RELOAD

1: In The Beginning

Rena ran on loose gravel as the cold rain slid down her soaked back. Her left foot hit an unstable patch of ground causing her to stumble forward, hands hitting the ground in slaps as she caught herself from falling into the mud. Tears, indiscernible beneath the rain, streaked down Rena's cheeks as she kept to the outer ridge of the slippery slope she was on. I can't believe I'm crying over those bastards, she thought. They don't deserve my emotions. Regardless of her thoughts, sobs rung out into the downpour and Rena pressed on, evermore determined to escape her captors. And by some miracle, the means by which she could get away came barrelling around the bend. 

Twin lights swung across the ground to her left and then Rena saw the vehicle that could be her saving grace, nevermind they were headed in the wrong direction. Careful not to slip off the hill into the canyon on her right, Rena stood still and began to calculate how exactly she could get the driver to stop. There's no way they'll see me in the dark.

She glanced around for something to throw, and settled on a good-sized rock. Then she waited until the vehicle, a truck she now saw, was only a few paces away before running towards it and throwing the rock towards the windshield. Instead of braking to a stop or even slowing down, Rena heard an awful squealing sound and watched as the driver freaked out, veering the truck off the road and into a sycamore tree.

She followed the destructive path with her eyes as the truck slammed into the huge tree, making the back end bounce up and pound back down again. She flinched as the steel hood bent backwards, and had to look away when the tailgate hurtled off into oblivion. When she dared to look back at the carnage, she saw a very tall, very angry young man struggling to exit his totaled vehicle. As he tumbled out onto the ground, his black truck burst into digital-looking, yellow-white squares behind him and disappeared.  

Rena didn't know what to do, but as much as she felt horrible for crashing his truck, she knew she couldn't stick around much longer. They're still coming. She did the best thing she could think of and spun around, continuing to trudge on up the hill in hopes of avoiding the pending conflict. But the driver had no intention of letting her get away that easy.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Rena kept moving forward in hopes he'd realize it was futile to talk to her, but he didn't take the hint. "Hey! Chick! You just wrecked my truck! Where do you think you're going?!" Rena kept moving one foot in front of the other, going back to embracing the pelting rain on her face. "Oh no you don't!" All of a sudden, her right arm was yanked backwards and her movement stopped.

In the milisecond it took to pull her around to face him, Rena killed what little light there was left in her eyes and maneuvered her expression into one of careful blankness. She stared into the distance as he glared at her. "What the hell were you thinking!? Huh!?" The angry stranger waited two seconds for a response he would never get and then continued yelling at her. "Who's gonna' pay for this?! You know how many credits that cost me!?" He glanced behind him. "Oh God, my poor baby! There's no bringing her back from this; YOU killed her!" Pointing a finger in her face, he intensified his glare. "You're buying me a new truck, you hear me?!" 

Rena kept silent and still throughout the rest of his four minute tirade, looking just to the the left of his nose with a dead expression. He needs to get over this quick; I have people to run away from. And technically HE crashed his truck; I only hit it. When she was just starting to entertain the idea of seeing how fast she could sprint away from him and get on with the rest of her miserable life, he stopped and just stared at her. "Are you listening to a WORD I'm saying?" No, not really. Can you be done with this already? Rena rose her eyebrow in response to his question, the only reaction he had gotten out of her since the crash.

The young man huffed in frustration and crossed his arms. "Well, what are we going to do about this mess?" I don't know what you're going to do but I'M going to walk away now. And right before she followed through with that thought, she made the mistake of looking into his colbalt blue eyes. They widended into manga-like proportions and Rena had to resist chuckling at the image, fighting hard to keep her unaffected demeanor. His lips parted in shock and the tan arms that had only just been crossed slackened to hang loose by his sides. "You...you..."