Afterburner (SS Mini-Series)

Episode 4-4: Love Love

My bleeding foot launches off of the nearest Adoring Fan and boosts me up high enough to grab the emergency fire ladder on this building. I ascend quickly, and the horde below is using the same method by helping each other up to reach the ladder. Too much weight is put on the latch, breaking it and letting the ladder fall down to street level.

I feel like I'm being chased by a pack of ferals. Just looking down and seeing their uncanny smiling faces sends a gruesome image of my death right into my psyche. They'll pull me apart, pull my skin off, break my fingers off. What a horrible way to die.

I skip breaking into the window and just climb up to the roof. The clustered buildings allow me to jump from top to top, but the horde isn't far behind. They jump and perform dangerous acrobatics just to keep up with me. I watch one of them fall down and land with a bounce. He just gets up and starts climbing the ladder again with a broken arm.

Love Love is down below, but he's not confident enough to keep his cool walk. He's running, his body is still bleeding. There's no way he can slip away from me when I've got a bird's eye view. I jump on another roof, but he turns and crosses the street. I have to get down to follow! There's no quick way down. I'm going to have to carefully scale this building.

A strong hand grabs my wrist on my way down. A stranger's wide eyes stare back at me trying to pull me back up.

"You're so pretty up close! I'd like to sink a deep bite into that neck of yours!"

"Fuck!"

I tug back, using my body weight and leverage to force his balance to rock. He falls, but he doesn't let go. I have to use his body as a landing pad to make sure I don't break any bones hitting the sidewalk. I'm sorry, I hope you'll be okay after this is over. I dart for the turn Love Love made, but it's a dead end with a locked door.

The mob unfortunately used the first guy as a landing pad too, there's no way he survived. They chase me to the dead end, I keep shaking the door hoping somebody will let me in. They're almost here! The window! I can use the window to get in, but it's too high up. I don't have a choice but to slowly climb the loose bricks and hope I can make it.

The mob claws at the wall I'm holding onto. I slowly advance, shaking with every pull. My fingers grab onto the slim sill of the window with barely enough room for the tips. Somehow, a fan manages to grab my shoe. My body weight plus theirs is too much for my fingers to handle, but I hold on, I have to. I can't pull myself up. I feel them climbing up to my pant leg. If they get to my head or neck, I'm coming down with them.

I risk holding on with one arm, my other hand undoes my belt and pants button. I unzip them, and the pants are yanked off of me along with my last shoe. The stranger falls back into the mob, and they wrestle for the pants and shoe, even hurting the one who grabbed it in the first place.

My whole body launches up to get me in a good position to bust the window open with my elbow. Sure, shards get stuck in my arm, but that's better than the alternative. I climb in and head for the first floor. Love Love is cutting through and exiting through another. I would've followed if I didn't hear the front door breaking down and hundreds of footsteps stampeding in.

The stairs going up are my best bet. They take me to roof access again. Luckily, there's a gutter I use to slide down and reach street level with the mob still trapped inside. Once one of them spots me from a window, it's like the hive mind was notified, and they break down the door sprinting straight for me.

Love Love almost lost me, but there he is running down another alley. He's hoping to confuse me with all these weird routes, but I almost have him. He's so close! The mob claws at the air behind me, I don't have much of a lead on them. Even Clyde is still there somewhere, trapped in the middle of all that.