Chapter 3 The Dead City

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     The Dygress screeched out of the Kyndrac Force Base, leaving a trail of mauled bodies behind it. The vehicle swerved onto the streets of a rotting city. Raven looked up out of the window at the deserted section of their city, a crumbling littered wreck. She tried to think back to what her parents told her; about the days when this part of the city was homes, families, jobs, and the joys of life in itself. People, innocent ones, lived their lives here. What a life like that must have been like, Raven only tasted it once before and it was far too long ago to remember. The day this part of the city became dead was after... He… destroyed all life in it, only the desolate ruins of skyscrapers and lost history remained there now. Raven's thoughts were interrupted when she heard gunshots go off and she looked over at Jynx in panic. Jynx looked in the rear view mirror, and there behind them was two trucks filled with Force soldiers!

"We've got a tail!" Jynx exclaimed,

"We can't go back to the base with them following us, at least were in the ruins region of the city, we can't hurt anyone while we lose them," Raven held onto her seat as the car drifted over a sharp turn and then continued. Raven grabbed her pistol, leaning out of the passenger window she shot five guards in their army trucks. Soon one of them brought out a sniper rifle and Raven receded into their vehicle.

"Ok so much for that idea" Raven winced as the bullet of the rifle ricocheted off the door next to her arm. Suddenly they heard a rasping cough from the back seat, Raven looked back to see Ivory’s arms shaking intensely as if they were trying desperately to move.

"Damn it Ivory, why now, we could sure use those ninjitsu skills of yours" She growled,

" Were getting further from our course, need to lose these pests now!" Jynx protested. Suddenly a suburban array of houses appeared around the corner,

" Hold on, I got this" Jynx reassured and she drifted around a house, the soldiers still on their trail. She then unexpectedly turned, sending the first truck crashing through an abandoned house. The second wasn't so easily fooled. The Dygress crashed back onto the road, the second remaining truck gaining fast. Raven checked Ivory again, who now was staining the seat in red blotches. The gash on her forehead made long streams of blood mask her face, which slowly went relaxed as she started to fall unconscious. A doubtful frown drew across Raven's face and she sat in hard thought for a moment.

"Please tell me you have an idea," Jynx ask in frustration rather than worry as she turned the steering wheel with angry, desperate force.

"

Yes! Jynx, that alleyway, Now!" Raven pointed in a gap between two buildings that was just barely big enough to fit he vehicle, but was crumbling at the seams. Jynx didn't like it, but she trusted Raven with her life, so she spun the steering wheel, causing the whole vehicle to swerve and shred the corner of the wall on the long building to their right. The army truck, of course, followed.

"Raven...?!" Jynx said doubtfully,

"Ram the wall now!" Raven commanded

"But-"

"Now!" Raven demanded, Jynx did what she said and as she did, a massive chunk of rock wall came loose from miles above. It crumbled off the building and plummeted downwards, picking up speed with every second. Instinctively, Jynx pressed down the gas, causing the Dygress to charge faster as the rock fell. Then the crash came. It crushed the army truck, and then hit the Dygress. The windows suddenly shattered, showering the vehicle in its shimmering glass like rain. They were flung forward into the front dashboard and the darkness hit instantly.

When Jynx came to, she felt hard pavement underneath her, she heard the crackling of a fire and the muffled hum of wind that carried the scent of some sort of food and more or less surprisingly the stench of death and rot. As her vision cleared she felt someone tugging on her shoulder and saying words that became clearer as her hearing returned as well.

"...Jynx...come on...up...you ok Jynx? Can ...hear me?" Jynx regained her bearings to see Ivory nudging her into consciousness.

"Uugh...Ivory?"

"Oh thank Dymia" Jynx rolled her eyed at Ivory using the term of Dymia who was the religious god of Ethrenal, their homeland. The same homeland which was, in fact, screwed to hell, Jynx reminded herself. It didn’t matter much though since that none of them was particularly religious themselves. Suddenly she jumped back to reality when Ivory spoke up again.

"You're one lucky person to have me wake up when I did. If you guys had slid forward any further and that jacked up mound of glass would have had your heads. That must have been one hell of a crash..."

"Crash?!..." Suddenly the memory hit her like a punch to the face. The car chase, the mission, everything.

"Oh my god...Ivory you idiot, going after that port! Are you insane-?" Ivory stopped her by raising her hand.

"Cool your temper jynx. I came to in the back seat of a busted up Dygress that was almost crushed, I feel half dead, I can barely move, and both my friends out cold inches away from a death trap of glass and car parts. I have more important things to worry about-" Jynx grabbed her arm in rage,

"More important than your personal wellbeing?” Jynx stared into her defiant, devilish red eyes; Ivory returned the cold stare with them,

"Yes", she said flatly. Jynx, without anything more to say, reluctantly let go of her arm and Ivory sat back on the other side of the small fire when Jynx suddenly became aware of her other friend lying beside her.

"Raven?! Hey snap out of it!" She said with a slight panic, snapping her fingers in front of her face.

"Shut you loud mouth, I got a bloody headache" Raven moaned, stirring slightly. This caused Ivory to chuckle a bit before refocusing on poking the fire with a long pointed stick. Raven looked up, seeing the smashed in Dygress a little ways away.

“How are we supposed to get back now…?” She murmured half to herself.

"Simple," Ivory rasped a bit after a small coughing fit, putting down her poking stick beside her. She casually took a can of soup that had been cooking on a rack above the fire and stirred it with a partially mangled spoon and continued.

"We walk. They don't leave cars in this deadened part of Kyndrac," This perked Jynx into attention.

"Walk to BASE from HERE?!" Jynx exclaimed in disbelief,

"We could use the exercise" Raven pointed out, turning to Jynx, only to be returned by a bemused, ice cold stare from her golden eyes.

"But that's like, like how long?" Jynx started partially in question.

"Roughly three days’ time, give or take a little" Ivory answered, seeming more concentrated on trying to scrape the last bits of soup from the bottom of the can into three bowls. Raven gave an amused smile as Jynx huffed in frustration, and then turned her focus back on Ivory.

"Where did you get all this stuff from anyway?"

" lucky find actually, there’s an abandoned variety store across the street", Ivory responded as she stood up and walked over to them. She then handed Raven a bowl of soup, then another to Jynx. This caused Raven to shake her head sadly,

"Amazing what Voice keeps here away from the needy people in that are in the’ live’ part of the city..." At this each of them grew upset expressions. Jynx clenched her fist at the thought. Voice was the evil tyrant of Ethrenal but he gave his orders from Ambersite, the capital city. Since Voice was more than careful to ensure his safety, when became ruler after his so called ‘Rebellion’, he decided to run his new land from the capitol and made Kyndrac the base of operations. It ruined their home, and as much as Jynx wanted to drive her fist through his black heart for it, it did mean they could get information from right here in their cozy little wasted land of a city. At least it made terrorizing his plans and military that much easier, and that’s why she loved being part of the resistance. However it was no easy task defeating a man who you know next to nothing about. Take his name for example; basically no one knew his real name. He became “Voice” when he ran the war of the Death Age Rebellion. “Voice of the People” sort of idea, but now it meant so much more now that he’d ruined everything. Ever since the war’s end it’d all become a sick game to him and his followers. A golden age in which they were invincible and they crush everyone who is below them. Homeless, starving, the poor and sick that can’t fend for themselves, and even those who barely get by as it is, you name it. As Jynx figured, their resistance was the best chance for hope that there was, if there really was any left out there.

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