Reluctantly, Elena continues down the empty cell block corridor, studying Seymour’s tracer carefully; following Sakura’s signature down to the basement level of the station, which is heavily fortified compared to the virtually vacant upper level. Armed guards litter the entire passageway to the cells at the end, keeping vigilant for any disturbance.
|This can’t be a coincidence.. No doubt now that Sakura is here..|
Hiding in the shadows of the basement stairwell, Elena carefully listens in on a soldier’s hurried, somewhat frustrated radio conversation from around the corner.
-Uh-huh, yeah, yeah, they said they’d pick her up tomorrow. We’re transferring her to DIV. 6, I told you that! This was the closest place to hold her until then, but don’t worry, we got the whole lower level fortified. All the employees are pitching in too, so just leave the security troubles to us.
Just trust me, she won’t escape.
… Yeah, see you tomorrow.
Having heard enough, just as the soldier switches his radio off, Elena sticks her hand from out of the corner, and attracts the soldier’s shotgun’s into her hands. Confused, the soldier searches for the what took his gun from him, when Elena rounds the corner, and pumps a slug straight into his face, spraying the steel walls with blood and grey matter. However, the sound of the shot echoes through the long dark corridor, alerting the guards stationed within. She pumps her shotgun, and continues down the darkened corridor; the sound of heavy footsteps drawing ever-closer. Ravaging the guard throughout the entire underground corridor, Elena eventually arrives at a cell at the very end of the long, blood-drenched hallway. Approaching the thick iron bars cautiously, she finds a single prisoner sitting inside; a short, olive-skinned girl with slanted, violet eyes, her shackled arms wrapped tightly around her legs, with jet-black, shoulder-length hair. The girl stands at Elena’s approach, and upon glimpsing the carnage behind her, she says with a lifeless, monotone voice –
“Elena Lias… Where is the Commander?”
With Elena away, Seymour sits against the frigid concrete cell wall in silence, his head resting against the cool concrete wall; musing despondently upon his situation, when suddenly, the silence is broken by the sound of brisk footsteps echoing off the concrete walls. Seymour opens his eyes slightly upon hearing the door of his cell rattle open. General Solari strides in, a wide smile stretched across his sharp, conceited visage.
He shuts the cell door, sits down cautiously across from Seymour, and stares at him curiously.
“… I’m not dead yet.”
“Oh, I know. I came here to watch you die.”
Seymour tries to retort, but only a glob of blood frees itself from his throat, and he spits it onto the ground at Solari’s feet, ashamed to show such weakness in front of his enemy.
“That’s right, Moreau. Look at you: you’ve finally let your guard down. You’ve spent all this time convincing yourself that you’re a god among men.. But when it all comes down to it, you’re just as worthless and inconsequential as anybody else out there in this world of ours.”
“Inconsequential? Worthless? W-what are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about you, Moreau. You are absolutely worthless.”
Feeling Solari’s odious words pierce his foggy mind, Seymour stares down at his bloodstained hands through the gloomy shadows, and breathes baldly –
“… If I’m as worthless as you say, Solari… Then you are.. well.. you couldn’t even be called a peon… You’d be.. ah… a slave to dirt…”
“I think you might’ve lost a bit too much blood there, Moreau. I have a grand role to play, as anyone can see.”
“Mm.. That’s right… You’re.. right.”
“Yes, I- Wait, what?”
Seymour pushes himself back up the wall slightly, his arms weak from blood loss, but he still manages a sly smile as he declares in a croaky voice –
“Your life isn’t worthless, Solari. Your worth comes from the fact that every time I escape your clutches and… prove my superiority to you, I get to see the look on your face. Heheh.. It’s worth it everytime.”
“.. So, you’re saying that I exist just so you can humiliate me?”
“Well, I.. do a very good job of it, don’t I?”
Solari’s auburn eyes glint menacingly through the darkness; he drags his finger through the still-wet blood staining the ground, and exclaims with a sick smile –
“Well, not this time, Moreau. This time, I’ve finally beaten you.”
“Not yet, you haven’t. I’m still alive.”
“Oh, believe me, I can wait. You taught me that patience is a virtue.”
Trying desperately to buy time, Seymour grips his stomach tightly, and chokes out through the blood in his throat –
“S-so.. what would you do if I escaped, Solari?”
“Heh, right. Sure, you’ve pulled a few of those mystifying feats before. But all those times, you weren’t locked in a cell with a ten millimeter bullet making friends with your stomach.”
“Then… Your defenses are low. Is that what you’re saying?”
“You wouldn’t be able to escape, even if you tried.”
“… Wanna bet?”
Solari considers Seymour’s debilitated body for a moment before a superior smirk spreads itself across his sweaty face.
“Oh, sure. Why the hell not? I’ll play your game, if it makes the last few minutes of your miserable life enjoyable. Go ahead. Try to escape. I won’t stop you.”
“Alright.”
Seymour looks out through the bars, and gives a quick nod. Confused, Solari turns his head to look upon the bars enclosing the cell. Standing on the other side of the thick bars is Elena and another girl; an Asian, no older than fourteen, with short, spiked, jet black hair, and blank, lifeless violet eyes.
“What the..? How’d they-“
Together, Elena and Sakura raise their hands to the bars, and effortlessly tear them away from the threshold. Solari backs against the wall in terror, his mouth hanging open in shock, as he sees Elena enter the cell through the dust, and watches dumbstruck as she rips Solari’s key ring off his belt, picks Seymour up under the arms, and walks him out through the swirling dust without a word. Seymour glances back over his shoulder, and smiles widely at the shocked look on Solari’s open-mouthed face.
“Pay up, Solari. I win again.”
Once Elena walks Seymour out of the cell, Sakura wedges the bars back into place, trapping the stupefied Solari inside. Now free to escape, the trio traverses down the long corridor without opposition, down the stairwells, and out into the underground parking lot, which is packed with various police and eXo PRIME vehicles. Elena, while supporting the half-conscious Seymour on her shoulder, spots their weapon transport van near the lot’s exit. However, a helmeted PRIME soldier is investigating the van, and pulling out an armful of weapons from within the van’s back. Not wanting to be spotted, she drags Seymour behind a concrete pillar, and Sakura follows suit.
“Seymour? Can you hear me?”
“… Yeah..”
“Where do we go now?”
“… Is Sakura with you?”
“I’m right here, sir.”
Seymour smiles up weakly at Sakura through his ever-darkening vision, and exclaims quietly –
“… Nice to hear your voice..”
“Likewise, sir. What happened to you?”
“He was shot, Sakura. He needs help, or he’ll die.”
“How can I help?”
“We can’t do anything at the moment.. We need to find a place with medical equipment. It’ll be too dangerous to try and remove the bullet without proper tools..”
“Then we’ll find a place with the right tools. Nothing’s more important than securing the safety of our Commander.”
“… Yeah, if that’s how you see it. Do you have any suggestions, Seymour?”
“No, wait.. Don’t worry about me yet.. Just find a way.. to get out of here… safely..”
Pushed past th
e breaking point, Seymour goes limp on Elena’s shoulder, and she shakes him worriedly as she says –
“Seymour? Seymour? Shit.. He’s unconscious.. So what do we do now?”
Elena scans the vehicles in the parking lot, and spots a PRIME medivac parked in between two armored police trucks. She smiles in relief, slings Seymour’s motionless body over her shoulder, and makes for the medivac, with Sakura trailing behind her curiously. Reaching the locked back double doors of the medivac, Elena places her hand over the lock, rips it free from the door, which swings open, and the two girls quickly climb inside, shutting the door to avoid suspicion. Propping Seymour up against the back wall of the medivac, Elena hastily searches through the shelf full of surgical tools. After a minute of searching, she turns to Sakura with a frantically worried look.
“Uhh.. Do you know anything about surgery?”
“No.”
“Well, great.. What’re we gonna do now? Performing surgery without proper knowledge would be incredibly stupid.. Not to mention, dangerous..”
“How about we force somebody inside the station to perform the surgery?”
“That’s a thought.. But it’s too risky.. We can’t afford getting caught now.. He’d never survive another confrontation..”
“But we can’t let him die.”
“I know! So think!”
Suddenly, a screeching car alarm blares out from beyond the vehicle’s walls. Elena listens intently for a minute or so, the sound of the car alarm fades, and is replaced by a chorus of indistinguishable yelling and slamming car doors, which, after a few minutes, fade into silence. Suddenly, their medivac begins to rumble; its engine has been turned on, its driver unaware that the three of them are inside the rear. Elena hurriedly makes to open the doors, but the van simply speeds away, out of the underground parking lot, and out onto the streets of Serengeti District.
~Santuc TerraDome: Serengeti District~
Tossing around within the confines of the medivac as it winds through the streets of Serengeti District, Elena tries again to open the doors, but the strong suction keep them firmly sealed.
“Shit, where are we going?!”
“… I don’t know, but keep your voice down.”
“Why?”
“The driver obviously doesn’t know we’re in here. So keep your voice down, grab some surgical tools, and you can help the Commander.”
“Perform a surgery in a moving vehicle? I couldn’t do it when we were stationary!”
“But you have to do something.”
Biting her lip in avid anxiety, Elena suddenly hears the muffled voice of the driver emanating through the wall. She hurriedly puts her ear up to the wall, and listens intently, trying to ascertain the situation.
PRIME headquarters, this is Medic Simpson reporting from medivac #12, over. We’re joining the live-fire pursuit of three H.V.T.s eluding authorities in Serengeti District, over. The insurgents hijacked an eXo PRIME weapons transport vehicle commandeered previously by H.V.T. Seymour Moreau and an accomplice, which was under inventory and contraband screening when it was stolen, over. We’ll keep with the retrieval operation, and provide medical assistance when needed, over and out.
“Medics? … Hm.. Sakura, stay here. I’ll be right back.”
Sakura nods compliantly, and Elena approaches the medivac doors as it sways violently. She activates her MFI, attaches her hand to the steel back right door of the speeding medivac, and forcefully kicks it open, flying along with the door out into the rushing winds. In a split second, she attaches her left hand to the opposite side of the door before it slams shut, and magnetically climbs horizontally along the side wall of the medivac, fighting against the fierce winds, until she reaches the driver’s side window. The medic driver turns his head in surprise, as Elena smashes the window out. The driver pulls out a pistol, takes aim at Elena’s face through the smashed window, and fires. She swiftly deactivates the MFI on her right hand, and swings to the side, narrowly avoiding the bullet. She then reactivates the MFI, rips the pistol from the medic’s hand, and aims it straight at the medic’s face menacingly.
“Stop the car! Now!”
The driver nods quickly in fright, and slams on the brakes. The medivac stops dead in the road, while the APCs speed past, continuing their hasty pursuit of the eluding weapons van. Elena detaches herself from the sidewall of the medivac, sweeps her windblown hair out of her face, and wrenches the driver’s side door open.
“W-what do you want?!”
“I want you two to help out my friend in the back of your vehicle.”
“What?”
“Do it now, or I’m pulling this goddamn trigger, and sending you both to Hell where you belong!”
“What does he need?”
“Just come around back. And don’t try anything! I have no problem doing away with both of you, if you give me a reason.”
“Fuck that! I’m not helping you!”
Elena pulls the trigger, and kills the driver without a word. The remaining medic raises his shaking hands in surrender, and nods in agreement. Elena rounds to his door, and pulls it open. He steps carefully out of the car, his trembling hands still held up high as Elena shoves the pistol into his back.
“Now walk.”
The pair round to the back of the medivac, swing the double doors open, climb inside together, and shut the doors tight. Inside, Sakura is searching through the various shelves mounted on the wall of the medivac, looking for something with which to aid Seymour, though she seems to freeze as Elena and the medic enter the rear. The medic approaches Seymour apprehensively, and asks skeptically –
“Whoa, uh, he’s not dead, is he?”
“He still has a faint pulse, yes, but he’s ice-cold. You’re a doctor, right?”
“I’m a medic, yeah. But what’s wrong with him?”
“He was shot in the stomach. He needs the bullet extracted as fast as possible.”
“I see…”
The medic kneels down at Seymour’s side, takes up his cold wrist, and check for a pulse before asking quietly –
“How long has it been inside?”
“About 4 hours.”
“Jesus.. And he’s still alive..”
“Yes! Just remove it, okay? Before it’s too late!”
“Alright, fine.. But if I do, you’ll let me go, right?”
“Yeah, yeah. Just hurry up. He’s very important.”
“Okay, but somebody needs to get this vehicle out of the middle of the road. Go follow the H.V.T. pursuit route. We’ll avoid suspicion from the PRIME high rankers while I operate.”
Elena looks at the medic with raised eyebrows, but nonetheless orders Sakura hurriedly –
“Uh, alright. Sakura, you drive. Take us along the route towards the pursuit.
But drive carefully, okay?”
Sakura nods complacently, jumps out of the rear of the medivac, and slides into the driver’s seat; she pushes Simpson’s body out of the way, and speeds off down the road to follow the PRIME pursuit. While the medivac winds through the streets of Serengeti, Elena watches intently as the medic searches through the shelves, gathering together supplies to begin operating.
“You, uh.. You seem to know a lot about concealment.”
“Mm, well.. I used to be Kunai Rebel. It was our job to be secretive.”
“I see.. So, uh, what’s your name?”
The medic glances at Elena nervously as he pulls out a pair of surgical gloves from his bag, and says in a flat voice –
“… Lahai.”
“Cool.. And, uh, sorry about killing your friend back there.. I just really needed the help, and I needed to convince you that I wasn’t screwing around..”
“.. It’s okay. He wasn’t my friend. There’s really no point in making friends in the PRIME, because chances are, you’ll be watching their body get pumped full of lead the next day..”
“Well, thank you for helping me, even if it was at gunpoint.”
“Mm..”
<
br /> With his forceps hovering just above Seymour’s wounded stomach, Lahai peers at his pale face curiously, but Elena clears her throat in a pointed, threatening sort of way, and he reluctantly begins to operate. A few minutes pass with nothing but the sound of clinking metal tools and loud, screeching tires permeating the tense air, until finally, he gingerly removes the bloodstained bullet from within the wound, and places it on the small metal tray attached to the steel slab. Elena sighs with relief, and unable to contain himself, Lahai says without looking up from Seymour –
“So, who is this guy?”
“Who is he..? H-he’s my.. my brother.”
“Your brother… How’d he get shot?”
“W-we were arrested by the PRIME on some stupid charge. He.. tried to protect me from being killed, and they shot him.”
Lahai reaches into his bag without responding to Elena’s remark, and pulls out a small plastic bag filled with a thin, whitish liquid before saying baldly –
“.. Sounds pretty devoted to you.”
“… Y-yes, he is. He’s a kind man, even if others can’t see it like I do..”
Staring intently at Seymour’s lifeless face as he slips the needle point of the bag into Seymour wrist, Lahai looks up at Elena with a skeptical grimace, and says succinctly –
“… He’s not your brother, is he?”
“W-what makes you say that?”
“You think I don’t recognize the face of the most wanted man in the entire world, do you?”
“Oh..”
Elena crosses her arms defensively, swaying with the medivac as it continues along its route, and says distrustfully –
“Well, so, what? Are you gonna report me?”
“No, since I know you’ll probably just shoot me as soon as I try.”
Paradox: The Last Day - Seymour's Story Page 10