Sky Corruption (Past Tense)

Chapter Twenty

It's has been over an hour since everyone in the bunker had decided to to turn in for the night. That was, except for Winter and China. Winter had promised to make sure that Bob was alright and that she'd stall the others by letting them think that China had a headache and that she couldn't be disturbed, if anyone were to look past the lie, it would be Nikki, but Nikki has covered for China before, she has a way of saying things without actually lying.

Winter sat cross-legged on her bedding, watching as China slid her track jacket over her body. Her eyes flickered to the revolver that was holstered along China's navy blue dolphin shorts. China looked over her shoulder at her sister.

"I know that look..." China chirped, turning around to face her sister, she walked over to her side of the room, knelt down so that they were at the same eye-level.

She gave Winter's shoulder a squeeze, "I'll be okay, I'll come right back as soon as I find what we need."

"I envy your bravery." Winter whispered sheepishly.

"Stop it, you make me sound like one of those guys with the capes on tv." China mumbled as she rubbed her neck, "I'm just my regular, boring old self."

"Boring?" Winter retorted, "You literally get to witness everything I can't on the surface."

China's eyes glinted with a bit of hope, "You say that like you'll stay here forever, someday I'm gonna drag you out there to see Lady Liberty."

Winter giggled in response, "Be careful China."

"Always." China reassured her as she sauntered her way toward the door. She carefully opened and closed it after her in order to keep the noise from catching the attention of the others in the bunker, leaving Winter all alone in their room.

--

It didn't take long for China to sneak out of the bunker and the junkyard. In fact, she's far away from her humble abode, walking amongst the vacant streets of West Broadway. China felt her shoulders slump a little as her hands tightly gripped on the straps of her backpack. The cold autumn wind flown through her long braids.

She glanced up at the stars, Hopefully it's nice up there Shelly. She thought to herself as she continued down the street.

There was an ominous blue light down the road, the sound of the something gurgling and blades sharpening is just enough of a warning to China.

She quickly dove into the nearest alley on her very left, her eyes analyzed the brick wall in front of her. She always had this trick of climbing along brick walls, it took a lot of upper body strength but this is little challenge for the determined teen.

Her nimble fingers guided along the cracks of the walls, seconds passed
as she climbed and she's a silver away from the rooftop of the building. She pulled herself onto the roof, standing firmly on her feet.

A gust of wind rushed by and China drew in a deep breath. "The view is great..." She mumbled to herself.

She continued her light sprint across the roof, peering toward the other building. She gazed down at the alley below her, if she were to fall, it would be game over, especially when the outsiders like to continue their sick hunt at night. But the gap was realistic enough for China to leap over, as long as she had the right momentum.

The wind blew through her hair once more. You got this, it's not like the building is gonna budge. It's several feet lower so this ain't a problem.

China moved back a fair distance from the ledge of the rooftop, she took a deep breath and started running as fast as her legs can carry her. She leapt at a forty five-degree angle, threw her arms back and tucked her knees into her stomach as she landed on the other side of the building by the balls of her feet as she straightened her legs out. She made sure her hands placed themselves on the ground of the roof as she lowered her torso and bended her knees, causing her entire body to tuck and roll across the new rooftop she had just landed in. She felt her heart slamming itself against her ribcage as her entire body grew hot. This was China's guilty pleasure, she gets off from the adrenaline.

The parkour, the building hopping, the fact that she could swing on clotheslines without a care in the world, and the sight of the Statue of Liberty (or Lady Liberty according to China) was enough to satisfy the young girl.

It wasn't like she didn't like traveling with the others, whenever she did, her actions were restricted, calculated, she wasn't able to feel this immense and powerful feeling that she's feeling right at this moment. She let out a breathless giggle as she rose from the ground.

She continued to run along the roof, repeating this method several times, the gaps between the buildings were less than seven feet so it wasn't so much of a hassle for China.

China had snuck out many times before, she's had so much experience with leaping, climbing, and vaulting these mere obstacles, her biggest challenge had to be when she attempted to climb this construction site a while back, it resulted in a sprained ankle, but that didn't bother China.

Aside from China's great optimism, she was extremely athletic, she wasn't spider-man of course, but by a realistic stand-point, she would've come off as a close second to your favorite neighborhood friend. Part of the reason why she enjoyed being out on the surface is because she got to be as active as she wanted to be.

Once she had reached the fourth building, she had peered over the ledge, checking for outsiders down in the alley below her. No sign of the outsiders or any other life form.

China climbed her way down along the wall and carefully had her feet bear down on each crevice of each brick. The pharmacy wasn't far from where she is. Normally, she'd take the easy route and go past the cluttered vehicles but that would've been too risky since she'd be in a open area.

She carefully set her feet on the ground and continued her way down the dark, creepy streets of Manhattan.