THE RUN AND GO : JOSHLER

18 : DAMNED

No one spoke. A strange, eerie silence hung in the air. An equally eerie feeling was in the pit of Tyler's stomach.

Something bad was going to happen.

As they neared closer to the end of the hall, they began hearing a noise in the distance. It was familiar: the noise of thousands of people jumping and screaming in unison.

It sounded like a Clique concert.

The screaming became louder and louder and Tyler walked faster and faster. Eventually he broke out into a full-on sprint, the anxious feeling completely consuming him.

Tyler ran. He ran faster than he ever had before. Inside his mind, Blurry screamed at him to stop, to regain his composure, to act like the collected and calm leader he was.

Tyler ignored Blurry and kept running.

Soon, Tyler was out of the dark corridor and onto the catwalks that hung above the main warehouse. He took a moment to adjust to the dim yellow light and the deafening noise on the floor below him.

What he saw made him stop dead in his tracks.

Thousands of people below him were screaming, shooting, stabbing, fighting, running, everything you could possibly imagine. It was a hundred times more chaotic than a Clique concert.

Not only that, but it made it worse when the main doors of the warehouse suddenly exploded, sending smoke and bits of debris flying everywhere.

The entire crowd held their breath and fell silent for a split second before breaking out into chaos once again.

The Clique had entered the building.

Almost instantly, the crowd parted in two, Sinners on one side, Clique on the other. It only took a few moments before each side began firing and battling each other like a war zone.

Tyler wrapped his hands around the cool metal bars of the catwalk railing, watching as the warehouse morphed into a battlefield.

Beside him, Youngblood, Mr. Benzedrine, Horseshoe, and Donnie stepped up next to him, mouths agape.

Nothing like this had ever happened before. So many people were falling dead. The Clique seemed to have the upper hand, but the floor was so chaotic no one could tell the difference between one gang and another.

Tyler felt sick to his stomach, but Blurry handled that fairly quickly. His red eyes flickered and wouldn't stop, as if there were flames behind his pupils.

He gripped the railing so tightly his knuckles turned white. He began hyperventilating, his legs growing weaker and weaker by the second. The room began to spin. Tyler was completely dependent on Blurry to keep him alive, to even keep him standing.

There was no sign of Missile Kid anywhere.

✗✗✗✗✗

Alex was staring in stunned shock at Missile Kid and the Green Gentleman below him. Time seemed to slow down. The chaos around him suddenly became silent.

He was practically witnessing a murder right before his eyes.

"Alex!" A voice suddenly snapped him out of his daze.