Fleeing the Stage

"Go!

"Get them!" Voices shouted as the flash grenade detonated. We turned, clicking repeatedly on the triggers of our rifles, sending single shots down the mouth of the alleyway as we inched backward. Figures dashed around the corners and quickly found themselves riddled with holes, slumping to the ground like puppets whose strings had been cut.

Phew managed to scramble back behind cover, into safety. A rifle turned the corner once the passage was clear, riddling the alley with bullets. We threw ourselves against the wall to evade the rounds flying past us, inching further back.

I bumped into Ibuki, who had stopped, lining up his shot. Another click echoed, and at the mouth of the alleyway, the rifle flew out of our assailant's grip. 

"NOW!" Ibuki shouted.

We hurried out of our sideway, flashlights already rising to eye level as we ran the other way. Turning the corner, we had another close encounter with death for the second time. "We can't rely on luck to save us!"

"I know!" We ran, turning and tossing another flashbang, buying ourselves more time as we passed through the tight passageway and sprinted across the road into another set of building complexes, weaving through their side paths and alleys. I ejected my magazine, storing it, and quickly slammed in another with trained precision.

"You have another one of those M-Seventy-Eights?" Ibuki crouched, rummaging through his backpack before handing one to me. We set up another bunker buster with a tripwire and cracked open a smoke grenade.

"Why did we stop for that?"

"Staying ahead of them is impossible. We have to get past them while they're too busy watching their steps."

We kept our heads down, sticking to the shadows while their search parties swept through the side paths. "We're lucky they're in a hurry," Ibuki commented as another patrol passed us.

I looked out onto the street it was fully illuminated by one of the searchlights from the upper cities. "It won't be long before the garrison and militia sweep through here. Their seconds are counted, just like ours."

We kept our heads down, making other contraptions with smoke grenades and other explosives Ibuki had to blow our way into the lower levels if we had to. We clung to the shadows fiddling with another smoke trap until I felt Ibukis hand on my shoulder. I stopped my fiddling only looking down, waiting until he would release me from his grip. At the corner of my vision, a group of four walked past us with their lights killed. 

I closed my eyes and held my breath as we waited for them to go past us. "That's some shrewd thinking," Ibuki commented.

"I hate it when they're smart…" I lamented. We trained our weapons on them and began to stalk them. Silently we ghosted in their wake as they avoided the passageways Illuminated by searchlights. 

We kept following them for over a minute until another earth-shattering roar could be heard in the distance with the sound of a collapsing building crashing down against the next. They snapped around with horrified expressions when they saw us.

We ran again, and the explosion and our shots definitely were heard. We had to head further. We ran more and more streets with our limbs growing heavier as we put more distance between them and us. Ibukis face adopted a shade of white which could be seen beneath his googles. I slung his arm over my neck but our initial haste slowed down to a crawl as I supported him. "We have to do something…Otherwise, we won't make it to the upper city." He forced out.

"Lying down and waiting for rescue is not an option…" I lamented, frantic shouting could be heard coming from multiple directions, I dragged us into a dead end hoping they would walk past us but a bullet already collided with the corner we were about to go in. 

"Dead end… We can't go here any further."

"DON'T FIGHT RUN!" I shouted, Ibuki looked at me with shock I leaned him against the wall to our left while I assumed position on our right. I pre-position my weapon on the opening. Moments later, an opportunistic weasel rounded the corner, gun already raised to eye level his expression one of utter disbelief as a bullet tore through his head. Both of our weapons clicked the drilled-in routine taking over as another magazine replaced the slightly depleted one.

We waited for them to come charging down the Corridor instead bright flashes of lights started to erupt again and again with a deafening roar joined by a smoke screen forming all around us. My ears rang and it became harder to breathe while I drifted in and out of consciousness, my mind flickering between awareness and blackness. Something akin to cut-short screams could be heard until everything turned to black.