September in Salus

September 19th, Pt. 2

 Caelum leaped up, already pulling his gun from his belt. Everyone in the cafeteria flooded toward the doors, and within a minute people arrived from their houses or the Saarinen building. Salusians pushed through the lobby, heading for the staircase to the basement. Victoria and Caelum were almost to the door when screams echoed up the stairs.

Caelum froze. "Something's wrong."

Victoria tugged his arm. "Of course something's wrong! We need to get out!"

"No, that's not... We can't go down there!" Caelum turned and shoved against the tide of people in an attempt to get back to the cafeteria.

"Caelum! Where are you going?"
In another second, the tide started turning as people began pushing their way back up the staircase. Caelum grabbed Victoria's hand and pulled her along with him. Several times they were almost torn apart by the sea of people, but after a minute they made it to the row of windows in the cafeteria that looked out on the Arch. Caelum hopped up on the window ledge and tried to look over the heads of the crowd that was now swirling into the cafeteria. Some of the Salusians were dressed and the Council members were armed, but others were still in their pajamas.

Caelum caught his breath as he spotted a figure with a black cloak near the doors. He bent down. "Victoria, they're- they're-"

A yellow charys shot flew over the crowd. Victoria gasped. "What was that?"

"It's- the person from Denver!"

"Denver?"

Caelum stopped short. He hadn't had time to tell Victoria about the previous night's adventure. "Never mind. Just-" He looked toward the doors, where several more cloaked figures had appeared. "Just get out of here!"

Victoria clutched his arm and pulled him off the window ledge. "Caelum, what's going on?"

"We're being attacked!" Another yellow shot flew through the gaps in the crowd and hit a pajama-clad man, who instantly slumped to the ground, unconscious.

"Who are those people?" Victoria could see the cloaked figures now. It seemed like every Salusian was now in the cafeteria, and the black-cloaked figures dotted the crowd, firing off yellow shots indiscriminately. From what Caelum could see, there seemed to be about as many of them as there were Council members, though more and more Salusians were collapsing to the floor every minute, and not a single one of the cloaked figures had fallen. Caelum couldn't tell if they were men or women or how old they were, though most seemed tall enough to be adults.

"I don't know who they are!" Caelum said. "But you have to be careful. They're dangerous."

Caelum dove into the crowd, ignoring Victoria's cry of protest. He had to find the person he'd met in Denver. He had to figure out who these people were and who their leader was. He dodged shot after shot, but he couldn't get anywhere in the thick crowd.

Suddenly a red shot flew high over the crowd, shattering one of the tall windows. A warning.

Everyone in the room froze. No one spoke, or shouted, or cried. It seemed like no one breathed. Then people started pressing forward to see who shot. Caelum pushed through the crowd, until he was close enough to see. And oh. Oh, no.

One of the cloaked people stood in the middle of a small gap in the crowd. His- or her- hood was up, a magical veil entirely masking their face. The person held Eli- barely held him, with only one arm around him. They didn't have to hold him any tighter, because they had a charys gun pressed to his neck, and the chamber of the gun glowed red.

The person spoke, and their voice echoed around the room, harsh and cold and garbled. Caelum didn't recognize it, and it was so distorted that even if it were someone he knew he wouldn't be able to tell. "Where's the Grey boy?"