Chapter 28

Bam! Bam! Bam!

"Everyone get up!"

Toni moans and looks at Altas in her arms, she smiles and then hears the demand from Selina again.

Her smile fades slightly. "Hey! Get up lazy bones."

He shakes him and sits up. He groans and rubs his face. "What time is it?"

"Mm. I don't know." Toni says looking out the window,

"Maybe 6?"

"Selina is a savage." Atlas jokes,

Toni grins and flicks his ear, he twitches and grunts. They climb out of bed and walk out into the hall where the others are waiting. They all looked drowsy. Looked. Then they saw Toni and Atlas coming out of the same room.

"You sly dog." Ashe grins,

"Nothing happened! We just. Just. Kind of were."

"Together." Atlas awkwardly finishes,

Selina smirks, "We'll talk about it later, I have news from Thomas."

"What?"

"He liked the idea of us hitting hard finally. He's coming early. They'll be here at 2."

"What!?"

"I know! That gives us a little under 8 hours to get ready. I tried talking him out of it, but he's set on it. Everyone's coming."

"Oh crap. We have hardly convinced anyone!" Atlas declares,

"I know! I know! It's not the best idea. Even worse, Thomas wants us to warn the people. Invite them to our side one last time. But warn them of what's coming."

"That is a terrible idea." Toni says,

"Tell me about it. A lot of people are going to die fighting for the wrong side."

Atlas frowns and hums, "What?" Toni asks,

"They are smart enough to stay hidden from us for years, several years. Where the machines really their biggest offensive?"

"I was wondering that too. That's way too big a risk." Neo joins in,

"Well there are the guardians?" Ashe says,

"I don't think they'd risk all their chips on that either. Atlas and Toni are right. We need to find out what they are hiding."

"Selina. We have seven hours." Neo says,

"I know! I know! You ran through the drive and there was almost nothing else but the videos of Atlas. But we got to find something."

"What is their leader's name? Travis?" Toni asks,

"Maybe we can find something on him." Ashe says,

"Again, can I plead 6 hours? What if we find nothing? We will have no information for Thomas about defense plans, strategies."

"That's true, but I think this is what we need to do Neo." Ashe says,

Neo groans, "Neo, Thomas is smart, he won't lead us to slaughter. They'll be ready and so will we."

"Let's make this unanimous. We can prepare for Thomas, or look deeper into the SGA."

Toni looks at Atlas, "O-or. We could help our people take over the poor district, set up, then all of us right here. We go look for dirt on the higher ups."

"I agree with Toni." Neo says,

Ashe and Atlas voice their agreeing opinions. Selina sighs, "Alright. We'll take the poor district first. Let's get ready."

They leave the apartment and split up Selina and Neo go to the border of the rich district and middle class district to cause a distraction and draw the attention there.

Atlas, Ashe and Toni go to the door district to look at the border.

Why would it be so abandoned like this? This has never sat well with Atlas. Maybe the SGA just hasn't been able to cover it yet, he hopes that's the reason.

"Ugh!"

Toni jumps and looks back at Atlas, a small crater in the building wall they walked alongside. It popped and exploded against Atlas's face.

"Atlas!"

Baaaaang. The shot echoes.

Ashe and Toni grab Atlas's arms, yank him up to his feet and they run around a corner as another bullet narrowly misses Ashe's head.

"You okay!?"

"I'm fine. I'm fine."

Toni sets her jaw. Ashe nods, "No question, that's Sariah."

"Stay here."

They look at Toni as she bolts across the street.

Ffft! Ting!

Toni dives and slides across the dirt ground behind the wall, she looks down at the hole in her robotic leg, it's angled. Sariah was trying to shoot past the robot leg at her human leg.

Baaaaang.

Toni looks at the others, "Are you okay!?" Ashe asks,

Toni nods and jumps to her feet and pulls her backpack off. She begins assembling her high powered rifle.

"What do we do?" Atlas asks,

"We can't go out, Sariah will pick us off easy."

"What about Toni?"

"Toni's smart. She can do this." Ashe says peeking around the corner only slightly,

The concrete corner almost immediately explodes in Ashe's face. She yells out and turns, Toni looks up at them as Ashe shakes her head.

Toni turns and moves to the corner, she looks at Ashe, Ashe is looking at her and nods.

Atlas takes her place and crouches, peeking out. Toni jumps into the street and looks up, quickly scanning buildings.

She jumps back when Atlas shouts, the bullet sliced his shoulder, but it's not terrible. Toni holds her rifle up again.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Toni jumps back and hides, she's sure that was where Sariah was, Toni doesn't have the best scope, but she is confident she saw her in that window.

Toni runs out Atlas and Ashe quickly follow her lead and run along the wall and dive around the next corner. No shots. It worked. Sariah is coming to them.

Sariah is a beast. As in cruel and evil, and just....powerful, skilled. One of the SGA's most talented hunters.

Toni breaks into a window and slowly makes her way through building windows until she hits a brick wall in an alleyway. A few gunshots echo.

"Toni where are you?" Ashe asks,

"Putting an end to this venomous witch."

"Toni, she's too good! We need to pull back now! We are pinned, you can't take her yourself." Atlas says,

"Where are you?"

"We didn't get far. We are in an alley. I think I saw her on a balcony."

"I'm coming."

"....Red rooftop, tan building."

"Got it."

"Toni, be careful. We can't lose you."

"You won't. I've gotten much better since last time."

"So has she Toni! This might be suicide!"

Toni lies down and peeks out, there, she's hiding behind a flipped table. Toni scoots back into the alley.

She runs along the building walls and as soon as she can she dives into another building. Hopefully Sariah didn't pick her up on cameras.

She's sure Sariah knows what she's doing though. Otherwise Sariah wouldn't plant herself on a balcony, the only reason Toni is being careful is because of trip wires or explosives that can be shot from guns and planted in the ground.

Toni finally makes it to a building that's practically parallel to Sariah's. Toni turns to the states as the wall explodes from a Grenade.

Toni flies into the wall and hits the ground hard.

"Toni!" Ashe shouts,

Atlas grabs her arm and pulls her back as another grenade is fired and sends the two flying through the air.

Atlas groans and looks up at the sky above. Suddenly A dazed Ashe appears over him and pulls his head onto her lap.

"Atlas! Atlas can you hear me!?"

"Who wants more?" The faint voice shouts,

Ashe makes a fist, Atlas groans again and sits up. "I'm fine. Ugh. Are you-are you okay?" He asks,

Ashe nods, Ashe states at Atlas. "Atlas..."

He shakes his head and punches the ground hard twice. "Stop. Stop. We need to run. It's our only chance Atlas."

Tears stream down their hot cheeks. "I'm so sorry." Ashe mutters,

Bang! Bang!

They jump and look at each other. The look at each other, they look around the corner and see a window shatter, the building Toni is in.

Toni kicks open the roof door and throws a grenade. Sariah turns quickly, grabs it and throws it back. Toni is already in the air, her feet almost directly above her head. Sariah's eyes are filled with horror. She moves as fast as she can to aim at Toni.

BANG!

The bullet tears through Sariah's skull. The kickback allows Toni to finish the flip and let her feet touch the ground of the balcony.

Toni rolls hard and slams into the railing, her rifle flies over and off the edge, slapping against the ground.

"Toni!" Atlas and Ashe cheer almost in unison,

They bolt as fast as they can to the balcony. Toni groans and looks at ginger woman lying on her side. Toni pushes up painfully to her feet and looks over the railing at Atlas and Ashe running over.

"That sucked." Toni says

Atlas scoffs and rushes into the building, Ashe following close behind. Toni opens the balcony doors and into the bedroom. Atlas and Ashe appear before she makes it to the door and. They throw themselves at her, making them all almost fall to the ground.

"Agh! Easy! You guys okay?" Toni asks,

They don't answer, she smiles and hugs them back. "I love you guys too."