Chapter 13 - Chapter 13... Deus Ex Machina...

We kept on walking towards Station Square… Dawn broke… We walked on the country side and saw some pigs running a long…



Flash: Who’s hungry?
Blain: Wait a sec…
Tala: What?
Blain: Something aint right…
Jasco: What is it?
Blain: Remember that guy that told us about the Titans…?
Jasco: Yeah…
Blain: He said that there was a Titan on the way to Angel Island… We never saw one…

Jasco: Well… Look over there…

Jasco looked to his left, then Flash, and everyone else looked… We saw a wrecked Titan in the distance, completely destroyed… We went to it and saw that there was no survivors. People got incinerated and saw some a lot of dead creatures…



Tala: This isn’t the work of the Freedom Fighters…
Jasco: Then who shot it down?
Tala: I don’t know…
Blain: Come on, keep moving.

As the day passed, dark clouds filled the sky, and it started to rain heavily with thunderstorms… We reached Station Square around noon. I heard my PDA bleeping and pulled it out. It was a warning that snipers were on the look out…



Jasco: We need to split up…
Blain: Right… Tala, you go with Jasco, Upham, go with Talon, Flash, you come along with me.

After that, we split up… We got scattered towards the city… Something tells me that this isn’t right… We didn’t see anybody on the way… I looked down at my left hand and saw it shaking again…



Flash: Wassup?
Blain: … Nothing… Lets go.

Talon: Wait…
Upham: What is it…?
Talon: Get down, stay in cover.

Talon and Upham hided in a building on the first floor. He saw something in the streets a few hundred meters away… He gets up his scope and saw a few guys. Then suddenly, he sees a strange creature running and gets shot by a sniper…



Talon: I wouldn’t go out there Upham. This sniper got talent.
Upham: Who was it?
Talon: Someone we didn’t know…

Talon loads up his sniper rifle and got in position…



Talon: Blessed be the Lord, my strength, which teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to fight. *fires rifle*

Upham: Nice one Talon…

Talon: My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me. *fires rifle*

Talon: O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me… *fires rifle*

Talon: Be not that far from me, for trouble is near… Haste Thee to help me. *fires rifle*


Then suddenly, Talon heard footsteps coming towards them…



Upham: So eeh… You’re an orphan…?
Talon: Ssh…
Upham: It’s ok really… My parents died in the civil war too you know and-

Talon pushed Upham against the wall and muffled his mouth…



Talon: Every time you open your goddamn mouth, you give away our position…

Talon looks as if he was pissed off, but holds his anger… He took out his combat knife, turned his left arm which had a lot of scars of crosses and carved a cross in his arms to the point that it bleeds…

Talon: I used the name of the Lord in vain…

The 2 of them turned around as they heard footsteps on the stairs… Then suddenly it stopped… Talon gestured to Upham to give him his weapon… In the doorway, they see a shadow of a human… Talon cautiously armed the weapon and shot at the wall. They heard something falling and a puddle of dark red blood flows and could be seen in the doorway… There was an eerie silence…



Upham: You think he’s dead…?
Talon: Upham, shut the frack up-

At that point, the guy shot through the wall and hit Talon in his shoulder. He then ran through the door. He kicked Talon down and pulled out his combat knife… He jumps on Talon and he tries to resist that a knife is stabbed in his chest… Upham crawls away to the stairs and is too petrified to do anything… Talon is now down while the rebel tries to stab him. Talon holds him back and bit his hand. The rebel screamed of pain, but didn’t let go. Talon tries to push his hands back, but the human is stronger…



Talon: Upham!!!
Rebel: He aint coming back!!
Talon: UPHAM!!
Rebel: Close your eyes…
Talon: What are you doing?!! NO NO!! GET THE frack AWAY!!!

The rebel pushed the knife slowly into Talon’s chest, as he gasps for air and coughed out blood…



Rebel: Sssh…

He then twisted the knife and Talon was dead… The rebel stands up, and walked out of the room. On the stairs, he sees Upham sobbing. He looked at Upham, grabbed his bullet proof vest and wiped his knife and hand clean… Upham looks at him with a petrified look. The rebel looked at him and got out of the building… And Upham just stared at Talon’s body…



Meanwhile…



Flash: Where the hell are we suppose to look?! This is like finding a needle in a stack of needles!

Blain: I just got a message. Its two more blocks. We’re almost there!
Flash: Watch it! Your left!
Blain: What?!

Then Flash shot some rebels down to my left close to my ear… Which was rather ear deafening…



Blain: Damn it! Don’t do that!!
Flash: Here comes some more!!
Blain: DAMN IT!!!

After the remaining rebels got shot…



Flash: Blain?! You ok?
Blain: Yeah! I can hear fracking bells ringing!

Then suddenly, we got shot at… I didn’t hear it, but Flash pulled me in cover…



Flash: Stay here…
Blain: What?!!

Jasco: Hey, is that Blain?
Tala: I think so…
Jasco: Blain?! Flash?!

Flash: It’s Jasco!
Jasco: We almost killed you!! Get over here! Flash: frack you!! You get over here!!

After Jasco and Tala joined us, I received another message on my PDA. It said that there are some reinforcements on the way with an unarmed APC to extract the prisoners. Seems that there were more prisoners out there…



Blain: Now they tell!!!
Jasco: What’s wrong with him?
Flash: Oh… He’s deaf, my fault.

After it was safe to move on, we headed to the building where the prisoners were kept. We barged in and shot some guys… And there was a mother with 2 kids… And an old lady… The old lady picked up a weapon…



Flash: Don’t do it lady…

Then Jasco just shot her…



Jasco: Hesitating can get you killed…

After that, Tala and Jasco ran outside again to place a beacon…

Flash and I ran upstairs and looked for others, but no one was there. We kicked in a door and found three hedgehogs being tied up… According to the dog tags they worn, they were called Thunder, Ice and Magneto…



Thunder: Where’s the rescue squad?!
Flash: … We’re it…

We cut the ropes and got back out. Tala gestured to us that there was a sniper somewhere. We heard a shot, nearly hitting Flash…


Flash: Holy shoot!
Blain: GET GOING!! GO GO!!

We ran towards them and hid behind a wall… At that point, I got my hearing again…



Blain: Did you placed the beacon?!
Tala: Yeah! The APC should be here any minute!
Jasco: We cant move! There’s a sniper hiding somewhere!
Tala: You guys go ahead!! I’ll take care of him! Stay in cover and get to the extraction point!

We all took baby steps at a time… Hiding each time whenever it could. Tala stayed behind to look for the sniper. I looked behind where Jasco was at. Tala was about to run away until Jasco stopped her and pulled her over. He kissed her…



Jasco: Get back safe…

Tala: Will do…

She kissed him again, smiled at him, and ran off to reposition herself… Then Jasco ran back towards us…



Six hours later, it was in the middle of the night… The heavy rain was still coming out of the dark grey clouds… We were still in the same spot were we hided and got soaked… No word of Tala yet… Few hours before, I got the message the APC was delayed due to heavy resistance on the east side of the city… We just gotta hold on for a little bit longer… Flash and Jasco were discussing something…



Flash: In the forest, the wolf lives for three years and the donkey for nine.
Jasco: … So? Maybe where you came from, but… It doesn’t make any sense to me…

Flash: The donkey lives longer because he's more useful. A wolf isn’t… Jasco: There aren't any donkeys in the forest… You just made that up.



Then suddenly…

Magneto: WATCH YOUR SIX!!

We all responded and aimed our weapons at a dark figure that stumbles towards us… And suddenly we saw it… It was Upham… Looking very pale… He had red eyes, like he was crying a lot, and had blood on his vest… He was shot in his leg… And he just fell down… Jasco took him in cover and took care of him… Not long after that… We all fell asleep in the cold rain…



Meanwhile… Tala kept up all night to locate the sniper… But didn’t find him… The last sighting of him was a few hours ago… It was a reflection of a window…



Then suddenly, she felt a gun against her head…



Rebel: … Bang…
Tala: You got me… Make it quick…
Rebel: … No… I’m gonna try luring your friends out… With your help…
Tala: Right…
Rebel: You see… When your having a dual between another sniper… He doesn't know you exist, but at that moment you're closer to him than anyone else on earth. You see his face through the sign. You see whether he shaved or not. You can see whether he's married if he's got a wedding ring. It's not like firing at a distant shape. It's not just a figure… It's a man's face. Those faces don't go away. They come back and they get replaced by more faces… So… What I suggest is to drop your weapons and follow me… Your face will be replaced with another face…

When I woke up… It was still raining… I looked at Upham and he was still pale, his eyes still red… He was shaking…



Blain: You ok Upham…?
Upham: H-He… He killed Talon s-sir…

Then Flash and the others woke up…



Flash: Morning sunshine…
Jasco: Pssh…

There was an eerie silence in the city… Flash peeked over the wall to look if there were threats… I looked at him and saw his eyes growing with a frightened look… He snatched my binoculars and gazed at the distance… He then gasped…



Flash: Oh God…
Blain: What’s wrong?

I turned around and peeked over the wall… I saw something in the distance, but couldn’t see it very clear… Flash gave me the binoculars and I looked through them… What I saw was rather horrifying…



Jasco: What? What is it?

Jasco peeked too… He took out his binoculars and stared… I looked at Jasco and his eyes got bigger and bigger… What we saw was… Tala was hanged on a balcony… She had a sign around her neck… That said… “Keep your eyes open”… At that point… Jasco went berserk… We all dove on him…


Blain: Jasco no!!!
Jasco: NO!! GET OFF ME!! GET OFF ME!!!
Flash: This is what he wants Jasco!!
Jasco: LET GO OFF ME!!!
Blain: No!! He'll kill you!! He'll kill you and then I'll run after you and he'll kill me too!! This is what he wants!!! I'll get him. I promise I'll get him. I'll get his rifle for you! I promise Jasco…

As though as Jasco may seem, he looked at me with soggy eyes… I placed a hand on his shoulder and he just sobs heavily… I looked back and saw the others looking at Jasco with a sad look… Nobody said anything…



To be continued…

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