Of Solar And Dark (2018)

25 [E]

Edward Kenning

"The doors are all locked manually! The place is on a totaly lockdown!" A few of the Fighters have started to arrive by the time I run towards Martha. Cladded in dark gear and holding weapons of various shapes and size, they seem to be too prepared for what is to come. Dotted around Martha in a neat formation, they have their attention fixed on her.

"Sorry, coming through." I mumur as I push past a few of them to reach Martha.

"What?" She calls, distracted by my reappearance.

"I can't breach the building!" I inform her.

"Edward, I have got a good twenty Solars to give out instructions to so if you don't mind, find another way or make one!" Martha shouts as more Fighters begin to arrive. Frowning at the suspiciously large number, I try to count each Solar as I pass them. The digits start to shoot up as I make my way back to the front of the building and I wonder how long Martha has prepared for this and what else she is hiding from me.

Surveying the building, I frantically run through the thoughts that float through my head, searching for an idea. The building was on lockdown even before we got here, that had to mean that someone else reached it before us, someone who posed a danger to the Resistance.

Scanning the side of the building, I spotted a stairwell that I had yet to venture. It was a long shot but it could just be the key. After all, it would be logical that the dangerous person didn't enter through the front but by the side where there would be statistically less guards from what I recalled from the floor plans of the building.

Racing up the flight of stairs, I gulp in oxygen to compensate for the heaviness in my chest. The first door that I find has its lock unhinged- the metallic structure had been compromised and lay on the ground. Silently thanking the person who had broken in, I pushed the door open and slipped in. Inside, the corridors were spinning with colours. Red lights flooded the hallway and the shrill scream of a siren kept trembling down the halls, vibrating and bouncing off the windows.

Members of the Resistance were running amok, their faces taut with fear and their yells and shouts started to merge with the ear-shattering noise of the siren that painted the hallways scarlet. Overhead, I heard a soft click and water started to rain down against my head, streaming through the floors with the violence of a flash flood. The droplets thudded against my skin and the moisture clung onto the hem of my shirt desperately as I ran down, searching for a way to the basement.

The only reason the sprinklers are on is because there is a fire somewhere inside the building.

Trying to ignore the words that ring in my ears, pleading to be accepted as truth, I glance through every open door, ensuring that I don't miss a thing. That's when I hear it. That familiar voice, like a lucid dream. The voice that found a way to sear the owners name along my heart before shattering it to a thousand pieces.

Stunned, my feet stop in its path and my lungs frost over with fear.

He's here.

Sebestian.

Even with so much noise screaming out, ripping through the walls and tearing down the hallways, my ears can detect that faint, muffled yell that I only know too well. In a fraction of a second, the muscles in my body loosen up and I find myself following the Sebestian's voice, being lured towards it the way a moth dances into light. It's so close, my heart begins generating a tremolo effect, the reiteration of wanting to be close to the person who's calling out almost too transparent for the world to see.

I find Sebestian's calls for help the loudest in the room further down the corridor. Glancing down at the knob, my heart begins to anchor itself to my shoes, descending rapidly when I see the lock attached to the knob.

Every molecule in my body screams at me to leave, to run and save Ellie and Kirk which is why I'm here in the first place but another part of me whispers for me to stay, to find a way to undo the lock.

"Sebestian?" I shout, hoping that no one notices me. Everybody is too busy scrambling in different directions, creating a void of pani as they go and I breathe in a sigh of relief.

"Edward? Is that you?"

My heart lurches against my ribcage when I hear him call out my name. Trying not to sink to the floor with despair, I force myself to speak.

"I- it's me, Sebestian. It's Edward."

Silence.

I hold my breath, hoping that he can'r hear me through all the chaos and is waiting for my answer before he responds. When a few seconds have passed without a reply from his end, I lose all control and pound against the door furiously, particles of distress orbiting in circles around my lungs, the rings that they drift in acting as a cord that tightens along my chest cavity.

"Sebestian, talk to me!"

A moment passes.

"I- I'm sorry, Edward." The words are choked out and muffled with a wavering pitch that causes it to be tremulous.

"Are you insane? This isn't the time to apologise!" I holler, fists thumping against the wood rapidly as I try to force the door down.

"Stop! Stop trying to get through to me. It's reinforced and- and-" His voice quavers, the effort to fork out another word dwindling.

"And what?" I yell, refusing to stop the approach I was taking with the door. Cerise welts bloom along my fingers and the pain starts to eat away at my flesh as my hands grow sore but I keep pounding, keep banging against the door that just won't give in.

"I'm trapped in here. I'm going to die." His voice is raspy with tears and this time, I catch the sobs that he's struggling to keep trapped within his chest.

"You're not going to die."

"Yes, I am! I'm trapped with a fire inside the room, okay?! There's nothing that you can do to stop it so just- just leave please, Edward."

"No! I'm getting you out of there now!" My hands are starting to bleed as the layers of skin drive against the splinters that suggest that my effort has not been all futile.

"Edward, you need to go!"

"Stop telling me to leave when all I want to do is save you!"

Blood. It's trickling down my wrists and I have to bite on my tongue to keep from screaming as the pain beats against my flesh and swells along my knuckles.

Silence from his end. And then-

"Edward, stop it. You're making it worse." Sebestian's voice is strained and hollow when he eventually calls out.

"The smoke you inhaled must be killing your brain cells because there's no smoking way I'm making it worse!"

"No, you need to listen. You're making the fire inside worse. One of the machines in here erupted and it runs on solar energy and you're making it worse by just standing outside."

That's when I hear it.

The loud burst of noise of something exploding, of metal being ripped apart, of flames dancing and pouring along the walls and finally, a yell that suffocates as the sound expands and as a force shoves me backwards.

Then there is nothing.

Word Count: 1275 Words

A/N: Original author's note has been removed due to story restrictions.

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