New Elysium: Breakout

Run**

"The ground has given way to instability
So long, solid foundation and hello, dear anarchy
Impossible to control, impossible to see
So we heed the call into the fall
One and all, embracing entropy" - "Embracing Entropy" - Circle of Dust

The distant shouts and yells from the other inmates grew further away as Red led his little party further into what they had always called "The Wall."

They'd never been inside. The gray-painted walls were shabby, paint flicking off in places. Whatever the prison was on the inside, clearly the guards were not living the life of luxury.

He took one more look at the inside of the prison, one last glance at the dead man on the floor. Then he turned away. Inhaling as he did so, he didn't look back.

He winced every time he heard a shot, the inmates had the other 8 guns but the guards would have had more.

There were knocked-over tables and chairs. They moved slowly through, stepping around the debris.

He was torn. Those other inmates were out there risking their lives because of their plan. But he didn't want to risk those he had with him by following after the group. On the other hand, they'd all been a mob a few minutes ago bent on tearing apart the woman safely slung over his shoulder. If he would have stopped to think about it, he would have realized he was more than ready to risk his life for Ember, but all he could do was shove the anger aside that rose up when he thought about her dying that way.

In the end, he let them go. They could find their own way, they had chosen, it's not like they'd waited even for their leader, Karik who lay dead behind them.

Dag spoke his own thoughts out loud. "We can't save them all today, Red."

Red nodded. Dag was pragmatic, he was also the most caring person Red had the fortune to know. His stiff posture told Red all he needed to know about whether or not Dag liked what they were about to do.

He focused his attention on those with him. Ember he held against his shoulder, clinging to her tightly. The image of her coughing up blood on that table frightened him more than anything. He didn't want to lose her, not now. The two young boys who'd managed to help them, Red nodded to both. He hoped he wasn't leading them to their deaths. Most of all he wanted to get T somewhere he'd get real care, not just left to die because he was considered unfit. Anger roiled through his gut. He would get out of here...

What he would do then, he wasn't sure.

Two Clicks East. It really wasn't that far, but getting out? He tried to remember the rudimentary "tour" he'd been given of the place. Red had been slightly sedated at the time as he was considered dangerous. He'd also been a high-profile prisoner. His death would not have gone unnoticed.

There were undoubtedly others still back there, others imprisoned in mind as well as the body.

I'll come back for you, he promised silently. He didn't want to let the deaths that he knew were occurring be in vain. If these people were still out there, he would come back and level this place to the ground I will wipe this place from history. Nothing would give him more pleasure than reducing the prison complex to rubble.

They'd been left behind. It seemed wrong to speak. He scanned the area again, lighting up the room in neon blue but his scanners picked up nothing. No warm bodies, no heat signatures anywhere near them. Adjusting Ember on his shoulder and the one gun he had he started forward.

Dag's hand landed on his other shoulder, stopping him.

"Red," Dag whispered. "Let me carry Ember."

"I got her," Red whispered back. His hand reflexively tightened around the girl hanging limply over his shoulder.

"Ok," Dag said, "Let's do it this way. I'm stronger and bigger than you. But you've been trained for this and I haven't. I can carry her with my regular arm and still crush the lights out of people with my augment. But I know you can outshoot most of the guys here, so I want you on point. Unencumbered."

Red paused. For some reason, thinking of Ember as an encumberment struck a nerve, but he knew Dag was only pointing out facts. Red wasn't nearly as tall as Dag, and Dag probably wouldn't even break a sweat carrying her.

"Fine," he shifted her off his shoulder and moved her as gently as he could over to Dag's. Dag stood and straightened. The two silent boys were still behind him and Red almost laughed out loud at the ridiculousness of it all. T's eyes were wide with fear and poor Alt, whose eyes were hidden behind his augments clutched at his arm.

What they were after was impossible.