Cridex

Chapter Thirty Five

"You think you can hold us off on your own?" The cop I had hit first with the Cridex clutched at his arm and raised and angry eyebrow, "Do you really believe you'll get away with that?"

"I was just doing what you did," I replied as I swung the Cridex around and grinned as the jumped away from it's blue tip, "Giving you a demonstration."

My grin quickly melted away however as I saw two of the other cops brandishing their own devices. "Bring it back around, again, girl. See how you like it when we have our own to defend us."

I swallowed harshly, glancing at the crowd behind them and the violent uproar they were going through. "It won't take long now," I nodded towards them, "And you'll have a whole new problem to take care of."

"We are going to take care of you first." The cop frowned as he swung his Cridex over across my stomach. I jumped back as it caught the hem of my shirt but danced away quickly, scurrying past the burly group of enforcement officers. I vaulted over the edge of the stage, running down the cement sidewalks and weaving my way between arguing pedestrians like it was my job- like my life depended on it.

"Watch her!" The guards shouted as they tried to pursue me down the street. But in this I had an advantage, my smaller size and familiarity with the area guiding me as I made my way further and further away from them.

"High ground," I panted to myself as I searched the square, "I have to find high ground. I have to find them."

Had they already left? My thoughts came as rapidly as my feet smacking against the cracked sidewalk. Would they already be gone if I tried to find them? Would Imogen even make it out on her own two feet? She was bleeding heavily the last time I saw her.

I carefully turned the corner, peeking around to the crowded square. "There," I whispered to myself, eyeing the market rooftops that I had seen Camden running along not so long ago, "I have to get there."

I swiftly made my way across, hearing the cops searching for me further into the center of the square but never actually seeing them. I hoped that the other shad gone through the crowd and reached a relatively safe place before the searching began.

Reaching the market stalls, I scurried up the side of sheet metal and glanced around, lowering myself to my stomach as I searched for Camden, Imogen and Jonas. Where are they? Where would they go? Where would I go if I were them?

An uproar towards the front, where stage was built, sounded amongst the masses, the people crying out in either outrage or excitement- both were almost indiscernible from each other. It was there that a flicker of movement across the square aught my eye. Camden, Imogen and Jonas were in the shadows hiding behind the corner to the square, looking for a path to reach the exit and the gates at the back of the courtyard.

I swallowed wondering how they would accomplish that feat as well. My stomach churned as the answer came to me. They won't. They are going to need my help, whether they still want it or not.

With a sigh, I sought out inspiration for a plan of attack. Luckily, I didn't have to wait long. The uproar towards the stage bloomed into an outcry, as a weak figure was brought to the front. My heart clenched as I recognized Dane. Had he ran away after I had too? Had he gotten caught or did he never try to escape in the first place?

Trevor, who stood of to the side, was fittingly much smaller than he had looked when I stood next to him- the meagerness of his frame giving me confidence, despite his words. "Our words are sent to the cyborgs you disgrace our presence even now as they are hiding among us inside this square," He trailed off, making sure he had our attention. The crowd roared in front of him, "We have a prize you won't want to give up. Your own informant? Dane Archer? He's not dead... yet."

"One of you- preferably our own choice of Miss Ellery Kent, is to return back to the front, to bear witness to his death. For he will die. You simply have been extended the choice as to how painful his death will be."

Immediately, despite my reservations, I sat up, preparing to jump from the roof of the market stall and make my way through the crowd. To save Dane, and to hopefully save the others, I had to execute my rapid thoughts as quickly and accurately as possible.

Inhaling sharply, I sprang away from the tin roof. "Here!" I shouted and waved my hands, running through the people blocking my gaze of the stage, "I'm here! You don't have to hurt him!"

Trevor's chuckle crackled through the speakers surrounding the small space. "Find her! Bring her to the stage, bring her to me. She is to be our first working prototype, after all." The crowd surged forward, gathering around me as if herding me towards the front. I ran to the side- the opposite from where the others were hiding- and instead felt as though I was herding them, pulling their attention away long enough for Camden, Imogen and Jonas to slip out.

As I was running, the crowd's volume began to rise once more. "What is that?" Someone shouted.

"That noise? Where is it coming from?" Someone cried.

What noise? I thought it myself as I was making my way forward again. I stretched my ear to the side despite my fast pace, and softened my footfalls until I heard it. A low rumbling, like an engine's distant roar.

I made my way further up and it grew louder and louder. Even the councillor was silenced by the unidentifiable noise. But out of the corner of my vision I saw the others begin to move towards the back, their own pace increasing as the roar grew.

I waited, until it was almost deafening, before I saw the source. Black skeletal and metallic bodies filled the sky above the city, innumerable and moving in perfect synchronization. A swarm of helicopters, their rutters chopping at the air in rapid succession, began descending upon the city square.