Chapter 16:Falling

"It looks beautiful," Yve murmured as she observed the illuminated city.

They must have been only around a kilometer away and from their vantage point, it looked more and more obvious that the city was a replica of Aquilo, just enlarged and more progressed.

They had to crane their necks up until it hurt to see the tallest of buildings reaching up to the dark and clear sky. So close to these lights they no longer needed the light of the moon to see and in all honesty, it had actually paled in comparison whereas the stars weren't even visible anymore.

"And dangerous," Aksel muttered completing the sentence for her as the two watched a few vehicles flying in the distance. The main city was far off from the border which they were going to cross but unlike Aquilo, the bordered area of this city had been seemingly inhabited and bustling with people as they saw small figures walking in the distance among lighted buildings.

"Looks like we are entering from some kind of industrial area first," Yve noted as she pointed at a building that had smoke coming out and a few more machines like the one they had been sitting on flying around.

"Do you think we will be trespassing if we continue to stay on this shipment?" she continued getting to her main point of worry. Looking back she noted that the lights were too bright in the distance to notice activity in this dull region. Unable to make out the exact situation was making them tenser and looking at Aksel she asked, "What if there are security guards appointed to protect the building and if we get caught like this we will definitely be punished for it."

Her words struck something in Aksel and he asked, "Did we have any protection system such as police or something in Aquilo?"

Yve who had been absent-mindedly looking at the city turned to look at him and scrunched his brows as she asked, "You find that odd too right? Yes, we have no forms of police or security. The closest thing to security or police can be the drones that are out to catch us but why are you asking that now?"

"Well, I am hoping that this city is nothing like Aquilo but if it is then there would probably be no security at all except for those drones," he said crossing his legs and shifting further in as he held onto the rope that went from between Yve and him and connected to the machine above.

"That would be worse don't you think?" she tsked pulling her hood up and over her head unconsciously. Her red hair that had been lightly swishing with the breeze hid from Aksel's sight and sighing he pulled her hood back down as he said, "I was just saying."

"So what do you think?" Yve asked looking down below at the barren land that they had been slowly crossing over, getting closer and closer to their destination.

"Well like you can see, there's a gate there so we would probably need to talk to the authorities and tell them our story if we get down but since it is still flying overhead and hasn't lowered itself down yet, the box is surely going to fly over the gate and would be our only way to enter the city without being noticed."

Aksel's words made sense but the risk that had been mentioned by Yve was true as well. One way or another they were sure to get caught, it was only a matter of sooner or later.

The gate that Aksel had mentioned looked like a normal metallic gate with no other security. Climbing over it wasn't going to be very difficult but to him, it felt like it would be a greater disappointment to stay outside and get caught before they could even explore the city than getting in and then getting caught after succeeding in their business.

Their business being to know whether the whole world had been a part of the Branding System or not.

"So we are directly going in. Anything is fine with me," Yve said nodding her head and looking at her curiously Aksel asked, "How did you know that I was going to go with that option?"

Yve looked away first and scoffed as she rubbed her eyes and muttered, "I can't believe I will have to admit something like this."

It wasn't meant for Aksel to hear but he had heard her words and he wondered what she was going to say when she abruptly said at once, "That's because you had this decisive look in your eyes when you were looking at the factory."

Her words took him off guard and suppressing a laugh he chuckled as he asked, "What's so embarrassing about that?"

"Don't get any wrong ideas, okay? The only reason why I noticed this trait of yours is because you have one eye!" she blabbered and then quickly pressed her hand to her mouth wondering how come she had become so insensitive to have used his eye as an excuse to hide her interest in him.

Aksel could feel her embarrassment as she hid her face away from him and muttered an apology to him. He didn't seem to understand what was so wrong about her noticing his behavior but none of it mattered he had found something new about her and that was that when she was flustered she either became brutally honest or just plain rude.

Laughing out loud at the weak apology she had given he said, "You must be really obsessed with my eyes, huh?"

He hadn't taken offense to anything she had said. By now he was used to her attitude and had also understood her enough to know that she meant no harm.

She immediately looked at him when she heard him say this and Aksel noticed that though the neon lights of the city were falling on her face her cheeks still looked flushed in mortification as she shrieked, "I am not obsessed with them at all! I am sorry, alright?"

This was the most Aksel had enjoyed himself in a while and he realized that teasing her might be a good stress buster for him.

Suddenly a jerk caused the two to grab onto the rope tightly as they looked around to find the cause of this turbulence. The machine above looked completely fine and by the time they could look down, Aksel felt something zoom past him in a flash, and the next thing they knew the rope that the two were holding onto was cut causing the box to misbalance and tilt.

Aksel was the first to fall off the box and for a nanosecond, he felt his body was completely floating in the air until he grasped onto Yve's hand that had caught onto his sleeve. He noticed that with the other she had been holding onto the edge of the wooden box.

"Argh!" she groaned as she tried to pull herself up but Aksel's weight on one of her arms had been too much for herself to pull both of them up and onto the box again. Her movement caused the box to move and sway a bit more making her lurch against the wooden crate. The constant and uncertain movement was too much for her to take and she could feel her grip loosening from the edge of the box.

"I can't stay put for long," she gritted out but each time that Aksel tried to climb up the box it would move and make it even more difficult for them to sustain.

Yve felt like her arms were burning at the joints, she felt like any minute now they would detach themselves from her body but she still had to try with everything in herself to save the two of them. Whatever had attacked them must still have been there and therefore her safer bet right now was to stay on the box.

But how long could she stay like that?

The boundary of the city was still a little far away from where they were and she was completely sure that there was no way that she would be able to stay in that same position until they reached their destination.

Aksel tried looking below him to find the source of the attack and their motive but nothing came into his view. He knew how much trouble Yve was in and deciding for the both of them he said, "Yve you need to let go."

"No! Who knows what is down there that is after us! I need to try and stay like this." Although she had been contradicting herself from just a few seconds ago Aksel knew that she wouldn't be able to go on for long. He just wanted her to save herself from the trouble of hurting herself in this position.

He knew that even if he pleaded with her she was going to try until and unless her arms went numb and sighing he said, "Fine, you can stay there I am getting down first."

And with that said he let go of her hand listening to her curse at him and his insanity but he wasn't looking at her, as he was falling down he noticed a few figures moving in the distance and he knew that he had to be ready for a fight.