Final Fantasy VII: Reflections - Book 1: Descent

NINETEEN

My gun in both hands, I crept through the outskirts as quietly as I could, my eyes and ears alert. I'd seen a few hedgehog pies, but that was all so far. They were like big, bouncing red balls covered in spikes with little arms and legs and big mouths. I hadn't stopped to fight them, not wanting to waste any time, and instead had run onward toward the old highway. Aerith had told me a bit about the place.

I'd heard about the Sector 6 plate collapse, of course. Years ago, the section had completely fallen down to the slums during an accident. It had caused a lot of damage, but fortunately not many people had been living there at the time, so the casualties had been minimal. That story had always scared me, a potent reminder of how precarious life in this city could be. And after all I'd been through, I understood that truth all too well. It was a lesson I wouldn't forget.

"Maddy?" I called, hoping she could hear me.

I was getting closer to the highway and the scene of the attack. As I walked down the junk-lined trail, I called out for Maddy again. Still no answer. I hoped she was alright. There were several abandoned shacks out this way, perfect camouflage for the hell house. But not against me. I knew exactly what to look for. They all had a similar, squarish design, slanting roofs, and a foundation that wasn't fixed to the ground so that it could move in on its prey, even jump.

A few minutes later, I found it.

The house was sitting in a small clearing surrounded by hills made of discarded scrap metal and other debris. It was at the far end, and my eyes narrowed when I saw it. My blood boiled at the thought of what it had done, the pain my creation had caused. I wasn't gonna let it go on, though. I had made this thing, and so it was my responsibility to take it out. Both for those it had hurt and for myself.

A whimper off to the side caught my attention, and I glanced over to my right to see a little girl hiding amidst the junk piles. She was only eight or nine, with glasses and a short ponytail of black hair, and sat on the dirt under some overhanging sheets of rusted steel. The young girl clutched herself and shivered, sniffling in fear.

"Maddy?" I whispered.

She looked up. "W-Who's there?"

I knelt next to her. "It's okay. My name's Jessie, and I'm gonna help you get home, alright? Oates made it back and told us what happened, so I came out here to find you."

"But the h-house... it's alive..." Maddy whimpered.

"I know. And I'm gonna take care of that in a moment. I won't let it hurt you or anyone else, Maddy."

She looked up at me. "You promise?"

"Cross my heart," I said. "Now, can you get up?"

"Yeah, I think so," Maddy nodded.

I took her hand and gently helped her up, then motioned for her to wait behind me outside the clearing where it was safe. She did, her eyes on me as I moved in on the hell house, gun in both hands again, until I stood just outside its sensor range. Once I struck, it would activate, but I'd at least have the advantage of surprise.

Taking careful aim, I fired, the shots startlingly loud in the stillness as I poured bullets into the side of the hell house. It seemed to flinch at the impact, lurching heavily toward me as Maddy shrieked. I fired shot after shot, but as I'd expected, it wouldn't go down so easily. I'd created the thing to fight monsters, after all.

Reaching into my front pocket, I took out one of the grenades, my eyes still fixed on the hell house. When it got close enough, I pulled the pin, threw it, and dove to the side out of the freakish machine's path. It was barely a second later that the pineapple exploded, burning the hell house but not destroying it. The thing reacted faster than I'd expected, its arms and head popping out from behind its scorched walls before it jumped into the air toward me.