Awoken 3: An Endless Nightmare

Chapter 15: Fighting Back

8190 words. I suppose that's why this chapter took so long to write. Ah well, at least it's a long one. Enjoy.

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"Okay, let's get going." Deadshot nodded towards the Factory. "Everyone form a circle around Blueprint. I want him in the middle so that he isn't shot from the sides."

I nudged Blueprint into the center of our formation. "Err... Guys? Would now be a good time to tell you that I just realized it's almost been a full week since Tyra cast a cloud walking spell on me? That.... Could be a problem..." He said quietly.

Both Deadshot and I stared at him in disbelief. "Are you serious?! Why didn't you think of this earlier?!"

"It completely slipped my mind..." He looked at the ground.

Deadshot cursed. "How long do you think you have?"

He shrugged. "Tomorrow morning, probably. Tyra cast one on me last Saturday so that I could visit Amber in upper Cloudsdale. That was right before we left for your place." He looked over at me. "About 8:00 I think."

"So we only have until 8:00 tomorrow... That's just great..." I muttered.

"We'll work around it. Depending on what division of the Factory we end up in, we may be dealing with concrete flooring, which he should be able to walk on just fine," Deadshot said thoughtfully. "It's only the cloud floors that we have to worry about him falling through."

"What about you? You're a unicorn. You need a cloud walking spell, don't you?" I glanced over at her skeptically. "Can't you renew it?"

She shook her head. "I'm not very advanced in magic like that. I get help from a friend of mine. He's pretty powerful, and his spells last about a month. We don't have time to seek him out, we have to go now. The other two teams have already left, we can't back down."

"Hmph. Let's go then. We'll just have to be quick about it."

"I'm aware of that," she hissed. "Remember who's the commander here."

I gritted my teeth. "I'm never going to call you that."

"Whether or not you choose to use my title doesn't change the fact that I'm in charge, and you're not. Get into position, we're leaving." She switched on her mic.

"Slight technical difficulties. Special ops is moving out now." She announced quietly. Nodding to the entrance, she motioned us to go, and we darted out from behind the cover of the bushes.

Hooves pounded on the dirt ground as we made our way towards the Factory. As we began to get closer, Deadshot ducked herself into a bush, and the rest of us hurried to similar cover.

"What is it?" I hissed.

She nodded to the entrance. "Do you see the guard?"

I squinted into the darkness. "No."

"That metal grill beside the door, do you see it? He's behind that."

When I squinted again, I could only barely make out the shadow of the guard on the wall to his right. "How in the world did you notice that?"

"Good eyes."

"We'll have to get closer-"

"I'll shoot him from here, just sit tight." She drew her pistol from her belt, hovering it into the air above her head, and dropped her machine gun, quickly flipping down the visor that attached to her headset.

I stared at her. "From here? Deadshot, the guy's gotta be a least 100 yards away, there's no way you can make that shot with a pistol."

She gazed at me out of the corner of her eye. "Watch me."