bullets.
Blake scratched a hand through his stubble, waiting anxiously for the day to end.
Twilight must be coming soon…
He was right.
Silence hit. Complete silence.
They all froze in the dark. Hours of chaos had been completely cancelled out in a matter of seconds. When the last echoes of warfare dissipated into the earth, the labored breaths of four rebels in a cramped room was the only sound remaining.
Nikki felt a cold tear run down her cheek.
BOOOOOOOOOM
The lockers rattled, and a few pieces of glass from the broken ceiling lights clattered to the floor. Hair-raising shrieks rose among bangs and crashes, so loud that, despite the feet of earth between the source and the lonely group of rebels, they couldn't help but shiver.
It was the first time since entering that room that they'd felt uncertain of their safety.
Nikki slid her back down a locker and crouched against it, hugging her shaking knees to her chest.
This was far too much, and her brain went haywire.
The freakish sounds sent her into a state of extreme panic. She gasped the air in rapid, rattling breaths, her eyes were opened as wide as they could go, and the nausea building in her chest finally broke through as she vomited onto the cold floor.
The fact that she didn't know what was making the sounds made matters far worse, and her unstable mind created the most obscene images possible.
Eventually, she'd fully convinced herself that the room they were in was the monster itself, and she dug her nails so deeply into her calves that they bled.
As quickly as the terror had started, it stopped. The shrieks and bangs faded away, and the earth rested for a moment.
Soon, though, gunshots could be heard again, rising steadily in frequency as the full moon crept higher and higher into the night sky.
Blake exhaled deeply, allowing himself to relax.
Just one more twilight.I'll thank you on the other side.