(*Note: TW-violence, TW-blood*)
(Ben Harris pov.)
Only a few townspeople are still in the streets, trying not to get in the way of the blasts.
Due to all the fighting, a big sign breaks off one of the buildings, crashing down towards them with a rumbling sound.
They all scream, clutching at each other, but nothing happens.
When they look up, they realize that they are surrounded by an orange force field.
Valerie shouts after disabling her field:
"Go there! Come on, guys!"
The people are startled and slowly rush towards the way she pointed to.
Valerie and I were instructed to keep the people away from harm, as long as it takes for the others to locate doctor Snyder and get the code.
I sigh with relief while distracting the drones in my fox form, too fast to be caught. At least my durability isn't as useless.
That was a close one.
Good job, Val.
While the drones are too focused on me, Valerie uses smaller force fields to smash the drones to pieces.
That's when a pigeon lands next to me, I listen to what he has to say before he flies away again and warn Valerie:
"We should hurry, apparently there are more on their way."
"Never have I ever thought that we're going to fight against drones."
Valerie huffs as she destroys another drone, crushing him by reducing the space in one of her sphere.
"Me too, let's hope they-"
My senses perk up all of a sudden and I turn around, noticing a drone behind Valerie.
She can't see it!
It floats towards her with full steadiness and in that same moment, I don't hesitate for a second.
Running up to her as fast as possible, I shout:
"Val, watch out!"
Turning back into myself when I reach her, I shove her away.
A blast gets fired.
It barely misses her, hitting another target instead.
For a second, I seem to have forgotten how to breathe.
In the next, I hit the ground hard.
"No!" She exclaims and kneels down to me
"Ben, are you-"
Valerie helps me to sit up, her face pales when she sees the wound on my right upper arm.
It feels like it's burning, stinging even more when I try to move.
Blood trickles down my arm, staining my sweater into an even darker brown.
"I'm... fine. We have to-"
I resist the urge to hold my hand to the wound when another pack of the machines surrounds us.
They start blasting from all sides without a warning.
Still, Valerie manages to react faster, putting up another shield around us.
At first, it doesn't seem that bad, except for the fact that I'm wounded, but I notice Valerie struggling as she tries not to move her hands away.
She grunts:
"I- I don't know for how long I can hold it up-!"
The drones aren't ceasing their fire, only doubling it.
That's too much for her.
Valerie crumples to one knee, but her field remains up, even though it's only a matter of seconds before it will dissolve.
Damn it! I wish I could actually help for once-
I look around us.
Maybe there's a way to escape, if I use my fox form I could get her out of here.
But I notice that it's not possible, no matter which way we would run to, the drones would shoot us on sight.
We're surrounded.
I can't help but blame myself for this, realizing that I was the one targeted.
I am heir to the Harris family, no doubt they'd want to eliminate me next.
And now I've brought her into this.
"Val, I have something to tell you."
"What?"
"I have something to tell you!"
"No, I heard you- what do you want to say?!"
It's now or never.
"... I- I like you- a lot!
I love the way you smile and laugh- the way you make me laugh!
I love the way you do your hair, how you always try to see the best in people- I love it when you talk about the most random topics-
Gosh, Valerie-
I love you!
No one comes as close as you do."
For a moment, her eyes dive into mine, her face showing nothing but surprise.
But only for a moment.
Then she smiles at me with such warmth that I forget the pain in my arm.
She replies softly:
"I love you too. More than you know."
She then stretches out her right hand my way while the other one keeps on holding the shield up, I take it.
Our hands clasp, and for a brief moment, the world seems to fade away, leaving just the two of us.
I don't mind the pain, I forget the situation we're in and everything bad that has happened in the last few days.
Right now, even if this is my last moment, there's no other place I'd like to be than here.
A crashing sound startles us back into the present, our focus quickly shifting to the urgent need for help.
YOU ARE READING
Problems of the Gifted
Science Fiction"That's it, right? Everything you did was because you were afraid that things would go this way. You were afraid that you would fail. You were afraid of me. Let me tell you something. You should be." (Quote from a character) A new year at the Academ...
