Flashf0rward

Chapter 19: Stampede

Ivy

As soon as I saw the debris blocking our path, I knew we were in trouble. The stairs that Yuko had taken us up ended abruptly, and there was no other way out. We were trapped. Hearing the footsteps of the man behind us, there was the unmistakeable cock of a gun, and I raised my hands slowly, seeing Connor and Yuko do the same.

His raspy, monotone voice spoke behind us. "Good. No more tricks, miracleborn." Wondering what exactly that meant, I turned around to face him. He had an intense, powerful look in his eyes, and I wondered who exactly he was, where he came from, and why he was trying to kill us. "The three of you will come with me, and you will answer for what you have done."

I frowned, and spoke up. "What are you talking about?" He turned to me and gave a slight smile. "For what you did to Robert." My eyes widened, and I suddenly understood. Robert had managed to find his group, and they'd sent this man to take revenge. How long had he been following us for? My mind was racing as an intense sense of guilt set in around me.

Then, he motioned to my pistol. "Drop your gun and kick it over." Knowing I had no choice, I slowly reached down to my hip and pulled out the Glock. Then, I gently tossed it over towards him. As I did, I noticed Connor moving his hand down and out towards him. My heart filled with shock. He was going to try something. I hoped he didn't kill us in the process.

While the man was distracted by my gun, Connor blasted him back with a strong gust of wind, making him hit the concrete debris behind us. I could hear him cry out in pain, then Connor turned to us and grabbed my arm. "Run!" Knowing there was nowhere else to go, I realized what he was intending to do. "Yuko...grab onto Connor and hold on tight."

Nodding, Yuko complied, and I held onto Connor's side. He ran towards the broken windows that were behind us as he leaped out, and my stomach began to rise up as we started falling down the side of the Space Needle. I could faintly hear Yuko screaming as the air rushed past us. Closing my eyes, I waited for the ground to meet us.

Then, I noticed our falling speed was getting slower and slower. Opening my eyes, I saw that Connor had his shut, and was concentrating hard. Although it was hard to tell at first, we were gradually slowing down as we fell, until we were falling slower than a leaf. Soon, we all more or less landed safely on the ground, all three of us on our stomachs.

Pulling Connor and Yuko up, I looked into his eyes. "You ok?" He nodded, panting. "The horses, go." Nodding, I took Yuko's hand and ran with her, Connor following behind as we saw Fred and his horse still hitched, as well as a third horse which must have belonged to the man. Putting Yuko onto the back of Fred, I watched as Connor leaped onto his steed, and the 3 of us galloped away as fast as we could.

Yuko was holding onto my waist tightly as we rode, and she suddenly shouted. "Look!" I turned to see her pointing to the sky, and I saw what appeared to be a flare shooting up from the Space Needle, popping loudly in the afternoon sky. It seemed that the man was calling for reinforcements. I knew we shouldn't be here when they arrived.

Whipping the reins on Fred, I urged him forwards. "Hyah!" Fred picked up the pace, Connor bringing up the rear as we made our way through the empty streets of Seattle, hoping to head towards the city limits. As we did, we rounded a bend and then suddenly stopped dead when we saw what was ahead of us.

A hypermorph was standing right in the middle of the road, seemingly sniffing through cars, looking for food or corpses. Its head whipped around when we rounded the corner, and immediately recognized us for what we were. Rather than attacking, it raised its head in the air and uttered a bloodcurdling mix between a screech and a howl. It was calling for others.

Quickly, Connor pulled out a rifle from the bag of guns and shot at the morph, bullets going through its brain and killing it in a single burst. But we both knew it was too late. If even one of them had heard that, there would be hundreds more on the way. "If we can make it to the woods, we can lose them!" I said, and Connor nodded. "Let's go!"

Knowing now we had even less time on the clock, we rode as fast as our horses would go, trying to make our way out of the city. Finding the main road, we used that as our guide to try and make it to the city limits. Suddenly, a roar came from one of the buildings that overlooked the road, and a hypermorph leaped down from one of the top floors, intending to land on us.

Connor raised his hand, and then flicked it to the right, the wind currents rising as the beast was blown sharply off course and landed on top of a car. "Connor! Gun!" I shouted, and he pulled out a pistol and tossed to me. Catching it, I cocked it and looked at Yuko. "Whatever happens, keep your head down and hold onto me, ok?" She nodded quickly and buried her head into my back.

Soon, I could see more of them pouring out of the buildings, like cockroaches, and running behind us, some of them moving as fast as our horses. Connor blew them back while I did my best to shoot at them and kill them. Then, I heard Connor shout something. "Block!" Frowning, I turned to look in front of me, and my eyes widened.

The entire road in front of us was blocked by abandoned cars, most likely left there in an attempt to get out of the city. It was too high to jump over, and there was no way around. I swore out loud, not sure what to do. Looking around, I saw a streetcar track that went under a small tunnel, long enough to get us around the roadblock. "Streetcar!" I shouted to Connor, and he understood.

Taking the horses through the crossing, we rode on the tracks down into the tunnel. Those things were right behind us, and just kept coming, seemingly unable to be slowed down. Even if we could get around it, they would follow us all the way out of the city. Our horses were getting tired, and if we messed up once...

Suddenly, I heard Yuko speak up. "I can help!" I turned to her as I shot at a morph. "What do you mean?" She pointed to the tracks, and then suddenly I understood. I shouted out loud. "Connor! Off the tracks!" Connor pulled his horse off into the space between the two tracks, as did I, and I shouted to Yuko. "Now!"

She put her hands out, and then concentrated, screaming with intensity. She'd clearly never used her powers on this scale before. The small electrical current that had kept the streetcars running suddenly burst to life again, and every hypermorph that was touching the rails was shocked with over 750 volts of electricity.

The smell of burning meat and sound of screeching was horrible, but I knew that meant we'd taken out most of them. Once we cleared the tunnel, Yuko stopped, and collapsed against me slightly as we crossed the tracks and went back onto the main road. "Did it work...?" Yuko said softly. I nodded. "Yeah, it worked great, Yuko. You did it." I said, breathlessly.

Soon, we were out of the city limits, but I knew we weren't out of the frying pan yet. If anything, we'd just jumped into the biggest fire I'd seen in a long time. I looked back at Seattle, seeing the flare still hovering in the air as it could be seen for miles around. I didn't know what I'd gotten us into, but I knew it was my fault.