City of Light

Chapter 7

"You have to listen to me, okay? I know you can hear me." His beautiful voice gives me the courage to open my eyes, I feel weak. Nothing makes sense, I see a massive gray cloud with a mix or orange and green swimming through its mass. The wind flies debris at my face, I squint to tell whats going on. My arms are limp at my sides and my body against him as he holds me. His cold metal body brings me to the realization that he never forgot me, he came for me. He's here... Why is he metal, where did his body go? I want to ask him so many things, but none will be answered where we lay. I look at him where his eye would be.

"What..." I try to say anything but my voice is shattered from the crying.

"I know, I know okay. You have questions, lots of them but you need to trust me. " His voice is a bit synthesized behind the metal but I can hear his true soft spoken voice through it all. He takes out a small syringe with orange glowing liquid. He rolls up my sleeve and finds a big vein. He would be the only one to know that. He injects it and I become light headed.

"That's normal. I'm going to pick you up and take you away from this." He picks me up and starts running.

"Where..." I try not to slur my words or vomit.

"Mercy had her dose she's fine. She's safe." I take a sigh of relief. I know she is safe if he says she's safe. We run past the apartment building and away from the mall. From behind us, I watch the cloud consume it all. Why is this happening? Isn't our world damaged enough already? Guess not. He is running faster than the cloud his robotic legs make big strides, swiftly dodging debris.

"It's up ahead." He's focused, determined, my eyes fight to stay open. In the distance I see Mercy waving us down. An old corn field, she stands under a black tree, in a few moments we stand with her. My legs shake, I lean on the tree for support, the lights in his pressurizing holes light up showing a beam that doesn't seem to fade. He lays a wire around the tree in a circle and a barrier becomes of it, Encasing us, protecting us from the debris. I try to take calm deep breaths but fail miserably.

"I know you, why are you nervous?" He sits on the tree next to me. Back home I was a rock, I never got nervous or scared. I rarely cried, and he made me smile.

"Can you blame me? Black rain took away life, this storm is going to turn everything into dust, and..." I stop and look at him, he knows what I mean by that.

"I... I don't know what to tell you. Sorry? Sorry for risking my life to track you down and bring you home. Sorry for loving you..." He stops as he knows if he were to go any further he would end up blaming him self for everything, which is not in a million years true.

"Why did you choke Mercy?" I look at her and a thick red line is around her neck.

"I thought she was deadly." How can a child be deadly I think, even one named Mercy? What has he done to think like that?

"You thought what?" I try not to yell as I am furious.

"I had to kill children Tactic! Three children to find you! They just kept shooting at me, they were so full of thoughts that the Protectors are so evil that two of them charged at me with guns and my armor just ricocheted them all, one boy kept on firing, all I heard behind me was grunts and cries then it all stopped and I look back and one of his bullets finally put one in his skull. A young girl not even ten came at with a modified revolver. I told her to stop not like all the others, I turned around to try to get her to go home but she held the gun to her head and told me I'm not dying for you. Then boom, half her head is gone. That was my fault I should have never turned around. The third, he... he came at me with a bomb, I heard the ticking under his clothes, he came towards me crying, I tried taking the bomb but he threw it and I put up my barrier and it hit him, then just red, pieces flew everywhere. I just thought Mercy was going to do something that I wanted to happen again." His voice withers and shakes. I'm almost to a cry, I never realized such hatred people possessed.

"I found her!" A loud raspy voice comes from around us. Were are surrounded by hunters with shotguns and rifles.

"Stay the hell back!" One of his hands transforms into some sort of gun, complicated. Points it at the man talking.

"Collect her." He directs another man as he walks toward me.

"Show the emblem..." he whispers to me. I pull down my jacket to reveal it. He doesn't notice at first but once he does he jumps back in panic. What does this thing mean?

"They will be here soon, we gotta run man!" The man talks to the leader he looks puzzled.

"In that case, good bye Rose..." he sighs and pulls his man away. The cloud grows near. I hear a deep hum from above me.