Entries for Write To Rank 2023 Contest by @Action
! NOVA : A Story In Snippets !
In a dystopian world where most lives are confined into walled steel cities, Nova - the daughter of the 13th City's renowned pharmacist, joins the Society of the Shield...
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Five men patrolled the front gate of the abandoned city of the old, perished world; once in ruins now inhabited by the Wilds. Weapons rested upon their shoulders, as burden of enmity.
Nova crawled in through a breach in the boundary wall created in a quiet noon by the shielders, and sneaked inside past the guards.
Her breaths escaped in hasty puffs, while she adjusted her night vision glasses, stepping cautiously to cause no noises.
She hurried to a facility near the boundary wall, powering the passcoded front gate. All city gates connected to their corresponding facilities; each gate locked by the same pass code changed every day.
Dull light inside the building spilled out from the windows, providing enough clarity for the guards on duty, without betraying any of its secrets.
Nova pulled the trigger, embedding the speared head of the cable into an eave; and attaching it to her belt, she climbed to the unlit roof.
She shook her arms, rolling her shoulders and detaching the cable from the spearhead and her belt, as it coiled back into her hand propeller.
Enveloped by darkness, she stepped towards a metal door leading down and inside the premises. She inserted a laser blade in the gap between the locked door and the frame.
She clicked the small button; it flashed red, slicing the bolt as the door swung ajar. Nova slipped inside the stair cover, shutting the door behind her.
She rushed down the stairs, the floor plan from shielders' practice clear afront her eyes. She climbed two floors down and to the floor spilling light outside. She glued herself to the shadows next to the wall, quickening her trained pace.
At last, she faced the door of the control room, and pushed her way in. Closing the panel, she flashed the torch around and discovered it vacant; she assessed the screens tracking the security system of wild's, blinking red or beeping green when any entryway unlocked.
She flicked her gaze to the thick stack of documents on the table opposite the screen, illuminated by the monitor.
Nova flipped page after page, skimming through it quickly, before reaching the page with the daily pass code. Gripping the torch with her mouth, she snapped pictures of the page they sought to keep secret.
The doorknob rotated with a rusty creak, alerting her. She snapped up, breath seizing as she abruptly switched off the torch. The door swung open. She ducked behind the table, clutching the document with the passcode; forgetting her digital camera on the table.
The device flashed brightly, blinding the armed guards, as chaos ensued.
Nova exhaled, keeping panic at bay while preparing for an escape. Neon spinning lights impaired her sight while the alarms blared deafeningly.
In practice sessions, she performed finely; but on a covert mission deep behind enemy lines, she failed to avoid follies.
Footsteps thudded, nearing the table she hid behind. She stuffed the document in her pocket, and extracted a gun.
A shot resounded louder than the blaring siren, embedding in the opposite wall. With her finger on the trigger, she took blind aims, evoking yells and calls for backup, diverting the focus of the guards as she ran to the cabinet near the door.
Two armed men. She needed to neutralize two armed men.
She peeked from the space in the rotting wooden cabinet, a clear sight and a clearer shot. She fired at one man, hitting his leg, as the second ducked and released a rain of bullets.
One shot after the other; just when she thought him never running out, he did, and she aimed at the top of his head.
A stampede thundered onto the floor of the control room, while she sprinted out of the cabin and upstairs with the guards hot on her trail.
Bullets gushed from behind her, flooding her escape. She fired a few at her disposal, a few finding their mark while the rest deterred them for no longer than a second.
She slipped on the stairs, her knee colliding with the edge, as bullets whizzed past her in a storm from the floor below. She struggled to a stand; one bullet grazed her shoulder as another lodged deep into the same. Nova screamed, blood trickling down her right arm.
She scrambled the rest of the stairs, reaching the roof. The metal door glinted dimly. She raced, kicking open the door, and slamming it as hastily to evade the flurry of bullets.
She shot the red glare up into the sky, signalling the copter whirring to view with a rope ladder swinging down from it.
The metal door banged open as she jumped on the ladder, uncaring about the spreading pain in her right, and yelling for the pilot to steer to safety.
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