After Earth's Fall | ✔ UNDERGOING CONSTRUCTION

~*~

"Nila, Nila we need to go.." Riley pulls on Nila's arm, struggling to catch her attention and snap her out of her trance.

"They're in there! Miss Chaucer wants them sedated and put back in their room!" a guard yells and the group starts to panic.

"They've surrounded us, there's no way we're getting out," Kaitlyn runs a hand through her hair in worry.

"Block the doors!" Brice yells and runs over to the large double doors with an IV in hand.

The rest of the group watch as Brice jams the IV stand through the handles of the double doors, making it impossible to open the doors from the outside. Well, almost impossible. If you're not a squadron of six bulked up males with taser guns. Someone slams against the door in effort to throw the doors open but to no avail.

"They've barricaded the doors, try harder!" a man who Nila presumes to be the leader of the group bellows.

"I could really use some help guys!" Brice yells, while he tries to push all his weight against the doors.

Riley and Kaitlyn soon follow in Brice's footsteps and roll over vacant hospital beds, tables and cabinets and pile it all against the doors, doing all they can to stop the guards from storming in. Meanwhile, Nila is sitting on the floor besides Anna's bed, curled up in the fetal position, sobbing like a scolded child.

'They're going to get in. They'll get in and kill us all just like Anna. Anna....no. Why are they doing this? Why did they kill her? My best friend..' Nila stares off into space, lost in thought and grief.

To think that they were the lucky ones, going to Earth. What a joke. What a very sick joke.

"Nila, can you hear me? We need more hel-" Brice starts but he gets cut off by the loud crash of the lid from a vent on the ceiling falling down to the ground and out comes Friday.

Everyone's expressions change from terror to just plain confusion.

"Friday? What are you doing?" asks Riley.

"No time to explain. I'm here to help, but I can only help so much. You kids don't deserve this, no one does....Where's Nila?" Friday tries to talk over the racket the men are causing outside, noticing that there's only 3 teenagers piling themselves against their makeshift barriade. The guards outside seem to have now picked up a hospital bed from somewhere in the hallway and are using it as a battering ram against the doors.

"She's over there. Ever since the guards showed up, she's broken down into a sob," explains Kaitlyn.

Friday walks over cautiously and slowly squats down in front of Nila. "Hey, Nila. Remember me? I'm truly sorry about your friend. It's horrible and disgusting what these people do to kids like you. Which is why you really need to pull yourself together now. Your other friends are in trouble now and getting out of this room is a matter of life and death, do you hear me?"

Nila is no longer crying but she's still staring off into nothing. There's a long pause until Nila finally nods her head.

"Can you get up now?" Friday asks softly.

Nila wipes her face and nods meekly, she slowly stands up and wipes herself down. Afterwards Friday's comforting words are all said and done she jogs over to a meter long window and smashes the glass with a chair that sat beside a bed. "Stand back!" she warns as the glass shatters into pieces and Friday covers her face. "We can get out through the window and climb down to the first floor, we're on the third so I hope none of you are afraid of heights," says Friday and she gets ready to climb out of the Tower and onto a small ledge, that is about as wide as a fully grown adult's foot.

"After plummeting from Mars down to Earth, I don't think any of us can really complain about heights.." Riley says matter of factly and he rushes towards the window.

"Quickly! That pile of junk won't hold for long!" Friday yells from outside the building.

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"Careful..." Friday mumbles under her breath as helps Kaitlyn get through the window.

There was a loud crash of the their makeshift barricade being broken into by the guards long ago, so they need to hurry. They had managed to climb their way down to the first floor and Friday helps the group get in what seems to be a storage room one by one.

Once they're all inside the musty, dark and cramped storage room, Friday opens the door a crack and peers through before closing it and turning around to face the group.

She sighs, "This is about as far as I can go. No one can see me helping you or it will forsake my whole mission," Friday starts to rant. Everyone looks at her with confused looks at the word "Mission" but don't bother to question. She's helping, that's more than they could have ever asked for. "We're near the back of the Tower, no longer in the Medical Centre. There is an exit straight ahead of you to your right. Run and don't stop. The guards seem to have taken the elevator, they'll be here in..." She pauses to look at her watch, she looks up immediately and opens the door fully. "Forty seconds. Make that thirty-nine, GO!" She pushes Nila out, then Riley, then Kaitlyn, finally Brice.

Nila looks back with a distressed look on her face, hesitation takes over and she doesn't move.

'I'll see you all again soon,' Friday mouths and shuts the door.

"Let's go, we can't waste any time," Riley tugs on Nila's arm and Nila nods in return.

The group set off into a full speed sprint towards the emergency exit straight ahead of them, everything finally seems like it's going okay, that the world seems to be in their favour until the loud 'ding' of the elevator arriving resonates through the corridor. Nila turns her head, as do the others to see the guards from before but this time, they have a guest. Earleen.

"Get them!" the woman shrieks, "Before they escape."

The guards charge towards the group, taser guns in hand. Nila can almost hear everyone's heartbeats like a thousand drums all being played at once. They can't get caught, this place means death. They keep running, the guards directly behind them. Brice is inching further and further behind and Nila pulls at his hand, grasping it tightly and yelling at him to keep moving. She won't lose another friend today. A guard, much faster than the rest, tails behind Brice and aims his gun whilst running. Thinking Brice is easy prey, he pulls the trigger and little blue bolts of electricity fly out and hit Brice in the neck and upper arm. He yells and collapses, shaking and convulsing.

"Brice!" Nila stops running.

She desperately wants to help but it's too late. The bastard that shot Brice walks over and handcuffs his unconscious body. Kaitlyn pushes the door to freedom open and runs out. Earleen commands the other guards to stop running, seeing that it's too late.

"What should I do with this one, Miss?" the guard asks, standing up.

Earleen looks Brice up and down, then frowns.

"He's no good anyway, dispose of him. Find the others by tomorrow," orders Earleen and she casually walks away as if commanding someone's death is child's play.

The guard obediently nods and takes out a proper handheld gun from out of his belt and shoots Brice in the head.

"NOOOOOOO! You monsters! You-" Nila screams but Riley drags Nila through the doors before the guards change their mind and shoot them dead as well, or worse, capture them.