Homesick: The Growing War

Chapter 19

The drop was longer than I anticipated. We plummeted down at the ocean like large stones, yelling, Troy swearing at the top of his lungs, my heart racing and adrenaline rushing before we heard the loud splashes of our bodies hitting impact with the sea, one by one as the cargo ship behind us detonated, our impact seemingly much less quieter than the booming explosion, singeing the nightly air as the sky was once again illuminated with not orange and yellow, but a neon blue colour. Electromagnetic bombs, one of AJOX's most lethal, popular but effective weapons, and could cause severe damage. The dark grey sky was snaked with tendrils and arcs of blue electricity, like someone had just summoned a lightning strike.

We all hit the water feet first, and immediately, I felt like my body was just dumped over icy water. It felt like icicle needles was being hammering in every inch of my skin, leaving me with a burning feeling of somewhat cold and warmth, feeling like my ribs was on blue flames. My legs pedalled in the water, my clothes soaked as bubbles ruptured from the corners of my mouth. Underneath was nothing but a few dead seaweed and corals.

Just when I thought when my lungs couldn't hold it in anymore, I took a deep breath and rose to the surface, my skin overwhelmed with iciness, and my clothes soaked to the bone, and my clothes wet and shiny. I slopped back my hair dripping wet, and looked around for any other signs of Jana, Pollax or Troy. They hadn't emerged yet so I bobbed around, looking desperately at the shore at the Scavengers battling with the overcrowding Voids and Mutants.

I looked across at the silvery ocean and saw bits of scraps, boxes, crates and supplies bobbing around in the ocean, all charred black but not aflame because of the waters. At that moment, Troy popped out of the water first, shaking himself and shivering, his clothes soaked and shiny and hair matted and dripping water. Than Pollax appeared, spitting out sprouts of water and then Jana, sweeping back her long hair, all shivering and rattling from the coldness.

Troy looked behind at the exploded ship. "They plant all those bombs, trying to kill us, and in the end, they don't. What a bloody waste."

Shivering, we all swam to shore the flames licking on debris giving us some sort of warmth. My skin still felt like it was being pricked. We heaved ourselves out, dripping and collapsed on the sand, panting, not knowing about the raging fight behind us, hair sloppy and wet, my hands stuck with sand.

The noise gradually began to fuzz back in our ears, and that's when we picked ourselves up and dashed towards the fight in the scrapyard to help the Scavengers. A stray Mutant dived to our right, and I didn't even have time to brandish my gun when James appeared out of nowhere interfered in a flurry, tackling the creature to the ground and hitting it with the butt of his gun. The mutant roared and went limp.

"Where the hell did you four hooligans go?" demanded James, his voice growling. His gaze instead locked on damp clothes. "And why are your clothes wet?"

"Well, I can at least say it wasn't a bloody picnic, mate," said Troy, sopping up the water.

"Well, you lot hurry up then. I didn't lose half my troops for nothing," said James, heading back to the battle. Ice's jets and search helicopters was still hovering above in the air, refusing to land whipping sand and ruining our vision. We ran back to help the Scavengers, and with a pang of guilt, saw several lying motionless on the ground, blood splatters and stray guns everywhere. A big handful of Voids and Mutants were sprawled on the ground too.

It was chaos. Everywhere, people were getting devoured alive by Mutants, shot dead by guns or stun guns by Voids or getting killed themselves. Scavengers, Mutants and Voids were dead left and right. A Void with a gun advanced towards me, sensors blinking but I quickly pulled out my gun and fired. The Void gave a rough yell and collapsed.