Away

Chapter 18

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Clover was startled by repeated knocks on her door, as she groggily got up from a long cat nap.

"Ugh Jack if this is you I don't want to hear it." She groaned, dragging herself to the door and creaking it open, squinting in the afternoon light.

"We need you. Now." A deep voice spoke.

"STIG!" Clover gasped. "I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU TOUCH ME- YOU DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT I'LL DO!! GO AWAY I DONT WANT TO HEAR YOU" Clover screamed, slamming the door.

"What are you gunna do, bite me?" Stig's muffled laugh came from the other side of the wooden door. "Now open up, it's time."

Clover peaked through a crack in the door. "Time for what?"

"Time to save to save the people of Amara, time to shut down the Civils."

Clover walked slowly out of her house. "Well in that case, we'd better move quickly." Clover smirked in disbelief, "but I'm still carrying a knife."

Clover jumbled down the steps a considerable distance away from Stig, and steadily followed him down the road. The bright afternoon sunlight stung her eyes as Clover turned around a corner.

She winded through cluttered alleys and no-named streets until Stig stopped at one huddled corner. One with a peculiar grate with that same back smoke pouring out of it, blinding her.

Soon enough two figures emerged from the smoke. Jack, and Sitg's mother. "Wait... Miss Crabtree? How-wha-"

"We sorted it out, me and An- I mean- Stig." She cringed at the name. "Now c'mon, in we go."

"In-"

"Into the grate, to the tunnels. We're going to find the main Civil control, and shut it down." Stig crossed his arms.

Jack held dark objects in his hands. "They're gas masks, you'd better put them on. They'll protect you from the smoke down there."

Clover stretched a shaky hand towards Jack, as he passed the masks around. She really was going down there, to the place where all her nightmares came from. She could barely breath, and the gas mask wasn't helping.

"There won't be many guards at first, but once we near the centre, they'll be patrolling the place. I got us some weapons, courtesy of Misty. Remember her?"

Clover and Jack nodded slowly as Stig pulled four oval capsules from his pant pockets. He gently pressed the top of one, and it expanded. He was now holding a long, bulky object coloured a sharp silver. "It's a gun. One of the most powerful around. You press the button, and aim towards your target. Just one shot, and it's a kill shot. Anywhere, any place. The venom inside each bullet could kill anything in an instant. Even a Civil."

Clover had never seen a gun before, but she had heard of them. A person or two in the square would always be ranting off about them. They were much scarier than she had ever thought.

Stig touched the top once more and the gun shrunk into the capsule. He passed the rest of them around.

"Wait- Stig. I was just wondering about a while ago. When you said Charlie took one for the team." Jack dimmed his voice.

"Ya, what?" Stig looked almost disturbed.

"I was just wondering, because, he couldn't lie, so... How didn't we know?"

"You never asked, did you? Lying and not telling are completely different things." Stig crossed his arms, and had a saddened look in his eye. "Now, are you ready for hell?"