Saxifrage Fire

0035

She keened her eyes on 1st Street as it approached; it was the last road on the lake level and it bowed before the slight incline of the capitol buildings: the theater, the courthouse, her university, and the crowned jewel of the Capitol building itself carved out of the mountain. All appeared to be still on the gleaming streets which meant Ezi's company hadn't reached them yet.

Headlights gleamed from 1st street.

"We're blocked!" she called.

"I've got it! Keep driving!"

She felt him fasten something around her middle and glanced down to see that he'd locked them together with his weapons belt.

She took the turn sharp to avoid the first spray of bullets from the Garda team only yards ahead. Oshi's arms left her middle set on her shoulders as he aimed his pistols. She gripped the handle and accelerator with white-knuckled strength casting them into a speed that made her stomach drop as she set her eyes on the gap between two trucks.

Oshi fired in a fast sequence and Garda fell to the street.

A few brave ones rushed to the edge of their path, taking aim.

She heard the shing of Oshi's swords and winced, expecting to be wrenched back, but his swords sliced clean through the Garda then slashed the tires as they flew between the trucks.

She cackled in relief at the sight of the open road before them.

1st Street led straight through the beach into the eastern side of the city's cove district. She braked and they leapt off into the snow coated sand of the shore being torn apart by blasts of fire and sand and the throttling of gunfire only yards ahead of them. Garda trucks were parked or blown to bits around them, abandoned by their owners who had rushed by foot to overtake Ezi's company. She struggled through the deep sand, screaming into her radio.

"Ezi!"

Static.

She whipped out her staff and turned to Hitoshi.

"Search near the water. I'll take to the streets!"

He nodded and took off running on the wet sand to find his sister.

She watched him, petrified for a moment, as she realized she'd let him escape her company so easily. What if something happened? She pushed the thought away, then took off up the beach towards the cobblestone street.

She held her staff in ready position at her side as she rushed through an alleyway of the shorefront businesses and into the street that crackled with gunfire. She froze at the sight of people in pyro-black on their knees, being blown to bits by the Garda's relentless firing. Rage ignited and she moved faster than she could think- striking down a Gard with her flaming staff and then ducking in front of a truck, her shadow stretching yards in front of her by the intense headlights. She saw boots and whipped her staff around cracking the woman's skull before she could shoot.

A Gard shouted nearby.

"IT'S ATLAS! TAKE HER OUT!"

Bullets pelted the truck, shattering the windshield and denting the side nearest her.

She struggled to breathe and every cell in her body begged for her run for her life. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to remember the last moment she felt safe; her memory took her back to when Ezi grabbed her collar and pulled her in kissing her lips. She pulled out her radio and pressed in the code.

"Ezi! I'm on 2nd street! Where are you?"

She tensed as she heard her own voice echoing faintly, with static, somewhere from behind her. She dropped to the ground to peer under the truck and spotted Ezi's figure strewn on the ground beside a truck only a several yards away.