Homesick: Ashes Of An Angel

Chapter 10

Someone grabbed my sleeve and yanked me forwards forcefully. I snapped out of the trance I was having, staring at disbelief and shock at the AJOX guns and the force-field, looking ready to destruct. I wheeled around and saw that it was Troy who had pulled my sleeve, making me stumble, trying to get my cold and numb legs and joints getting back to normal condition again. My legs dimly felt like marshmallow.

"What are you waiting for?" Troy yelled to me over the din of screaming and stampeding footsteps. We were nearly the last ones behind, as the crowd of rebels quickly thinned, dropping their signs and leaving them abandoned on the ground, along with beanies and scarves. It was a pandemonium, as people flashed and shoved past me, screaming, shouting and weeping, running for their lives to the opposite direction of the street. I looked at my friends, their feet shifting, but none of them turned tail, determined not to leave me behind. "Run!"

It was lucky Troy had warned me, because at that moment, the force-field was whirring as high-pitched as ever, like it was about to detonate. A few people were just staring up at AJOX's weapons, like they were not even bothering to save themselves, at the front of the barrier, accepting their deaths, the dozens of drones swarming high above their heads. It was disturbing, my stomach gurgling with acid.

"We've got to go!" Pollax shouted again, storing his gun away hurriedly under his jacket.

Troy yanked me forwards again desperately, just as AJOX's four turrets hummed again loudly in a crescendo. With a deathly sound, the gun finally fired, the sound of electric rippling through the air as a blue beam hit the ground, just in front of the feeble barriers. There was a loud explosion, as rubble went flying and the area of impact was covered by a large fume of opaque smoke and haze after the shot, like a volcano had just burst under our feet. We all flinched and staggered backwards, throwing an arm over our head as some few last-minute stragglers screamed and dropped their signs, running.

This seemed to revert me back to life, and my normal senses. "Go, go, go!" I screamed in alarm over the noises of explosions as another gun fired, a small, bright blue beam detonating on the surface, just in front of the barrier, sending a few people behind us flying in the air, limbs dangling. They were thrown at least ten feet in the air, before they were devoured by the smoke that followed.  We all turned tail and started sprinting, dashing, bolting for our lives, just as the drones above us hummed and buzzed, tracking our every movements to AJOX's surveillance camera. I felt dread pierce through me.

Like little ants, I shoved my way past scurrying people, and my four friends darted next to me from other directions. Another explosion, making the ground rumble and shake like an earthquake. Troy stumbled and tripped over a sign, along with several other escapees, over the shaking ground and I helped him to his feet again, taking off running, our legs burning from the effort.

The beams from AJOX's turrets hit tents, camps and small buildings, sending them crumbling apart and exploding, littering the ground with bits of brick, stone and planks of wood. The four guns went in turn out of its four barrels for shooting, until it built  The smell of smoke, haze and dying ash made us all cough and sputter, adding already to the stench of pollution in the suburb. Many exploded left and right to us, throwing people in the air and killing us, and one landed right next to me, forming a rising mist of thick smoke, cementing our lungs.

"Faster, faster!" I heard Jana scream from next to me, and we began to quicken our pace.

I threw my hands over my head as I sprinted, listening to the sound of the screams and roars of pain, agony and fear, making my blood boil. Just as we passed a dusty satellite tower, I glanced uneasily behind me, and saw that the force-field was swelling now, humming with force. It then erupted without warning, advancing forwards rapidly and attacking people like a wave, with a fizz of electric and static, it burst forwards on the stragglers who were tripping over signs and pieces of exploded rubble.