The Unwritten Sin

Chapter 38

It was decided that the two of them would take shelter in the large overflow drain just up the beach. It was a large metal culvert in the sand that led back under the streets of the city. During the summer, when the sea was at it's least active and stormy, the water did not come so far up onto the sand, so the two of them would be safe from the high tides. Wilder and James made a hollow in the sand, just inside the culvert, which was still close enough to see a goof chunk of the sky and the sea. 

Just as dawn broke, the very earth rattled with a mighty explosion. Both men awoke in a panic.

"What the hell was that?" Wilder demanded. He felt around for the box of matches that had been in James' cache, and lit one. It was dawn outside, but the inside of the culvert was very shadowy.

James wrapped the blanket around himself and the two scrambled onto the beach. The PCP and the Terrens were engaged in a firefight. The mothership they had been on had returned, with it a dozen smaller ships, which dipped and dove over the city, flashing with gunfire. The surface to ground launchers of the city were all stationed along the streets, quite near to the beach. They shot off their gigantic rounds one after another, KABOOM!

Wilder grabbed James by the arm. "We need to get somewhere safer," he said. "Let's try to make it to the Ministry?"

James nodded. "Yes," he said. "I have clothes there, and there may be weapons in the basement."

Wilder squeezed his shoulder. "Let's go."

The two climbed up the ladder from the beach, only a stones' throw from the tanks. There were some officers there, but not as many as there were droids. Most officers were busy reloading the tanks.

As soon as they had reached the street, a line of fire from one of the alien ships ripped through the asphalt, leaving it red hot only a few feet away. "Angel of God, my Guardian Dear," James said under his breath. "to whom God's love...." The fire from the ship hailed down around them pummeling the skyscrapers. James and Wilder ducked under a fallen fair stall, huddling together as they watched the ships in the sky. Phase City, it seemed, had little in the way of air military.

The PCP robots were capable of flight, but they were tiny and uncapable of holding their own with the guns they were equip with. Wilder squinted at the sky, surveying their next opportunity to move from the stall. "Okay," he said, feeling some energy returning to his body. "They are turning that ship around, we have about seven seconds before it will do another strafe." James was still praying under his breath. His eyes were squeezed shut.

"James. James, you have to be ready to run. Do you hear me?"

A tiny nod.

"Okay, three, two, one........Go!" Wilder pushed James ahead of him as they sprinted out from behind the cart. Wilder had chosen their next spot for cover; an empty PCP car, with the doors torn off. The two of them slid into the backseat, and hunkered down behind the front seats. Wilder looked at the ship across the wreckage and the debris in the street.

 "You're not kidding about the underbelly of a shiny city," he said under his breath. "This is where we have been living all of our lives."

James nodded, clearly shaken. "I am scared Wilder."

"Me too."

Brattatattattatata! The shells pinged off of the windows of buildings on both sides of the car they were hiding in as the alien ship swooped over the city once again. A line of smoking rips in the asphalt opened up inches from their bodies on the street. 

"Oh fuck....."James whimpered. He clutched his rosary and stared at the ceiling of the car, mumbling prayers. 

"Okay, same thing. James are you ready to go? We are going to stick to this alleyway; it runs the length of the city, all the way to the Ministry."

"Okay, behind me; go!"

The two kept low and rushed as quick as they could, running alongside the tall buildings, most of which had their windows broken and blown out. The street was covered in shattered glass, the twisted remains of cars, and dead bodies. So many dead bodies. Wilder had never seen so many in one place before. These were an overwhelming number of businessmen's bodies in the street. As far as he could see, there were no urchins or poor people's bodies. Wilder assumed that this was more than likely because the ones who had been comfortable living in the streets were able to adapt to whatever circumstance.

They paused behind what used to be a banking building. Wilder's face was pressed to the bricks, as he listened to the receding fire from behind them. "Okay," he said. "It's the last stretch. I definitely need to get a weapon."

James, his face pale and sweaty, dried his palms on the blanket. He swallowed hard. Wilder glanced at the golden plaque near the corner of the building they were leaned against. P.C. Bancorp. Property of Damon Institutions Incorperated.

"Wait, James, look at this." He tapped on the plaque. "Could Damon be the one interested in our resources?"

There was another round of cannon fire from the beach, and the two of them rushed out of the relative safety of the banking building, and into the sunlight. The sun, having risen since they had awoken in the culvert, beamed down on Phase City. They ran along the concrete wave barrier above the beach, in the last stretch between them and the Ministry building. They ducked behind the low concrete wall, and Wilder scanned the horizon. He could see the mothership, still perched in the sky, surrounded by the smaller ships as they zipped back and forth. So far, he noticed that one of the tanks on the ground had been destroyed, and as he looked back at the city, he saw more than one building was completely gutted, empty, barren, and broken, looking as if it were about to collapse. The Great Hall building stood, battered and tarnished, it's golden top gleaming in the sun. 

"Oh shit," Wilder said. "James, what happens if they destroy the Great Hall?"

"It's been standing for hundreds of years," James said. "I am sure it can take whatever they are shooting." He shook his head. "I wish I had been able to get our message across yesterday. I feel so awful about it. I want to learn their language. I want to have another chance at letting them all know exactly what lies we have been fed our entire existence."